By Kim Hiss

First of all, those are some great comments on pink guns-and on Karen Lee's Support System post. I got back from being away and couldn't believe how much the blog was buzzing!
So here's another topic. Awhile back, reader Dana (known to us and her own blog regulars as The Wild Woodswoman), wrote and suggested a blog topic on hunting in the work place. It's a great idea, and I'm only sorry it took me so long to get around to posting it.
Of course, working at Field & Stream, hunting is part of the job description, not just some extracurricular bonus. Editors are expected to get out in the field as much as possible, and if they're not, something's wrong. When I first started my job there as a new hunter, there were a number of days when mornings were spent at a local club working on my shooting with deputy editor David E. Petzal, and afternoons were spent in the office. Nice. And of course, all off-site meetings have a huge fishing or shooting (or both!) component.
But, obviously, not all bosses expect their employees to hit the woods on a regular basis. It seems we... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

...two winners this week, actually. I’ll be traveling for the first half of next week with intermittent internet access. So I figured I’d announce two winners this Friday, in case I’m not back with enough time to pick a winner for next Friday (But considering the flood of great comments over the past few days, I’ll do my best to pick a winner for next week anyway!).
      SO, winner number one is Wanda Hyleman of Cordele, Georgia. We all got to know Wanda a little better through her comments and photos this week, and she’ll be getting a FatBoy Lite cushion courtesy of Hunt Comfort (it’s a plush, camo seat for long hours of sitting on the ground).
      Winner number two is Jeanne Emmons of Tallassee, Alabama. Jeanne is a new(ish) hunter, who we know as J9, and she will be getting a pair of SHE Pro Hunter Series Pants, courtesy of SHE Safari.
      The giveaway goes in, so look for another winner (hopefully) next week. –K.H. [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

I’ve been wanting to get some photos up on the blog, and conveniently enough, reader Wanda Hyleman sent me a few to post along with the following comments. –K.H.

      I encourage all the women I know to join their boyfriends/husbands in the woods. I sure am glad that my ex introduced me to hunting, as I never went before he took me and I have so many great memories of those years together. Last year, when he gave me the gun that was his dad’s I know I probably had my mouth open since we’d been divorced for 6 years. He even gave me a ladder stand a few months ago, and I repainted it and my nephew helped me put it up last weekend. I feel bad for him that he lost the desire to hunt after his father died in 1995, but I sure do treasure all those memories. I learned everything I know from the two of them.
      My ex-husband was always just as excited as I was when I got one. The buck mounted... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

It’s always time to talk about the environment. But considering that Field & Stream’s Heroes of Conservation Awards event is taking place Thursday, this week seems better than most for a post on the work sportsmen do for habitat.

Those of you who read the magazine know that for two years, Field & Stream has held this awards program to spotlight sportsmen and women who do great things for conservation. The magazine gets a number of entries throughout the year, and each fall, six winners are featured in the book and honored at an awards event in New York City.

I’ve been one of the editors working on this program, and having read hundreds of entries, I've been amazed by the fact that so few were from women. Of course, this wasn’t a huge shock considering that Field & Stream’s readers are overwhelmingly male. But I mean hardly any women were writing in about their conservation projects. There actually was one woman who made the semi-finalist round of 21 people in the program’s first year. But when we asked each of those 21 to provide more information so we could choose the winners, she was the only one who didn’t respond—so frustrating!

But the... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

I remember the exact moment that I first fully realized there was a limited amount of time in a day, and not everything you wanted to do was going to fit.
      It was a warm September afternoon during my freshman year of high school, and  I had just found out that Indoor Guard, for which I was about to try out, practiced at the same time as Vocal Jazz Ensemble, of which I was already a member (yup, I was both a band geek and a chorus nerd). At the time, I also played French horn in the Brass Choir, was on stage crew for the musical, and sang in a community chorus. So far, all those activities fit into a week, but Indoor Guard—which I really, really wanted to join because the boy I liked was in it, and the year-end competition would be in Wildwood, N.J., which was cool—would demolish my delicately coordinated extra-curricular routine.
      That schedule conflict was the moment at which I realized you couldn’t do every single thing you wanted. You had to prioritize, then you had to pick.
      Now the cruel limits of a 24-hour day... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

Laura Bell of Garrettsville, Ohio! Laura comments frequently and has had more than one great post (as have a lot of people, I think; the comments overall are getting more and more fun to read). This week, Laura will be getting the Pro Series Hunter Jacket, again from SHE Safari (Hey, the company has great stuff and sent F&S a lot of it!).

The giveaway goes on, so look for another winner next Friday. –K.H. [ Read Full Post ]