The Archery Project
Welcome to The Archery Project where we sit down and have raw, unfiltered conversations discussing archery and bowhunting adventures in depth through the perspectives of unique individuals from all different backgrounds.
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The Archery Project
Bow Hunting to Taxidermy: Self-sufficiency in a Modern World
What does it really mean to be self-sufficient in today's disconnected world? Alison Zeiselmeier might have the answer.
As our first female guest on the podcast, Alison brings a refreshing perspective to traditionally male-dominated outdoor pursuits. From growing up with parents who encouraged outdoor exploration to becoming a skilled bow hunter, homesteader, and professional taxidermist, her journey exemplifies authentic connection with the natural world.
Our conversation weaves through the challenges and triumphs of bow hunting, including Alison's candid recounting of missed shots and the humbling learning curve that comes with developing true skill. We explore her philosophy of ethical hunting—where taking an animal's life is just the beginning of a process that honors the creature by using as much as possible, from meat to bone broth.
Particularly fascinating is Alison's solo backcountry elk hunting expedition in Colorado, where she traveled alone across country, camped along remote trails, and hunted on horseback through mountain terrain. Though she didn't harvest an elk, her description of riding horseback in total darkness, trusting her mount along dangerous mountain trails under star-filled skies, captures the transcendent moments that make such journeys worthwhile.
As a female taxidermist, Alison brings exceptional attention to detail to her craft, describing the process of transforming hunters' trophies into lasting memories. Nothing compares to the joy of seeing a young hunter's face when presented with their first mounted deer—a testament to the emotional connections hunting creates across generations.
Throughout our discussion, one theme remains constant: the value of capability and self-reliance. Whether it's growing food, hunting meat, or navigating wilderness alone, Alison's story reminds us that these skills connect us to our humanity in profound ways. Ready to explore your own outdoor journey? This conversation might be just the inspiration you need.
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All right guys, we're live Allison Hi. Thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for having me here. Yeah, absolutely Super excited to talk with you. We have not had a female on our show yet, so you were the first one Breaking the ice.
Speaker 1:That's it Getting started. So I've known you for a little while since we started the archery thing here, yeah, and that's kind of how I've made all of our friends right. Yeah, pretty much the archery community has really introduced me to a lot of great people, and you being one of them. And, uh, you're fresh back from virginia yeah, just moved back.
Speaker 2:Just moved back in. Uh, end of march I moved back into march.
Speaker 1:Wow, and I remember you know what you had. Going on out, there was very the mountain.
Speaker 2:We was in the mountains, right yeah, beautiful back to the east coast was.
Speaker 1:It was beautiful up there, but time to come home Jacksonville area seems to be like a black hole.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 1:It always pulls you back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think it's just, you know, like Southeastern North Carolina in general.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Home. Yeah, home, yeah For a lot of us now right by uh mike's farm and it's like it's quiet out there and then you just go a couple miles and you're back to civilization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice. That's why because we're out there too, I mean I love it out there. Yeah, so it's it's nice because you're not too far away from anything, but you are kind of out and away and it is quiet farmland. Yeah, it's a good little mix. But unfortunately, as much as richlands is coming up, there's a lot of subdivisions coming up which there is I'm not excited about no, no, it keeps getting closer yeah, unfortunately, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1:So you have a very extensive back. I mean, your whole life has been outdoors. I mean hunting, fishing, um, homesteadeading, taxidermy. Now I mean you're very, very well-versed in the outdoor world, more so than a lot of men that I know, uh, with you know the skills and the capabilities that you've developed over all these years, which it's it's always fun to watch your social stuff, the stuff that you put out there, all the things that you're doing. You know, especially with, with your son and everything. You're constantly doing things outdoors, um, which is refreshing to see, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know a lot of kids. It's great to like bring them with me now. Like now that he's at that age I could take them with and he's not like a little baby I got to carry around, or he's he could help yeah.
Speaker 1:You can can put him to work.
Speaker 2:I can help me now?
Speaker 1:yeah, because you've got all kinds of stuff going on. I mean, I know, whenever you're up in virginia, you guys had, you know, your little, you had gardens, you had chickens, big garden chickens, ducks, pigs, goats constantly, yeah, working in the dirt, yeah, so are you doing the same thing here?
Speaker 2:um, so my new place is set up for that. This is like the first time in my adult life that I've not had chickens.
Speaker 1:Oh man, chickens are the answer. I love my chickens, yes.
Speaker 2:Homesteadery, Um, but, and I have a garden. I just haven't haven't worked the ground for it yet, so it's it's in the works that I figured with you that it would. That would be, it won't be long.
Speaker 1:So how did you get into the outdoors as involved as you are? Because it's not like you just dabble and you go outside and take pictures and you live the life of an outdoorsman outdoorswoman, whatever you want to call it. I mean all encompassing all of it, not just one aspect. I mean your life revolves around it.
Speaker 2:So how did you get introduced to the outdoors? To the extent that you are, I would say, um, like both of my parents, I was just outside kid all the time. Um, at my dad's house we had horses and goats and chickens and, uh, just outside all the time and your dad's awesome.
Speaker 1:I miss seeing him.
Speaker 2:He's a cool dude, um so, and like he would take me fishing, all the time my mom would take me hiking and backpacking and camping and you know, we'd get to a campground and just go shoo, go go explore, go find a snake, go, go do something outside and, um, I just, I just always loved it and I think that and it's always been big like on both on both sides of my family been big like on both on both sides of my family, um, generationally, like, like my great grandparents were, were outdoorsmen and and hunters and um, so I don't know, I think that if I did, even grown up in the city, I probably would have got to the woods as fast as I could back somehow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cool because I mean there's so many people nowadays who just, I mean they haven't, you know, been introduced at an early age. Because I mean there's so many people nowadays who just I mean they haven't, you know, been introduced at an early age. I mean, we know we've had kids come to the house, you know, cause my dad's got his stuff going on at their property with their little farm that they've got going on. And there's kids that come out there that have, you know they had. I believe at some point they had some kids that had never really they were from, they were from the city and they had come. They had never even been on, stepped on barefoot on grass. You know, which is wild to think that that there's some people out there that that just haven't you know that's, that's crazy, it is crazy, it's wild to think about that.
Speaker 2:That's that's and it's sad honestly, because I think that that's like essential to to being human being a person right. It's like where, where we come from, and it's sad to see that we're so disconnected from from like how we, how we became people. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that's one of the big things, especially with the hunting side of things. Which is so important in a major aspect of it for myself and with my kids is getting them out there and getting them in the woods One. It's fun, right, you go outside, there's always something to see or do, um and learn. And then on the hunting side of it, it is it's a great skill to have one. You're, you know, hone in on your woodsmanship skills. And then the actual hunt itself. Whenever you are successful, the kids. They get to see where things actually come from and it's not just as pretty as you think it is and pre-packaged like you see in the stores. Right, there's a process to it.
Speaker 2:I think it's important, it is, it is, it's I mean it's not in that, like once, once you take an animal's life, that's where the. That's when it starts like, yes, all your, your pre season scouting, all of your, your preparation, your practice, that's all very important, but once, once you make that move and you take that animal's life, it's like that. That's when the rest of it, like the, other 75% of the work.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and it's uh for us, you know with, especially with the kids. It's always been important that we're the know with, especially with the kids. It's always been important that we're the kids are respectful, right? You know, I've never let them take these crazy pictures with dead animals and you know, just have them respect all life.
Speaker 1:Essentially Right, I think it's. Some people forget that you are taking something's life and then it comes down to like with them learning to process it, cause we do all the processing and stuff ourselves. Just because I want them to know, and if they they, they shot it, they're doing the work right, they're hauling it out there, you know, they're breaking it down. I think it's just important that they see that and know, because you know William, right now, william's six, he's about to be seven, yes, which is crazy. And he, his big thing, is like he'll eat anything that grows outside, right out of the garden, right, it's. And then he'll eat like chicken nuggets, like that's it. But more recently he goes out and he's like, he's like, I want to, I want to try that bird. We need to shoot that bird. I'm like bro, we can't just go around killing everything. Yeah.
Speaker 2:We're not doing that.
Speaker 1:It's funny, but it is. But he uh, he lives for the outdoors.
Speaker 2:That's cool I think it's important. And your boy Gavin, he's dude. How many dude did he shoot last year?
Speaker 1:He shoots at. I think he shoot, shot two or three last year, well, and this year he's. Look, he wants to do the bow hunting thing and I'm dragging my feet on it because I need to get him a bow set up, because he outgrew his bow, he needs a new one, um, but I'm excited for that because I'd love to be able, because we go out and he'll take the rifle out yeah but I want to put him on a bow right, which is a whole another different it's a whole other thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I've killed. All of the deer that I've killed, except for two, have been with a bow wow so it was uh. Last last season I killed a buck with a muzzleloader, which is my first muzzleloader shot. That was, that was cool. Waylon was with me for the whole thing. Um, and then, uh, the year before that, I took a doe with a, a .308.
Speaker 1:So you've been around just about everything. So what you know, since I've known you, I've known you as a bow hunter, right, and what got you specifically into the bow hunting side of things? Because that seems like what you gravitate towards when I think hunter of you, and hunting, I think bow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I do, I love it. So I started hunting upland birds with shotgun, like pheasants and quail, and I remember my dad calling me out of school when I was a kid to go like shoot quail with him, go on quail, and uh, and then I get like my dad got into bow hunting and my dad is like you know, he's like my avenue for all this and it was like the way he described how primitive taking an animal with a bow was. Just I don't know. He painted this picture and I was like, yeah, that so I guess in my 20s, is when I really started shooting a bow and I went out, practiced, practiced, practiced and then got to the point where like, okay, I think I'm where I need to be to take an animal. And we went out and I was presented with this beautiful opportunity. It's like a little basket-y eight-point comes like right under my stand and I whiff it.
Speaker 1:I just freaking missed. That's part of the game and I'm like, wow, that's humbling. Yes.
Speaker 2:And I was so frustrated and I think I took like it took like a week. I took a few days off of work to go and just like, really be in the woods with dad and learn everything I could, and and then I missed again. I missed again and I was like, oh, maybe this isn't for me. It was just so frustrating and um, and then I got into, I got into 3D and then, just when I got into 3D, I would enter a course and not leave with all of my arrows. It wasn't, it was. That also was humbling, but it taught me a lot of shot placement and how to you know, like how to angle yourself when you're taking a downward shot right and that's.
Speaker 2:That was all very important and I learned a lot and in that I just developed like a real love for 3d shoots, um, you know, traveling all over the place to r100s and getting doing the circuits around here and um yeah, because you are a very good shooter.
Speaker 1:Thank you, especially with the 3d stuff. I mean, uh, and you know I know you've been away from your bow for a little bit lately and you came back and shot our most recent 3d course, which you did. I mean, we all shot as a group and you shot extremely well. Just jumping back into it you know, and no different. You know, shooting right side by side with all the guys and really out shooting a lot of us. You know.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's a perishable skill though.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:It's, um, and I think, like, like once, and I don't know if this is, uh, I don't know, I don't know if this is, I don't know, I don't know what it is, but like once, I find my comfortable place with my bow, like, don't, don't touch it. I hate changing stuff Like this is what works. I don't want to change my sight. I don't want to change my, my draw length, my weight, my arrows. I don't want to change anything. It just works.
Speaker 1:It's good You're shooting the. You have a newer bow, but you're shooting your, I think. What is it a realm, yes, that you've had.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're like when did they come out?
Speaker 1:I got it as a flag A while ago, yeah like seven years, yeah, six or seven years.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I got that when it was the flagship. Yeah Of whatever year that was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean clearly it works it still. It works, it still shoots. Yeah, because you've I mean you've shot quite a few deer with that bow, um yeah, and shoot it very, very well. On the 3d side of things, yeah, it's definitely fed me, that's for sure yeah, so I mean, as far as it is, your dad still actively shooting his bow um, he's, he's on and off, so he's retired yeah, I remember he kind of got like forced into retirement.
Speaker 2:His, uh, he was getting beat up doing what he does right, he works hard man he does, he's, he's hard working, um, but yeah, so I think we haven't hunted together in a few years, but this year we're gonna make a table on that.
Speaker 1:Make it happen yeah because I were, you've uh, you posted some pictures. It's been a little while back with you and your dad. You guys both like doubled up. Oh yeah, it's been a couple years that you did it, or was it just one?
Speaker 2:um, we doubled up two nights in a row, wow okay one year.
Speaker 1:It was cool yeah, the pictures were awesome. Yeah, it's very cool to see.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's solid as it gets yeah, that was fantastic um the year, uh, I guess the last time I hunted with him we had an opportunity to double up again. We usually set up like an eyesight of each other and he was just behind some trees and there was a yearling underneath like closer to him, but I shot it. So in New Jersey that's where we hunt. In New Jersey it's unlimited doe, it's two a day, two antlerless deer a day. So that I didn't feel very comfortable about the first, the one that I shot. I didn't realize that dad was like full draw on it and I should have just left well enough alone, but I didn't, I sent it. And I should have just left well enough alone, but I didn't, I sent it. And I mean, my arrows are pretty. You saw it, the 3D, they're pretty slow.
Speaker 1:They take their time to get there. Oh my gosh, I was.
Speaker 2:So old girl had like taken a step forward and it was a little further back, it was a pass through. But I never did recover that deer. But right after I shot that there's like a commotion and I just kind of settled for a minute and then another deer comes underneath and I shot that one too and I recovered that one. I saw that one go down, went back out the next morning. That was the first deer I'd ever lost. And I went back out the next morning to get to like just get'd ever lost. Um, and I went back out the next morning to get to like just get back on blood and see if I can recover it. And I don't know, I felt so terrible isn't.
Speaker 2:Let's say, um, if you, whenever you shoot something and are unable to to track it down or find it, it's a terrible feeling even if you do, even if you you shoot it and it's I mean, as soon as you lose that arrow for me at least, it's unavoidable remorse. Yeah, it's like you can't, you can't take it back and you just gotta hope that you, you did your job right um, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It is the worst feeling. I was really beating myself up over it and my dad was like listen to me, if you're not okay with this, you need to stop hunting because, like it and it will, it'll break your heart like I'm. I'm a baby, I'm super emotional about all of the outdoors and wildlife and um. So he was like if you're, if you're not okay with this, then you don't, don't do it anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah it, I mean. But you know, as a as hunter, you do everything in your power right To set your your equipment up. You know, hone your skill, work in the off season to be comfortable and confident with your equipment while you're in the woods. But at the end of the day, things happen right. Mistakes are happening there. Sometimes they're unavoidable, Um and it is. It's a terrible feeling. It's awful. It's awful, it's part of the game.
Speaker 2:It is, it is, and there's nothing that says that that she couldn't have went the next day and got hit by a car and died for nothing. You know it's gotta give it your best. It's tough man.
Speaker 1:So you guys, going back to you and your dad, whenever I first met you, you guys were did a lot of, obviously, the 3d stuff, but you did a lot of the the train to hunt type stuff too and that was, you know, interesting because to watch you guys do it as together, together, which was super cool. Be tying in the bow side of things with physical fitness, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it might. That was my dad's idea, um. So I did the first, the first train to hunt. I did Um. I was 30 and Waylon my, he was, he was one and I was having I was like having a hard time momming like it was. It was getting difficult for me. So dad was like I think it was like his last ditch effort to just help me pull my head out of my own ass and he's like we need this and I'm like all right, I and I almost bailed on him a few times, um, but we ended up we did it, we we placed, we were national qualifiers and then, uh, and we met like the best people. It was just, it was like the best, best group of people, that. And then we did it again, um, and then we teamed up again the second year and then the third year we split. He did I think it was the Masters, it's like men in his age group and then.
Speaker 2:I did the Women's Open and I podiumed all three. That's awesome. Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 1:Are they still doing those? Do you know?
Speaker 2:I don't know, yeah, I haven't seen, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:I know COVID put a dampener on a lot of these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a bummer, yeah, cause we were going to have um extreme hunter athlete in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:Yep, we were supposed to, and that's funny. I talked to bill. We were just at tack and I ran into him. I met him for the first time and it was really great to meet him. He's a good dude he is. He was a very nice individual, uh, and we were bummed right because extreme hunter athlete is something that I've always had a passion for bow hunting and physical fitness and extreme hunter athlete was kind of our take on that locally for the community around here, and we did a couple of them. They were good and we were supposed to go to pa and host one and covid shut all that down, um, and then after that it was. It's really been hard to kind of revive that thing because it takes a lot of effort to set those up and do those.
Speaker 2:Did that shut it down, for you didn't do any that year I didn't do anything that year.
Speaker 1:No, we did one more the following year. We had a good turnout with it. But again, it's just. It's difficult finding properties, sure, logistically, setting it all up, getting people involved, because it's a very niche thing, right oh yeah, hunting and physical fitness yeah, a lot of people don't want to yeah, there's not a lot that do it, but they did have something here locally.
Speaker 1:I think it was the frog man, yep, for one of the seals that was killed. I don't remember exactly, forgive me, um, what, what all involved, but they they hosted that this year here in Jacksonville and it was supposedly a really good turnout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was a guy at the shoot um this weekend that did it. He was talking about it, but it was pretty cool. Yeah, I think that's. That's the name of the game.
Speaker 1:It is it's important.
Speaker 2:Build the community.
Speaker 1:Build the community, which is tough, yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 2:But like once, like you know, you get your foothold in it and I think it could take off yeah absolutely so.
Speaker 1:You know, the female side of things with the bow hunting world or, honestly, anything outdoors now, right, everything is very trendy. Um, there's a lot of people who look like they do it, and then there's people that actually do it, right, you know, it's all about a following and a like. On social media these days it seems like, and it's really hard to find great information and good information even, but so I've never considered you what they, you know, coined the term huntress. Right, but always a legitimate outdoorsman and hunter is what I've always known you as and felt like you are a legitimate individual who belongs in the woods and could honestly offer a lot of great advice. So, and I know that you know, everyone's trying to do their thing to drum up awareness and but you know it's I don't know that it's always great, a great look, but you know what is your I mean your personal thoughts on the huntress side of things.
Speaker 2:I think that I think that there are women in the outdoors who are authentic, authentic about it. I think that um and I, I think equally, there are women in the outdoors who are not authentic about it. I think that, um and I, I think equally, there are women in the outdoors who are not authentic about it. And or just you know, they'll put oh, hunting and fishing in their, in their bio, and don't do any of it, um, but and then there's there's the women that use their assets, their physical appearance in the outdoor world for likes and loves, and you click on their LinkedIn and they've got an OnlyFans page. Whatever, teach their own. I just don't care for it personally. I think that it takes credibility away from women who are actually in the outdoors and who have, you know, put the work in to be taken seriously, and I think that it's just a. It's not a good look, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it does. Speaking as a male on this particular subject, I think it does, like you said, discredit the ones that really do live the lifestyle. But in you know, I see it a lot with companies right, keying in on followings, which is important as a brand, right, because you're trying to generate brand awareness and things like that. But I don't necessarily think it's the right approach to be taken serious with, you know, whenever you look at some of these accounts and whatnot, and it's not promoting things in the correct manner necessarily Because, for example I mean a prime example is you know, we see a lot of sponsorships right.
Speaker 1:Right With. And don't get me wrong, there are some out there that really do get after it and are legitimate as they come, more so than a lot of the guys you know that that really get out there and go after it. But, um, some of them are, you know, given opportunities, uh, for sponsorships or brand deals or stuff like that, based solely on an appearance, you know, in a pretend persona versus legitimacy.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, yeah, I just uh, like I said, to each their own. I'm not going to bash these girls, but I just I don't care for it. I think it does take away credibility for people who are really in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because, agree, um, I think there's, it's a slippery slope yeah you know, um, but there's a, there's some that are a mix of both. Right, they're very you know she's.
Speaker 2:I I wish I was put together like that girl, but and but she's legit, like she's. She's gorgeous, cute as a button. She's got this. You know deep southern draw and she's, she's gorgeous, cute as a button. She's got this. You know deep Southern draw and she's. You know she's very. Uh, I'm sure she's done very well she's. Obviously she goes noodling. I would never do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no hard pass. Yeah, I have no desire to do that at all.
Speaker 2:None of it. None of that, um I mean, but she could. She could play both, both sides of the fence Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and, like we said there's, there's both out there, but I think that there's some that you know. Yeah, you know maybe not, not, not don't do it quite so well. Or elegantly I should say yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good way to put it. So, as far as like your outdoor, your love for the outdoors, do you have a thing that you enjoy most with being? I mean, because you do homesteading, like we talked about you do. I see you canning, you're growing vegetables, you fish, you hunt. Is there a favorite aspect of it that you just enjoy more so than the other?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I would say it's all pretty equal. Like I like to be self-sufficient and I like it, I mean I'm a fan of the grocery store, like every other red-blooded American. But I like knowing that if push came to shove, that I could be all right. I could grow and can and preserve my food and hunt my meat and catch my fish and clean them and cook them and confidently forage for mushrooms or whatever.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know and I don't know, I just I like being self-sufficient, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's.
Speaker 1:I think that all goes hand in hand with with hunting and fishing and growing, and I think, too, when people like, especially people that are new to it, when they get a taste of, like, one aspect of it, it kind of opens the doors to everything else, because you're like, wow, I mean this is, I enjoy, this there's, you know, but there's a season to it. What can I do in the next season and the off season? And it really does open the the doors for people and, you know, gets them more curious about the other things that they can do outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, what, what, what can I, what can I do for myself? What do I have to not, what can I not rely on the government, or you know the? I think like if everybody would grow a little bit of their food, it would take so much pressure off of agriculture, takes so much pressure off of the farming industry. Or you know all these, all these chicken houses and meat industries.
Speaker 1:Meat industry is disgusting I mean, I love meat. Yes, the meat industry is disgusting.
Speaker 2:I mean, I love meat, but the industry is disgusting. Factory farming is horrible. So I think that if we all took a little responsibility in getting our own, it would be a little better on the backside it would, and the thing that makes that difficult, I mean, for us we're in a great place right here on the coast.
Speaker 1:We got a little bit of property and stuff like that, but then you look at people that live in the cities and just are so they just can't do it. I couldn't either. It's just so disconnected from that side of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I got a good friend who lives up in New York City and he absolutely loves it. He thrives, that's what he does.
Speaker 2:And he really doesn't have a desire to this, but that's what he knows and I guess, like I, you know, I say that if everybody took a little more responsibility, and I I don't really think about that aspect is that there's people that just can't can't do it. Can't, won't, don't know how, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Which right? There's a yeah, they do, and there's a lot of great resources out there to learn all these things, which is what makes it so cool.
Speaker 2:There's like a whole side of social media dedicated to it Urban farming.
Speaker 1:Yes, which is really kind of cool. You know some of the people that do stuff in their subdivisions or wherever they're at, where they're basically on top of each other. Yeah, like rooftop chickens and stuff. Yes, it's wild yeah. It's very neat to see. So whenever you're out hunting and stuff and this kind of leads into it, do you, are you hunting specifically for meat or are you looking for the biggest deer you can? Do you have goals whenever you go out?
Speaker 2:hunting. So food is my goal when I hunt, um, and I think, uh, I think also it plays into that I have to capitalize on a naive deer in the early season. It just one, it's just Waylon, and I I don't have like and I think Levi touched on it too Like you got to make sure that your home life is in order before I don't have the counterpart. So I either have to set up, you know, go bug somebody about watching Waylon, or I got to take them with me, um, so I, I just capitalize on on the early season, especially now that I'm a taxidermist, like I won't have time to get into the woods in the middle of the rut, uh, so now I'm, I'm taking them with me, but I just shoot what I can.
Speaker 1:And you use all of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm making bone broth, I'm canning it, you're canning it. I can bone broth.
Speaker 1:Okay, have you canned deer meat yet? No, I've not.
Speaker 2:No, that's why we have freezers. There we go. I can't wrap my head around canning deer meat. I've had a yeah I there's.
Speaker 1:People have said it's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a hard time believing them canning meat in general just doesn't it's doable, yeah, but I don't feel good about it I'm not there yet in my my canning your journey, yeah, my home, my homesteading self-sufficiency journey. I can't can meet yet.
Speaker 1:I just don't want to yeah, I'm with you on that. So you're hunting primarily are. Are you also, aside from bow hunting whitetail? Are you doing any turkey hunting or not really?
Speaker 2:primarily whitetail. Yeah, turkeys, I I just don't know enough about it. I really I've been out a few times to hunt for turkey, um unsuccessfully. I can't call save my life. Yeah, it's tough ruben, I think ruben had a good season this year?
Speaker 1:yeah, he's done good man. He's come a long ways as far as he's quite the outdoorsman he is hunting everything, everything good for him.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's fantastic, I think. I think I'll get after beaver this year as well.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beaver meat is, I'm sure people are going to have I don't know beaver, so beaver meat is actually nutritionally superior to, like, any wild game. So it's 109 grams of protein per pound, wow, of beaver meat, and then, um, like all the minerals and fats and it's is it a very fat greasy? It's not greasy, it's dense is it?
Speaker 1:yeah very rich yeah so what are you doing? So you going out trapping?
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna trap um I'll, I'll shoot, I'll hunt beaver really yeah, I won't trap them.
Speaker 1:What's the strategy with hunting beaver I?
Speaker 2:guess I'm sitting away really so.
Speaker 1:I mean, are you hunting them here locally?
Speaker 2:I am, yeah, out in, uh, out in chickapin. I have a friend that has property with beaver on it really so yeah, I was like well, all right, we'll get after that so have you ever eaten the beaver tail? I've not eaten the tail, it's just fat, yeah I don't, I don't know, I don't know, I've skinned them out and they're like.
Speaker 2:It almost looks like white fish meat really yeah, yeah yeah, I don't know about that I don't know about the tail, um, but the back straps and hind quarters good yeah, really super good wow I didn't think about that.
Speaker 1:I thought most people just trapped beaver for the most part. Yeah, I didn't realize that you actively hunt them. I have.
Speaker 2:So in virginia I've I've been exposed to to trapping beaver and you know Waylon was all about it. He trapped himself a little muskrat and um uh, but I I don't feel confident setting traps.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll feel like I'll lose a finger.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I could see that. Yeah, I've never done any trapping whatsoever, gab. So Gavin wants to get into the um, the trapping side of things. Well, well, he thinks he does. He wants to get into everything.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:So whenever, as far as a beaver goes, I mean, how much meat do you typically yield from that? I mean, is it a good amount?
Speaker 2:It depends on how big the beaver is. I mean, like you'll trap little guys and it's just backstraps and hindquarters. And then we trapped one. I think it was like 64 pounds, jesus. Yeah, I mean, the back straps were like a yearling wow, like substantial.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that's. Yeah, I mean, you get more than squirrel meat yeah, yeah gavin likes to shoot squirrels, so does waylon having a steady diet of squirrel last winter. Yes yeah, that's how g's how, gavin is, are you eating them? Yeah, we did. Yeah, he actually Gavin. He shot a handful of them and then he found this recipe on Facebook and so we're out there at night smoking these squirrels in like this, covered in mustard and this. I don't even know what the seasonings he was, but it ended up actually being really good I was surprised.
Speaker 2:Great, but yeah, I just crock pot mine.
Speaker 1:Do you? Yeah, I think that's probably the move.
Speaker 2:Maybe. Yeah, becca, becca Garris on on Instagram she she has a bunch of wild game recipes.
Speaker 1:Really yeah.
Speaker 2:I follow her squirrel recipes.
Speaker 1:There you go, make it good. Yeah, I mean, and if you can get kids into it and they're interested in eating and trying, that's the move it's super great.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's super great.
Speaker 1:They see beginning to end yep and if they like it. If they like it, that makes it so much easier yeah so yeah, and that's one of the things about deer like our whole family likes it, yeah, that's important it is uh, you know, cause there's a lot of people that aren't willing to try things. But you know, I was very surprised when the kids at an early age were like I want to try that.
Speaker 2:And then we're like I like this. Yeah yeah, wayland's the same Um, like beer. Beer, deer and beaver are like his he loves it, or, like his, he loves it.
Speaker 1:Really it's like his favorite meat. Yeah, throw some French fries and some corn dogs or chicken nuggets in there.
Speaker 2:No, no, he's, he's pretty good about like. I mean I don't know, he likes bread, bread.
Speaker 1:He likes a lot of bread. Yeah, so does William Toast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stop it. King's Hawaiian.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is what that's right.
Speaker 2:But he does. He likes the stuff out of the garden and he likes the wild meat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome to be exposed to that yeah. Because that'll stay with him his entire life, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And this last buck that I shot in muzzleloader, he was with me. This is the first time Like I was completely by myself, just with Waylon, and he was with me the the whole time, like in in the blind. He was just. He was like, oh my gosh, he showed up today and uh, and then you know, we tracked him and um, I was, I was a ways from from the house, so I'm like I gotta pull this thing out by myself yeah so I I just start, waylon was so excited, he's, he's shaking and I'm like you didn't even shoot it and you're shaking like this.
Speaker 2:This is great. It was wild, um, and I've I started. I was like here, waylon, here's a leg, and I start field dressing and he's like and I'm like, oh, I've, he's has yet to see this part of it and I look at his face and he's like and I'm like, are you all right? He's like, yeah, this is just all really exciting. And I was like, okay, good, we're on the right track.
Speaker 1:Give me a knife, let me dive in. Yes, that William likes. He's like I want to cut it too. I want to cut it. I'm like bro relax. I had him carry the heart home and he was like this is awesome. That's gavin's favorite part of any of the animals that we've shot he always wants to eat the heart yeah, that's his favorite.
Speaker 2:Super good for you. I think it's a fantastic way to honor the animal yep use all of it yeah, he loves it. So you actually did a back country hunt yeah on your own, which is crazy yeah, it was, I mean, it was guided it was guided, but you still went out west yeah alone and just did the thing.
Speaker 1:Just did the thing. How was that?
Speaker 2:yeah, it was a wild experience. It was so cool, um, so I left. I ended up leaving a couple days early and it gave me just time to f off across across the country. I went um the southern route so I went like through Alabama and Texas and New Mexico and then like up to um Colorado. So Florence was coming in, hot hurricane Florence, and it was either like I go early or I don't. Yeah, because it was supposed to land the day that I was supposed to leave. Um, so just the trip across country was wild by myself. It was like I planned it all out. I camped the whole way. New Mexico was just the wildest. It was like the coolest little stop that I had along the way and then stayed in Cortez, colorado, for two nights and then went to Dolores, which is in the southern San Juan National Forest, and got to my camp and that was cool. That was. That was a fantastic experience.
Speaker 2:We did some of it on horseback oh, wow yeah, and that was that was neat so you so did you.
Speaker 1:You stay. You had a campsite the entire time.
Speaker 2:You were out there no um, so it was like a lodge once I got once I got to colorado it was a lodge and uh, and there I mean there was a bunch of other people that were staying in the lodge too, and then I'd link up with my guide in the morning and we'd get on horses and head up how was? That awesome. So, um the first night, the first morning, it's still dark.
Speaker 2:Uh, we get on horses on the trail and it's like, I mean, it's pitch black, like it's, it's the darkest dark right and um, we're on the trail and it's like like your senses are kind of taken away from you when it's that we had headlamps but we weren't using them. We were just kind of trusting the horses to get up the trail. And it was wild, how like your sense of hearing because you can't really see your sense of hearing peaks. And so we're on this trail and I can tell that it's narrow, because I can tell that there's land to my left and I could tell that there's nothing to my right and it was like just seemed like a drop, but I couldn't see. And I'm just like you're just trusting the horse and you know, you look up and there's just the spruce, the blue spruce pines. They're just against the star sky. It was the coolest experience. And then, on our way back down through that same like in the afternoon, on our way back down through that same little path, I was like, wow, if we had misstepped.
Speaker 1:That's the end.
Speaker 2:That would have been a ways down off of the mountain. Yeah, yeah, into a, into a river. It would have been great. What a way to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly what a way to go. So how long were you out there for?
Speaker 2:I was out there for seven days.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's quite the trip. That's a lot of people's dream trip.
Speaker 2:Oh it was fantastic. That's quite the trip. That's a lot of people's dream trip. Oh it was fantastic. I got so the last day, I think. I was supposed to be out there for six and I squeezed like one more day out and my last day there I just I drove to one of the trailheads and hiked in with my fly rod and I caught like a bunch of these like little tiny cutthroat trout. I didn't keep any of them, but it was just. It was fun to just like walk upstream and Just the whole time out there by yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, that's an experience I'm telling you. I mean, you know, you hear most people going out west are going with a group, they're going out with some buddies, yeah, but I mean, what made you decide to go out and just go do it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was actually. I had planned it to be the year prior and this was actually a gift from my husband at the time and he's like just go. And I'm like okay.
Speaker 1:See ya.
Speaker 2:Thank God, tell me twice bye. So I went out there and it was great, just drove out. Well, I don't know, I never like thought like, oh my God, I'm doing this by myself.
Speaker 1:This is scary.
Speaker 2:I've always been pretty confident, pretty good by myself, so it was just.
Speaker 1:That's cool man I mean to be able to do that and look back on it. I mean, that's something to remember forever. I mean, what was the highlight of the trip for?
Speaker 2:you Just everywhere I stopped I met like the coolest people. It was, um, I ran into this one old guy around a campfire and in Colorado and uh, we're talking about kids and he had had like a whole mess of kids. He was an older guy and uh, uh, and I was like, yeah, I got a, I got a boy. And he's like boys are tough.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, boys are, boys are tough I don't know, man, I watch some people with girls.
Speaker 2:I'm like thank god, yeah, true, I'm I'm so grateful I have a boy, though honestly, um, but he's like you know, it'll be all right. You just buy him a good knife when he's eight and send him on his way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't stifle his will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he'll be fine, and I'm like solid, so I did and I do so I try to try to live by that. And you know you just little puzzle pieces that that built the whole trip, yeah, yeah was did you?
Speaker 1:you were you successful no so not in the aspect of actually the hunt itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I came home with an empty cooler and a full heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:It was, I think, I don't know. I feel like I was more ambitious than my guide was. There was a lot of like all right, well, we'll go here, and then we're just going to sit and I'm like I want to go find him. All right, well, we'll go here, and then we're just gonna sit and I'm like I want to go find him.
Speaker 2:Like let's go, I want to, I want to go like I'm here. Yeah, let's, let's do it, let's go, let's go find him, let's call. Um. There was a a point I think it was my second to last day there was a point where, um, I could hear a bull like just wrecking trees with his antlers in, and I couldn't see him. But if he had come out, I was like set up to where, like I'd had a shot if he'd come out.
Speaker 1:Um he just didn't make his way that that direction he just I don't know stayed in the timber so tucked away yeah, yeah, that's tough hunting, because that was your first time ever out in the mountains. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was um, I trained really hard for that and we hunted a lot like 11,000 feet Um and I I don't know my, my guide was really really nice, but I I do feel like I was more, I was more ambitious, like he had to rest a lot at 11,000 feet. He was an older guy, a little heavyset, and I was like in the best shape of my life and I'm like let's go, let's go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need to get after it. And he's like I gotta wait, you should have seen us walking up the mountain at tack Gosh, that was a trip. Yeah, I've never been out west or hunting out west. It's always something I wanted to do. I'm jealous. Jr, I think, is heading out there, out to Colorado actually this year. Um, I'm excited for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be a great trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, even if you only get to do it once.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally, even if you don't get anything like just to be there is just so special.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely is. Yeah, um, I mean, just when we were up in PA and you know just the different elevation and the the opportunity that the scenery that was presented, the shot angles, um, you know cause Eastern North Carolina bow hunting is not exactly strenuous. When it comes to the actual hunting side, it's a lot of sit and wait right, strategic planning, knowing where they are, but as far as like actively getting after it and getting and breaking bush and you, you know, covering on a lot of ground, it's not that. And to me, hunting is, you know when, I think, a real hunter I, I really think that the western guys, western girls right, who are out there getting after it, covering a lot of ground, glass in, you know, and just putting in a lot of work.
Speaker 2:that's always appeal, yes, appeal to me. Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not that here it's not that here it's different. It's a different type of hunting. It's challenging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't get me wrong, it is very challenging, it's just different I think everywhere comes with its own set of set of challenges and yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:So did you guys do a, did you guys cover a lot of ground when you were out there?
Speaker 2:at least we did, um, I think some of it. We got rained on pretty heavy uh, two days out of the week, which was cool, it was it. I mean the whole experience was neat. Um, but yeah, I think, uh, I had my fitbit on.
Speaker 1:It was like 10 miles, eight miles a day okay, yeah, covering some ground yeah what was the most important, or you know piece of kit or equipment that you had while you were there that you're looking back at now. You're like, wow, I wish I would have had that, or I'm glad I had that. Good boots, good boots, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good boots and rain gear.
Speaker 1:Rain gear yeah, a necessity.
Speaker 2:Good boots. Yeah, I have a pair of Danners.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:That kept. Yeah, um, I, I have a pair of danners.
Speaker 1:Okay, that kept my feet really dry and warm and they were comfortable. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's. It's pretty hard to cover ground whenever you're. You're broke off right away with sore feet.
Speaker 2:Oh what it sucked. I just couldn't have done it um, so yeah we see that neglected, even around here.
Speaker 1:With people neglecting their feet, I mean quality socks and footwear. Yeah, I mean especially being right around the military base. Right, all the guys are constantly out rocking, covering a lot of distance with a lot of weight on their back, and we get a lot of the newer guys that come through whose feet are really broke down and you know. Then they end up investing in a good pair of boots and socks and realize how much of a difference it's really so important, like, even like just the texture of socks.
Speaker 2:I did a 12 mile ruck in uh in DC last year. Uh the go ruck. Yeah, I did that with a couple of my girlfriends and it was just so important to have, like like a good material sock, marina, wool man, you can't beat it, you can't. Cause if your sock is too rough, it's gonna it's gonna hurt your foot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And also the Marina wool. The fact that it doesn't hold odor makes a big difference. So base layers and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Right Base layers. That's really important too, Cause when I was out West I didn't have an opportunity to wash my camo.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So like I'm just sweating.
Speaker 1:Seven days.
Speaker 2:Sweating in my stuff for seven days and it didn't. It didn't smell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, I would never go back. If there's one thing I've learned over the last few years, it's just how important a good base layer is, and merino wool being the priority.
Speaker 2:Right and it keeps you dry. You don't like swamp up in it. You don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's moisture wicking, antimicrobial, I mean it's. Yeah, it's an important aspect of being outdoors, especially if you're not going home at night, right, it's essential. Yes, yeah absolutely so, do you? I mean, if you had the opportunity to go back out west again, do you think you would go the guide route or do you think you would do the diy, do it yourself, I think I do the diy yeah yeah, I think I yeah the full experience absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like I'd probably just get into the san juan and not come out for a week. Yeah, and just you know either set up a base camp.
Speaker 1:Especially now, with the little bit of experience that you've had. I mean, even though it's been a few years back, you have an idea what you're getting into.
Speaker 2:I still have all the maps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you can go back prepared, right If, given the opportunity One knowing the gear that you need Because I mean that first one is always probably I think anything you do is kind of an eye opener.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, there's a lot of wing in it, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:And you, and if you go by yourself I mean a wing in, it could be very dangerous. Oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, I carried a sidearm the whole time and cause you don't, I don't know, you don't know Some, some predators out there, yeah, yeah, I didn't want to get caught by a cat like that was my, my worst fear. I mean bears, I don't know. I, I mean, I don't, I don't want to fight a bear, right, but but I'm I don't know.
Speaker 1:Did you see the thing that's going around with women and bears or something in the woods? Oh my god, do you know? You know what I'm talking about? It's like would you rather be in a woods with a man or a bear?
Speaker 2:I don't know mean I've chased off some men and some bears.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, that's the thing about out west man, the mountain lions and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would not. I mean I wouldn't want to cross a cat. It would probably be my biggest fear running into a cat out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I mean, you make a house cat mad.
Speaker 2:I my biggest fear is running into a cat out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I mean you mess, make a house cat mad. I mean that thing's vicious. Now magic would hate. Yeah, absolutely, coming at you with a knife tornado. I don't want it. Yeah, so do you plan? Do you think you'll ever?
Speaker 2:will make it back on west. I plan to. I I would really like to. When waylon's older, I'd like to go out and you know, if, if he goes that route, if he, if he finds, finds it in his heart to go hunt elk, if he doesn't cool, I'm going to take him with me. But I'd like for when he gets older, for us to do that, even when he's a young man.
Speaker 1:Keep it like you guys have done with you and your dad, huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the trips, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely a cool bonding experience. Man, I'm super excited about getting my kids more involved as they age. You know doing things with them like that together, so just be, you're being that first. Like we talked about bow hunting experience, I'm excited to do that with Gavin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see how it goes, and it like to to do that with my dad and like be the be the child in that situation. It had changed the way I see my dad, like in the best way, like just to, and you think like, oh, I've learned all these things from my parents. And then to like open another door into a whole other world of things that you can learn from your parent. It was just the coolest experience and I just hope that I can be that for Waylon. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, something you'll never forget.
Speaker 2:That's for sure, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, moving on, you know and this is like I said you've done a lot of things. You have a lot of experiences in different aspects of the outdoor world in general. I mean, like we talked about the hunting, fishing taxidermy world in general. I mean, like we talked about the hunting, fishing taxidermy. So, as a woman in the hunting and outdoor world, have you come across any hurdles, like as far as being female, that made it difficult for you?
Speaker 2:or no, no, I, I can't, I don't. I guess when I started hunting, my biggest hurdle was finding camo that fit that wasn't my brother's camo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2:But now you know a good bit of companies make camo to fit females, which is nice, but I haven't. I think and this brings me back to the guide that was selected for me in Colorado. I think that I mean there were younger dudes that were way more fit that probably would have got me into a place where I might have capitalized on that hunt, um, but I think that they were like oh, it's just a little girl out here by herself, we're gonna stick her with they kind of.
Speaker 1:You know, I feel like I got shorted.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wasn't taken seriously like I didn't put in the work and I was very frustrated because I I put in the fricking work.
Speaker 1:And that was kind of what I was getting to, you know, because you know perspective, right, you know it's like how many you know women maybe were came out there before and hadn't taken the time to get there. So they look at you and they're like, ah, you know, hey, let's, let's give somebody a little slower pace.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's what happened. Um, and I'm not taking anything away from that guy. He was salt of the earth, one of the nicest people I've ever met, but I wanted to get after it. I was. I was far more ambitious, and I think that that's why he might've been selected for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Cause, like there were, there were other guys that were out there by themselves or like with their buddies and they got guides that are like like going and I'm like I want to be there.
Speaker 1:That one, yeah, yeah, I mean, is there anything I mean? And two as a female getting into it.
Speaker 2:It can be intimidating it can be, um, I guess it can be intimidating, it can be, um, I guess it can be. I've always, I've always kind of stood in like a male dominated world. Like I got out of high school I started working at a garage, working on cars, and and I've I've always just been like I don't know, I've not, I've not been, I guess, like in the feminine world. I've always kind of stood, stood on my own and and I guess, like the more masculine world, and I don't find it intimidating, I just that's, that's home to me like it's like, oh my, my brother can do it, I can do it, my dad can do it, I can do it, and I just never.
Speaker 2:And I was never raised like oh well, you're a girl, so you should, you should be in the house and cooking and cleaning and and like, yes, I could do all those things, but I was never raised that there was a difference, like you should know how to change your own water heater too, allison. So that just goes back to being, to being capable and confident in in your capabilities.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, which is important, right, for I mean for everybody being capable individuals to you know it's it's great. And for me especially, like I lean on my wife for lots, right, it's, she's very, very important. For you know, I give her all the credit for any of the success that I've had in my life because she has been um somebody I can lean on. When it comes to other aspects of our life I'm able to prioritize and focus on we'll call it business, Sure, right, and you know I come home and you know she's taking care of stuff she doesn't have to do, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know, I know, I you know, and it's not saying that she's that's required of her to do that, but she stepped up there for me.
Speaker 2:And that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:It's very special to have that it is and I, you know, I, I like I said I think it's important and she's a very capable individual. Don't get me wrong, she is. She can do anything that she wanted. She is right. She started her own business, which is very successful, that she runs. She runs her business. She takes you know, she's always there with the kids. She has prioritized her life around you know, being a mom and running a business at the same time. Uh, so yeah, she's not one either that I would ever discount. She's a very capable individual and who will let you know there that I would ever discount she's a very capable individual and who will let you know she's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I think it's, it's important for everybody I mean men and women to experience the outdoors and learn these skills and, even if it's not your priority right, but to have an understanding of it, to get out there and explore and kind of push yourself and your boundaries yeah, I think that you know.
Speaker 2:I think it's just important to to be okay. There's nothing worse in this world to be than helpless. I I will.
Speaker 1:That's a hill I'll die on I, I'm with you, 100, all that. It's uh, um, it's something. It I mean that puts you in a position that is just, I mean just that helpless one. Yeah, no one, that's the. I don't think there's any worse feeling.
Speaker 2:No one's coming. No one's coming.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean, that's why I'm. It's so important to me, for you know physical fitness with you know myself, and then see my kids and my family being involved in that. Seeing that being physically fit and being able to feed yourself properly, nutritious food yeah and all. And being smart, intelligent as well yeah, you know it all works together. It does you know you can't have one at one piece of it and be set.
Speaker 2:No, it's gotta. It's gotta all come together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's you know it's tough though, yeah. So with that, like you said, that, I mean that's a real hurdle. Right, you maybe have been a little overlooked for your hunt, which you spent all this money on to go out West and really go hard, you know, and you didn't get exactly what you're expecting out of it. But you're also a business owner. Now you have your taxidermy business, which is seem to be doing really well. You are very, very talented. I've seen the work that you've done. It's incredible. Um, let's talk about that a little bit. One how did you get into that?
Speaker 2:So I, I've always like, obviously like big love for wildlife. I, I love wildlife and then, um, I love art, I like, I like to create, I like, um, you know, both my parents are incredible artists. My dad did, uh, like fish carvings, really fish reproduction, for a while wow out of wood.
Speaker 2:I mean, they're outstanding. I'll send you pictures. It's wild. Um, my mom, my mom's a great artist, both my grandparents on either side as well. Um, so I and this kind of popped off with COVID being as destructive or the fallout of COVID being as just COVID itself wasn't anything, but that's another podcast. So I needed to homeschool Waylon and I needed to work from home and I needed to like, not do like telework. I needed to do something that I wanted to do and I thought long and hard about it and I was like, yeah, this taxidermy. And I found a school in.
Speaker 2:Wisconsin and I went up there for a month and learned everything that I could learn and came home and opened a business that was in 21. I went to school and then came home and was open for business that was in 21. I went to school and then, uh, came home and was open for business that fall.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, that's pretty fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean, obviously we we had on before it's taken away a little bit of your ability to hunt because that's you know prime time for business, Um, but how has business been for you so far?
Speaker 2:It's been good. So I mean, you know, when you first open the doors you eat shit for the first couple of years. But this last season was my third official season and my business had tripled in traffic. Tripled, oh wow, in in traffic. So and I don't know how it's gonna look coming from virginia to here. I mean, I know more people here, right? Um? So hopefully, hopefully, I take off this season so what?
Speaker 1:I mean you, and I mean I've saw some of the stuff. You've done Fish, you've done, birds, you do.
Speaker 2:Bobcats, bears.
Speaker 1:What are you? Are you still doing everything? Are you specializing or cutting back in areas and focusing on?
Speaker 2:So I no longer want to do birds.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Why they're such a pain in the ass.
Speaker 1:Are they Just?
Speaker 2:very detail oriented, or yeah, it's just like and I'm not, I'm not set up to like it's called gassing the bird. You put them in like white fuel and it takes, makes the feathers like super shiny, and then you got to tumble them and it's like sawdust and cob mixture and I just I don't have that. I don't want to gas birds, I don't want to keep the fuel or the, so I don't know. Then I did, I did turkeys. I did turkeys under the wing of another taxidermist, like he helped me, and that they're just cantankerous birds. They are intrusively large and you gotta, you gotta take them apart and I I don't like it so what are you focusing on now or specializing in?
Speaker 2:Well, whitetail is going to be the most of my business and I really enjoy that and I've got I just finished up my first Bobcat and I posted that and got a lot of inquiries about Bobcats.
Speaker 1:So actually tomorrow.
Speaker 2:I've got a bobcat coming in to to do wow tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what's the turnaround time for you on stuff like that? Like how, like if you, if you don't have anything else going on and you were beginning to end because taxidermy, whenever you you hear about people they're like, hey, I've got a, you know, a six month wait. Yeah, one year, two year wait, what? What call? Is it just that amount of traffic? Is it just the process? It's the volume.
Speaker 2:Um, so I, I tan everything myself, so I can tan a deer in a day, um, and if I have, if, if I have the form, which you know, usually I, I take the deer in, I cape it out completely, um, and then I'll wrap it back up and I'll stick it in the freezer for another two weeks, let all the ticks and critters die, and then I'll pull it back out and I'll flesh it and I'll tan it and get it all measured up, and then I'll make an order for the form and then, so I don't know, I guess, like start to finish, I could have it done in like a month.
Speaker 1:One deer takes a month. Well, yeah Well it doesn't With the process for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Cause there's a lot of there's a lot of waiting. So you know, there's two weeks for all the, all, the like, all the ticks to die off.
Speaker 1:Eastern North Carolina.
Speaker 2:I got bit so many times already I believe it. I got bit so many times already. I believe you. But if I have everything like if I were just to tan it and like have the form there, I could be done in two days, Wow. And then you got to wait for everything to dry. The rule of thumb is like two weeks for everything to dry and then you do the finish work clay, work around the eyes, the nose, mouth, paint it up, make it look pretty. So pretty.
Speaker 1:So where do you store? I mean, do you just have a bunch of freezers like are they walk-in freezers?
Speaker 2:no, I just got chest freezers yeah, okay and everything's got everybody's name on it. Little you know proper legal intake tags and I write um, I wrap it up in a bag and I write on the bag whether it's raw or tanned or it's a process, yeah, so what are the requirements for somebody to bring an animal to you?
Speaker 2:I need um, I need 50 down of what I charge and then just legal all the legalities I need, like the confirmation number, your license number, the state you took it in. Um can't bring like brains or bones or anything across state lines. So that's pretty much the extent of it so you take stuff from out of state as well I can, if it's caped out, if it's okay, yeah, okay, yeah it's just gotta be caped out, and then they send it to you yeah, I can't.
Speaker 1:Can't have uh like no, no bones, no spinal cords, lymph nodes or brains oh, wow, yeah, so it's all okay just like just the skin and then like the skull cap is that for north carolina, or is every state different, when every state's different.
Speaker 2:Every state's different. Like virginia, I couldn't even take, like there were counties that I couldn't take from really due to cwdD. Yeah, yeah, which I could get on a soapbox about that and be here till next Thursday.
Speaker 1:Oh boy. So there's a lot of things that people got to consider, especially out of state hunters, right? So if you're traveling out of state, it's we. I talked about this with JR Owen the other week about you know out of state stuff and being up to date on your tags and licenses and requirements, because every state is so different. You can really get yourself in a bind. Oh yeah, quickly, without realizing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mistakenly step in the wrong direction, like yes, which?
Speaker 1:yeah, if you're going out of state to hunt, we highly encourage you to do your research absolutely and like there's, there's literature. Sometimes you just can't find it like it's not as out there as you think it is, you would think that they would make it abundantly obvious some of it's confusing to read yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you're like who do I call to clarify this and there isn't anybody you just gotta hope that you're stepping in the right direction yeah, I, I mean cause you.
Speaker 1:you see it more often than not. I think people that get in trouble. I don't think it's necessarily malicious, it's more so like man I made a misogynist mistake, I overlooked that one. Yeah, whoops, so. So how is business? Is everything good? Yeah, good, so you just transferred your stuff over to North Carolina.
Speaker 2:So you're set, ready to work, completely licensed, ready to go.
Speaker 1:Good deal. So you got a bobcat coming through, One of the guys here, Zach. That's what he's big into.
Speaker 2:He messaged me.
Speaker 1:Zach Rhodes. Yes, yeah he does a lot of trapping, lots of trapping. And that's one thing.
Speaker 2:I think he got this year. He trapped a really good bobcat I think that's the one he messaged me about and I was in the process of doing my first bobcat and I was like dude, this is my first one. Let me do it, and I'll take a picture and I'll send it to you and if you think it's good, then Turn out good. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it did.
Speaker 2:It did turn out good. Yeah, I mean, do you enjoy doing the deer more than anything Kind of Kind of? I mean I really liked doing this bobcat. There was a lot of sewing, a lot of, and I liked the bear that I did.
Speaker 1:As far as the bear goes, was it a full.
Speaker 2:It was a half body.
Speaker 1:A half body. Okay, Like it was coming out of the wall. Wow, yeah, that's cool yeah, it was neat so do you have to do the artistic design? They're like hey, I want to mount for this and you're like and they're like hey, this is how I want it. Or do you give them ideas and like guidelines, like hey, you know, we can do a shoulder mount on this with this going on.
Speaker 2:So, um, deer are pretty much cut and dry. They're usually always shoulder mounts, um, but with predators like um bear especially, they're all like different sizes, they're like, they're like, they look like humans when you skin them out, it's creepy um, so, like they might have longer arms and a bigger head, or like you know, they're just, they just come in different shapes and sizes.
Speaker 2:Um, so, depending on how that bear measures out, you can go to your catalog and be like, okay, I can put it in this one, this one or this one, like, these are the forms that I can order in the size of your bear.
Speaker 1:Right, oh, that makes sense. Yeah, okay, so with you being the female in the taxidermist side, because I don't know any other female taxidermist. Yeah, how is that? I mean, has it been a good response for you?
Speaker 2:It has. The feedback that I've gotten is that women in general have more attention to detail.
Speaker 1:I believe that, yeah, yeah, yeah attention to detail.
Speaker 2:I believe that yeah, yeah, yeah. So I I haven't had any. Like nobody's been like oh, I'm not going to take it, or like are you sure you know what you're?
Speaker 1:doing Standing over your shoulder, so you've had a really good response, oh yeah. I mean I and I know all the guys around here, um, I mean there's a handful already. I mean you were up in Virginia that were just seeking you out to try to send you stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually um two deer went home last week that um I've had a repeat client, that is. This is the last. This is the fourth deer that I've done for him.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. Um so him and his boy had given me deer and they went home to him last week. He's he lives down here Is it. Michael. No, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, him, last week he's. He lives down here, is it michael? No, okay, yeah, there's a. I know there's a handful of guys because they've had people have asked us. You know, hey, where do, where do we go, where do we send people? So, and this was over the last two years.
Speaker 2:Well, she's out of state, but uh, you know you can hit her up so, um, the dad, he shot his buck in illinois and the son got his buck here. So I came down to pick, to pick his boy's deer up and I caped it out while I was down here and brought it back. But now I brought it back down here and it was the coolest thing. This is what I love most about. What I do is like you give that memory back, especially like for the kids. It's like the dad sent me a picture. It's 10 o'clock at night and it was the day that they picked up the deer. They picked him up early in the morning. It's 10 o'clock at night and the dad sends me a picture and the kid is in like an armchair with his shoulder mount on his lap and I'm like that is the coolest thing.
Speaker 2:Like he just was so proud of that. It made my heart happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, that's very cool, I mean because he'll, I mean they'll, cherish that forever.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Yeah, kids' first years are like.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the coolest thing it is, it is. I mean they could care less whether it was a giant or know whatnot, they're just stoked to have, you know, get it done. Essentially and this, this is a real pretty buck he had like a black, um, like real dark black dorsal going like going down his neck and real pretty face. But he was little. He only had like a 16 inch neck. It just is what it is.
Speaker 1:But he was happy it'll be in his room forever. Yeah, that's super cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's your first buck yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So what advice would you have, I mean, for women that are interested in getting, because there's a there, I mean it's growing. It seems like I see more and more women that are interested in getting into bow hunting, you know, just outdoor things in general. I mean, do you have any advice that you would give them, you know, who don't know where to even begin?
Speaker 2:It's a pretty loaded question, it is Um, and that it's kind of hard to navigate. I don't know. I mean, find, find somebody to go with you. Know I'll, I'll go with you, um, but I'm I'm going to face my own hurdles this year because I've got some private land to hunt on, but I don't know if I could bring a friend. I don't really care for public land around here.
Speaker 1:It's tough around here, it's tough.
Speaker 2:And then, like you know, you've got the dogs shortly after bow season yeah, I don't really care for that either. The dogs shortly after bow season yeah, I don't really care for that either. But I think that if a woman wants to get into the outdoors, she should just do it for herself, not because her boyfriend wants her to. Or if you're not into it at all, don't.
Speaker 1:Don't try to force the issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just be authentic about it. Don't do it for likes or loves. Do it cause cause. You love it and if that's where your heart's at, then that's what you need to pursue. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And people will see that too. I think it always comes or shines through, comes through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and even just like, just go in and sit in the woods like up before before the sun does and just go watch the world wake up.
Speaker 2:see if that's where you want to be it's different, yeah, special absolutely, and even if you go in like I, I like to hunt the evening. I've just had the best, best luck that way, um, and I've gone into the woods and pushed deer out on my way in, but but like it's like throwing a rock in a pond, you know. You just sit still for long enough, all the ripples go. It's like you're not there. So yeah.
Speaker 1:So what about when it comes to buying a bow, I mean for you cause, as a female, right, you're not shooting a 70 pound bow. You know shop to get you set up and take you serious when you came in um, no, I, I didn't.
Speaker 2:Um, everything was pretty and I wanted to shoot, uh, like my dad had always shot botech and I I usually like, grab it, like oh, that's, I know that that's solid. Um, but I was like I didn't, I didn't want to be brand loyal just because, like, that's what dad shoots. So I went and, um, and I had shot, but I had, like the bow tech rose. And then I had the ava shocky bow. And now what's cool is they make bows that are geared towards shorter draw lengths and, you know, a lighter pounce you could kind of kind of grow with that um and are more geared towards women. But, um, when I I sold my ava shocky bow and then I wanted, I wanted like a big girl bow. I didn't, I didn't want a bow that was just geared towards women or children.
Speaker 2:so, um, but I went to you guys weren't, weren't an arch yeah?
Speaker 1:this is prior us. This is Ryan right? Yeah, yeah, Ryan's a great guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I shot Matthews and Hoyt and I just kind of I really like the draw cycle of the Bowtech and I landed on the Realm. That's history, right there. Yeah, that's it, jesus, you still got it, can't put a pin in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, history right there. Yeah, that's jesus, you still got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's I mean. And I think nowadays, and one of the things that's important for us as a shop too, is because we we've seen it more and more um the the amount of women that actually have a general interest, right, and a lot of it does stem from, like a boyfriend or husband gets into it and they're like I want to do it with them and then it, you know, it turns into a family bonding thing.
Speaker 2:I think that's. That's awesome, Fantastic.
Speaker 1:That's how me and Sherry are Right. So Sherry comes and she shoots 3d with me, um, and it's just, it's fun for us to go outside and do it together, a little bit of peace, um. But I know and I think things are changing. Um, cause, even when I got into it, it was later in life and it is intimidating. Going and trying something new and having no idea what you're getting into can be overwhelming. Right, you don't want to go in there and look like a fool when in reality you don't. You just don't know you just don't know.
Speaker 2:You don't know, and I think I mean, I think you've done a wonderful job of having, like the staff that you you've got here, there couldn't be more welcoming yeah, that's dude, that's like party. You don't feel stupid when you're here.
Speaker 1:No matter what you dry, fire your bow, it's all right. We had a dude do it last night and you know he took it on the chin and he cause he was in here, the guys were tuning a bow for him and he was like, hey, it looks like it doesn't. It's important you put an arrow in this thing. It's in a picture and this thing's blown up, you know, and accidents happen, you know. But that's one of the things we've all done.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did it before a 3d shoot one year and I'm going to blame Jr Owen on that because he was like I was like dude, am I?
Speaker 2:we were out there waiting for you guys.
Speaker 1:He's like no, you're good man, Send it and there's no arrow, blew it up.
Speaker 2:But I mean Ruben saved my ass a couple of times we were at the R 100 and he's like Allie, allie, allie, stop.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, I need that. But you know it's been important for our shop here and by no means are we perfect, right? You know it's very important for me, our customer service and stuff, but we have you know there's a lot of females that work in our shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's awesome. It is awesome. Yes, you've worked here before you moved. I mean, we've had Nikki here and you know she helped out with our classes and our summer camps. And we've got Sam now, who is an incredible tech and she's a target guru, yeah. And then you know, we got, you know, sarah and Raina, who help with our orders and stuff. So we are a very diverse bunch here. Yeah, and I think it does. It makes it a little bit easier for women to come and they see other women and they see other women in here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like you, just it's just all around welcoming. Yes, it's a good crowd.
Speaker 1:It is. There's a lot of great shops out there and I think it's important at any new Archer female, male to go in and find a shop that does make you comfortable.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And shoot everything and shoot everything. Shoot everything because you don't know what's going to fit you Like. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get the brands out of your mind.
Speaker 2:All of it, all of it.
Speaker 1:And go in there and just with an open mind and you know, pick up the bows that are set up or within your budget and let them rip, Yep.
Speaker 2:That's important.
Speaker 1:I think so too, and you know it takes a little bit of the pressure off of you too. You know cause, like I said, I mean I remember getting into it. I was like I'm a dude, I have no idea what. I don't even know what questions to ask.
Speaker 1:You know I didn't know that bows required draw length adjustments and you know all this stuff whenever I got into it, and so it was a little overwhelming. That's one of the things you know. We try not to hear, to answer all the questions. Be very open, open and receptive to any. You know questions that people have because you know the last thing you want to do is run someone off because you make them, you know, feel stupid right and that's like that's the worst thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, like if I go somewhere and they make me feel dumb, I am not coming back.
Speaker 1:Yes, same with me. I am not coming back it's funny. So where can people find you if they're interested in your business? They want to follow your journey. You're hunting, fishing, outdoors, homesteading. You got a lot of great information you put out. Where can they find you, for both your business and your?
Speaker 2:I'm all over social, I'm just. I'm not on tiktok. I I was and they kept taking all my videos down yes, good luck, because it's animal abuse and I was like it's taxidermy. I didn't do anything to this, but whatever Zeisselmeyer Taxidermy is my business and I'm Allison Zeisselmeyer on everything else.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's easy to find.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, you know, type in my last name. I'm going to.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest, your last name is difficult though.
Speaker 2:It's intimidating, but it's like you see it, and that's the right one.
Speaker 1:That's it. There's only one. Yeah, there's only one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's only one, there's only one, so you can't get it wrong, you can't miss it.
Speaker 1:Well, what we'll do, too, is we'll put a description down below so anyone that's interested in finding you tracking you down. All the links will be in the video below. Absolutely Wonderful, so people can kind of check you out, check out your business, see your work really is uh, and then all our local guys here I'm sure will be heading your way yeah, yeah, so as long as they get on and actually kill some stuff yeah, yeah, guys, make that happen, keep the business going well, ally, do you have anything?
Speaker 1:anything else, I don't think so. Yeah, you've been. You know, it's been great, it's really great catching up with you. I'm, you know. Welcome back to jacksonville thank you glad to have you back. It's great to see you back out at our 3D stuff yeah it's good to be home. It was fun shooting yeah that was overdue. The black hole ain't as bad as everyone thinks it is.
Speaker 1:That's right, so cool. We're going to wrap this thing up and I just want to say thanks again, so make sure you guys, you know, check out the links. She does an incredible job if you're looking to get anything mounted, specifically white-tailed deer bear predators and fish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't do skin mount fish, I just do like the replicas. But I can paint some fish. She can make it happen.
Speaker 1:She does a fantastic job, so we're going to wrap this thing up. We appreciate you guys following along. This was episode. What did we say? 10? 10. Episode 10. So thanks again.