How did I get here?

It is interesting that the field of outdoor writing is male dominated, but that I have found a home in that field. I have always enjoyed the outdoors since I was able to get out of the house on my own and explore the yard, woods, and swamp near my childhood home. I remember fishing from an early age also. Hunting came later, but I will never forget the Christmas I got my first BB gun. My Dad was stoked that I would have my own gun. His parents, I remember, were not as pleased. They felt I was too young and they felt, perhaps because I was a girl, that I simply should not have a gun at all. But Dad and I spent a lot of time target practicing outside and eventually getting rid of some of the never-ending supply of chipmunks we found in our back yard.

In recent years, that love of the outdoors has brought me to environmental writing as well. It seemed to come as a natural progression. On the surface, it may seem that harvesting fish and animals would be the antithesis of being environmentally conscious, and I know some people think that way.

But when you think about harvesting an animal. Part of that satisfaction is in providing your own food for yourself. In light of that, overharvest of any species would not be in a hunter or angler’s best interest, would it? Yes, there are plenty of people who harvest far too many fish. There are people who would be in serious trouble if a DNR warden came by and opened their freezer (there are probably more of these people than I would like to think there are). There are people who poach animals. But by and large, the true sportsman is conservation minded. Yes, I say sportsman. I refer to myself as a sportsman because I don’t get caught up in all of that “politically correct” sportsmen and women or fisherman and fisherwoman stuff. That has just gone a bit too far for me, and I’m not easily offended by that kind of thing, so that is one thing you will learn about me fairly quickly as we go along this blogging journey.

When I started in the outdoor realm, I was quickly asked to move outside of my comfort zone. Clients wanted stories about species I had never targeted. That was the beginning of my learning and part of this job and lifestyle that I enjoy the most. When you spend time outdoors, you are always learning.

Once I started with a local newspaper, I started to meet various people through county agencies and non-profit groups who invited me to their meetings and events. I quickly developed a love of pollinators and I learned a ton about invasive species. And those are just two areas where my knowledge expanded. I learned about permaculture and got back into gardening.

I also quickly figured out the politics of all of these things in which I was starting to get involved. Yes, politics is in everything, isn’t it, unfortunately? I tend to not get too political, though. I have my beliefs and I am sure everyone reading this has theirs as well. I am likely not going to change your mind (nor do I want to, really – diversity in all things is key), and you are not likely to change mine. That is not to say that we cannot learn from each other, however, and I think that is something that has been lost by some margin in today’s world.

When I first started outdoor writing, I did not give it any thought that I was one of the only outdoor journalists in the state who is a woman. Yes, there are others who wind up writing in that space, simply due to their rural location or what have you. But there are not many of us who live and work in this field full time. I suppose I don’t think much about those kinds of things because my Dad raised me to not see those lines. He got me into the outdoors early, I spent time building things with him (including an addition on our house and a new garage), reloading shells in the basement, and working on a variety of cars, truck, lawn mowers, and anything else that happened to break down. So writing about something I really enjoy – I simply did not understand there was a barrier there.

That leads me to wonder – if a person does not realize a barrier exists, I mean honestly does not realize it, does that make the barrier less effective? Are they able to more easily get through, around, or over that barrier? I believe that might be the case. I just thought – hey, this is what I want to do and I think it will be fun. And I went out and did it. It was not until year later, after people gave me accolades for getting over that barrier, that I even realized it existed.

And now here I am, with a media company, a soft plastic bait company and a bass fishing tournament series. None of those, of course, are “traditional” female roles. Being a business owner in general is not a traditional female role, I would suppose. But I never gave it a thought. Maybe that is the best policy in life – just don’t overthink things. Find something you love, and get after it with everything you have. What’s the worst that can happen?

The things you will find here

Welcome to my newest blog! You will find a great many things in the blog as time goes along. I am a freelance writer. I write in the spaces of the outdoors and the environment. I am not what a person would call a “tree hugger, necessarily, but I do understand we are taking undo advantage of the planet and eventually it could be our undoing.

I also enjoy bass fishing and fish many tournaments each year. I run a bass team tournament trail with my boyfriend, Chet, and we also run our own soft plastic bait making company. As you may already see, some of these things do not seem to fit with one another. I am a bit of a conundrum in that respect.

I am a learning gardener. I hope to always be learning in that area of my life. We recently bought a house and I am working at getting some gardens going here. The photo attached to this post is the home we bought. Several changes have already been made. In the same vein, I am also very interested in self-sufficiency and shortening personal supply chains. Once my gardens are established next year, I will be looking to preserve the herbs and vegetables I am able to grow to help feed the two of us over the winter.

My gardening endeavors are also bird and pollinator driven. I have planted many native plants in the front flower beds and have taken out all but one chunk of the trailing nightshade that was taking over both beds when we moved in. I have kept a piece of it for food for the birds this winter. I will monitor that and see if it is worth keeping for next year.

I am also starting to get interested in permaculture, and you will likely find information about that here as well. Permaculture is not simply the shortening of a supply chain, but building back an ecosystem that works with the land, rather than against it, and that provides for the people on that land as well.

Citizen science is another area of interest for me. It started as being a weather spotter for NOAA. From there I moved to the Clean Boats Clean Waters program. I am now also involved in the Water Action Volunteers (WAV) stream monitoring program, the Wisconsin Frog and Toad Program, the Wisconsin Mussel Program and birding/phenology projects such as Feeder Watch and the Great Backyard Bird Count. I have also been involved in the wolf tracking program in Wisconsin and may look at getting back into that program again, time permitting.

I have my own podcast, which can be found most anywhere you listen to podcasts. It is called Fish Like a Girl, which is my personal brand I have been working under for many years now. I have a YouTube Channel @fishlikeagirlus as well.

I am looking into getting into more videography and film making. I am sure my successes and failures in that area will be chronicled in this blog as well.

So, welcome to my world – our world – and everything in it. For those interested in the outdoors and keeping wild spaces wild, or combining humans and nature in the best ways possible, I hope you will stop back often to read new posts and leave comments as you see fit.