(00:00:05) - Welcome to the Sparky Life podcast with Leila Mela. I share with you my electrical journey experiences through engaging banter with those I've met along the way. If you're interested in trade tales, an industry fraught with excitement and risk. Subscribe and be notified every Thursday when trade tales continue.
I hate the cold. Like, I very seriously hate the cold. I think I have PTSD from the cold. At the time of this recording, I was working on a job site running conduit in 32 degree Fahrenheit weather conditions, which is the equivalent to zero degrees Celsius. And at this construction site, the general contractor was supposed to provide us with heaters, which to my knowledge was never done. I left that job site and this isn't the first job site where conditions were unfortunately like this. Hence why I say I'm traumatized by the cold. I. I was reading a book bulletproof by every populace. Pump, pump alerts. Uh, geez. She literally hates it when people get her last name wrong. I apologize.
(00:01:30) - I'm so sorry. I'm butchering it anyway. In the book, she talks about working in extreme conditions when she was a part of the Secret Service and protecting the president, how she had to work in bitter cold conditions and that she has this adverse reaction now to the cold. So I can really and I know many of my comrades can relate. Skilled tradesmen often have to work in harsh weather conditions. Okay, I'm sidetracked. It's an amazing book. Highly recommend, by the way. I put it in the show notes. Today is speculative. Our guest, Shilo Cody, is not a part of the construction career community. However, she does have some skilled trades abilities and finds herself in a male dominated field. Shiloh is a huntress, an instructor who is an outdoor female mentor. Where I live currently close to the mountains. And I got to tell you, mountain's not my thing. However, today's guest, it is most definitely her thing. The reason this conversation came to Sparky life. When I was speaking to Shiloh, I noticed there was a dichotomy between her experience as a hunter and my experience in the trades.
(00:03:04) - Sparky Life would love to welcome Shiloh Cody. Shiloh is also certified in firearm safety. NRA Shotgun, Certified Basic Hunters, Education Certified Archery and Shiloh primarily hunts turkey, deer and bear. Shiloh does not have a problem with the mountains or the cold. She is fierce and endures the elements to embrace her passion as a hunter. Welcome. We are so happy to have Shiloh Cody with us today. Shiloh. You are an amazing huntress. I just love saying that word Huntress. Sexy, right? Yeah, It's fierce. It's fierce. What it is you hunt. Even though I kind of let that secret out of the bag already. I give them a deep dive into what it is you actually do. Sure. So I began hunting deer initially. And then I learned how to hunt turkey. This was about nine years ago now. And then last year, I had what you would refer to as a crash course in black bear hunting in Saskatchewan, Canada. Oh, yeah. You are brave. Oh, it was scary.
(00:04:30) - It was scary. That is a challenge for sure. Yeah, it was. It was the most exhilarating week hunting that I've ever experienced. And just being that close to Wild bears was purely like 15ft above them. And they are not hesitant to be curious and come over to the tree and try to climb it. Yeah, that's why I say kid, they climb up very quickly. Yeah, I had about 60 hours in a tree. Different tree stands that week, so lots and lots of time is put in. Talk about endurance. Holy cannoli. Wow, that's impressive. That's amazing. I wanted to get involved in hunting as we initially started to speak, as we, of course, connected online. And I wanted to get involved with Hunting because I love fishing. And I thought, well, if I enjoy fishing, I'm surely going to enjoy hunting. And I like the idea of killing the deer and then being able to eat what I killed. It feels. Authentic and natural and very rewarding.
(00:05:47) - Yes, yes, yes. That's an excellent description. But funny enough, as we were discussing hunting, a lot of things popped up that actually related to construction careers and being in a male dominated environment. And what you said about makeup was just mind blown. I was like, Holy cow, this makes so much sense. I'm totally going to say that the next time a guy says something to me about me wearing makeup or women wearing makeup in the trades, that really opened my eyes. So I've gotten that a lot. Um, even when I was little, I mean, I would be playing in the backyard and, you know, my mom would say, Oh, we're going to go to the store or something. And I'd run in the house and I've always had really long hair. So I would run in the house and comb my hair. And my aunt was often around with my two cousins that were close in age to my brother and I. She named me Little Miss Princess, and I just went like, Well, whatever, whatever.
(00:06:58) - Like you're grooming yourself. I don't know. It's like cleanliness. Yeah. So that's always been very much how I've been. I mean, my mom told me that if I was going to have long hair, I had to take care of it. When I was a teenager, I did plumbing and heating with my dad for two summers in a row when I was about 16 or 17 years old. And that was interesting. You definitely did dip your toe into the trades for sure. Yeah. And even like I got a picture of myself when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old helping my dad mix concrete. And I got cowgirl boots on and braided ponytails and in the driveway helping him mix concrete. That's adorable. I want that photo. I haven't handed it to me. I'm totally posting it. And then, you know, then as I got older, I was always boiling when I was around 15 to like 17, 18 years old. And it was all boys in the neighborhood, my brother and his friends.
(00:07:57) - And they're just whatever, it was fun getting out in the woods and it was exhilarating. Going fast on the four Wheeler and camping and like, I grew up in Girl Scouts. I had about eight years in Girl Scouts, and my leaders were former military women. So they were hardcore. I mean, we camped a lot. That kind of sounds awesome because my short Girl Scout experience sucked. It was like baking cookies and going door to door selling cookies. And that was like, that was it. We got badges for doing jack shit. Yeah, it was terrible. So that's why I think it's like it's all about the leaders. The leaders really make a difference in what the kids are going to experience because they're the ones that are mentoring these kids. So, you know, fast forward to my early, early 20s. I was very traditional as well. You know, I started climbing trees when I was like eight, playing in the backyard and such, but also playing house sort of in a sense with my brother and my cousins and in the chicken coop that we had cleaned out.
(00:09:02) - And I was creative. Yeah, I had, you know, like a small picnic table and the plastic plates and the fake food. And then we'd be real food and we'd make mud pies with the berries. And so always, always being outside, my mom always sent us outside, whether it was raining or sunny or snowing out, literally just get outside, dress for it. So so that's what we did. So by the time I was in my 20s, it was very much like family orientated. Like I really wanted a family. I've been babysitting since I was ten, so always taking care of lots of the kids in the neighborhood. And I really wanted the family. So I was fortunate enough to be able to have a family. I had three children with their dad and by the time they got through school and through scouts, it just reignited that activity of being out in the outdoors. I got to go kayaking with my boys and the Boy Scout troop like overnight sleeping on the side of a river in Vermont.
(00:09:59) - My daughter does a lot of camping and like I was kind of the outdoor coordinator, if you will, for our troop, just trying to get the girls outside and doing hikes and stuff. And then like the other two Co-leaders had their roles. One was a cookie mom and one was like the primary leader. Where are you located? Because right now I'm like, This sounds like a dream. Like it sounds beautiful. I love it. I am in central Mass, Massachusetts, Massachusetts now, like on the New Hampshire border. So there's lots of mountains still nearby. Yes, but not too far from the ocean, which but I favor the lakes. My boat's in the lake, so it's just nice to be on the lake. I favor the ocean. Yeah. I don't have as much endurance as you do when it comes to the mountain. But in the ocean I got my mermaid tail on. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you got me there. I can't. I can't. I don't like to swim in the ocean.
(00:10:54) - I get seasick on the boat as a matter of fact I've tried, like, five times to go deep, deep sea diving. I've caught a cod. I did catch a cod, and then I got sick. Oh, no. But also my 20s. I wanted to have a family. And I did. And their scouts really just got me back into the outdoors. And I was very involved and it just really reignited that. So I was working at a hotel nearby one evening in December. Whenever it was November, December, it was during hunting season for deer. Yes. And this group of women came through and I was checking them in and they had gun cases. And I said to them, you know, I want to know what you ladies are doing. This looks really fun. Like, what are you guys up to? So they told me that they were going hunting the next morning nearby, and it was a women's program, mentored. And I got the business card of one of them and set it aside.
(00:11:50) - I was really intrigued by it all. About six months later, I'm cleaning up stuff in my room and it comes across the business card. So I reached out to her and I was like, If you remember me, She did of course, right away. And so I found out what I needed to do, like apply for my LTC, and sign up for Hunter's education. I was doing Hunter's Ed after I got out of work and it was like four days. Wow. It's intense. It's more intense than I would anticipate. So I would leave. I found the one closest to my job, which was almost an hour away so I could scoot over there after working all day and then do that and then was able to get my hunter's ed certificate in. So nerve wracking. I was one of four women in the class and it was probably, yeah. How big was the class? At least 35 people. I will talk about the disparity there. Yeah. And I was just like, whatever, whatever.
I'm here to do this. I want to do this. That was it. So then I signed up for the Becoming an Outdoors Woman program, and I got in on the deer hunt, mentored, missed my mama's 90th birthday party to sit out in the sleet and rain to hunt Deer didn't see any. It was insane. I was like, I can't believe I'm doing this, But because I had been so pre exposed to the elements and just dressing well for that, I was able to get through it. So then dedication was determined so badly. So then I went a couple more times that season with some of the women that I met in that group, and then I signed up with the turkey hunt the following spring and got a turkey within minutes of legal light. It was insane. It was. So the adrenaline rush is just hearing them gobble and interacting with them with a turkey. Calling that my mentor Phil was doing. I'm looking at the picture of myself carrying it up the hill.
It's almost as long as I was, it was like £19. It was so much fun. And I've actually enjoyed turkey hunting more than deer hunting because you don't have control and you don't have to wear orange. Orange? Not your color, huh? Yeah. Yeah. It's a hard color. I don't like it so much. Yeah. So I've been turkey hunting as my passion ever since. And that's why I had named my outdoor page strutting her stuff. Because struttin with the turkey stripe and, yes, just wanting to share all of that and like everything that I kind of get the opportunity to learn. And it just wanted to make sure that I could share that because I feel like there's a lot of people that don't know how to start. Yes. Or different ways to tweak things to stay with it when I tell everybody. So now I'm also a Hunter Ed instructor, of course, and I tell everybody in my classes that I get to be part of that. If you really like this, stick with it.
It's totally worth it if you really like it. Yeah, I love your outlook on femininity in a predominantly male environment. And I love what you told me about the makeup. Your response to that guy? Please share again, please. It's just that some people don't comprehend or make sense of why going out in the woods with makeup on makes sense. And I just look at it as though you wouldn't tell a guy that shaves every morning to not shave if it's just. It's just my routine. It's grooming, It's routine. It makes you feel good. Why not? Yeah. And you're out there and then afterwards, you know, you might go out for, like, a celebratory breakfast or. You know, Boger had lunch with somebody else that might be hunting and whether they're with you or you just meet up and then you go back to your separate ways. Like it's still so much of our identity, like of my identity, particularly, that it's not that I wouldn't, it's just that it's my routine and up and just the normal routine that I have in the morning, whether it's 330 in the morning or 630 in the morning.
Right. That resonated with me so much. I felt it was so empowering because I hear from the guys in the trades, they're like, Well, the women who show up with their makeup on and they have in their heads that by putting makeup on, it's to attract that right? They make it about them. It's not about you. It's not about you, buddy. It's like our grooming, our way of taking care of ourselves. And just like you said, about shaving their beard and trimming themselves up, I mean, guys go hunting and they don't look like grizzly bears. I mean, like all of them. Not all of them. There's a majority that, like, are clean. And a lot of the trade guys tell me that one of the biggest myths that bother them that people perceive about construction careers is that they're big, hairy, dirty men and that they don't think that cleanliness is not important to them. So it would just make sense to look at it from the point of view of grooming and taking care of yourself.
And we were also speaking about leaning into your femininity in those environments. Yeah, so there's a lot of compassion that comes with the process of killing an animal and. If it's taken on the outlook of you wanting the biggest deer, you're only going to shoot the biggest deer, or you're not pleased with the deer or the turkey that you shoot. That's not that's not something that is inclusive of compassion or just placement of how things can occur in nature. So, for example, last hunting season, last year's season, and I had two antler tags. So I thought, well, I could take him and I could take another one of the big ones that I've been watching on camera. And so I just decided I'm like, You know what? He's given me a perfect shot twice now. Why not? It's meat in the freezer and it's helping with population control. And I've got a legal right and an ethical ability to take it right. So I did. And it was the same feeling that I felt when I took the largest turkey I've ever taken last spring.
(00:18:38) - And that was my largest turkey at £23.5. But then here is a spike. Buck Yeah, here's the spike buck That was the equivalent of the first deer that I had shot four years prior. So it's like, Well, this is what I've got. This is what's a perfect shot. It's the ideal situation is really what it was. Didn't end up being the biggest one. But you know what? Those big deer, those big bucks, they don't get big by being stupid. Well, I could imagine that's the case when you talk about compassion, that makes me think of empathy. And in construction careers and the trades, unfortunately, I don't see a lot of empathy. And I think that's one of the construction culture's downfalls. Having compassion and having empathy for your coworkers derives a successful team. When you hunt and you hunt in groups. Are you hunting as a team? Yes. I've hunted a group as large as three for turkey and for deer. It involved my mentor that I now call a very close friend of mine and we hunt at least once every turkey season.
(00:19:53) - And then my friend Lisa, she used to hunt with her father when she was younger and she was very interested in getting back in it. So I told her about the Becoming an Outdoors Woman program and she did the seminars. And so it's awesome to have such a close girlfriend that is very much interested in this activity and I get to talk to her about it and we get to share our stories. And so that's incredibly valuable. One of the things we struggle with in the trades is the imbalance between how many female trades we have as opposed to how many male. And a lot of the women feel isolation. I would give anything to have a female companion on my crew to be able to work with or be mentored by a female electrician would be a wonderful experience and I yearn for it. So I can relate and how such a beautiful thing to have. Yeah. Another friend of mine, Olivia, last fall. She's a police officer in a town nearby. And so I took her out there after she had gone through the Becoming Outdoors Woman program.
(00:21:08) - I think this was the first Massachusetts birth that she had taken and she was an excellent student. So the birds came from different angles. Like I had my decoys on one side and I thought, Oh, they're going to come from this direction. And they didn't. They came around the ridge and they came in from our right side. And I told her, I said, I let the one in front, you know, get out far enough and then you can shoot it so that it's not next to the one. There were two hens coming in. She took that shot about ten, 12 yards and mine, the one that I shot, went off in the distance a little bit and I said, Just sit. I said, You watch. I've seen this happen before when I was hunting with my son. Gregory. So the other one came back around kind of like, Oh, you okay? Like what happened to my friend? And so she came about 20 yards and I shot her. It was awesome.
(00:21:59) - And then we went to breakfast. We went to breakfast and we had, you know, like our camo on. And it happened with my friend Lisa actually. We had gone to breakfast and I think I had had face paint on maybe, and it was right around Halloween and the waitress was like, Oh, I like your costumes. That's not a costume. That's the thing. Go grab breakfast afterwards, have a little celebratory moment, talk about what really worked well and what surprised us because the animals never do exactly as we predict, just from scouting them and watching them. When it's not hunting season, they are always, always going to surprise you in which direction, what they're going to do. Did you get any pushback from the guys at all when you embarked on this passion of yours? Um, I did get some of. Yeah, I'd love to see you out a deer. You're going to throw up and it's gross and you're not going to be able to do that. And that kind of chatter and then some of, um, you know, you're going to sit out there in the dark.
(00:23:10) - Are you going to be afraid? So how did you handle those comments? What was your approach? Well, with the throwing up, as I was fielding a deer, I go, yeah, I might, but I'm going to still do it. I don't know. I might vomit, but I'll get through it. Right? And I did. I ended up not throwing up, but I got through it. I mean, I, um. The first year that I got, I called my gun club president, and he met me out on the trail that I was on, and he talked me through it. So that was awesome. Great support. Yeah. And with the turkey that was just like a Thanksgiving turkey that was not really that hard. You know, the breast out, the meat. It wasn't really that hard at all. And then I learned a couple years after that how to take the legs off and keep the leg meat, which a lot of people don't keep.
Other than that, mostly it's been the stores, it's been the retail side. Yeah, interesting. I mean, just last year I was at a particular outdoor store and I was looking at crossbow cases for my dad because I got my dad back into hunting, which was awesome. I was so happy that he was excited to do that again. So he has a crossbow and I was looking at the cases and the salesperson came over and he said to me, Oh, what are you looking for? And I said, I was just curious to see if this hard case fit a ten point. He goes, or I said, I was curious about this hard case. He says, Oh, what does your husband use? Well, I don't have a ring on that finger. And it doesn't mean that it's not for me. Right, Right. So the automatic assumption, yeah, I was like, what is No, What do you mean? That was probably the most recent. It was just last year.
And I just thought they might put pictures on your wall over there with my big turkey. Like, I want to pay attention to you. Really? Like talking about putting your foot in your mouth. Holy. So because I had actually worked there many, many years ago, just because I was so excited about the outdoor aspect, that wasn't long term. So I went back into my financial trade of employment with my heels and my dresses and my makeup and, you know, then on Saturdays or on my day off, I'd throw my camo on and my boots on and be in the woods for the entire day. So being as though Sparky life has everything to do with trade tales and construction careers, in an expression of an analogy, what tool is in your tool belt? It would definitely be determination and motivation. This is something that I mean anybody is interested in. It's just like a trade. Learn about it. Find out if it's something that supports your desires. And if it is, just figure it out so that you can do it and make it happen.
(00:26:04) - Go after it. Yes, absolutely. I love that. That's fantastic. And what would you recommend to people who struggle with determination? Find somebody to go with. It's just like, you know, it's just like having a good working crew, like you had mentioned, just having those people around you that are supportive and trying to, you know, like I tell the classes for Turkey, we just held that class a couple weeks ago. It's really hard to get out of bed at 3:00 in the morning. It's really easy to talk yourself into staying in bed. Find somebody to go with and to have that dependability like they're dependent on you. So it makes you more accountable to get out there and do it. It's just like going to work. If you don't like who you are around and who you're working with, you just are not going to be happy and you might look for something else. But with this, when you have similar focused people to interact, I mean, you're sitting there at 430 in the morning texting your hunting buddy.
You could be five towns away, you know, Hey, you settled in. Have you heard any gobbles yet? Like the sun is not even up yet. And you're texting people at 430, 5:00 in the morning. You know, you don't don't you don't do that. Like if you have a friend that's a hunter or a hundreds, you know, like, oh, they're up there, They should be out here. But again, this correlation with the trades is crazy because guess what? Construction workers, most of the time we're up at 330 in the morning and a lot of my coworkers, I'm texting and it's usually if if we're riding to a certain location or going to a certain site like, you know, have you hit any traffic, there's something to look out for. You getting started off okay, that kind of thing. So I can totally relate. That's really wild. And when you have the passion for it, you love what you're doing. You wake up, Oh, yeah, you get up, it's worth it.
I've been getting up at 4: 15 for the last couple of weeks and I was like, What is happening right now? It's like, Oh, it's my spring internal clock coming back into play because it knows it's turkey season coming. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you so much for being with us, Shiloh. I really appreciate it. It's wonderful speaking to you again. Enjoyed it. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Leah. And I'll put all your contact information below in the show notes. Wonderful. Thanks so much. We'll get you hunting soon enough. Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Shiloh. She shares with us one of the timeless lessons we've covered here on Spark Life. Don't curb your femininity just to fit in. If wearing makeup gives you confidence or even if it's just a part of your daily routine, own it. Otherwise, if you're putting aside a part of yourself in order to meet other people's expectations, you're going to feel even less comfortable entering into a new field or trying something new.
Come at it as yourself. You are enough and allow that to shape your genuine experience and impression. What new experience are you going to come at as your authentic self? Thank you for joining us. If you felt a spark in today's episode, I invite you to write a review. I'd love to hear what lit you up. Take what resonates with you, and if you'd like to hear more of the Spark life, please subscribe like follow and share. Until next time, create the sparks in your life.