How It All Started

Growing up, I often went hunting with my dad. I loved getting to spend the time with him, but I hated the cold. As I got older, I hardly ever went hunting anymore. Instead, I showed horses, did pageants, and was a cheerleader for my high school as well as an all-star competition team.

It was while cheerleading in college that I met my now-husband, Mikey. He practically lived outdoors; if I wanted to spend time with him I was going to have to learn to love the things that he loved. Our first dates often consisted of fishing, but when deer season rolled around it was a whole new ball game. Mike would beg me to go hunting, but I was reluctant. I kept reminding him that I was not a cold-weather person. He finally suggested bowhunting. Since Arkansas bow season starts in October, the temperature is typically around eighty degrees--sometimes even higher. There was no way I would be complaining about the cold.

I agreed that I would give it a try. The summer of 2008 we got married and I bought my first bow, a PSE Chaos. We shot 3d tournaments all summer to get me ready. I practiced nearly every day in order to gain enough strength so that I could pull back 40# (AR legal limit) by that fall. I even practiced inside my house. I discovered that my hallway is conveniently twenty yards.

Over the next three seasons I hunted fiercely. I was working a full time job and going to school, but I always found time to be in the stand too. If it meant going to work at four or five in the morning so I could get off earlier to make it to my stand, that is what I did. After three seasons, I never got a good opportunity at a deer. The closest I ever came was killing an armadillo.

Thanks for reading!