Happy BlogDay to me!

I love anniversaries, and today is a double for me: It's the third anniversary of the day I started my blog, and the fourth anniversary of the first time I ever fired a shotgun.

My hunting and shooting has come a long way since then. When I went out on Sunday for my second duck hunt of the season, I did something I've never done before: I killed every duck I shot at. Five of 'em.

Not all stone-dead, mind you. I had to chase three of those birds, including two wily swimmers (spoonie hens, of course). But hell, that's the only exercise I get these days, so I can't complain.

And my blog? Well, in many ways, it has evolved too. Read more...
When I started it, having just been out of the newspaper business for a year, I thought it was going to be like a newspaper blog, filled with little bits of news about women hunting.

I quickly realized, though, that people were more interested in hunting stories and commentary (a nice word for bitching) about the news. Then I went to the SHOT Show and added the growing world of women's hunting clothing to my writing repertoire. And as the chains of newspaper-required neutrality finally fell away, I dug into the politics of hunting.

But if you go back and read my first post, you'll find my character has remained pretty much the same - I'm still obsessed with shooting well, and I still have this unreasonable urge to "catch up" in terms of experience to all those hunters lucky enough to have started hunting as kids.

If anything has changed, it is that I am far more blessed than I was then. I'm blessed with readers who have become friends, some just by Internet, some in "real" life. When I think about the people I hunt with, I realize that most of them have come into my life in some way because of this blog.

I've also been blessed to be part of a blog world that has some spirited and mostly civil debates about controversies within hunting. In particular, Phillip at the Hog Blog has really challenged many of my assumptions.

And indirectly, he taught me to take advantage of the one thing I have over people who've been hunting their whole lives: I come to this field without the indoctrination that parents typically provide when they introduce their children to something, so I can evaluate every rule and norm and decide whether it's important and why.

That may sound like I'm morally rudderless, but far from it. What it means is I have the ability to separate mere tradition from really important bedrock ethics. Shooting for the cleanest kill possible? Bedrock ethics. Shooting birds only when they fly because it's more "sporting"? Who cares. I'm here to put food on the table.

Taking care of this blog is a big job. It takes a lot of time and effort, and the fact that I'm still blogging three years and 361 posts later feels like a big accomplishment.

But I keep doing it because it is one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done. My interaction with readers and fellow bloggers has provided me more pleasure than 19 years of newspaper writing and editing. The blog post is only the beginning; the discussion in the comments section is the part I look forward to the most.

So I dedicate this special day to all of you. You are what make this thing work. Thank you.

© Holly A. Heyser 2010