Raised in the Woods is the show about the great outdoors of the Midwest, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.
And there are a few places in the world you can do what you can do in the Midwest, from camping to hiking to kayaking, foraging, angling, hunting, eating, eating, eating, eating.
I say very often that this show at the end of the day is a cooking show because the one thing that nobody can argue about across any philosophy of politics
religion, name the topic, we all gotta eat.
Yes, we do.
So that's one thing that binds us all and very few problems are solved the way they are around a table and with friends.
I know.
Not a good one.
Not a good one.
No, people in the outdoors.
Oh, wonderful.
funny, a lot of the time guys are the one who hire me.
because they've either seen my bird dog stuff
stuff.
And I almost always, I go out with the grooms before the weddings.
I've been must be fishing before weddings.
I've been in all kinds of things.
twist my arm.
It's really cool because I am the target demographic when you
are.
And so I approached it as a photographer.
So I was the person observing and I actually left the outdoor industry marketing.
area because I wanted to be able to fish more and I wanted to bird hunt and because I was when you are in the outdoor industry, as you know, you're working.
so I wanted to enjoy it again.
It's
Exactly.
It's very, it's very hard when you're trying to take the photo, but actually there's a good bite or like it's the
hands.
Right.
You know, there's some woodcock coming in or grouse or whatever, but...
getting women involved I think is more it's less about talking about getting women involved and hey you should come and do this with me like let's just stop talking about it and being like showing hey I'm taking these women out and actually saying hey have you ever tried to do this like do you want to come out and just try this with me that's what I do with ice fishing for sure I
super fun
I'm like, how dare you comment on someone else's, you know,
hard-earned harvest.
You don't know what's going on in that person's life.
You don't know what they did.
You don't know how hard they worked to afford that shotgun to go on their first hunt, to take their child on their first hunt, whatever it may be.
Who is calling these online competitions?
Because guess what?
There isn't any.
No, and we are shutting people down from enjoying it because it's become about the trophy in certain aspects rather than feeding your family and learning about conservation and taking your kids out and making mistakes.
We're all human.
People make mistakes.
So let's stop shaming them.
Yes.
I mean, that's one of the beautiful things that I like about it is because I get bored easily.
I never stop learning.
So that's why I love it so much because you can always pick something else up or there's always somebody out there that knows more than you in this specific area and you're willing to be open-minded about it.
It creates such a good culture.
Yes, and I always say that the worst common sections, it's usually because the weather is bad there and they're bored.
That's a fact, age 13 to 40.
And that is
awesome to me.
But let's not be mean about everybody who's just learning.
I, you know, I would be considered maybe a moderate to experienced hunter now.
I live for it.
I love it.
I still don't know.
The more you learn, the more you learn, you need to learn.
Yeah.
And so let's let's take more of a forgiving attitude toward everybody and however they want to hunt.
Well, great.
The louder someone is, usually the less they know.
Honestly.
Can you say that louder for the
that
be in the back?
I watch people and I go, oh, this person is really not confident.
you
Your one stop shop for everything in the great outdoors of the great states.
of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa.
My name is Joel Clayfish.
I was raised in the woods and the waterways of the Midwest.
My co-host here, she spent quite a bit of time in those waterways and woods as well.
Ellie
in
a bird dog.
a
No, he definitely was not.
I mean, he would bird dog his owner.
I'm sure.
Tell them what to do.
You got
Okay.
Exactly.
Ding, ding, ding.
So it was crazy because in June of 2012, I had told my
my husband, Jim, that I wanted to take photos of dogs for the rest of my life.
And we were living in Bayfield, Wisconsin, you know, population 300 something.
And he laughed and said, that'll never happen.
Because I had been a very successful wedding photographer.
And I was having what I call white dress syndrome.
was just getting twitchy and didn't want to shoot any more weddings.
And I was doing a lot of really fun commercial work.
But I really wanted to take photos of dogs.
And I ended up taking a photo of my friend and his dog.
went crazy viral and 14 years later, I still travel all over the place taking photos of dogs.
And in 2012, after I took it in August, well, July 31st,
I was traveling all over the place, flying all over the world, taking photos of dogs.
Yeah.
And making a
it too.
Making a little bit of money, but also being able to give back by going to these shelters because I'm really good at taking photos of old dogs and dogs who are really dark.
So if you have a dog that's either hard to adopt or hard to re-home, I'm your woman because I don't make them do anything other than look how they look and it's a lot of fun.
And
wonderful.
Yeah, it was very fun.
Yeah.
Is
the photograph?
No, no, John and Chip.
That's what I call
Yes.
Oh, gosh.
Stonehousephoto.com.
You can look it up.
Yeah.
That's my website.
You can go see it there.
You can Google Man in Lake Superior and Dog and you will find all kinds of interesting, inaccurate descriptions.
I've seen that.
Yes, but also there is the photo and it brings people joy and that is what is important.
did you
had no idea.
My dad called me crying when he saw it.
I posted it on Facebook, and he must have called like half an hour later, maybe, and I knew something was going on.
There's some YouTube thing where they did a story about it, and it talks about me not having a clue how much my life would not be my own afterwards.
Did it change your life that much?
Oh, yes.
People don't understand what happens.
People don't understand what happens when you go viral because people do project
may have been I'm not sure but I don't even know the weird thing was is that was God Setting me up to be well taken care of my husband passed away very shortly afterwards in January of 2013 and that photo I talk about a lot We talk about a lot the obvious changing because of my business
what it did was made sure I was taken care of, and I will cry about it.
You know, it's almost 14 years later, but the people that showed up, not just the family, I mean, obviously my family, the community of Bayfield, but also the people who showed up because they knew me from that photo, a lot of them were people who had lost spouses.
I don't talk about this a lot.
They had lost spouses.
and they had been caretakers for them, or they had been very sudden, and it was as if God had said, okay, you're going to be very famous for this photo, but you're going to be well taken care of, and you're going to reach a lot of people because you will have so many... I hate using the word fans.
I have so many people I'm connected to on social media who
took care of me at that time.
And 14 years later, I am still talking about grief, loss, all of the things that we need to talk about and helping other people.
And the world sets you up for it.
universe, God,
life.
And that
photo happened and your connection to this huge community that came along with it and the care and how they helped you through that.
I mean, and now years later, it's come full circle where you're talking about grief and talking people through their losses and things.
And I mean, if that's not, you want, you can call it manifestation.
You can call it believing in God or the universe, whatever you want to do with it.
But that is really, truly how life works.
It's serendipity
It is and part of the beauty to me of the story is I'm imagining when people saw this photo and it struck a chord with them, such a chord that they sought you out personally to tell you their stories.
Were you a part of you able to kind of see into their souls when they, when they're expressing to you what it means?
Were there people who came to you and said, I lost this person in my life or I had this important person and I have their dog after they died.
And
like?
I am a person who loves people's stories and feels like everyone has a story that needs to be heard.
So to be set up for people to just come to me to tell me that and to be healthy enough to hear that from them and to be able to not be judgmental, to just know that they needed to get that out, that's huge.
that is I'm so happy that you pointed that out because not everyone understands that aspect of it is to be able to just sit and listen because I joke that I'm chatty and you know God gave me things because I'm chatty and I won't stop talking about difficult things but I feel like he also gave me things because he knew I would people would
Seek me out and I would be there to listen to them and my dad and I talked about this this morning That is so funny that we're talking about that now because we're there.
There aren't there really
so
you can call it the Fibonacci code or Anything else I this story is so fascinating to me because not only does it
smack of Americana, a man and his dog.
Man's best friend.
The dog who's in the blind with you or in the boat with you while you're hunting or fishing or foraging or the protector that dogs are.
I'd love to know the feeling inside of you when you
come to this realization that a photo you had taken had literally influenced lives and in many cases changed lives.
It was very important for me to know that after my husband died because I felt like my life kind of wasn't my own and that like very difficult things that happened and it also got me through breast cancer too.
I'm a cancer survivor and the community that happened after my husband died is the same community that helped me by hearing their stories of survival and getting through.
And so I don't know exactly how to express that things just work out how they're supposed to, whether we want them to work out
in a way or not.
you.
Thank you for capturing love.
Thank you for showing me a reflection of how I felt when I took care of my husband as he died.
That's
of the things that a woman said to me that I have not thought about for 14 years.
Because it reflected back to her something that she caretakers feel so Separated from the world
so alone and to see something reflected back to them Is some I did not understand the impact until then and I still don't always Understand it because it was just I was just doing a favor for a friend.
I was just doing and it's so it's
It's hard for me to grasp sometimes.
It's very surreal.
I'll put it that way.
That people have been able to take that image.
And that's why I'm not a very territorial person about that image, which is another conversation.
But it's people who get to see reflected back to them a moment where they felt alone.
no, I was just I was there taking photos for my friend and moved on along because I took the photo and went on with your day I did well and because I think too many of us who are photographers use it as almost as
protection because we are overwhelmed with the world sometimes.
I moved all the time growing up and I still have the camera that I
Got when I was 12 to introduce me to any new place and so when I was taking that photo It was kind of the same thing of I'm just seeing things that are going on and then I moved on and then it became something else So
We've got Hannah Stonehouse here and this is a fascinating conversation, a woman who's been involved in the outdoors and journalism and media for more than three decades and her picture seen around the world.
This is Raised in the Woods.
you
If you put in Raised in the Woods on a Google search in the Google box, we're the first thing that comes up.
So we appreciate having you along.
We love sharing what we know and learn about the outdoors.
Our guests on the show have just been
phenomenal lately real experts in their fields real willing to share their stories and remember there is nobody in the outdoors from someone who's never experienced a hunt or been fishing or camping or kayaking or mountain climbing or the great things you can do in the Midwest don't be afraid to start there is no age too young and there is no age too old to learn
the great joy you can have outside of your home, away from the three inch by seven inch in your hand, away from the TV.
Get out and enjoy the outdoors because those of us who live for it are willing to take you.
We want to share.
it out there, don't be afraid.
Believe me, there is no question that is a dumb question, because if that were true, I'd be asking dumb questions all the time, because when you're learning about, yes, sometimes I do, but I'm not afraid of those questions.
I love learning and I love learning from everybody who's experienced the outdoors in a different way.
There are ways
I hunt in the woods that are very different than traditional ways people might say, well, you're crazy.
Don't call turkeys in the fall.
I call turkeys in the fall.
Nobody ever told me not to.
That's your choice.
It certainly works.
I get to eat quite a bit of turkey in the fall.
And hey,
yes.
I have to think about it.
Oh, well, I want to go hella ice fishing in Greenland.
You want to do what?
hella, hella.
So I want to get in a helicopter and get dropped off and.
fishing from the helicopter?
I mean, you know, dreams can't
true.
really
You're probably rolling.
I want to ice this for sharks off of Greenland.
I want
dropped off in a helicopter.
and go, yeah, I mean, I, yes, I want to
photograph my aunt while she's doing elk hunting on horseback.
I mean, there's some things I
Yeah,
is.
Is she on social media?
No, she hates it.
She just wants to go
Love
What
I want to talk about photography, which has been incredibly important in your life, life changing for you.
Yes.
And I want to talk about AI.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
So where do those collide in the mind of a true photographer, someone who's a professional photographer, who's made money in it, who's sold, who's had life experiences in it.
Now we have AI essentially knocking at the door of wanting to take over everything that has any creativity to it whatsoever.
Right.
So we.
have we are at a change in the world in time where we have an opportunity to to make some decisions about what we will allow.
I started being a photographer when it was film and then we switched to digital
lot of the same conversations
now but it's way more extreme.
it currently.
So I have nothing wrong with AI in terms of science, health, all of those sorts of things.
The new editing capabilities of Lightroom particularly use some AI to what we call denoise an image, which means if it's super grainy, it helps sharpen some things out.
I have no issues with that.
I love that I can click Lightroom and it will
whole images for me so I don't have to stare at a bunch of images that aren't like in focus and I look
yeah and go what was I thinking I'm the worst photographer in the world so it has brought back some time and joy for me but it also makes me nuts because I do see some things happening where you know
bad actors, we'll call them, are using AI images to talk about locations or talk about things and they're setting people up to go to these places for things that don't exist.
that sort of thing.
I never even thought of that.
Yeah.
But it's also it's really hurting citizen science and conservation too, because a lot of these AI, I'm learning about this, a lot of these AI images are being submitted to, you know, where you can submit photos of birds or where you see birds or where you see animals.
And it's it's unfortunately these these programs.
are also taking false AI images and adding them to the mix.
there's a lot of false science behind patterns for migrations.
Exactly.
If all of a sudden you've got so many people posting that they're shooting wood ducks in northeastern South Dakota, and now those
Not because of other eye are being added to the composite that they're yeah, they're calculating versus a physical band that's
whole
conversation,
Yeah, I am not a fan of all you know things that What is the word I'm looking for?
I'm having a hard time thinking of things.
Regulations.
Wow.
I'm not a huge fan of regulation, but we do.
It's the Wild West of AI right now, and we
decision whether we are going to do it in a framework that works for humanity or are we going to let the robots run us?
And it sounds like an SNL skit, but.
And what's fascinating to me, I mean,
The word now, the word matrix glitch in the matrix is a common.
kitchen table word.
Yeah.
And the movie came out some 20 some years ago.
But it's unbelievable how so much of art and entertainment become reality.
We're having these discussions as far as drones.
How should drones be used?
How are the drones being abused?
Are they giving too much of an advantage?
Yes.
You know, on fishing holes, you can see
what's down your fishing hole for ice fishing.
I think a real discussion has to take place at what point we allow technology to become the hunter or become the angler versus using technology to give you an advantage that you know
is your scouting advantage.
You're working, so it's scouting for you.
In some of those cases, it's great and okay, and a lot of the deer hunters who are trophy hunters rely on this technology, but I think those are discussions people are afraid to have because people in the outdoors disagree with each other on them.
They very much
To me, I almost look at it this way.
It's a question of how many senses are we willing to give up?
Yes.
Because we're detaching ourselves completely from the outdoors for relying only on these pieces.
Because these pieces...
although they're giving us tips and tricks to the outdoors they're not actually connecting us to the outdoors so to me it's taking away our senses our senses to go out and and like you said Joel scout or know the land or learn the land or or just go and wander to forge those things that we can forge like all those things we're taking away the creativity in the senses yes
crazy here, but how long is it before we have a gun or a bow on a tripod remote and you're sitting at home and you see the animal walk in front of the target zone and you press a button on your computer or your smartphone and it fires the shot.
You have like
Oh,
technology is there and that is that separation
We've talked about being connected to our natural world and not having something separating us from it because we lose our senses.
is a specific situation where we are no longer respecting our, the resource respecting the animal
there's nothing there that makes you a true, true hunter.
wrenches you're throwing.
This is fun to me.
This is a fun topic.
Yeah, it's very interesting.
I work...
A very large part of my life is working with disabled people and getting them in the outdoors.
And some of that technology can enable someone to help pull a trigger who cannot physically pull a trigger of a gun or a crossbow.
So I think there are good applications.
This is the problem with this.
You can't say it's all good or all bad.
That's the problem.
Right.
And
if they're there in the woods,
That's different.
Oh, it changes every day.
The models are building on top of models and the resurgence back to film.
from people
That's what I'm glad you brought that up.
And I'm so old, I think.
It was maybe on purpose.
People only see me in analog.
But I want to talk about food, which is one of the favorite things about this show every week.
We got Field and Forge to the Table with Chef Lot coming up on Raised in the Woods.
you
I want to talk a little bit about foraging.
Foraging in the Midwest.
So our spring foraging and summer gardening here is so incredible.
But our fall foraging, to me, it's my favorite.
So not only is it going into hunting season, but the fall foraging.
The mushrooms, oh my gosh, go out and pick, you know, hen of the woods, black trumpets, golden oysters.
Oh my gosh, hen of the woods, you go home and you make that into like a lovely wild rice dish.
You won't even know there's not meat in it.
sure of all the pictures of the the mushrooms and berries and such of the Midwest because you can get into trouble so know what you're picking when you go out there but I mean we also have elderberries coming up cranberries a wild grapes apples I mean we are so lucky
Why are you looking at me like that?
I know so let me tell you about some orchards to go pick at but yes Go and wander around in our beautiful parks the elderberries now look up the rules and regulations because there are certain things you cannot forage In our park systems, so make sure you brush up on the regulations on those
But go out and experience.
Throw some cranberries or some elderberry in a pan with a little bit of sugar, butter, a little maple syrup.
Put that over your French toast or pancakes or anything.
You don't have to be fancy.
Wild duck.
Yes, you don't have to get fancy with this stuff.
Just try.
There are so many good recipes out there.
I mean, we just talked about AI.
And you know what, the internet is good for some things, and I think the best thing it has going for it is recipes.
Oh heck yeah.
And also, if you want to go out and forge a certain mushroom, go online and read all about it.
Print out a picture and take that on your walk with you.
Or you don't have to print it out.
I know, that's kind of old, right?
Take it on your phone.
Just take your phone, take a screenshot, whatever you need to do to have that information readily accessible to you.
Well, we just got our first shipment of apples from a local orchard to our school
so apple season is starting, which is great.
I also worked at a place that sold a lot of apples before I went to the school district, so I kind of have a good apple knowledge.
You're
smart apple.
Yeah, so we're starting our season with some zest our apples, which are like an early version of a honeycrisp.
So that's like the first apple we get here in Wisconsin.
And it's so good.
It's a little more tart than a honeycrisp,
like they're also really good for baking.
and eating, so they're that diverse apple.
Are
Star Wars fandom
Apple world.
I think
was funny.
I just picture a big apple the shape of the Death Star, like that
Perfect.
Do you know what I love to do with apples if anyone cares?
Bring it on.
I do.
So take your apple, core it out, stuff it with butter and some nuts, candy nuts, whatever roasted salted nuts and some brown sugar.
Then wrap it in tinfoil or if you don't want to wrap it in tinfoil, put it in a Dutch oven and set it in your bonfire and let it cook for a little bit.
It sounds yummy.
And then as soon as those apples start to soften up,
take them out and dish up everybody an apple with some vanilla custard or some whipped cream and have a fantastic dessert around the bonfire.
We
about.
Yes, Bayfield Browns.
love brown trout.
Baking fowl from trout, 350 for every, at 350, 15 minutes for every one inch.
two inch, you just, you know, slice up that butter, shove it in between the little, you know, the fish
You're keeping them?
Well, you're gutting them, right?
Yeah.
But you're leaving them whole, head on and everything.
Yes, I love it that way.
That's how I like to make my trout, butter and onions, and lemon.
Oh, so good.
Put it in, oven, roast it.
Yeah, it's delicious.
I want to tell you, I
Yes.
Trout.
So
home to Bayfield, I go and I realize, hey, sound like I'm from Canada.
Basically, you know, 20 years ago, our cell phones would pick up Canada.
So it's Canada.
Hannah Stonehouse, an icon in the outdoor industry in the Midwest and who gained national and international fame with the famous photograph she took.
what a great time we've had with you here on the show.
Thank you so much
Thank you.
Lunch Lady Lynn and of course our culinary and Allie Lawton.
If you are still afraid to get into the outdoors, contact us at our show.
We will love to help you do it.
Don't be afraid because your life experienced in three dimensions in the beautiful outdoors of the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa will never be replaced.
Remember, folks, you'll never be on your deathbed and say, I'm glad I didn't do it.
My name's Joel Clayfish.
We'll see you next time on Raised in the Woods.