Starting up "Let A Girl"

I am on a journey of starting a small business of my own called Let A Girl.  It's mostly jewelry I make from antlers but also crafts I make using the theme of the outdoors and hunting.  I am prepping to sell for the upcoming Farmers Market in my area, and have a lot of positive feed back on it so far.  

This is my barn, my workshop.  The one place I can make a crazy mess and don't get into too much trouble for it.  I slide this big door open and I am lucky enough to over see the beautiful Shiawasee River.  The ducks and geese are so loud in the morning.  I love it.   

This is my little desk area that I sit and do the more detailed work and some of the thinking.

Here is my ancient work bench.  In the center is the oldest vice known to mankind (jk).  It does the jobs I need done though.  I use so many old and even antique tools.  I get most of my tools from garage sales.

This is a few of the displays I have made for my antler rings and bracelets.  I love "rustic" so I really like the looks of these. 

One of my most favorite bracelets I have made is this one I call "Hunting Is Forever".  It is wooden beads, with a silver feather and silver arrow with a silver womens wedding ring set hanging in the middle.  

Other items I make that I keep in the natural, rustic, hunting theme is pallet signs and wall displays for you to hang your stuff from.  Sometimes I put antlers on them to hang a coat or hat from. 

This is a bracelet I made that has a teardrop piece of antler with crossing arrows burned into it. 

And the antler rings I make.  This is my personal set.  I have made so many rings of all sorts of designs.  I was recently featured in Girls Guns and Rods magazine for my Antler Ring Crafting.


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Sometimes it Just Doesn't Work Out. (Spring Turkey Hunt)

My Week of Turkey Hunting In Review.......

     I started my week of turkey hunting with so much excitement I could hardly sleep.  For weeks before my hunt my husband was calling in turkeys on our property like he was a turkey himself.  At one point he called a hen in to less then 20 feet from him, and she was talking right back to him.  Therefore, I knew I would get a turkey during my hunt week.  Well, I didn't even hear a gobble.....Nothing, on our property, I sat out everyday and called, and there was nothing.  Even though a few months back we counted 70 turkeys walking passed the back of our land.  So by Thursday I was rethinking my hunt and where to go and what to do.  I decided to try a state park that allows hunting.  I always saw turkey around the park.  So Friday evening my husband and I decided to give it a shot, and holy cow!!  we got gobbles before we could even sit down!  A big Tom came strutting right to us, about 50 yards out.  I could see him in my scope but I did not feel like the shot would end his life quick and I did not want to shoot a Tom and injure him and him run like the road runner and lose him.  I waited..... and waited...... and he strutted..... and strutted, only to realize he was pacing back and forth in front of a small narrow marsh and he would not cross it.  And the night ended with a strutting Tom, too far away, and a small patch of water in his way of getting to me.

    Saturday couldn't get here soon enough, 4 a.m. wake up time and I was stoked.  My husband Andy and I went to the same area but further down into the woods so the water would not be an issue.  And BOOM, in the dark the gobbles were going on in the trees.  As the sun started to rise we were in for a major surprise......We were sitting dead center in the middle of a roosting area.  A Tom gobbled almost directly over me and it made me jump.  Once one came down, the rest started flying as gracefully as a turkey can from the trees.  But they flew into a brushy area and headed off quick.  I'm sure they were up in the trees seeing us set up under them and I imagine they were thinking "yeah you asses, were outta here as soon as someone drops from a tree".  And that was that.....by ten, we headed home.

   Saturday evening we came back out, set up away from the roosting trees but never heard a single sound.  Shooting time passed, and we headed home.

   Sunday, oh Sunday.  This was the day I was going to bust a Tom right in the chops.  I was so determined.  We set up away from the roost.  It was dark and early, we could hear the gobbles.  It was awesome.  We would yelp and hen and there were gobbles from all around us in the woods.  It was going to be glorious. Boom, sun comes up, they fly down and head away.  WHAT???  Oh my gosh!!  No come this way!!  Come fight my Jake...... Come try to hump my hen!!  Where are you all going!!  (thats what I was thinking). After a couple hours, we decided to pack up and move. As we were moving we started to hear a gobble, so we replanted ourselves.  He got tight lipped.....We sat for a while and here comes a hen.  I put my scope on her just to watch her and because I was bored and wanted a closer look.  And lookie who is the tight lipped one.....Mr. Tom following her.  It was my time.  I put that scope on him, he fanned out, he had a big ol'beard all protruding and hanging down his front......I clicked off my safety and said I'm gonna shoot.  My husband had a slightly different view of him, and said "no", he thought another bigger Tom was walking in, and in 2 seconds my opportunity was gone.  His fan went down, and he lowered his body and followed his hen into the brush and he was gone and there was not another Tom walking in.  That was it.  My chance had expired.  I was crushed.  I turned into a mean women.  I put my safety back on, and gave my poor husband the death stare. I now know why he said "no", when I was ready to take the shot.  He saw it differently, he thought that Tom would strut around a little longer, maybe check out our decoys, or get a rise out of the Jake decoy.... it was an unpredictable moment, that just didn't work out.  I was so devastated, that I became a poor sport about it.  A lesson learned, for both of us.  My husband is my best friend, my favorite hunting partner, the love of my life, and I gave him the death stare because I wanted to blame someone else.  It was not his fault that I didn't take the shot.  Yes, he said no, but he had his reasons, and I was the one with the gun, the scope on that Toms neck and head region.  Let's just say, my husband went home shortly after that...... I decided to stay in the woods for the whole day.  I was going to get that damn Tom one way or another.  It was about ten in the morning that this all happened.  Yes, Andy left because I got bitchy (there I said it)  I was a bitch to him.  Plus he didn't want to sit in the woods all day, it was going to be a nice warm day and he had stuff to do at home.  

    After he left, I sat and stewed in my mind and decided I would make one final move.  I packed everything up like I was a super hero and carried all my supplies, decoys, gun, and headed to my final spot.  I got there, set up, and felt really good about it.  I started to quietly make a little make shift blind around me next to the stump i was next to.  It turned out more like a camo homeless shelter, but it worked.  Then it got hot.  Hot like hell!  I looked at my phone and the weather was nearly 80 degrees.  Nope, hell no, im not leaving, im determined to get this Turkey, im not going anywhere, I built this blind around me, I can survive for ten more hours.  And I did, i sat there and baked, and sweated, and called, and gobbled.  I saw hens a couple times....by five I was sending apology texts to my husband, begging him to come back out and sit my final evening with me.  He did.  We whisper talked our versions of what happened out, and all was good.  We sat the rest of the evening next to a tree, calling, and complaining our assess were killing us.  And that was it.  Time was up.  It didn't happen for me and I'm okay with it.  Let me tell you, Ive never had a close call, a missed shot, the one that got away.  I have been so lucky to have been able to kill every animal I wanted to, the way I've planned it.  This was my first "one that got away" experience.  I learned a lot sitting alone in the woods, sweating to death.  I'm a hunter..... It doesn't work out every time.  I learned to be a better sport.  

All my supplies for calling

Got some transition glasses, becuause the sun gives me migraines. 

My husband Andy.  I love this guy.

My apologies.  Andy hearts Becky.  Weve been together for 18 years.

I made an arrow during my day of heat.

By mid afternoon I was barefoot, sleeves pulled up, and bored, but at peace.

My view

I'm sorry to my husband for being a poor sport at that moment.

So determined, id let bugs crawl on me.

My knife was my favorite thing to play with.

The waiting game..  Until next season.


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The Anti Movement (womp womp)

   

One of my most proud moments of being an outdoorsman/woman.  My son sitting with his first buck and my Dad.
It could bring tears to my eyes.  To know I was raised in this lifestyle,
and to witness the transition to seeing my children follow in it and enjoy it is so fulfilling.  

Me sitting on my dads lap as a little girl,
ice fishing with him and my brother.

 It seems as of late there has been quite an anti hunting movement going on, especially aimed at women hunters.  I don't quite know why the direct aim at women, but I am a woman and as a hunter I do not understand what the difference between men and women is when it comes to hunting.  Do antis feel it is easier to aim at women because they think we are weaker or its going to hurt our feelings easier?  This entry will be based solely from my opinions and judgments.  First off let me tell you, that as a woman in general, coming at me in anger or in any way that I may feel I need to defend myself is only going to enrage me and cause me to maybe lash back at you.......And because I'm a woman, I will be as lady like I as I possibly can but will also be vicious because I will not be cornered, and I will not let someone ever talk down to me.
      My Story:  I was raised hunting and fishing with my father, uncle, brother, and grandfather.  I loved every second of being in the woods and on the water with them.  Just prepping the blinds and land, I loved exploring every bit of nature.  When I was very young I remember my dad bringing his 8 point buck home and hanging it in the garage.  I felt so excited for him.  I knew all the work he put into hunting and preparing for his hunts.  The same goes with fishing.  Him catching big fish, and him seeing his children catch big fish was very exciting, it's a very proud feeling a parent and a child have.  To have an anti try to knock down all that hard work, all that passion, love, and lifetime of quality time as a "murderous rampage" that we are on is so disrespectful.
     My parents divorced when I was about 9 years old, and I was not able to be in the woods with my dad the same that I was before, life happens sometimes and it took me becoming a wife and mother to find myself again.  And by "myself" I mean, back to nature, having the passion of the outdoors again.  Raising a family hunting and fishing and feeling proud.  I married the most fun outdoors man.  We have two children, we all hunt together and fish together. I feel like a kid again, but now I'm that proud parent that gets to see their child kill their first deer, and more deer after that.  I'm the proud parent who gets to watch their child reel in a big honking large mouth bass, or a tiny little sun fish, or maybe fight a log for ten minutes  but feel so proud and excited for them.  And here is the biggest part of being a hunter, fisherman/woman, we eat it all.  We do not waste our food.
      For the last 5 years we have legally shot all of the red meat that we eat.  I'm proud to say our family has not had to go to the grocery store and buy that antibiotic loaded crap.  We work really hard to maintain our property, endless hours planting plots, removing dead trees.  Antis think we just walk outside and "murder" the first thing we see.  That is far from the truth.  Personally we saw more deer on our property this last season then we have in 5 years, and we harvested the least amount of deer this year.  We pick and choose the ones we feel are right for taking.
    When it comes to fishing sure we fish for fun, it is fun.  If we don't take it home to clean and eat, then it gets thrown back into the water to keep living. If it's a fish like a carp, we can take it home and add it to our gardens and flower beds because its an amazing fertilizer.  It's called the circle of life.
    It really makes me mad to see all these women outdoorsmen attacked so hatefully for loving hunting and fishing.  It is absolutely legal to hunt and fish.  Antis are making death threats.......DEATH THREATS!!  Wishing death on another human being is disgusting, and its an anti hunter wishing death on a person?!  Bizarre.  As a hunter I am not protesting you and coming and mowing all your pretty flowers down.  I am not posting death threats to you, I could give a crap less what you are doing in your own life, so why the hell do you care so much about mine..... especially to wish death, torture, harm to hunters and their families.
     Here is my honest thought on why female hunters are being targeted.  You ANTI, are nothing more then a coward sitting behind a computer screen, thinking that you are going to hurt my feelings and scare me into a lifestyle that you want.  Sorry, not going to happen!  EVER!  Keep up with your garbage threats, one day they will back fire on you.  We women (and men) are going to keep hunting, keep fishing, keep having our passion, keep teaching our kids what we as humans have been doing to survive for thousands of years.  Your threats are useless, and just make you look like the mean ones.  I love my life and you are not going to scare me away from it.

My son Legally catching a pike, that I cleaned and we ate.  It was delicious.

This is me cleaning the fish my family caught, not being wasted, legally caught.

One of those proud moments I was talking about.  My sons first buck, legally shot, and fed our family.  

One of my personal proud moments.  My first doe, legally shot, and fed our family!

This is a motto I try to follow.  

My most recent deer I harvested.  You can see I'm legally tagging her, and she now feeds our family.

One of the nice walleye I caught, legally, we ate, and had it mounted and preserved because I appreciate this fish.  Its beautiful.

                                                                         

My daughter practicing with her first bow.  Enjoying being outdoors.

And to end with a little sarcasm, because Antis want to be so mean all the time.


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Girls, Guns & Rods Magazine

I was so lucky to be asked to be in the magazine called Girls, Guns And Rods Magazine.  I have been doing all kinds of crafts and projects all my life and to be noticed and recognized has been a real honor. I love making things with my hands whether its the Antler rings, refinishing old "junky" furniture into something new, or out in the barn building a new deer blind or Duck house, I just love to be doing something and creating something thats all a style of my own.

This is the May-June 2015 Issue

Thanks for taking the time that you do to check out my blog, follow my blog, and leave feed back.  

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Chicken Wire Duck Nester

Today I have made 2 duck nesting homes out of chicken wire and hay.

Finished product.  Step by step and supplies are listed below.

The supplies I used for this project are chicken wire, rope, small zip ties, a pair of scissors, and hay.

To begin I used chicken wire that is 24 inches long, and cut a length of approx. 40 inches.  I created a circle with it, over lapped the ends about two inches and zip tied it secure in multiple sections.  You could twist the ends of the chicken wire to secure your circle if you dont want to use zip ties. When you are done with this step you will want the zip tied end at the bottom so birds do not get poked.

Once you move to this step you will pinch the lower part of the circle together (about 2 inches up), and zip tie that together tightly.  This will create a cradle effect for the bedding to stay in the house.

Here you can see how I have the bottom section pinched closed and secured.  You will do this to both ends.

You can see this is the bare bones of the house.

Now you can stuff the cradle area with hay.  Pack it in nicely so when the birds walk inside they will feel secure and they wont be in danger of stepping through to the chicken wire.

For a photo of what the nest would look like I added a few small balls in there.

This is one of the nests secured in a tree.  I put both of these nests in the crotch branches of a tree that are leaning over the water of my pond.  

Here is the other that I have secured in the branches over water.  I used rope to tie it to a few different places on branches to keep it level and safe.

These are the houses finished.  After I got them tied up good, I took a bit more hay and added it on top.  Now the ducks have a safe place to nest.  I sure hope the wood ducks that have been frequenting my pond will take up occupancy in these.  I also built a couple wooden duck houses a few years ago but the only thing that lives in those is dang squirrels.

                                                                Beçk¥

Coat Rack Straight From The Beach!

This project was done by Another Crafty woman named Sarah Sergent.  It looks so beautiful hanging in her home and besides her more expensive taste in coat hooks, this is a very affordable if not free project that can be done.

This could nearly be a free project.  This is a piece of driftwood from Lake Huron on the Tawas Bay.

This is Sarah picking up and carrying the large piece of driftwood from the beach near a shipwreck that occurred in the late 1800's

She chose to buy the coat hooks from Home Depot.  She paid $4.00 for each hook.  It looks beautiful.  (if you wanted to go cheaper or free, you could use large nails or screws just as well)  So her investment in this project is approximately $25.00


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