I like captain.
I'll take captain can't captain cam go rule.
No
No.
Now you just ruined it.
Well, I'm doing the best I can over here.
I'm so excited.
My skin is about to jump out of itself because this to me is the time of the year that is unrivaled, unequaled.
the golden glow of the golden hour of the day, starting around five o'clock now, you start to have that golden sunshine setting on the farm fields that are just about to get taken off.
You got some weed off already and hunting season is around the corner and I couldn't be more excited about that.
You know what that means, right?
Hunting season is coming.
Eating season also.
There is nothing better in the world than getting up before the sunrise, setting up in a field.
You get your decoys out there, your layout blinds, or you're, you know, you're hidden in a natural blind and those first goose honks you hear in the distance.
Yes.
Get the flags ready, the calls ready.
You start your calling, trying to draw them into you.
Having those birds set.
and knowing that you're gonna get some on the ground, that's gonna be literally dinner that day.
It does not get better.
I'm so excited about this show.
today because Hannah Stonehouse is here.
She is literally an icon in the Midwest in the outdoors and she is a world famous.
I'm gonna say it because it's true.
I apologize.
She's a world famous photographer of bird dogs.
You know, Chad Belding is
really into his dogs.
He names all of his dogs after Guns N' Roses members, because he thinks he's the best band ever.
And I'm not gonna deafen- I'm not gonna de-
necessarily dispute that Guns N' Roses is fantastic.
That is, yes, but you should know his opinion is fact.
Well, if you
Well, I was named after the house I was conceived in.
you know.
So it was a Stonehouse.
It was the Stonehouse.
Grandi Tori, Illinois.
Oh,
John Deere built it when he came
Right, Hannah Green, the tractor.
right?
Hannah Green.
Hannah
yes.
No, he built the house in the 1840s for the people who were coming over from Vermont.
And the women couldn't get pregnant on the way because it was too long of a journey to Illinois, obviously, his first factory in Grand Detour, Illinois.
And that's where babies came from.
And my parents, who
are hilarious and I am definitely their daughter, named me after where I was conceived.
I've always wanted to know where babies came from.
Oh my gosh, I love that song.
It brings new meaning to the term layover when they had that spot, that stop.
They lived there a long time.
It's a great name, no matter how you slice it.
Thank you.
It's awesome.
You are famous, and I'm gonna drag this out just a little bit.
You're famous for a particular photo, but that's not the only thing that you do.
You have kind of made a living shooting bird dogs.
Bird dogs are your, that's your forte.
How important, you know, when we're out there, when you are sitting in a blind or you're walking in a field, upland hunting,
and you drop birds from the field that are coming in that are right coming right to the hole and you get to see that dog work very few things are as satisfying and cool as that in the in the field.
That is my favorite thing about photography is when you capture an animal a dog doing what they were bred to do the look on their face
the just whether it's their muscle structure their breed standard any of that when i get to capture that that is up that's why i'm here in some ways because
That especially when you have a dog who's so important to you, who is your hunting partner, and I get to find out later that those are the memories you have of them in the field because you've been able to be present with them and be able to hunt with them.
And you tell me 10 years later that those are the things that bring you happiness when you look at my images.
That is everything to me.
Thank you.
It is why I do what I do.
How important I want to get into some of the logistics of this you know for for the folks listening who are serious waterfall hunters who spend a ton of their time training their dogs sending their dogs off to be trained training them themselves that payoff that happens when you have the dog in the blind with you and that dog is I mean
ansier than all get
out.
Yes, I have seen that.
They just want to make everybody happy.
They want to do their job.
But to them,
They literally live for it.
How important is it, do you think, for dogs to be involved in hunting and how is that become such a part of Americana and the culture of hunting?
It is extremely important if they are trained correctly.
And we can talk about this till we're blue in the face.
If you have a dog who is
has not had the right, much like a human, exposure to hunting, you can cause an issue and you've wasted some money.
So it's really important to have a dog that's trained appropriately that you respect.
and that the dog respects you.
Because that dog has skills that you have it there for.
overthinking it or consistently missing shots.
It's really important in my estimation to be extremely practiced yourself when you have to also train yourself.
and to do that.
Right, and avoid that
that you can
buddy, right?
Right, and I've had photos of dogs glaring at their owners, and something
Oh, very much so.
though, especially frustration, happiness, joy.
I mean, joy translates with dogs in the field.
You see they're doing what they're meant to be doing, and whether it's bird dogs, sled dogs, and any of those.
They're happy.
When
you
so special.
Very much
Yes.
Incredible.
Yeah, it is I love it.
Yes
left before I have left before
on a photo shoot I have I have said this is no longer happening and You're not respecting your dog.
You're not treating them appropriately and this is done,
Correct.
I am not talking
That is true and a lot of the time what I've seen from a dog behavior issue or a human behavior issue is they're trying to be confident.
The human is trying to be confident but doesn't have the base of knowledge because they haven't been around other people who interact with dogs appropriately.
And I'm not trying to be judgmental, but it's also really important to make sure that you know what you're doing.
I mean, if you're gonna have fun and you're gonna do the things that make you and that animal happy, you know, do it for the love of it in a way that is...
is joyful.
I mean, I keep using joyful, but that's what it is.
It shouldn't be a source of frustration.
Make sure you have a breed that's appropriate for you.
That's one of the biggest things is people get a breed because they fall in love with it, but they don't actually know that that dog may need more or less exercise than another one.
you're aging and you need a dog that you need to be able to get out in an emergency.
I mean, I love like Brittany
spaniels or any of the smaller spaniels because for people I mean I'm a short person who you know if there's an emergency out in the field I'm not going to be able to pick up
110-pound lab.
Right.
Wait,
use a lot of those
out.
I think it's
It's just important to be about picking the breed that is right for you and your family because that's what makes it fun.
We've got Chef Lawton and a special guest today.
We've got lunch lady Lynn Morris.
with us who is uh... part of a local school district she's the she's the becoming world regionally but world famous uh... lunch lady and she's going to be making some up here on the on the full life podcast and uh... are raised in the wood show which i'm pretty excited about but what i am most fascinated by when it comes to dogs is there are real
pros and cons to having a dog in the field.
But any dog person will tell you there are no cons with the right training and trained dog.
And I want to get into that a little bit because if a dog is running around the field while you're out there and birds are coming in, they can very often reduce your chances for that to happen.
So I want to talk about those kind of specifics.
This is awesome.
We've got a fantastic guest with us today, Hannah Stonehouse, with a storied multi-decade history in the outdoors, of course, Chef Lawton.
I'm excited to get in there and peel the layers back.
And I'm excited about our cooking segment.
That's for sure.
guest, someone who has been in the outdoors of Wisconsin, who's covered waterfowl hunting, who's covered upland hunting, who's covered big game hunting.
You've covered and been exposed to just about every type of hunting.
You've been in radio, TV, written media for decades.
Yes.
Hannah Stonehouse.
All of it.
I know.
I love it.
We've got Chef Ellie Lawton, the official provider chef and lunch lady Lynn with us today.
Hannah, I want to talk to you how I think people think it's very easy.
Everybody says, oh, I want to make a life in the media.
And we had Patrick Durkin on talking about that.
And that was fascinating conversation with him.
It is not something
that's easy.
It's not something that's just plain fun.
It's as much work, if not harder work than trying to do a corporate job or, you know, a blue-collar job.
There's work involved and the pay isn't great.
I mean, how were you drawn into doing outdoor media and radio and TV?
And how did you get a start?
What was the
Place where was the place that lured you into this life?
Well, I'm a third-generation broadcaster grew up in the radio industry and I was not planning on Really going into radio and then or writing or any of that stuff and I met my husband Jim Hudson and was in northern, Wisconsin and we started his guide service and a person who is
Myself who grew up in marketing and radio I helped him grow his guide service with writing with photography with all of those things and so I was sort of an assumed person To do all of the outdoor communication and I fell in love with it the fishing and hunting communities are Amazing and I don't think people understand that enough and I
I can't, it's really funny because I can't really talk about things other than fishing and hunting unless I am prompted to talk about something else.
So it's a problem.
I don't think that sounds like a
Right.
And nobody in my family hunts and fishes, hunts and fishes.
And not because they're anti at all that just wasn't something we did we will be canoed we kayaked we went hiking we did all the things we foraged all of that and so my Life running that guide service on Lake Superior being out in the in the woods with dogs all of those things That was my entire life because when you work in the outdoor industry you work
You know, they say, I'm trying to avoid a 40 hour job and you end up working like a hundred hours a week.
That's what it is.
if you're pre-fishing or you're, you know, doing food plots or you're doing any of the things that you need to create content from, you're, you know, during the day doing that and then at night, you're editing photos or you're writing articles or you're recording or you're doing YouTube, all of those things.
And so that
It's all consuming and what became my entire life and I would not change a thing
Yes,
Red Cliff the
Yes,
I think one of the things that is often ignored or not necessarily ignored but not talked about enough is the Native American attitude toward hunting and angling.
The Native American cultural influences of it that we have throughout the Midwest and throughout this country.
Did that
Did that change your perceptions?
Did that affect your perceptions of it while you were working in it?
Yes.
And so I can only speak for my knowledge from Jim, from Jim Hudson, a red cliff Ojibwe and his mother who taught me.
I moved to Wisconsin in the 90s when the spearing conversation was going on.
knew nothing about it because I was not from here.
I did not know about tribal rights.
I did not know anything like that.
I go to Northern Wisconsin.
I meet Jim in a bar the week.
Well, where else do you meet in Northern Wisconsin?
Well, the week between open with a week before ice fishing and open water.
He didn't drink.
He was a cop and he what didn't want to be drinking around people that he had arrested.
So
up and I knew I was going to marry him right away.
I my.
exposure to hunting and fishing was through his eyes.
So I thought everybody, you know, fished 12 hours a day.
I thought everybody had a hunting season from September 1st to December 30th.
I had no idea.
But I also assumed everyone put tobacco down and said thank you when you take an animal.
I assumed everyone in my very
you know, Pollyanna way, I assumed everyone protected the waters that they had as a resource.
And I think so often the conservation mindedness is lost today.
on the general public who does not hunt, I don't think there is such the realization that true and ethical hunters and anglers are the ones contributing the most to conservation in Wisconsin.
But I want to talk more about the Native American influences you had, how you got into the media.
I want to learn about that famous photograph you took, and I can't wait to talk about food.
Also, something on your resume we're going to get into that I do find fascinating and want to ask you about Hannah Stonehouse is a medium.
Yes.
We're going to learn about that.
My name is Joel Clayfish.
This is the Midwest and this is a place that if you're spending time in the outdoors, waterfowl hunting or big game hunting or angling, there really, I think, is a hidden gem here that the rest of the country may not fully know about.
And somebody who's spent a great portion of their life
In the outdoors in the Midwest in several states throughout the Midwest is Hannah Stonehouse.
She's been in duck blind.
She's been in upland fields.
She's been on the Great Lakes the backwater ways She's been a writer an award-winning writer award-winning journalist
for three plus decades and she's got some real insights and what a cool guest she is to have.
Of course, we've got a provider chef Ellie Lawton with us.
Lunch lady Lynn is here too.
My name is Joel Clayfish.
I get to be the host, the Midwest host of The Foul Life and I'm really excited because hearing your past and your history
First of all, I see parallels to mine, which is exciting and fun.
But we've been talking about your photography of bird dogs and your love and passion for bird dogs.
There is a famous painting, picture, photograph.
I mean, it's been how many
you are
This is a photo of my friend John with his dog Shep in Lake Superior.
He and I
We walked our dogs together.
He lived down the street and one day he came to me and said that he may have to put Shep down and that he would be in taking Shep into Lake Superior and Shep would fall asleep.
Could I come take photos of him and Shep?
right?
Like late teens?
17.
Okay.
Yeah, 17.
He died a year later and was 18.
Okay.
And yes, he was very old, very arthritic.
And that summer, the lake was not very cold.
So he would take him down into the lake, hold him, and I got, you know, it's like...
three or four minutes, maybe less.
And I got a shot of them and shared a photo of the back of my camera to Facebook, and it
went nuts.
And then I, this is like in the early days of going viral when you actually people
And it was
I can't really explain the craziness that happened.
I did a TEDx talk about it because my phone would fill up with messages multiple times a day.
We were on the Today Show, Good Morning America, all these crazy things, and people would drive like six to eight hours.
trying to find John and they would walk into our house.
They would open the door and my husband had just retired from being a police officer and he'd be out guiding.
people would just like walk in.
It was crazy.
Oh my gosh.
it was crazy.
Yes, it did.
That's a story I've never actually told.
There were some really, really weird things that happened.
But there were some really awesome things that happened and I met some incredible people.
And you know, life happens, how it happens.
I'm
And in my mind, I don't know how something weird could happen out of something so beautiful, but that just goes to show the things that we share and the way that people interpret those things.
Yes.
It is different levels for everybody, right?
It is different
If you go to stonehousephoto.com, that is my photography website, and that has the photo on it.
Or you can Google Hannah Stonehouse and TEDx and you can hear the whole story.
You
Superior.
Yes, you can
the
few weeks, probably.
Yeah, like there'll
stuff like that.
Yes, which are hilarious to me because sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong.
Then you add in the whole AI weirdness and people are making videos from the photo, which is I won't even get into the ram.
copyright ramifications of that.
things like that.
Yes, yes.
Well, that's one of the reasons I guess one of the reasons I got into studying how things go viral.
And there are some things that happened afterwards that I started my journey of studying what what happens when the internet takes hold of things.
call them parasocial relationships.
Yeah.
yes
you don't know the whole story of anything of anything well and I think that's
or
because
or at least
Right.
And so that's why it's one of those things when I teach people when you do go viral is you can either concentrate on the negative or you can go, okay, so what are the positive things that can come from this?
What are the things that
you can help people discover about themselves rather than yelling into the ether, okay, let's celebrate your relationship with your dog.
Let's celebrate the love you have for a person that you were caretaking for.
Because those are the conversations that we need to have.
And so you as the person who is this is the sort of the spotlight in the spotlight, you're the one who can to some
extent control the path of that conversation.
So that's your responsibility.
Yes, and all over the world.
That is the thing that connects many of us is that unconditional love.
One of the coolest things that happened was I started to be able to have conversations and see conversations in the comments with guys who missed their dogs.
they didn't feel necessarily comfortable
expressing that until this happened.
And it was really cool.
And I still talk to a lot of these people 14 years later, but it is being able to, and that's the other thing I do.
I am a grief scientist now.
I study how talking about grief is really, really healthy and helps mitigate some
some chronic health issues, but that's another story.
But
separate show.
Yeah, exactly.
But one of those things is photography can do that for people.
You know, I was talking about how people would be so excited to tell me a decade later that the thing, the photo they had for me of them and their dog or their dog was so good for them because they got to look at that and see joy.
Those are the conversations.
Saying that stuff out loud
talking about it, talking about the people and animals you miss is really important.
You want to get that out.
It's healthy.
extremely
something.
I have a lot of dog hair from various dogs.
I could probably do that without it.
This
Yes.
on
So I am an evidential medium, meaning I would never win the lottery.
I am not a psychic.
But when I started getting my master's basically in grief, it's called Thanatology, I ran into all these, because I'm a scientist, I ran into all these studies about evidential mediumship, about
quantum physics and electricity and how things are connected.
I've known my, it's fascinating.
I have known my whole life that I just know things.
I tell people to be very clear.
I don't hear or see anything.
I just know things.
And being on Lake Superior and being married to a Native American man, an Ojibwe man, it was very interesting because
Everybody talks about that.
It's not unusual there in Bayfield and Redcliffe, Bad River, Ashland, Washburn.
It doesn't matter that area.
It doesn't matter who you are, what you're doing.
Everybody either knows stuff, sees stuff, anything like that.
And after my husband passed away, some very interesting things happened, including like light bulbs exploding.
And other widows have talked to me about this.
This has happened.
Yes.
And I
probably eight years after he passed away I was fishing on the lake on Lake Superior and I looked at my friend and I said why are there guys who are like they're waving at me and I didn't really see it I knew it
explaining how they were like tied to a mast and they were they had ice all over them
And he looked at me very oddly, and we go around, we're going around Madeline Island, and he looks at me, he's like, you don't know about that?
I said, what are you talking about?
He said, well, that's the shipwreck where all the guys that we were over, they all tied themselves to the mast because, and they were covered in ice because a storm came through.
There's this very, there's this shipwreck that I didn't know anything about.
And so I discovered, like, not everyone knows things or sees things in their mind's eye.
And I decided to just get really loud about it because I don't care what people think.
Yeah,
think.
I said screw it.
Yeah, well, my little Italian mother, my little Italian Catholic mother used to call it a sixth sense.
And I think
And I will go so far as and you can think this is goofy.
I have a sixth sense about hunting Yes, and whether that day is going to be a successful day or that day is gonna be a day I enjoy the beauty of the woods without a harvest and I think Everybody has got a sixth sense
in them to explore if they want to.
And I think that that is part of the very nature.
And I think that grows as you spend time in the outdoors.
Yes.
I think
Yes.
No, it can't be.
Seriously.
Certain people in restaurants are making food.
That is when they are most attuned and it's where yeah, it's a very Just what you're saying.
And speaking of eating I'm really excited.
We've got recipes this week and There is nothing better about this time of year and this season than when you get out and
hunt and fish and forage and you get to eat it at duck camp the next day or while you're out there in a shore lunch.
Man, that is just the
Nothing better in the world than when the days are getting a little cooler at night and you are eating a hot meal that you have literally harvested that.
You're with you.
Freezers empty again and you're trying to fill it and you take that duck breast right from the field to the dinner table and falls the best time to do it.
Provider chef Ellie Lawton.
What do you got in store for us for the eating portion of the show?
Well, I thought we would talk a
very interesting because we've talked about it a little bit recently But the top trends right now is comfort foods with like a twist so the classics with a twist and what I mean is
by that is you know the really good comfort dishes with like a maybe a new spicy component to it or um dark rich fruits are really trendy right now we have new um new words like spicy
So sweet and spicy.
So Tahin is a great example.
I mean, every time I go to a store, I feel like there's a new flavor of Tahin out because we have so many folks out there now that
They want the sweet, they want the heat, they want those old classic flavors, but they want kind of those new bold flavors tied into it.
So like a spicy meatloaf or maybe like a sweeter kind of wild game stew.
And I don't mean like
Sweet like you eat it and it tastes like candy.
I mean like you still get those good umami like rich meaty flavors But then maybe you have like a black cherry flavor in there like a essence to it
and you have some of the seasonings that have like a little hint of orange in them that that Asian spice the really nice garlic black garlic is super trendy right now anything
like very, like rich, bold flavors.
And we talk about, you know, we're going into fall.
My absolute favorite thing, the evenings, especially here in Wisconsin are so beautiful.
Cook over your fire anytime you can.
If you don't, if you can't make a bonfire in the backyard and cook over the beautiful coals, make, get a little fire pit.
It's so much fun.
And you can do everything over that.
And it's just,
To get in touch with Mother Nature and the earth and be outside at night cooking a good meal over a fire and using some of these new trends, like trying plums and maybe your sauce for your steak or something.
Just try something new.
There's so many good trends.
Go on the internet, type in, you know, current food trends.
You'll see so many of these cool things.
Brown butters are really trendy right now.
Again, the spicy, the heat.
The black garlic, anything like that, so good.
Yes, so we are continuing in my district to build upon our scratch cooking.
A lot of districts do a lot of package stuff.
That's the stuff that they can get for cheap, but we like to incorporate a lot of scratch cooking.
So we've done bison burgers before where we mix bison and beef.
That's one thing that the students loved to see.
We love to pull out cranberries coming up in a couple
muffins.
Zucchini.
Lovin' bacon, a ton of banana bread always for our breakfasts.
Our district loves our banana bread.
I want to point something out because so often we're losing kids into hunting angling in the outdoors now because we're losing them to the iPads and the video games and the things that happen in two dimensions.
And I think cooking, like you just mentioned, is really a way to bring them back.
It's not only square slices of pizza anymore.
You're talking about incorporating real food and real Wisconsin and Midwestern berries and fruits and forage into that which I think is really a fascinating thing and I'm excited to hear about that.
I want to wrap things up though.
We've got Hannah Stonehouse here whose life in the media really was catapulted by her
photograph of a man and his bird dog and shows the love of dogs in this country and the importance they have to hunting.
I want to just kind of leave the last word to you.
What is it that America, the Midwest needs to see, needs to focus on to go to get our roots activated again?
in the outdoors as we continue to lose hunters and fishermen.
What is needed?
What is the base that's going to propel us into that conservation attitude and putting meat on the table that we harvest ourselves?
be open to having conversations with people about just going outside.
I think it's really important to be curious about why people might not want to hunt.
I think it's really important to be curious about where our food comes from.
And I think it's really important to be excited about taking kids with you or just buying them new equipment or inviting them to come along with their parents.
Because sometimes
people want to learn and it doesn't matter if you're a woman a guy it doesn't matter you want to learn but you don't know who to ask so being non-judgmental and just being able to just say yeah I'll help you that's huge
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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.