EP 435. Sam’s First Duck Hunt

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to Mojo’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, where a couple of days ago, I opened up my mailbox and it was something that said don’t fold and it felt like photos, and I had forgotten all about somebody in social media telling me he was going to send me his wife’s children’s book. And I opened it up and there was this very nicely illustrated, very nicely written story about a duck hunt written in a way that even I could understand it because it was written for children. And as I get to talking to today’s guest, Sara Burkhalter, about her project, I realized this would make a great topic. Now, hey, anybody you all listening can understand this book is written, it’s written that simply. But seriously, how the book came to be, why the book came to be, what is needed in today’s society, why a topic like this is so important. I think we’ll surprise and interest you all. And so anyway, without further ado, let me welcome misses Sara Burkhalter. Sara, how the heck are you?

Sara Burkhalter: I’m great, Ramsay. Thank you so much. And, yeah, I will – side note, I was kind of shocked when you asked me to do this podcast with you, and I thought at first you were just being your genuine, kind self, and then I realized, no, he’s serious. So I’m just honored and just want to thank you for this opportunity because I know that you could have talked to a hundred different people, and so, yeah, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Ramsey Russell: The pleasure is mine. Even when I opened the book and said, oh, yeah, I remember somebody saying they were going to send me a children’s book and I read it and looked at it and showed my wife, who – because we were big growing up, when our grown children were babies, we were big on reading to them at night. What a great way I was working for the federal government at the time, she was busy putting out fires, being a house mom at the time. And right there, the kids are bathed, they’re starting to get calm, and you lay on the bed with your mini maze, and you start reading books. And it’s a great time, before they’re able to go out and duck hunt with dad or do a lot of stuff that they end up doing later in life before they’re consumed with baseball and soccer and all the different ways the world is pulling to them before they’re becoming indoctrinated into a public school system, you got these precious little kids that are just open to the world of books and quality time with mom and dad.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah, absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: But my wife looked at your book and said, boy, I wish we’d had that when our kids were babies. Because the book we read had nothing whatsoever to do with hunting. I mean, doctor Seuss, green eggs and ham. I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like it here, I do not like it there, I do not like it anywhere, I do not like green eggs and hams, Sam, I am. I mean, my gosh, I can remember it after 20 years. We read it so much.

Sara Burkhalter: And it’s funny you said that, because I’ve been asked before by different people what made you write books and why these different topics. And I’ve got 3 different series and I picked the topics that I picked because when I was pregnant with my daughter, I’ve always, like, you all been an avid reader, and I just realized I don’t like most of the books that are out there for children. They don’t promote my background or promote a whole lot of my upbringing. And I said, you know what, Sara? Why don’t you do something about it? Because it can’t just be you and your kids, that are missing out maybe on some of these topics of blue collar workers. I’ve got a series on that and this series on Sam duck hunting. So that’s really what led me to this. So, yeah, I love that.

Ramsey Russell: Talk a little bit about your background. And really and truly, I had no idea I was going to end up doing a podcast with you when I opened that book. But some of the conversations we had pursuant to that is when it clicked, and I said, I think this make a great topic, especially for the many people out here listening that have children. And so what is your background? Now, look, you’re in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which is, I don’t even want to talk about that football team over there.

Sara Burkhalter: I was hoping you wouldn’t bring that up. I was like, oh, no, sorry for anybody that’s not an Alabama fan. But like I said, I pull for state, Ramsey, when Alabama’s not playing, my brother is a state fan. But yeah, I can tell you a little bit about my background. So I’m from a very small town, Aliceville, Alabama, it’s in Pickens county, west Alabama. I joke that we have one red light, it’s pretty small. But my dad is 71 years old and he’s an avid outdoorsman like yourself. And so I am one of three, I had two older brothers growing up and then three older boy cousins that I was around a lot. So I grew up going to our family’s camp house and lake as a little girl and hunting and fishing have just kind of been ingrained into who I am. And honestly, I’m thankful. I didn’t realize growing up that even though I’m from a rural town in Alabama, not everyone has been able to hunt. They may not have had the means or maybe just didn’t have someone to take them and show them the ropes. So the older I’ve gotten, I’ve realized how blessed I am to have these experiences and to pass them down to my children.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about growing up as little sister and the girl cousin with a passionate hunting family. Because it’s a foregone conclusion that little boys are going to go hunting with daddy, not necessarily so with little girls. What was it like? I mean, did they threw you in the backseat, buckled you up and took you to camp?

Sara Burkhalter: Okay. It’s funny you said that. So, do you remember the trucks, that they really didn’t have a back seat, but they had a seat that would fold down from the inside? You remember that?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Sara Burkhalter: Like, kids today don’t even know what that is. Okay, so it’s funny you said that. Absolutely. So, my cousin actually had a truck like that, and I would have to fold down the seat from the side of the truck, and I would get scrunched up in the back and ride to school or ride out to the camp house. But, yeah, I mean, honestly, I loved it, Ramsey, because I felt like I had the best of both worlds. I had all these older boys that were protective of me, and my dad was just so excited to have a little girl. And I could put on my pink mud boots, but I also wanted to be out there with the boys. I didn’t want to be treated any differently from them and it’s just great. That’s the best way I can describe it, is I feel like I had the best of both worlds. And so I believe I shot my first deer in junior high. I was trying to talk to my dad about it, all the years kind of run together, but I started out mostly bass fishing, and then I got into deep sea fishing with my dad, I absolutely love both. I love deep sea fishing. And I started out deer hunting and dove hunting. And so, yeah, those are kind of my favorite things that I’ve always grown up doing.

Ramsey Russell: I mean, did you kill deer? Did you shoot dove? Did you catch fish.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, yeah. All of it.

Ramsey Russell: Because Alabama’s got some – that’s one thing they do have, is some really good deer hunting.

The Connection Between Intelligence and Hunting Success.

You and I both know that the biggest deer are the smartest, right? Well, to be the smartest, that means you usually have to walk out into the green field right at dark. I mean, you usually can barely see them. Well, this is how ate up I am with it. So my dad’s retired and he’ll go out there and he’ll be looking and he’ll call me and say, honey, I got you a deer, I got Mister Bucky.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, yeah. I mean, all of it. And I’ll tell you a funny story. So, this just to show you kind of my personality. So, you and I both know that the biggest deer are the smartest, right? Well, to be the smartest, that means you usually have to walk out into the green field right at dark. I mean, you usually can barely see them. Well, this is how ate up I am with it. So my dad’s retired and he’ll go out there and he’ll be looking and he’ll call me and say, honey, I got you a deer, I got Mister Bucky. And so I’m calling and saying, dad, well, what field is it in? Where is it? What time of day did you see? And don’t tell the other Lavender boys. And that’s how my dad is. Like, he will follow this buck until I can get off work and get there to try and shoot it. And that’s just how supportive he is. But so he told me one year, okay, it’s in the sanctuary field, which is my favorite field at our camp house, our land. So I get in there, and Ramsey, right at dark time, I mean, I can barely see this just massive looking deer walks out. So I text my dad, and I said, daddy, I think I got him. He said, is he the 8 point? I said, I don’t know, daddy, I’m shaking. My dad said, don’t shoot. I said, daddy, I think it’s the 8 point. Don’t shoot. And then I text back and said, daddy, I dropped him from 200 yards. I’m going to get him. I mean, that’s just how excited I get. And as far as dove season, I love to dove hunt, too, because that’s a completely different experience. You can be listening to football and with your buddies and talking, back and forth between hay bales or whatever out in the field. And my dad taught me, though, how to hunt. He taught me how to hunt, he taught me how to shoot, he taught me how to fish and do all of it. So I just feel really blessed that, I had a dad that was able to do all those things with me. And it wasn’t because Ramsey, he just had all this free time. He started his own construction company with my uncle, and there were a lot of years where they were just so busy during what we call outage season that I didn’t seem for a long time. But when he came home, he always made us a priority. And that’s one of the things that I want people to gather from this series about Sam, is that it’s important, even in the hustle and bustle of today’s world, for us to just put down the phones, talk to our kids about hunting and the outdoors or fishing and make sure that we make time so that they can experience that. Because what we do today shapes their future.

Ramsey Russell: What was it like for a young lady in Aliceville, Alabama to be a deer hunter? Because even in Aliceville, Alabama, you said not everybody hunted. They didn’t have access or they didn’t have opportunity or whatever. I just remember my own children. I grew up dove hunting, that’s what we did on Labor Day weekend in the Mississippi Delta. And with my children came up, I raised them into that same tradition. And now, as recently as this past year, I decided I was going to call an audible and not go, it was too hot, I didn’t want to go. My buddy, Mr. Ian, wasn’t going to be there. And my kids said, but dad, you have to, it’s your tradition. They played their tradition card, so I had to go. And I’m glad I did. I told them, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on Labor Day weekend than out there with them two knuckleheads. But I can remember when they were playing baseball and playing sports, I would have to go and talk to the coach and let them know that my kids aren’t going to be there Labor Day, which is a day out of school, so the coaches would schedule baseball practice because nobody else on the team dove hunted. And I was just kind of odd here in the state of Mississippi, that you’ve got 18 kids and only one of them dove hunter, two of them dove hunt, that makes no sense at all. So what was it like growing up in Aliceville, Alabama, for a young lady that not only deer hunted but killed some bigger bucks, probably bigger bucks than some of your classmates?

Sara Burkhalter: Well, I mean, I’m going to be honest with you. I guess I just – to an extent, Ramsay, I guess I was just naive and lived in a bubble. I truly didn’t realize until I was older, like, I guess older and junior high and high school that some of my friends didn’t do that. And I’ll be honest with you, at times, I felt like, maybe I was missing out on things that they were doing, but I wanted to be out there with my dad or with my family. So I really just didn’t worry about it. I just kind of said, well, I’m just going to go wherever my dad, my brother, and my cousins are, and I’m just going to be out at the camp with them. And so when I got into college, it was even more evident. Like, I had friends that were like, what, you all have mud bogs. Like, what is a mud bog? And I fell out laughing like girls from Texas, and I was like, you all don’t know what a mud bog is? Like what? And then I realized, Sara, okay, like, how you grew up is drastically different than how they did. But, yeah, I mean, I just think that it’s cool. And I’ll tell you this, this is going to be a shock to a lot of people, but you and I were talking about technology a little bit earlier when we were just chatting. Our camp house, we’ve got two, but we call this one the red camp house. It is over 100 years old, and guess what, there is not a single TV in it. So, like, right there, that is culture shock to a lot of people. But I love it because it’s always forced us to talk to each other. We would stay there during hunting season and we’d climb up in our bunk beds and we’d tell stories to scare each other, and we would just form those memories, and it forced us to do that and I love that.

Ramsey Russell: So, technology had afforded a lot of freedom, you know what I’m saying? I mean, I can be anywhere in the world and be at the office as long as I’ve got my phone in my pocket and have cellular connectivity via Wi-Fi or cell signal. I can respond to telephone calls, I can respond to text messages, I can respond to emails, I can make social media posts, I’m at the office. And nobody really expects anymore that when they call you between 08:00 and 05:00 or 24/7 they don’t really expect you to be sitting at an office cubicle like 20-30 years ago. It’s kind of a fluid world we live in, too. But there’s a downside to that technology. And I find myself as guilty, or more so than anybody else. Because I did grow up in the 70s and 80s when you had to wait get home and hit a rotary phone to call somebody and tell them something.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: You know what I’m saying? Or you had to write a letter to stay in touch with folks. Yeah, your dad told you. But I find myself as drawn into this technological world as anybody else. And I’m just thinking of any time I’m duck hunting or goose hunting or with my friends or doing that kind of stuff out comes the phone, we’re going to make a reel, we’re going to do this, we’re going to take a picture, we got to take a picture of everybody, we got to post something and it’s like, I’m cognizant, even. And that’s why I feel almost bad about it or feel the weight of technology on top of me. On the one hand, I’m not trying to push some agenda, you know what I’m saying? Other than just share with the world, because that’s the way we do it now. It’s like social media posts have become a form, almost a language of its own, with pictures and captions and reels and videos and all this different stuff is what we do now to communicate to the world, especially if you’re trying to advertise something. But at the same time, every time I have that phone, a mob of ducks just coming in slow motion, decoying or my dog running through the water and hopping, anytime I’m looking at that saying through the video, I’m missing something. Instead of the old days of just sitting there with my hands in my pockets, spellbound, and just watching the miracle of being out in the wild and being a part of it. So even I’m guilty, I think we all are guilty of it now, no matter how we’re using technology.

Sara Burkhalter: Sure. Yeah. And, I mean, I think it’s kind of like a blessing and a curse. It opens doors like you’re talking about to form relationships with people that maybe you wouldn’t have an opportunity to otherwise, having social media and whatnot. But I think there’s a fine line, and especially our kids, this is a new generation of children that are growing up. And so I think that we, as parents I’m 31, so my kids are young, it’s really heavier on, I feel like my generation of parents, to make sure that we teach children, hey, look, there’s more to life than just a screen. I’m not anti-technology, but God didn’t create anything with a screen. He created the outdoors, he created your pets, he created these animals, he created all of this for you. And my husband described it perfectly to me one day. He said, Sara, when I’m out there duck hunting, I feel like I just lose myself. Like I don’t have anything else to worry about because I’m just living in the moment. And I said, Trey, that’s the best way to describe it. Yeah. And, I mean, it’s beautiful. You can’t get that doing anything else than being outdoors. So, yeah, I love that.

Ramsey Russell: Sara, even though you grew up with a hunting family, like you did one of the boys, so to speak, did you ever go through that stage as a young lady that, your hair and makeup and shoes, social was more important than that? I see a lot of young people kind of go through that stage, especially women.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah. So it’s funny you said that. So I was a big tomboy growing up, actually, which, not a shocker. I mean, I grew up with all boys. And then, I kind of went through this phase where I was doing pageants and hair and makeup and I love dressing up and looking cute. My mom was proud because she wanted me to look cute.  I think that’s every mom’s kind of dream, to make her a little girl look cute. But I’ll be honest with you, I think it shocks some people now because when I leave my house, 9 out of 10 times, I don’t have on makeup. My hair is pulled back in a bun or a ponytail, like I’m running out the door. And I just told my husband, I was like, it’s just not important to me anymore. Of course, if I’ve got events that I’m going to, like book signings or church or whatever, I’m going to look presentable. But it’s kind of funny, it’s like the older you get, the more you realize what in life is important and what’s not. And for me personally, if I can go on a run outside, do that, versus get myself all dolled up, I’m going to go out on a run, if I can leave work, if I’m working there in Aliceville and go straight to the camp to shoot a buck or try to, I’m going to go and do that instead of worry about going shopping. Does that make sense? It’s kind of like you do go through that phase, and I feel like a lot of people probably do in general. The older you get, you realize it’s a privilege to be able to do this kind of stuff.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What about you told me one time you were big into saltwater fishing you really love.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, I still am, yes.

Ramsey Russell: Is that what pulled you back in, was being able to go out and catch fish and get a suntan and all that kind of stuff as a young lady, is that kind of would pulled you back out of that stage and won the war?

Sara Burkhalter: I’ll put it to you this way. Let me clarify. So I never stopped deer hunting, I’ve never stopped that. I’ve never stopped dove hunting, I’ve never stopped fishing in general. So I’ve never stopped those things at all. But I think it was that, for a temporary period, maybe going through junior high and high school where I was more conscientious of, okay, do I look okay? Because you’re nervous as a girl at that age, you don’t want people to talk bad about you. But, yeah, I mean, we’ve been deep sea fishing for years and years, and my dad taught me that, and I absolutely, I just love it. Of course, it’s hot. It’s always going to be hot. But just going out there, you talk about not having technology. So when we’re way out there fishing, we don’t have cell service, so you literally cannot get on social media, which is great. You are confined to a boat, and it forces you to talk to other people on the boat. And maybe I’m over ambitious, but if we get on a good snapper hole, I’m all about it, and I love that. But then I’m like, okay, daddy, I want to catch something else. Like when we go out there, I’m like, all in it. I want to catch as much as I can of different types of fish. And usually we catch grouper and Spanish and amberjack, some tuna, beeliners, red and black snapper, African pompano is really my favorite to catch.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah. Okay, funny story for you. So the biggest African pompano I’ve ever caught, we were 65 miles out, it was as big as me, and I was actually pregnant with my daughter in 2020 and did not know it. So, like, when I look at that picture, you talk about, people talk about hunting and the memories that are associated with it, or fishing and the memories associated with it, when I look at that picture of my husband and I, I just grin from ear to ear because I’m like, hey, I tell my daughter, do you know that you were in mommy’s belly when I caught this big fish? I just think it’s the coolest thing. So, yeah, I love it.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your biggest buck you’ve ever killed?

Sara Burkhalter: I mean, it would be an –

Ramsey Russell: Are you a trophy hunter?

Sara Burkhalter: I wouldn’t call myself that. I just go out there, Ramsey because I just love it. Even if I don’t see a buck, when I’m out there hunting and I just get to observe some little bambis and some does or some spikes, I just enjoy being out there. And listening to the birds and of course you talk about technology. Again, I’m usually texting my dad saying, hey, what’s in your field? And he’ll text back, well, what’s in your field? And we compare notes back and forth. But I mean, yeah, I try to kill 8 points or bigger. I’ve never killed a 10 point, that’s on my bucket list, someday I will.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about technology, I don’t think I would survive deer hunting without it. I’m miserable if I’m somewhere that I can’t text or play on the Internet or check my email or something during a deer hunt. Because so much of my life is spent in a duck blind where in between the volleys, you have conversation with your kids when they’re young that you’re just not going to have when you’re competing with high school or baseball or girlfriends or anything else. Once you got them in that duck blind, you can talk with your buddies that you hadn’t seen in a while, your buddies you see every weekend, saw the world problem, it’s such a social sport. But now I’m deer hunting with a pair of binoculars and a high powered rifle, and I get bored shitless. You know what I’m saying?

Sara Burkhalter: I do. It’s funny, when I used to sit with my dad, when he and I would sit together, he would always bring a sheet of paper and a pencil, and we would play tic tac toe. Like, literally, that’s what we would do, when I was younger. Yeah. And, I mean, my husband Trey, is an avid duck hunter, and he grew up – I asked him, I said, what did you do when you were growing up? Because he and I didn’t know each other until I was out of college. And so he grew up deer hunting and bass fishing mostly. And so he got into duck hunting more in college. And that’s what he says is what you’re talking about, it’s so cool having your buddies there and being able to experience the hunt with them in such close proximity. He said, it just gets him fired up, and he just really enjoys the camaraderie of all of it.

Ramsey Russell: The only thing in the deer hunting or big game hunting world I can think of, even closely related and it’s oftentimes scorned in the modern era of fractionalized landscape and trophy hunting and everything else is dog hunting, which is a very Deep South thing. It’s where you get up and you draw for posts or stands, and somebody that’s got the dogs walks up through miles of thickets and makes it, they don’t run them like greyhounds chasing a rabbit, they just bigger hounds and walker hounds to get up and make everything start moving and you cut them off. But it’s a very social sport, because after the hunt, you got to gather up the deer, if any were shot, you’ve got to gather up the dogs, got to sit around the truck and BS and talk and regroup, figure out where you’re going to go and how you going to lay it out and do another. But it is a lot more social than sitting in a freaking deer stand overlooking a food plot or a crossing and wanting to fall asleep or worrying, as I oftentimes do, if I can’t be distracted, worrying that there’s a lot of better things I could be doing than sitting at a deer stand staring at something off the face. It’s interesting, isn’t it, though? Well, one thing you haven’t mentioned is duck hunting. What’s up with duck hunting? Have you duck hunted? What are your duck hunting experiences?

Balancing Parenthood and Passion: A Mother’s Dilemma.

Ramsey, at 03:00 AM for me to go duck hunting and I have been begging my husband. And then the times when I did have somebody, like, my mom was available to spend the night and keep the kids, well, then there weren’t any ducks on their hole, or they had another buddy come in, and I couldn’t take his spot. So I’m supposed to be going this weekend for the first time, and I’m so excited.

Sara Burkhalter: Okay, people are going to laugh when they hear this. So I have had waders that have been collecting dust for about 3 years. And anybody that’s a mom that’s listening to this or even a dad that has kids that are really small. So my daughter is going to be 3 this month and then I just had a little boy, he’s 4 months old. So when my daughter was born, it was 2020 and COIVD and everything was kind of haywire, of course. But I have not been able to get someone to show up at my house, Ramsey, at 03:00 AM for me to go duck hunting and I have been begging my husband. And then the times when I did have somebody, like, my mom was available to spend the night and keep the kids, well, then there weren’t any ducks on their hole, or they had another buddy come in, and I couldn’t take his spot. So I’m supposed to be going this weekend for the first time, and I’m so excited. I’m like, shaking, I’m so excited. Because all I have is videos, like, my husband will go out there, and I’m just constantly like, hey, how many did you all kill? What did you all see? How did Sam? Sam’s our lab. How did he do? And what’s going on? And so Trey will send me these videos, and that is how I feel like I’m there, even though I’m actually not there. So I’m so excited. I said, well, I don’t care what happens. I said, I’ve got to go. And so I made my husband promise me. I said, I don’t care how many I see you’re taking me because I actually have a sitter. So I’m excited. I’ll let you know how it goes, though.

Ramsey Russell: What excites you about the duck hunt? And I mean, obviously, it’s contagious. Obviously, Trey comes back excited and telling you all this stuff and sending you stuff, but really, I mean, you’ve got access to great deer hunting and off shore fishing and stuff like that. Why? What is pulling you into the duck hunting world?

Sara Burkhalter: I think part of it is just curiosity. Because I’ve experienced all these other different things, and I’ve seen how different they are, but how exciting they are. So that’s part of it.  Trey’s excitement is another part of it. And then that third factor is Sam. I adore our lab, Sam. And just me watching him with us training him or sending him to trainers and then working him out at our farm, seeing his drive and determination is just, it’s unlike anything else. And of course, people that have dogs that retrieve, like Sam, I mean, they get it, but that’s another factor for me. It’s not just me wanting to be able to say that I killed my first duck, it’s also watching Sam go out there and retrieve and do what he does best.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What do you hope your first duck is?

Sara Burkhalter: Well, I mean, of course, everybody wants a mallard, I guess. But I’ll be honest with you, I want to shoot a teal. I just think that, they’re cool as far as, seeing the videos of what I’ve seen online, YouTube and whatnot and I enjoy eating teal. People may say, oh, they all taste the same to me, personally, I think it has a little bit different of a texture, taste, there’s just something different about it. But, yeah, I mean, for me to be able to say that I killed a mallard and a teal, I’d be tickled pink. But honestly, it doesn’t matter. If I can just kill a duck, pintail, wood duck, it doesn’t matter. Whatever God wants to just put there in front of me.

Ramsey Russell: One day about 15 years ago, my wife, it would have been October, she says, I want to go duck hunting, I said, get the heck out of here. We dated 5 years in college and had been married close to 15 years at that time, she never said she wanted to go duck hunting. I do my thing, she does hers, and she wanted to go duck hunting. I said, why? She goes, well, cause you take the boys and they’re so excited about it, and I just kind of want to see what it’s all about. It’s something we can all kind of do one day. So I was at a camp up in Arkansas, and the first day was easy, they sent us to the blind that wasn’t really hitting on much, and off we go. And down a levee, an easy walk, down a little rice field levee, step into the pit, blind, the duck God smiled. Here come a lot of those green winged teal you’re talking about, a few mallards, a few gadwalls, a few pintails. And I never will forget, it was my two boys that were, I’m just going to say, 8 and 10, and my daughter, who was 5, maybe, and my wife and boy, they were – my wife especially, I never forget her eyes being big, and she’s grinning and I had a dog named Delta at the time. And she goes, I just can’t believe it. I said, what can’t you believe? She goes, well, on TV, the ducks look so much further out than these sea ducks that are right in here. And she said, and for the first time, I mean, all the training and all the dog hair in the house and everything else over that black lab, all of a sudden, she got to see what that dog was born to do, was to fetch ducks and blow the whistle and handle it out to long retrieve and do stuff. Well, now, the next day was totally different, the wind was blowing, it was threatening rain, we didn’t go to that easy walk, we went to a blind that required walking about a quarter to a half mile across a freshly disked bean fill. And I told her, I said, all right, we’re going to go in this way, just kind of make your way this way. I’m going to hold the two boys by the collars and walk them out, get them settled in the pit blind, threaten them with death, if they get off into the water and get wet, it’s going to be cold, then I’m going to come back and get you. And as I’m getting them in the pit blind, I walked on ahead, and as I’m getting them in the pit blind, Forrest says, mama’s yelling for you. And I’m getting my blind bag off, I’m getting my shotguns down, I’m sitting them down, I’m getting everything right, here’s the flashlight, I’m going to go back and get her. I go, what is she saying? And he goes, I’m not supposed to say those words. So I get back, and she was wearing a pair of waders that were at least a size too big, and her foot kept coming out of the wader. She’s sitting there holding my daughter. So I had to hold them both by the collar, kind of had to help hold her waders, pull her waders up, sent them so they wouldn’t come off her feet, and finally get them to the blind. I do not recall her asking to go to a duck blind since, I could be wrong. But that was our – but she got to see and experience what it was all about.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: And I think it’s important, because, again, time of the blind. I know that year, as a Christmas card, one of the young men in camp, Dave that hunted with us, I handed my camera, back in those days, it wasn’t iPhones, I think, I was still using a crackberry. But I gave him a big camera and got him to take a picture, and our Christmas card was the 5 of us in a duck blind.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, how special. I feel like that is what dreams are kind of made of. Like having your whole family hunting together in a duck blind, and that’s what I’ve told my husband Trey. We’ve already got our daughter some waders, and I just told him, I’m so excited and ready for that. Like, I want it to be a family affair where we’re all doing it together. And so I think that’s just the most special thing in the world, having your whole family doing it with you.

Ramsey Russell: It is. I really can’t think – we go to Disneyland, and we all see pictures of Disneyland on, let’s say, social media or your neighbors go to Disneyland, you’re always like, oh, man, them lucky son of a gun. Here’s my take on Disneyland. When I was actually on the roller coaster, I had fun, else the rest, and those roller coaster rides don’t last but a couple of minutes, you’re out there on your feet, walking around, getting in line, fast pass or not, you’re walking and paying $12 for a Coca Cola, it ain’t fun at all. When you see a picture of Disneyland online, everybody’s smiling, but you don’t realize that literally 3.3 seconds before somebody took the picture, little Johnny got threatened with an inch of his life if he didn’t quit crying and whining, cause he’s hot and tired. But you don’t really see that in a duck blind.

Sara Burkhalter: No. It’s funny you said that, most parents do want to go to Disneyland. And look, Ramsey, if my daughter is just begging us to take her, then okay, we’re going to have to cave in and take her. But I never actually went as a little girl the first time, and only time that my dad said, he said he would never go back, and I said I would never go back. But now that I have kids, I can’t say never because they may want to go. But I went when I was in 9^th grade because I got UCA or All American Cheerleader, so I went and did the parade there and cheered. But, yeah, it was not my cup of tea. I love the cheering aspect of it, but the crowds and everything else like you’re talking about, it was not my cup of tea.

Ramsey Russell: I actually smuggled in a little bourbon. A buddy of mine that went down to Disneyland, I hope I don’t get arrested or criticized for saying it, but I actually brought, like, a little bottle of bourbon.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, did you really?

Ramsey Russell: He’s like, man, it’ll be fine if you’ll just bring some bourbon and get them coke and put a little bourbon in them. And I will say this, between the walking and the standing and having fun with my family, because we did have fun, I didn’t drink a drop of it. What a perfect waste of a bourbon drink to be walking and sweating around Disneyland. So I actually had enough fun that I didn’t resort to plan B, which was bourbon.

Sara Burkhalter: That’s awesome.

Ramsey Russell: And now we have been back, and nor do I want to, but I’m just saying, by comparison, there’s so many things you can do with a family that are different than sitting in a duck blind. Even if it took a little chore to get there, even if you had to go into a deer stand with my kids when they were babies, I had a strategy, because kids like to fidget and like to talk. And so what I would do is we had this little soft side ice chest that I would – we would go to Walmart or wherever, walk down to snack isle and they could get nutty buddies and them little white donuts and chocolate donuts, and just, man, we’d load it up with all kinds of carbs and then get a cold thing of milk or chocolate milk. And when we got there, out comes the coloring books, out comes the little game boys, whatever they were playing with, and just load them down with all that food. And then around 04:00 they were out like a light. I’d get to sit there by myself in the quiet and wait on deer to come out quietly. And then when the shot went off, oh, boy, they were back on their feet looking around, and got to be a part of it. But it’s still the times we spent on the front seat of the truck, driving to camp or getting them ready or sitting in a deer stand or sitting in a duck blind and believe you me, they’re going to get wet, still, we had a great time. To this day, we talk about all those memories.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me more about Sam. Who is Sam? What is Sam? Where’d you all get him? Is this you all first black lab?

The Joy of Puppy Selection: A Trip to North Alabama.

We went up north Alabama and got him from Kenny Quarter, and he still breeds labs today, and he’s got a website up and all that. So if anybody wants to go look that up. But when we got up there and I looked at those little puppies, it was over. I said, sign, sealed, delivered.

Sara Burkhalter: It is so. And look, I’ll be honest with you. And I don’t mean to call out my mom, but I listen to my mom at first. Mom, I love you, if you’re listening, I know she’s listening, she’s going to be like, really, Sara? But when my husband and I got married, Trey said, I want a lab. And so my mom said, you do not understand, Sara, we’ve always had dogs, Ramsey, like, I’m a huge dog lover, and I’m like, what’s the big deal? Like, why can’t we get a lab? And she said, that dog will chew up everything you own, including the front bumper of your car, I mean, everything. And so in my mind, I’m thinking, oh, man, like, these are terrible dogs, like, no, we don’t need a lab Trey, like, he’ll chew up everything. And we were newly married, so, of course, most of my stuff in my house, I was trying to preserve and keep nice, it was our first home. And so, anyways, well, I caved and I’m going to be honest with you. We went up north Alabama and got him from Kenny Quarter, and he still breeds labs today, and he’s got a website up and all that. So if anybody wants to go look that up. But when we got up there and I looked at those little puppies, it was over. I said, sign, sealed, delivered. I said, honey, we’re getting one. He said, well, that’s good, because we’re getting the pick of the litter. So I actually picked out Sam, and they’re puppies, so people are like, well, they’re all acting the same, but I don’t know, really, to me, when I got to looking at them, Sam just seemed excited, but also kind of chill. Some of the puppies were just constantly whimpering, and I’m like, okay, maybe that’s going to be a high maintenance dog. I don’t know. And I’m kind of looking at all of them and when I picked up Sam, I just looked at him, and I said, he’s the one. And so, I mean, and the rest is history. Like, I’m so, in love with that dog, I feel like he’s our first child, really and truly. And he’ll be 4 years coming up. Yeah, he’s just the best thing ever. And he’s been great for my kids, too. Even though he’s a little bit older, he’s not a puppy anymore, it’s been great for my kids to be able to interact with them. So, he’s something special, at least in my mind, in my heart.

Ramsey Russell: Lab puppies will chew like your mama said, everything that doesn’t chew them first. But if there’s any animal on earth that sheds more than a Labrador retriever, I don’t know what that dog is. And I had a yellow one, I didn’t pick a yellow one, it just how she showed up. I talked to the lady a million times and never thought to ask the color, I just assumed black. And you could brush that dog 20 times a day, and every time you brush her, she’d have enough hair to make a pillow or make a seat or a sofa cushion. And I had this old friend, the late Bo Forester, duck hunting buddy of mine from back when, and he had a yellow lab. And one time, just in all seriousness, he goes, well, the really great thing about a yellow lab is you don’t see the hair on your ice cubes, and I kept waiting on him to laugh.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, how funny.

Ramsey Russell: He was dead serious.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, my goodness. Now, that’s the first, I’ve never heard that. I would tell my husband, hey, maybe we should get a yellow lab next. And I feel like everybody, that’s probably listening to this, your first lab, it’s like, they’re so special to you. I feel like it’s hard to waiver to a different color, maybe or if you’ve got a female, then you’re going to be, you’re going to want probably another female. If you have a male, you’re going to want another male, just because that was your first ever lab. So I would tell him, hey, let’s get a yellow lab next. But we just want another Sam. We’re hoping that we’re going to be able to breed him, at some point, and then that way we can have one of his puppies. That’s funny though.

Ramsey Russell: Well, you know what happens sooner or later, your family’s growing, your kids are getting older, and before you know it, you don’t have one lab anymore, you got 3 or 4 right around your backyard. You got the old one, you got its replacement, you got your son’s dog, you got your daughter’s dog. And probably in the beach, you got a little long haired dachshund named Frankie barking every time a door rings, he thinks he’s fixing to and they’re all just part of your family.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. So Sam is a male labrador?

Sara Burkhalter: Yes, he is.

Ramsey Russell: Did your husband Trey train him himself?

Sara Burkhalter: No. So actually, Trey tried to a little bit, but we sent him off for training and sent him to Arkansas. And then he’s been training most recently here in Alabama, down the hat, down the road from the house, from us. But Trey works him and is really good about that. In between him sending him off to training, we’ll go out to our farm and Trey run him and do different things with him and the kids, and I’ll be out there and just watching him. And I don’t know, Ramsey, I may be wrong, I’m not an expert on this, but I feel like if you, if you can do that in between, sending your dog off to training and getting them back maybe for the hunting season, if you can just do a little bit of that with them, if you’re not able to hunt a lot with them, I feel like it still keeps them in that groove. But Sam actually just got his master title, so I’m so excited for him. And, yeah, I just couldn’t be more proud of him. So I would say it all just paid off.

Ramsey Russell: Everybody wants something different out of a retriever, you know I’m saying? And I respect it all. There’s no true guidelines because it’s so subjective, it’s so personal. My grandfather, starting back in the 40s right after World War II, began to raise Springer Spaniels, not the droopy eyed lap dogs, but the field dogs. That’s what I grew up with, and that’s what I started off duck hunting with, was a brown and white, liver and white Springer Spaniel. And I did the same thing he did. I threw tennis balls, I told him to sit, to obey, to fetch, to whatever. I actually train them later in my springer career, to quarter in front of me and flush up pheasants and things of that nature. When I got my first lab, I knew better. I knew had been around and seen what force fetch and collar conditions would do for their handling ability and for their drive and for technical aspects. And you can’t be master level, AKC master level without collar conditioning and force fetch, and I wanted that. And I’ve had dogs, great dogs, my old yellow chicken dog was not titled, but she was a great duck fetching dog. And that’s what kind of, and I did the same thing, I realized that as busy as I was traveling or working and raising a family and doing the million different things we’re called to do, there were people much better than myself that could take that animal from about month 6 or 7 and teach them technical aspects. And then as my trainer says, then I bring them home, start to duck hunt with them and ruin them because the dog really wants to play my game, not that technical game.

Sara Burkhalter: Right.

Ramsey Russell: And I’m not near the handler they are, but me personally, I want to be that guy. And something else I’ve started doing with this Char dog, Sara is, she really doesn’t get a lot of time off. If I’m home for a week, like this week, she’s off, man. She’s laying in the backyard, laying on the floor in front of the fireplace.

Sara Burkhalter: She’s living her best life.

Ramsey Russell: But if I’m gone for a month somewhere that she can’t go, Africa, Australia, wherever I put her in the trainer. And not to be trained, but so that once or twice a day, she’s let out and her body in motion, stays in motion, and she’s running barges, she’s running drills just to stay fit. I think that the old days of – for me, anyway, as much as we hunt and the expectations I have for a retriever anymore, I don’t need a couch potato. A couch potato won’t be able to perform at the level that this dog has got to perform a lot of times. She might be off in the Puget sound retrieving golden eyes and 2ft chop, or she might be running 400 yards across a barley field, or she might be neck deep in a marsh in Argentina. I mean, a dog has got to be, a dog is an athlete, they’ve got to stay an athlete. For me to let her revert to a couch potato would be kind of the sort of me walking out the door tomorrow, age 50 something years old, out of shape, and trying to go run a marathon.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: It would not be good.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah. And I think that’s a great analogy. I’ve ran, I’m no, like, amazing runner by any means, but I do enjoy running when I have time to, I don’t have much time these days. But I’ve ran a few half marathons, and that’s a perfect way to describe it. You can’t just all of a sudden like, if you ask me right now, okay, Sara, you need to go run a half marathon, well, I hadn’t been training because I just had our son in July. So, I mean, I’m not there, I’ve got to build back up if I’m going to do another one of those. So, yeah, that’s a perfect way to describe it and that’s pretty much how Trey has described it and how he feels about it.

Ramsey Russell: Sara, you grew up in west Alabama on the Ten-Top river, hunting big bucks and deep sea fishing and going out with your cousins to dove hunt, you married a duck hunter, you got your first lab, who is master titled, you’ve never duck hunted yet, so why -?

Sara Burkhalter: Don’t remind me.

Ramsey Russell: No, that’s all okay, but my question is –

Sara Burkhalter: It just eats me up.

Ramsey Russell: Why the book? Why Sam duck hunt as a children’s book? Because now you’re in construction, which is, I can’t think of a background more diametrically opposed to children’s book author. What happened? And why this book? And why the topic of this book for a children’s book?

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah, and this is where conversations going to get pretty deep. And I mean, I could talk a long time about it, but here’s my question for a lot of people. While a children’s book is not necessarily a hot commodity on most hunters minds every day, I would ask anyone, what are we all doing collectively to preserve this way of life? And if we don’t continue to encourage this generation of children who were exposed to far more at a young age, than you and I were, the joy of hunting, and what a privilege it is. My fear is that we could see in just 3 generations, kids and adults not having a desire to hunt. Now, that sounds pretty extreme, but you read different things, and you go, well, it’s possible and if 3 generations from now, if they don’t have a desire to hunt, well, Ramsey, people that perhaps want to do away with 2^nd Amendment freedoms, what happens to that? Because then there’s nobody that supports that way of life. And again, I know that that sounds extreme, but it’s a very harsh reality that we have to consider. And so, I know that I can’t sing, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, there’s a lot of things that I can’t do, I don’t have the talent to do it, but writing is one of them. And I about cannot turn on the news because it’s just so heartbreaking, the world that we live in. And so, God kind of just placed it on my heart, even though I’m a very small fish in a very large pond, what can you do, Sara, not only just to show your children that you love them, but positively impact other kids around you? What can you do? And I said, well, I can write, and it comes easily to me, so maybe that’s what I need to do. And that’s kind of where this whole idea stemmed from. But specifically, when it comes to Trey and Sam, I have actually started writing a book on my experience deer hunting with my dad. But I, as an avid dog lover my entire life as a little girl, I just think that it’s so unique. Being outdoors is a privilege and is so amazing in itself, but when you combine the outdoors with a pet, I mean, it just makes it that much more incredible. And just watching Sam and Trey and their relationship and the stories that they have, duck hunting, it just moved me to write this series. And of course, I’m going to be honest with you, I love them both so much that I said, how can I not do this to encourage kids, because they’re two of the most important people in my life next to my children and my parents and my siblings and cousins. So, yeah, that’s kind of what led me to this. And I mean, of course, I could talk on and on about it.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I guess when our own children were growing up, we read just titles and subjects that I had grown up reading myself or had read to me as a child. And I haven’t looked at contemporary children’s book titles lately, nor do I plan on it anytime soon. But I can imagine with the wokeness of today’s society, there are probably children’s book that indoctrinate the listener into gender identity or some other outlier to how I grew up. Recently, I had a friend on here from Oregon, and they pulled their kids out of school, they got 4 beautiful children, they pulled them out of school, started homeschooling and I asked them why? And they said, well, because our second grader come home one day talking about the gender identity lecture that they had gotten in second grade. I’m like, why? Children need to learn about green eggs and ham.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: They don’t need that. I think everybody listening would agree with that. But you know what I’m not familiar with in children’s titles or any hunting and fishing books. What a great way to take a child that grows up with their black lab crawling around with him and throwing the tennis ball to him and dad coming in and out, and coming in with all these beautiful ducks and showing them in the afternoon. But now, all of a sudden, that child, at his level, he’s not old enough to go to a blind, but at his level or her level, they understand that beyond being a pet and a buddy, their dog has a job. And that dad has this thing he does with grown men or women and goes out and hunts and fishes and brings these birds back in. And now, all of a sudden, at a very relatable level, they begin to understand what dad does when he’s not at work throwing a baseball with him. I mean, what a great concept in this day and age.

Returning to Basics: The Need for Outdoor Experiences.

I just want kids to get back to the basics, get back outdoors, spend time with your family, spend time with your pets. And the other cool thing about writing this children’s book is that my hope, Ramsay, is that it won’t just impact in a positive way kids that already have parents that are hunters, I want it in libraries.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah. And I mean, for me, I’m a Christian and going back a little bit to what you’re saying, our kids are just exposed to so many different things at such a young age that they shouldn’t be really exposed to, in my opinion. And I’m old school, I don’t know if you can pick up on that or not. And I think a lot of me being more old school minded is because of my dad. I just want kids to get back to the basics, get back outdoors, spend time with your family, spend time with your pets. And the other cool thing about writing this children’s book is that my hope, Ramsay, is that it won’t just impact in a positive way kids that already have parents that are hunters, I want it in libraries. I actually just signed a book this week for a library in Tennessee. I had a book signing, my first book signing on this book. And when the lady said that it was going to be in the library, I just got chills. I was like, oh, my goodness, like, this is actually going to be in a library, and here’s why. Because kids can pick up that book that have no concept of what any of this is, and maybe they’ll be inspired by it. Maybe they don’t have an opportunity to go out and experience outdoors, but they’re going to read this book and they’re going to say to themselves, when I grow up, this is what I’m going to do, and this is what I’m going to teach my own children. So, of course I want this in my mind, being a dreamer here, it would be so cool to see this in so many different hunting camps just laying around on the coffee table. But I want it to serve a greater purpose even beyond that.

Ramsey Russell: You talk about those old school values, and you were talking about being a little girl, and you’re young enough to be my own daughter. If I’d gotten started earlier, but you were talking about with the folding the chairs down in the back of the cab. I’m so old school there, there weren’t backseat chairs, you had to ride him back with the dog and hang on for dear life. Jerry said you couldn’t throw a good dog out of back pickup truck, which I believe same applies to kids. You couldn’t throw them out of a truck back in those days, we hung on running down those gravel roads, but we grew up with this sense of value and this sense of connection to the people that were raising us, to the people they associated with, to the duck blind, to the resource. And I just heard an interesting conversation I saw on all places, social media, some guys out of Arkansas talking about, it’s like this new generation, some of these new hunters are approaching duck hunting from the perspective that the resource owes them something, that maybe there’s too much take and not enough give in the world of conservation, in the world of duck hunting. And I think it’s something we’ve all got to grapple with. And it’s just like a collision of values, new values, old values, which may have something to do with the fact that kids today, whether their daddy duck country or not, don’t have an understanding at their level of the role of hunting and how hunting is still prevalent in today’s society, you’ve got to bring that back. Look, technology is wonderful, Sara. I mean, back in the 80s, I can remember a TV show with David Hasselhoff, and he’d be driving down the road in this black car that wasn’t a particular muscle car, it was made to look like a muscle car, but wasn’t a muscle car. But anyway, he would talk to his car and his car would talk back. You know what I’m saying? She was smart, like a computer. And here I am today, running down the road, what’s the population of Des Moines, Iowa? Where’s the nearest gas station? Or where can I get an omelet 11:00 at night, my truck talking back to me. There’s a lot of upside to that, but there’s a lot of downside, too. You said earlier that, it’s all about this journey, and God didn’t make screen, he made nature. And that’s where we’ve got to get society at whole. And I’ve always felt like it’s not really important to me that my neighbors hunt or that everybody hunts, but they just understand its importance to humanity and to conservation in general.

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah, I agree. I’m 100% absolutely.

Ramsey Russell: What worries you about the future of hunting? And how will your book help combat that? Like, what do you see, personally, outside of your world? Growing up with your family and hunting like you did with your cousins, that worries you about your son and daughter’s generation?

Sara Burkhalter: You really have to look at it almost from a bird’s eye view, so to speak. And the way I see it, it’s our society and culture as a whole. I feel like our jobs are so demanding. It used to be that people didn’t answer emails on the weekend, and I feel like a lot of us do that, and that’s okay. It may be that you have to do that. My dad and uncle starting our business, they had to work a lot of weekends, but they did what they had to do to survive and to build up this company that we’re so fortunate enough to now own and run. And I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing, but what I’m saying is, historically speaking, it’s just different. It’s like the demands are so different from a work perspective and even a sporting perspective, you have all these travel ball teams, which is great, it’s admirable. Like, I’m sure my son’s going to want to do that. I think it’s great. But there’s that saying of there’s too much of a good thing sometimes. And I worry about the balance, that’s my biggest thing is, how my kids are going to balance, the demands and all the different options and things that they can be a part of and make sure that they’re still enjoying the outdoors. That’s my concern. It really boils down to the hustle and bustle. It’s just different.

Ramsey Russell: Is it important to you that your children be hunters?

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, yeah. It I definitely want them to be. Because it goes back to that theory of, if we’re not instilling these values into them, then 3 generations from now, they will have no desire to hunt, they may have no concept of hunting or fishing. And this is going to sound maybe crazy, too, but my parents and I have talked about it before. I feel like everybody in America needs to know how to grow their own crops and go out and get their own meat. You think about COVID should have taught everybody, and I don’t want to get into that, but it should have been a wake up call for everybody of, wow, this is how quickly our world can just shut down and change. And I think that that’s important, Ramsey, that we know we have those skills and we know how to do those things. But going back to that thought, if we’re not teaching our kids that, then who’s going to teach them that, and if we’re not teaching our kids values that are important and these relationships that are important and the outdoors that are important, it kind of goes back to what you’re saying. The world is going to tell them how they need to act, what they need to do, who they need to be, instead of us as parents, loving them and instilling those values in them. So, yeah, it is very important for me that they do that and that they teach their kids that way of life, too.

Ramsey Russell: Have you read Sam’s First Duck Hunt to your own children and what they think of it?

Sara Burkhalter: Yeah. So they love the pictures and that the journey to getting this book printed and in hand is a whole another story.

Ramsey Russell: I was going to ask you about the process. How do you go from construction to a published children’s book?

Sara Burkhalter: Well, I’ll be honest with you. Okay, there’s two different ways to go about this. Some people think, oh, it’s just easy to write a book. You see all these people that are famous just writing books, and they’re just out there in the world. Well, if you self publish and you can do your own illustrations, if it’s a children’s book, then, yeah, it’s probably a lot easier than the route that I took. But I didn’t want to self-publish because I don’t want to say I’m a perfectionist, but some people kind of call me that. I like things to be right. And so I wanted it to be right, I wanted the process to be right. I wanted to know that it had proper copyright and that it was printed properly. And so, for me, it took more than an entire year to make Sam’s First Duck Hunt a reality. Now, the book took me maybe an hour to write, or less. I mean, I wrote it out pretty quick, it just kind of came to me. But it was the illustrations and pursuing my dreams of the details in the book that took so long. So I actually began working with my illustrator in September of 2022. But finding that perfect illustrator, Ramsey, it was like a needle and a haystack. And here’s why, it was the combination of it. I had to find somebody not only passionate about dogs, like, okay, well, that’s the first criteria. But then someone that had the right illustration style, that was my second criteria. And then on top of that, I had to find an illustrator that had a background or understanding of hunting. Literally, it felt like a needle in a haystack. I cannot tell you how many messages and kind of ads I put out there to all these different people, that were in these illustration groups or forums or websites, trying to just find the right person. And this is how overwhelming it got to me. I started keeping a spreadsheet on excel of all these people, and then I just gave up. I said, okay, we’re just going to start firing off messages to whoever. And so when Tim Williams actually emailed me, I was like, wait, did I message him? That’s how, like, overwhelming it was for me. And so when I finally got on the phone with him, I said, Tim, how did you get my email? He said, well, you messaged me. I said, I did? Because I messaged him through one of these websites. And so I just remember that, honestly was an answer to prayer. And I mean, some people may think that that’s silly, but this is a dream of mine, to write these books. And I actually prayed about it for a long time because I was stuck. I had the story, I had the images in my head even written out of what I wanted every page to look like. But how was I going to bring it to life without an illustrator? And so I then remember telling my dad, it would just be a dream come true if I could have, Mossy Oaks original bottomland in my sand book. And of course, growing up, I’m going to be honest with you, I got all of my camo was hand me downs from my brothers and cousins. But I still, to this day, for me personally, that is just my favorite camo. And here’s why. It’s because I have memories and associations with the Mossy Oak original bottomland camo. When I see that, I think of all these different memories hunting with my own dad. And so, I just thought, gosh, that would be so cool. And I just said it, Sara, you can just forget about that. Like, that’s just not going to happen, like you’re reaching too far for something. And so then my husband said, well, let’s go to NWTF. We had been before. And I said, okay. And he said, print off some prints and maybe we could give them to his buddy Rob. And this whole time, I’m thinking, okay, Rob, we’re going to get there, and I’m just going to hand off some prints, they weren’t even in color, and I didn’t even have all of them. But I said, okay, we’ll just hand them off to Rob, and maybe he’ll hand them off to somebody in marketing. And I said, that person in marketing’s probably going to get them and they’ll get pushed up under a pile because I’m sure they get so many request of different things. And so I really didn’t have a lot of faith. Well, we get there, we meet up with Rob, and then all of a sudden, he goes, oh, well, hey, let me introduce you to Caroline Hayes and Daniel and Ramsey, my eyes just got big and I mean, I started sweating and shaking in my boots, and I was like, I was not prepared for this. Like, I was like, what? I said, wait, what? And he said, yeah, like, I think that they would be interested in this. And so I walk over and I introduce myself to Caroline, and she is literally the sweetest, most down to earth soul I’ve ever met. And it was like talking to one of my best friends about my books, once I started talking to her about what I wanted and why I wrote it and how excited I was about it. And so, then I met Daniel, and he was excited. And I remember after we talked, I was like, wow, that just happened. So there’s a maybe chance, but I don’t know. Well, then she came back and grabbed me right before we walked off from their area, and she said, hey, can I have these prints? And I was like, oh, my goodness. Yeah, like, take them. And then I thought, oh, Sara, like, these aren’t even in color, you don’t even have them all printed all, like, they are jumbled, they don’t even have numbers on them. And I was just like, God, like, what an idiot, Sara, like, what are you thinking? But it was just because Ramsay, like, I really didn’t think that it was going to be possible. And so I was just so humbled by their kindness, by their generosity, by their excitement for this series. And another thing I did after that, it kind of gave me a little boost of encouragement. I’d met Spence and Lindy Halford, and he owns rolling Thunder Game Calls. And Lindy and I got to talking a little bit there, and I realized she and I both share a love for education. So I’d gotten her number, and so I text her and said, look, Lindy, I’m going to go out on a limb here. My husband particularly loves their duck calls, particularly the brute. And so I said, okay, can I do that? Can I include one of the duck calls in this book? And when I got their approval and they were just so excited and overjoyed about it, I was like, what? Like, is this really happening? And I think that is a testament to this whole community, the whole outdoor hunting, fishing community. It’s very supportive and they’re both, big brands, big companies, I’m sure they get a lot of requests just like you, and you can’t get to all of them, but just having their support and them allowing me to include them in this book because those are details that make this book special to me. And I like to make my books as authentic as possible, and that’s why I wanted to include those things. So now that it’s finally in hand, I’m just like, is this real life? Because I dreamed of this for so long. So it’s really cool to see.

Ramsey Russell: What next, Sara?

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, man. Okay. Well, I’ve written several books in the Sam series. I have written, honestly, Ramsey, I’d have to go back and count. I think I’ve written since I started writing in 2021, right after my daughter was born. I think I’ve written about maybe 18, 19 different children’s books. So, you can’t release them all at once, and things take time. So, my hope is that, is that people find Sam’s First Duck Hunt to just be a memorable, enjoyable book that they get to keep and read to their kids. And I hope that people will enjoy it so much that I’ll say, okay, now I can publish the next one. And I have already talked to Tim. He is a very busy man, but he has agreed already to put me on his books for 2024, and we’re going to start on the next one. So there will be more coming, Lord willing.

Ramsey Russell: Fantastic. I know the book, I’ve got, I went through it and we put it in our children’s book collection, and it’ll be there when and if we ever have grandkids to read it to.

Sara Burkhalter: Oh, yeah.

Ramsey Russell: It’ll be very important to us that our kids and grandchildren get to read it. Sara, I appreciate you coming on. I really appreciate hearing your story, and I’m very proud of what you turned out, and especially in this day and age, I’m very proud to see something like this come on. I’m very happy to see that duck hunters, and hunters in general, people trying to raise kids that aren’t being introduced to the values that we were all raised with. I’m glad to see here comes an opportunity where they can sit down and read green eggs and ham, but they can also read about duck hunting to kind of explain to their kids, in a very relatable way, what it is they do and what it is they can look forward to when they get old enough to go out with dad and join them in a duck blind. I think it’s just a glimmer of hope in today’s world, and I appreciate you doing this.

Sara Burkhalter: Well, Ramsay, I can’t thank you enough. I’m still shocked that you wanted to get on a call and talk to me about it. And I’m just very humbled that you thought enough of this book and the mission of this, series to even talk to me. So I just can’t thank you enough. I really appreciate it. And it was great talking to you too, because my husband talks about you, and I’ve seen your videos, and it’s like, wow, I’m really talking to the real Ramsay. I mean, I know that sounds weird, but it’s like, whoa, like, I’m really talking to him. Well, I just can’t thank you enough. So really, it’s means a lot to me. I appreciate it.

Ramsey Russell: Sara, how can the listener get in touch with you, connect with you, and get their hands on a copy of Sam’s First Duck Hunt, either for their own children or for their buddy’s kids or whatever else? How can they get in touch with you?

Sara Burkhalter: So I’ve got a website, it’s slburke.com, and that stands for Sara Lavender Burkhalter. But my name’s too long, so I had to shorten the website just to slburke.com. And I’ve got an Instagram page and a Facebook page, and my website is in the bio of my Instagram, so it’s pretty easy to find there. And then there’s a contact tab on my website where people can email me, get in touch with me, but I get DM’s on Instagram a good bit so people can reach out to me there too. But, yeah, I’m honored. And I will say this. I’ve had a few people that have bought the book, and they’ve sent me messages or text or shared about how much they loved it on social media or however they could reach out to me. And I would love that. Like, I actually want to know what people think about it. So anybody that wants to do that and share their experience reading it to their kids or grandkids with me, I would just be overjoyed to see that.

Ramsey Russell: Folks, thank you all for listening to this episode of Mojo’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, Sam’s First Duck Hunt, a children’s book that your kids will like, that your neighbor’s kids will like, that your grandkids will like, buy it for posterity if you need to. But I promise you, what a glimmer of hope with all these folks trying to put their non-traditional value agendas onto our children. What a great way to expose them to what is so important to me and you. You can go to slburk.com to get your hands on a copy. Thank you all for listening to this episode of Mojo’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, we’ll see you next time.

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