Artemis

Jodee Dixon joins Artemis this week to talk about bear hunting in southeast Alaska. We talk about spring versus fall bear fat, pie crust, trichinosis, skinning a hide for preservation, scouting tactics, and more. Plus, what does hunting do for our sense of self? It's kind of a forced meditation, which is a powerful experience -- both as it's happening, and months later when we enjoy our harvest at the table.

2:00 Cold-season gardening, y'all

5:00 How does hunting change our relationship to the natural world? (Hiking feels extremely anticlimactic, for one)

9:00 How bear hunting differs from other quarries, and predator vs. prey dynamics

15:00 Bear meat, spring vs. fall

17:00 Predator hunting... it's an intimate decision for some hunters

18:00 Trichinosis 

23:00 Freeze in chunks for grinding later (even MUCH later)

25:00 Catch our 'What About the Hide?' episode (or the blog post) it inspired a bear-hide tanning project. Want to TRY a hide? Roadkill can be a good starting point

30:00 Ticks... or mosquitos? (Or devil's club?) 

33:00 The zen of hunting for a distilled/strengthened self... a "forced meditation"

40:00 Boat-assisted bear hunting in Alaska (with a side of grouse)

42:00 Predator hunting: bears, wolves, cougars... it's different

43:00 Black bear kidney fat for pie crusts

47:00 Mind-blowing bear biology... body temperatures, the quick transition out of torpor, floating eggs, etc.

51:00 "A bear without its hide looks a lot like a person."

55:00 Skinning paws/nose/head for a hide destined for the taxidermist (and OTHER languishing hides)

56:00 Sleeping on the boat, dragging anchor, custom-sewn sheets for the v-berth

59:00 2021 Artemis Ambassador squad... assembly in process!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yasss, pythons. Not a typo. This week on the podcast, we hear about how Amy Siewe went from snake lover to snake hunter -- and how her hunting pal Anne Gordon-Vega also became a python contractor. Pythons aren't native to Florida, and they wreak havoc on native ecosystems. So... when you find a 17-foot python big enough to swallow a deer, in the middle of the night, and you're alone... how DO you handle that?

3:30 Badass python-hunters are grandmas, too! 

5:00 Life transition: Going from being a real estate broker in Indiana to a Florida python hunter

7:00 A brief history of pythons in Florida... a non-native, apex predator

9:30 "In the southern part of the state we've lost over 90% of all mammals." It's shocking. No opossums, no raccoons, no marsh rabbits. 

12:00 Miami, drugs & exotic pets

14:00 Pythons are VERY difficult to find in the wild

15:00 What eats baby pythons? Plus, python breeding

17:00 Two python facts: They're the only snake that sits a nest, and the "babies" are 18-24 inches when they're born. (AH!)

18:00 When a python regurgitates the last four things it ate...

23:00 The contractor program in Florida - Florida Wildlife Commission; South Florida Water Management District

26:00 The python-hunting version of a Florida family vacay

30:00 Meeting your first deer-eater sized python at 2 a.m., laying over its body so it doesn't wrap you, and wrestling it into a bag

34:00 Snake-bagging 101

37:00 Catching a python on your ebike

40:00 Team-tagging pythons at night in dark, dark swamp water 

43:00 Wrangling a 17-footer, with a timely assist from passing hunters

48:00 Python hunting is actually not much like how it's portrayed on reality TV

51:00 BSwanky handbag line from Florida pythons

52:00 Amy is a full-time python-hunter... and she also saves the skins for her own line of product. Find her online, Python Huntress

53:00 What does it PAY to be a python contractor? It's not about the money... "I do it out of love (for the Everglades), and -- I'll admit it -- adrenaline."

54:00 Python hunting is a night-time thing... outsiders can totally try it on vacation, but start by paying attention to the rules: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

55:00 The Florida Python Challenge - cash prizes! ATVs! Reptile stuff! 

56:00 Are we putting a meaningful dent in the python problem? 

58:00 Snake-tracking hound dogs

59:00 Find @PythonHunter_Amy on Insta, or PythonHuntress.com for those snake skin goods we mentioned; Find Anne on the FWC Python Contractor FB page

1:04 Turkey hunting! It's ON. (Dinner Island Ranch, where working cattle land meets public lands)

1:06 When mom makes you a snake bag for the record-breaker on the horizon... <3

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artemis ambassador Phoebe Stoner joins us this week to talk about becoming a hunter as an adult, and about realizing that serving on a board is for EVERYONE. We hear about hunting in the greater Yellowstone area, plus making a difference in the same region through service to municipal/non-profit boards. Also? That elk is SO MUCH BIGGER than a whitetail. 

2:00 Rocky Mountain gardening... keeps you on your toes! 

4:00 Growing up in a rural, ag-centric place in a progressive/liberal family

6:00 That first whitetail deer in the greater Yellowstone area... first deer, trembling arms

10:00 Being a new hunter, your mental checklist in the field can feel so long compared to people who grew up doing it... but it DOES get shorter over time

13:00 Hesitating and second-guessing... those things can be good 

16:00 Hunting/fishing... it can be hours of low-key mellowness before 'the thing' happens and you're 0 to 100.... "everything I've been working for is right here!"

19:00 Serving as a board member on a conservation group... from interest to 'yes, I'll do it'

22:00 Being a 20-something in Jackson likely means you'll have approximately four jobs, have trouble finding a place to live... AND, if you don't ski, you also might feel like something of an outsider

25:00 Offering public testimony to a group of policy-makers... it's kind of what democracy is about

28:00 Boards... they're everywhere! Corporations, non-profits, city/county government, state government, state agencies, etc

29:00 Board service is a great way to interact deeply with people you might never otherwise meet; And you have useful expertise! Truly. Boards benefit from backgrounds of all kinds

32:00 Every board's dream: Engaged, responsive people (knack for tangent-killering is a bonus)

38:00 What exactly does it mean to be "an expert"? (Pssst... you don't need to be an expert to have something important to say.)

41:00 Board struggles... how to make them productive versus time-wasting? Good facilitation helps.

43:00 Being a 'yes person' can bring you to a lot of AMAZING opportunities... the harder part is nailing the work-life balance

44:00 "I'm a recovering people-pleaser." (More on this? NPR's Life Kit podcast on it is worth a listen, How to say no, for the people pleaser who always says yes.)

47:00 Spending your career as an advocate vs. volunteering as an advocate

54:00 First elk after deer... 'Wow, this is big'

55:00 When your body falls INTO the elk's body (AH!)

57:00 There ARE perks to learning things the hard way

59:00 Peer mentorship for ladies on boards, anyone? Like a book club, maybe?

1:03 Purchasing a raft with a partner, two doggie life jackets included... life = changed!! Plus, learning to steer the oar rig

1:06 A healthy appreciation for realizing you don't know anything

1:07 Happiness is... a new toilet you install yourself

1:08 Artemis 'Turkey Tactics' storytelling contest... check it out!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sagebrush country covers loads of the Intermountain West. If you're passing through on the highway, it can look barren and brown -- but sagebrush is the backbone of a unique, American ecosystem. Anymore, sagebrush habitat (and the animals that depend on it) is threatened by change -- invasive weeds mean different fire regimes, and humans mean more weeds. Hunter and conservationist Hannah Nikonow joins Artemis to talk about the intricacies of this unique habitat, and why everyone should care about its survival.

3:00 Smoked grouse with a sweet brine (maple syrup, rose hips... oh yeah)

4:00 Intermountain West Joint Venture

6:30 A quick ode to sagebrush country

8:00 An Artemis flashback - Sagebrush in the Gros Ventre Wilderness video

10:30 Some species that depend on sage habitat: pygmy rabbits, sage grouse, sage thresher, sagebrush sparrow, antelope

13:00 The wicked weed trio: cheatgrass, ventenata, medusa head

18:00 Fire regimes before cheatgrass vs now

22:00 Juniper encroachment changes the functional properties of sage habitat

29:00 Lekking... and party-crashing eagles

35:00 Advocacy mantra: They stick out their breasts for us, so we should stick out our chest for them

36:00 Why should hunters care about sagebrush? And what that looks like in practice

38:00 Pick weed seeds of your shoes/dogs; watch your trailer chains; stay on designated trails

41:00 The war on cheatgrass

45:00 PartnersInTheSage.com for more on this miraculous habitat

52:00 It's hard out there for a chicken & trapping skunks (& removing skunk smells)

56:00 Changing the stock on your shotgun for a better fit

Mary Lynn (of beagle-pack fame) joins us again on Artemis to talk turkeys. We talk about which calls to use, which sounds to master, where to put all your calls, and just... all things turkey. How do you know when to wait on a bird versus moving on? What about when a 'Jolene' hen moves in on your tom?

3:00 Wild turkey grand slam: Eastern, Osceola, Rio Grande and Merriam's -- these are the four subspecies of turkey you're after.

3:30 There's also the Royal Slam, the World Slam, the Canadian Slam, the Mexican Slam, and the U.S. Super Slam... there's a slam for everyone. More about the Slams at National Wild Turkey Federation.

3:45 Osceola turkey... looks like a cross between a turkey and a peacock

5:00 See turkeys in your state? Give a nod to groups like the National Wild Turkey Federation

7:00 Artemis' Turkey Tactics webinar

8:00 Turkey calls, from age five to present

10:00 Playing gobble 'hide-and-seek' in the house with Dad (OR, the country-girl version of Marco Polo

11:00 First turkey hunt as an 11-year-old – annoying a hen, calling in the whole flock, and dad-and-daughter turkeys for the freezer

13:00 On turkey hunting: "You won't always be successful... but you'll develop a story or a memory."

17:00 Turkey vest confessional... a go-to set-up

20:00 Decoy strategy

23:00 Vests versus backpacks

24:00 Gobblers come in silently, it's important for YOU to be silent, too

29:00 When to gobble at a tom vs. when to sound like a hen; Plus, calling in spring vs. fall

33:00 When a 'Jolene' hen moves in on your gobbling tom

37:00 The "shut up and wait 'em out" approach to bringing in a tom

39:00 How do you decide when to wait, and when to move? It's complicated.

40:00 Strut zones

42:00 Turkeys are highly tuned to noises and movement (versus smell)

44:00 A beginner's guide to turkey calls (and calling!)

46:00 Cluck, yelp, purr

50:00 Getting out there before sun-up, location calling, and the 'shock gobble'

56:00 Don't overthink it; Simplicity is success

1:02 Marcia's wake-sleep cycle rabbit hole: Huberman Lab podcast

Anna Le loves to watch students see a salmon in the wild for the first time, igniting a spark of wonder she hopes will stick with them into the future. As an outdoor educator, Le ponders how we can get people to develop a reciprocal relationship with the natural world and support BIPOC and underserved students to feel comfortable and fired up on nature. Le shares what it's like to become an outdoorswoman as an adult, and how we can best foster these experiences for teenagers.

4:00 "This is what I want to do the rest of my life... is connect with people on the water, have these beautiful conversations, and also show students and people their first salmon. That was the best part of my job."

5:00 Notable aquariums: Long Beach, and Newport

6:00 Brown Folks Fishing Lab

8:30 Quality of gear DOES influence how well we're able to enjoy cold water days

9:00 Fly-fishing and the flow state

10:00 Wal-Mart fishing poles with a hot dog on the hook

11:00 Conservation job perks: Steelheading might count as a 'work day'

13:00 SalmonWatch brings middle-schoolers out to the forest to show them the life cycle of a salmon

15:00 Bridging urban culture with the natural world (that mulch isn't going to ruin your shoes!)

19:00 Legislation in Oregon that lets every kid go to outdoor school

24:00 Meaningful outdoors education in older kids is sometimes as simple as planting the seed of something new... a subject matter, a lifestyle... it's a ripple effect

29:00 Blunders when you're new to the outdoors scene: Rolling up to a park you've wanted to visit and realizing all the campsites have been booked for months (psst... it was a success anyway!)

32:00 When you're building competency in a new field, it's a journey of research and asking for help

34:00 Artemis course: Go Confident in the Wild

37:00 Tips for teaching in the Zoom Age

39:00 Find Anna on Insta, @anna_venturing

42:00 Extension officers for the win

44:00 That moment in spring when you FINALLY know what your next seasonal job is... high five!

Mary Lynn of eastern Tennessee hunts with a pack of beagles trained to track and push rabbits. She's also a turkey hunter, a hunting mentor for many youth, and a remarkable human. This week: beagles, training hounds, why shooting rabbits sometimes feels harder than upland birds, barefooted turkey hunts, and getting the 'middle feather' from Texas gobblers.

2:00 Tennessee Wildlife Federation webinar with Ashley and Mary: Women in the Outdoors

3:00 Grouse: not ubiquitous in Tennessee

5:00 Mary Lynn of Light 'Em Up Kennels

5:30 A lot of the pack members are super socialized to people (translate: they love to be loved on)

8:00 Hunting with beagles is super fun for kids... on par with a giant Tootsie Pop

9:00 A real-life "Where the Red Fern Grows" story of a boy and a hound dog

13:00 Hitting a running rabbit is way different than hitting an upland bird

15:00 Rabbit country is tough-going -- briars, brambles, cover, etc

16:00 When the rabbit "checks" (clever as coons!)

18:00 Rabbits... "the M&Ms of the woods" ... everything wants to eat them

20:00 Cottontails vs. swamp rabbits vs. snowshoes

22:00 Rabbits usually run a circle

28:00 Montana jackrabbit... and the grand slam (grand thump?) of rabbit hunting

30:00 Rabbit & dumplings, rabbit stew, fried rabbit... mmm 

33:00 How fast can you get a bead on it?

34:00 What aerial clays are to target practice for birds, there's a ground equivalent (rabbit clays) that bounces to help train your eye for more erratic ground quarry

37:00 The Alaska woman who made 'yarn' from her rabbit hides and wove with them

38:00 Hound dogs for subsistence hunting (aka 'meat dogs'), feists, black-mouth curs

42:00 Correlation between wearing hunter-orange and seeing rabbits

44:00 Want to give it a try? Look to Facebook groups first. Most important thing: Don't give up on your puppy. It takes time.

47:00 Mentoring youth on turkey hunts

50:00 When turkeys give you the middle feather... hmph

54:00 Texas turkeys versus Tennessee turkeys... "Wut you think that clicking noise is... gobble?"

58:00 Barefoot turkey hunting

Yana Robertson of Missoula, Montana, grew up in a traditional bowhunting household. Today she practices bushcraft and primitive skills when she's not in front of a computer running her fashion business, Feral Lyfe. Yana joins us to talk about backcountry survival, traditional bowhunting, and on how being a weirdo can be totally awesome.

2:00 Meet your local extension agent, folks

5:00 Families that smoke jerky together stay together [fist bump emoji]

7:00 Growing up in a traditional bowhunting family, and perpetuating that tradition with your own family, plus a little bushcraft & primitive survival fun on the side

9:30 Making awesome memories from those days when you don't bring home any meat... like the time a bull elk was so close it was almost within stabbing range... that's CLOSE

15:00 Learning traditional hunting from your grandma (plus baking, sewing, the works)

18:00 What does it mean to be a survivalist? It means to know your woods, your piece of nature, and be able to survive there if you have to. (Bushcraft and primitive skills are basically synonyms)

21:00 Where to start? Start small... know the plants around you, the trees

22:00 Serious versus fun... WHICH DO YOU WANT FIRST?!

23:00 You only get a handful of things to survive. What are they? Ferro rod, bow, embroidery kit, multitool, axe or saw, fishing line & hook, paracord. (Just kidding on the embroidery kit.)

28:00 Feral fashion freak? Eff yes.

30:00 Feral Lyfe on Insta, this is Yana's brand of clothes inspired entirely by the outdoors. Trout leggings... we all need them! The pandemic has made us leggings connoisseurs

35:00 Where do you meet your best buds? Events like brain-tanning extravaganzas

36:00 Psst... don't miss the hide-tanning episode with Charlotte Sykes: What about the hide?

42:00 Primitive period management... oh yeah, we're going there (Want more? Check out our "three Ps" episode on Pee, Poop & Periods: 3Ps with Anastasia Allison of Kulat Cloth)

47:00 Artemis and Feral Lyfe are doing a leggings giveaway! Check out Artemis and Feral Lyfe on Insta for the specifics. Also check out FeralLyfe.com, or... even find Feral Lyfe on TikTok 

50:00 Idaho Trails Association women's only horse-packing clinic

54:00 Artemis made the 20 Rad Female-Led Outdoor podcasts list ... check us out alloutdoor.com.  All the chest feathers are puffed right now

55:00 Turkey tactics... you can still get in on this! The first webinar was amazing. $5 gets you in the door. Register here. 

This week... hide tanning! Charlotte Sykes is a hunter from England who started keeping all her game hides the same year her husband decided he'd eat only game meat. Charlotte's journey has fledged into a business, Buckskyn, where she sells goods made from the hides she tans herself. Join us this week for a chat on how to get into hide tanning, an overview of the at-home process -- plus springer spaniels, salt-marsh lamb, and more.

3:00 "Salt-marsh bred lamb"... the most delicious?

5:00 Kale, cabbages & brassicas all winter long

8:00 English springer spaniels on either side of the Atlantic

11:00 The year we only ate game

14:00 Learning curve of tanning hides

17:00 The play-by-play of hide tanning, starting with post-harvest

19:00 "You've got to be quite happy to put a bit of grunt behind it."

22:00 Meat prep room in your next house, anyone?

24:00 Can you sub anything for the tedious task of working a hide over a fleshing beam? Enter... YOUTUBE. (Spoiler: It's a pressure washer.)

27:00 Pickling stage

30:00 A non-traditional use for a sander!

31:00 One hide = three weeks start to finish

33:00 Traditional tanning vs commercial tanning products

35:00 Buckskyn - Charlotte's deerskin/hide accessory business, where each product comes with a hunting/harvest story

37:00 The ABCs of sewing with hides

40:00 Fleshing rabbits

44:00 Navigating the bullet hole

50:00 First trout!

52:00 Find Buckskyn on Insta; or online at Buckskyn.com

53:00 Artemis blog post, "What About the Hide?"

54:00 Matt Richards book on hide tanning: The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning

56:00 Artemis Turkey Tactics! If you're not in on the fun, it's only $5 to join -- get the scoop on turkey hunting and bump heads with other hunters as we all get our gobble on this spring

58:00 Artemis 'Go Confident' as an Advocate -- another program off the ground, which is off to a hot start

1:00:00 Past life: living in an Airstream by the river

Britt Longoria’s education and career journey took her to Africa, where she had the opportunity to experience an incredible landscape and its animals. At home in Texas, Longoria is still a hunter - and her passion is exploring how the hunting community can tell stories that share with the world the emotion, the adventure, and the “why” of our journey as hunters.

00:35 Rabbit-hunting with beagles. Is there anything cuter? See the pics in the Artemis Facebook group!

2:00 Gazelle vs. whitetail, plus breeding Dama gazelle for land management

3:00 Need hamburger inspiration? Try South African Bobotie curry

6:00 Telling the story of hunting heritage - Hunters feel their pursuit is moral; non-hunters often feel the opposite

7:00 Stories from individuals are sometimes better received than stories from a group as a whole... speaking from the heart versus the head

10:00 Hunting as a connection to place, spirit, and self

13:00 The discussion about who hunts and why should be complex... #alltheshadesofgray

15:00 Back to the beagles, everyone

17:00 "You don't win hearts and minds with facts and figures."

22:00 Telling your story often means exposing yourself to the worst of social media

24:00 Childbirth and hunting – both experiences are powerful, visceral, and lifechanging. How do we convey the depth of the experience and help it connect with people who’ve never experienced it?

30:00 When you lack connection to the natural world, it's easy to disassociate your thoughts from death -- especially when, say, you're feeding yourself

35:00 Lord Derby eland - worth a Google search, everyone!

37:00 Film slides on a carousel #blastfromthepast

40:00 Hunting in Africa - a totally unique experience

43:00 How do you get home from overseas hunts with meat?

45:00 The tradition of oral storytelling in the hunting world; photos can be easy to misunderstand

46:00 @HonorTheHunt on Instagram, beyond the trophy shot

49:00 Ashley's kidney pie with venison shanks and pork kidneys... that awful feeling when something turns out inedible

51:00 Find more of Britt's storytelling work at BrittLongoria.com and @brittlongoria

52:00 Sometimes that $16 DoorDash burrito is worth every penny