Where Marsha and Deb Meet Sheriff Paul Babeu

Here’s Marsha Petrie Sue (on left) with Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and Deb Ferns at an NRA Women’s Leadership Forum luncheon held in Tucson, Ariz., in late January. The NRA recently awarded Babeu, President of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association, the title “National Sheriff of the Year,” based on votes from his peers from the United States. According to Marsha, “Paul gave an outstanding speech on the critical problems facing Arizona borders.” Deb remarked, ”Sheriff Babeu didn’t pull any political punches and gave this audience devastating numbers and instances where the Federal government continues to turn its back on the problems facing Arizona with its illegal aliens.”

Members of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association: Do you have a snapshot of a recent event or road trip you want to share with us? Send to kathy at thewoma.com. And, do not forget to send a photo, too.

Dreaming about buckets of sheep

In the desert water is often a rare commodity, and especially for the animal herds that call some rather remote and treacherous terrain home. My husband Al and I choose to spend some of our weekends helping sheep, antelope, elk and mule deer with their mission of finding a place to drink and accomplish their migrations.

The flyer read: “This project involves the refurbishment of an existing catchment and will consist of upgrading approximately 400 LF of feedline, reworking the collection point, mucking out an upstream gabion, repairing the enclosure fence and miscellaneous painting.” I have no idea what some of that means! I’ve done mucking (not a fun job), but gabion?

This weekend was no different when we decided to work with the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society in Arizona’s Mojave County, Units 43A and B near Parker/Lake Havasu. We arrived at the work site at midday on Friday, set up camp and greeted other volunteers as they arrived. Dining on my homemade elk chili and salad that evening helped give us the strength we needed for the next day.

Sitting by the fire with the other campers is part of the fun. The best story came from one of the volunteers. His buddy asked where Karl, their mutual friend, was. The volunteer exclaimed, “He must still be in his driveway! I forgot to pick him up.” That statement would be reiterated throughout the project.

In the morning, we washed down the oatmeal with coffee (me) and tea (Al), readied our backpacks with lunch and were off to the water catchments in need of repair. This was the only part of the flyer description we had time to work on.

With gloved hands, we started to set up the buckets for the bucket line so dirt could be shoveled by the gabion, buckets sent up the human bucket line, dumped over the hill, the empty buckets sent back down using another human bucket line, and ready to be refilled.

I was getting ready to pass an initial bucket up when a volunteer fell headfirst down into the water hole, an eight-foot drop. Peering over the edge, I saw him lying face up on the rocks below, and I noticed a small pool of blood by his head. Safety can never be stressed enough on these projects.

Thankfully we had about six firefighters on the work crew, and they were at his side in an instant. He had broken his collarbone and required three stitches on his ear. The good news about this accident is that Papillon Helicopters works these projects with us so they were able to evacuate him quickly down to safety and medical care. It is a good thing that Sheep live in steep, rocky and inaccessible places or the helicopter would not have been there!

With no time to lose, we assembled our human bucket line of 40 volunteers and started the digging, emptying and restarting. We really had a rhythm going and figured that we filled and emptied approximately 600 buckets per hour. Of course one of the engineers on the line calculated that number!

If you choose to participate in the outdoor activities of archery, shooting, hunting, fishing, hiking or anything else, I believe that volunteerism should be part of your goal. It is great fun and certainly helps our wildlife habitat.

Ending the day with a steak dinner by the campfire was wonderful. The air was cool but not cold. We worked hard and enjoyed the camaraderie of the group, and no one had a problem sleeping. My dreams were images of buckets of sheep and probably will be for many nights to come.

Carol Smeltzer — Member of the Women’s Outdoor Media Association

Carol Smeltzer has always enjoyed the outdoors, from the time she was very young. She started shooting in her 30s to get over a fear of guns, and quickly went into competition. During a five-year period, she shot up and down the East Coast in ATA (Amateur Trapshooting Association). In her second year of shooting, she set a national record for the most yards earned by a woman in handicap shooting. In her third, fourth, and fifth years she earned a spot on the ATA Women’s All American Team, placing her in the top ten ladies in the country. She is proud to have been runner-up two years in a row in the Ladies’ Champion of Champions event at the Grand American with scores of 99×100. Read more

Traci Schauf’s Blog Featured in Whole Living Magazine

Talk about crossing over into mainstream media with the outdoor message! Kudos to The WOMA member Traci Schauf and her blog at Whole Living magazine’s community website. Whole Living is affiliated with Marthastewart.com. But that’s not all she does … this prolific writer also has her own blog, Mom on Vacation, and yet another blog at Women’s Outdoor News, In My Sights. A college instructor and avid outdoorswoman, this outdoor mommy blogger manages two homes in Oklahoma and Kansas, three kids, a husband and of course, at least three blogs that we know of. She also serves on the editorial team here at The WOMA. Whew! And congrats, Traci. Read more

It’s Not Like Bode’s RV At All … It’s Like A ‘Shack on Wheels’

Monday, Jan. 24, marked a part of our racing season that will be our most adventurous. For the next three weeks we will be training and racing and traveling around Germany in an RV. There will be three of us women from the U.S. who will be staying in this RV while racing some of the best Germans at their most coveted winter sport – biathlon.

Now, traveling in an RV for winter sport has been done before. Bode Miller boasts an impressive 28-foot traveling mansion around the World Cup circuit during the winter. Our RV won’t be so extravagant. Our RV is 18-feet long and holds three women, three large ski bags, three large rifle cases and three large duffels full of ski clothes. It has taken us several days to unpack and organize everything so that we can move around freely and be comfortable. There is a bed above the cab and a bunk in the back of the RV. It comes complete with a shower, a toilet and a stove. We don’t typically travel Europe in such style, but when you are trying to cut costs, combining your rental car and your hotel room is the easiest way to do that.

The first week of our trip will take us to the Thuringer Forest of Germany. These forests are known for their beautiful, dark, snow-covered forests. The town and biathlon venue of Oberhof is known to house close to 30,000 spectators during a biathlon world cup. While racing here, you can’t hear yourself breathe, or think for that matter because the atmosphere is so loud and so amped. The fans here are unlike anywhere else. If we have a race in the evening, the fans are here by 8 that morning already full of beer to keep them warm for the day. The stadium here is huge and is outdoors. These fans tough it out in below-zero temperatures and strong winds on concrete seating to cheer on their favorite countries. This is the one venue that every biathlete wants to race at and every biathlon fan should come see.

On Jan. 24, we rolled up into Oberhof in our 6.4 meter chantey and parked outside of the venue. We were all really exhausted from the jet lag and went right to bed. Several hours later we were all shivering under our blankets thinking that this was going to be a long trip if the heat in this thing wasn’t working very well. Lanny was the first brave soul to get up and look to see what the problem was with the propane heating system. We all then warily got out of bed and read over the manual to see what the problem was. After trying a lot of this and a little bit of that we figured out that “duh” the pilot light had gone out in the boiler and therefore no heat and a really cold living area. So, with the boiler running we were back to bed and were much warmer and happier.

We’ve now had two days of really good training and our races start this weekend. We are really looking forward to the adventures that await us while winter traveling in a shack on wheels. We’ll update you as to how the races go and any crazy incidents that will unfold … as I’m sure there will be many.

Keep up with the Barnes’ twins as they travel on their “Road to Russia (Olympics 2014).” Check out their website.

My First Fly Fishing Adventure with my Spouse

My husband and I never went fly fishing before, and I was so excited about it! I could hardly wait to go fishing with my friend, Katherine Browne, whom I met last year at SHOT Show.  We talked about flyfishing together on Facebook and how so much fun we would have together. Read more

Crying: Why it doesn’t work

It is always interesting to see the kinds of requests for information I receive through my blog, DecontaminateToxicPeople.com.

I would be very interested to see if you have other suggestions on crying in the workplace. Personally, I think it is unacceptable and immature.

Read more

Oh, What A WOMA Week!

The Board of Directors of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association wrapped up an eventful and busy week at the 33rd Annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show, held from Jan. 18-21, at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. We’ll bring you details in the near future, but know that your board hit the ground running — with a booth in the shotgun section of Media Day at the Range.

Read more

Following the Flyway … According to ‘Duck Junkie’ Gretchen Steele

When most of my hunting friends begin their early October “Buck Fever” phase, I’m  getting ready for life on the flyway highway. I know that soon the birds will start to appear and soon I’ll be chasing north and south, following the gaggles of geese, flocks of ducks, and piles of pelicans.

I’m a duck junkie and I will readily admit it. My normally busy schedule goes into full tilt boogie mode  when I hear the honking and cackling and quacking that tells me the birds are their way.

My husband sighs a lot. He mutters things like – “Reckon you’ll be home by March?” and “Don’t forget to change your oil. How many miles did you put on this week?”

My hunting partner gently reminds me, “Baby doll, you need a nap; your’re dragging your foot and your face is getting crooked!”

I live on endless cups of bad coffee and crummy convenience store food, gobbled down as I roll from one batch of migrators to the next. I cruise up and down the Mississippi flyway, in the snow and darkness so that I can have my boots on the ground long before daylight.  Most days start at 3 a.m. and  rarely are  finished by 10.

I feel that it will be July before I am actually warm and dry at the same time. I’ve forgone cologne, because there’s none that can quite mask the smell of gunpowder, wet dogs and dead ducks. Mud, cornstalks, paw prints and bloody feathers litter  hatch back — empty cigarette packs, candy car wrappers, coffee cups, chapsticks, and tubes of hand lotion litter the passenger side floor.  Soon I’ll have to scoop shovel out all the flotsam and jetsam that settles in my vehicle during waterfowl season.

I break ice on frozen lakes and rivers, lie in snowy fields for hours on end. I wade icy water that’s waist deep and slug through heavy wet mud negotiating a soft cornfield.

Those first honkers I heard back in October were calling me  –  to three solid months of being cold, wet, tired and hungry. My body screams back at me on a daily basis;  my neurologist and immunologist fret and still I go on — chasing birds, racing the flyway highway.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well,  here’s a chapter or two – some images from this years season so far.  There’s still a while to go.  We’re band hunters … we’ll see you when the birds go home.

http://youtu.be/lIrxAiAM7RI

To see Gretchen’s photography, click here.

Ono’s Eyewear Now on Facebook — Pop In and Say ‘Hi’

New WOMA member LeAnn Schmitt, of Enjoy Outdoors, writes that her client, Ono’s Eyewear, invites you to join them on Facebook.  Ono’s offers the outdoor enthusiast high definition polarized sunglasses in plain, bifocal, and prescription lenses.  Currently, Ono’s Facebook page offers  a  “sunglasses 101″ discussion.  Several new product lines will soon be announced, and Ono’s wants to hear what you think of their products if  you already wear them, and also it wants to see your photos in the “Ono’s on You” category.

Ono’s were featured in the Women’s Outdoor News last September.

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