October 2025

I’m sitting down so that means a lot. Since October 1st life has been a PUSH. To wake in the dark, to load the dogs and head out. To put on your camo and sit with the setting sun with your bow hanging nearby. We try to not take life too seriously these days as we bee-bop around field to field, forest to forest. But you can’t help the drive. The drive that wakes you up every morning to fulfill the life that you have created. That most importantly you have earned. Laughter with a mix of hard work. Traveling with a mission. Boots to the ground with purpose. There’s no specific end goal, only to see the sunset, dogs paws on the ground or to harvest the next animal. If I could tell you the all the stories of the last three weeks. Single liners that I have heard, conversation that I had observed and the sites that I have seen there wouldn't be enough tablet space. What I Can tell you is that I have met a group of women that are my ride or dies and because of these women we have grown and sought out to find other women like us. And I will be the first to tell you, that we are finding them. The ones that don’t feel social media is the first thing they need to post to when they kill. That don’t wear the heaviest of make-up and some none to look good on camera. They walk through the thickest of brush to only see a few flushes with no shots. They go waist deep into water to chase the next bird. "If the dog goes, we go" has seem to be the motto of the last trip that Huntin‘ Dix went on.  We all made it at different times up to the UP of Michigan, all breeds of dogs, of all ages. Women from Texas to the east cost. We were all true women of grit and grace, that all had one thing in common to find others just like us and to experience the outdoors. During camps and events, I back myself out just to listen, what might seem like coyotes in the night howling when they have found prey, its just us, women howling with laughter and joy at a hunting camp together finally relieved that they have too found what they were looking for. Conversations that not your average human could follow but somehow it brings you together. Side by Side. Full Circle. I only have heard of “the grouse woods of the UP” before this trip. And boy were the stories correct. You will shoot trees they said, as I watched trim limbs crumble. You stumble they said, and yes we did stumble. “That

one’s dead, don’t steeeeeep.”  (Crunch). “SHIT.” No path is the right path in this terrain. You will hear them before you see them, they said… up goes another to only be heard but never be seen. “There is a reason they call the Ruff Grouse the King of Birds. It is the World Series of Wing Shooting. That feeling that you had on the tailgate, is exactly why grouse season is referred by some of us as the High Holy Days. Enjoy girl.” - Brad H. The silence that surrounds you. The trees that whip you in your face, that makes you sneeze and your eyes water. And the words that come out of your mouth when you miss (again). These are the moments that I have been waiting for. There are only so many hours in a day to beat feet to the next spot, put the next dog on the ground and to experience the woods of Michigan. When the idea comes to head and everything aligns perfect as it could be to make it successful. You bring home more than your harvest, you bring home your next trip, your next friendship and most importantly it reminds you of why you bust your ass so hard on the other days to get this moment.

I have two weeks down time until the dogs and I pack up and head west, our most favorite direction to go. Where brushing your teeth at rest stops, feels more like home then actual home ever will. Its nomadic. We don't do it for the comfort or luxury, we do it for the dog and the people you meet along the way. To get out there and try new spots and hunt old ones hoping that the next bird will fly. You make connections, you get to see the friends that you have found along the way and share a beverage or two as your talk memories and make more. The chase will begin again for a new creature and the dog work that it brings. Until then treestands are calling and the pennsyltucky great stocked pheasants are near with a few timber doodle near by, maybe even a grouse. Get after it and stay grateful.

Love, Amy(ie)