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Where food opens the door to conversations about craft, culture & tradition.
The Wild Kitchen Ep 5 Tana Grenda
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Tiffany Bader: [00:00:00] My guest today is Tana Brenda, a Bush pilot back country hunter, author and health coach who lives with her family in a remote area of Southwest Alaska. Thank you for joining me today on the Wild Kitchen, Tana.
Tana Grenda: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah, it's, uh, it's good to see you again. I haven't seen you since, uh, the first time I met you at, uh, your Wild Women Rendezvous in Idaho.
Um, I, I've signed up again for this year. It was like, it was just an awesome time. What really blew you away was the, like, the quality and caliber, pardon the pun, of the women that not only attended the event, but who, who were there as instructors running the show. Like I, it, it was. It was insane. I've never been surrounded by such an incredible group of women in my entire life, and it just got me thinking like, what [00:01:00] is it, like, how do you surround yourself with, with people like that?
Tana Grenda: Yeah. Well, first of all, you make me sound really cool. Did you hear that ding?
Tiffany Bader: I did. Yeah. It's all good. It shouldn't, it shouldn't show up, but you know, just in case. Okay. Yeah.
Tana Grenda: I'll go back to a thing.
Tiffany Bader: Okay.
Tana Grenda: First of all, really cool. In your intro. That sounds good. Second of all, um, I don't know why I just feel emotional today.
So even you just saying the few good things that you did about the rendezvous, I teared up a little bit, but thirdly, I mean, it's, it's taken a lot of years to get here and there was a lot of stress honestly, with the first year of me doing this and finding the right people and I had to go through some hard.
Trials of like cutting some people out that were toxic and bringing in the right ones. So you saw the best, the best last year after the couple years of like pain and agony [00:02:00] of Thes prior that I went through for a couple years finding the right people, because you know, sometimes you think you've got the right people and they're uplifting and they're like experts.
And then you put 'em in a setting with a bunch of women and then there's like drama and stuff and like, I'm not a drama person, so anytime I have that I'm like, okay, you're gone. You're out. So I guess I had to be very authentic to myself of what I wanted, the feel to be for the rendezvous. And I stood true to that and I broke hearts and I lost friends and I went through some hard couple of years to get there, but I know it was worth it because it, it brings the right people.
To that event and then we can all have a more positive experience. And it was incredible. Just like you said, like last year I was going into it, I was stressed, I was worried 'cause it was a couple years of just really hard like trying to figure it out. And then last year it was just amazing. I was like, okay, I have to do [00:03:00] this again.
Because
Tiffany Bader: yeah,
Tana Grenda: all of this hard work made it worth it and it's only gonna get better from here. And it's very important for me to be surrounded by so many incredible women and. Like they came from all over the world. I mean, you know, Canada and all over the US and we even had a gal come from Spain and then in my Alaska retreat a couple weeks later, I had a gal come from the Netherlands.
I mean, it's so cool to connect with these women from all over and we're all very like-minded and that's really cool because growing up I didn't have women like that in my life. I mean, my mom was, but I didn't have friends my age that liked being outdoors and would rather go kill an elk or go cook wild game instead of like go out to fancy restaurant in are pretty dresses.
You know? Like I just, I couldn't really find women like that. So I've been really blessed with hosting these retreats and making sure that I stay authentic to what I want it to feel like [00:04:00] that I feel like we've just called in the right people and I've met a ton of people through social media and. I dunno.
I guess I just, I, I know when I meet someone, if they're gonna be experts in, in what they do or I've like learned from them in some capacity, I'm like, she would be really good to teach this. And so now we've just created, I feel like the dream team kind of like, um, the Avengers of the outdoors.
Tiffany Bader: It's funny you say that.
It's funny you say that. 'cause I was lying in bed last night and I was like, it is literally like, and, and take this with a grain of, well no, don't take it with a grain of salt. But I literally use that term in my head, like, it's like the Avengers of, of instructors there. Yeah. I'm like, oh no. Like I hate the Avengers.
I've gotta find a better curve. Like, I don't like the Avengers movies, but it That is a hundred percent what? It's right. Like there's, yeah, there're just like so many, like so many different skill sets, so many different things. [00:05:00] Zero ego as well, and which is so uncommon, uh, because there's so, like, there's so much ego in, in instructors, especially when it comes to things like firearms.
Tana Grenda: Mm-hmm.
Tiffany Bader: Um, and hunting. Like it's, there's a lot of like banging your hands on your chest sort of, sort of situations going on with instructors. And there was none of that. Like they genuinely were there for a good time. They genuinely wanted to see people successful and happy. And like, like one of the things I did, uh, was a our tree hunt with Alicia.
Yeah.
And there was like hugs and tears and everyone, like, I have never been so genuinely happy for someone to harvest an animal in my life.
Tana Grenda: Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: Than when Dina got her her elk. Like, yeah. Ever. It's just like, people are so happy. And I, I think that was like 99.9% because of that environment that you fostered there with like, just.
Everyone was there for the right [00:06:00] reasons. And if there was even a smidge of bull, it was snuffed out very quickly and mm-hmm. You know, people were encouraged to, to, you know, support people.
Tana Grenda: Yeah. I mean, imagine some people would think like, okay, 50 to 60 women in one area, disaster. Yep. Like so many different, like alphas, women, you know, all of us are very like alpha, but what's cool in the kind of en environment that we like to foster is that it doesn't matter what skill level you are.
Like, you could, like Dina, you could have never, ever shot anything with your bow before. Or Alicia, she shot like 10. Three 20 plus bulls with her bow, you know? And it doesn't matter because we all want to see each other succeed and we're all at the same level playing field. When you get in that environment and you have the right people and when everyone has a positive [00:07:00] attitude and they, they have like that team mindset.
Yeah. Not just, this is about me, but like this is about the team, this is about everybody, and I think that that is just so incredibly special to find and Im, I don't know, impossible. Like you, you'd think it'd be a disaster, but it's really incredibly powerful when you bring all those women together.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Oh, a hundred percent. It like, I remember my husband, like three or four days prior to the event start, he's like, Hey, I saw this event, I think you should do it. I was like. What? I don't know. It's in Idaho. It's like in three days. I don't know. He's like, just clear your schedule for next week. I think you should do it.
I'm like,
Tana Grenda: schedule. I love
Tiffany Bader: it. But yeah, I don't know. I, I, I like, what, what sort of level is it at? And I was looking at it, I was like, okay, there, there's literally something for everyone. But even at, even at like beginner rifle shooting or whatever, there's, there's something for everyone at every level.
There's something you can get from it. Uh, and it's just fun. Like, it's just, it was so much fun. [00:08:00] Like, it's like camp for, camp for women. I, it is just, it was so much fun. I just loved it. So super stoked.
Tana Grenda: It's very rare for someone to sign up like last minute, you know? Like most people sign up like a year in advance or six months in advance and they plan it out.
And I remember. This chick coming through from bc my email, and I was like, we have another person coming. And I'm like, yes. I love people that are just like, I'm doing it. I'll be there in a couple days. I'm coming from a different country, but I'll be there.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. Yeah. I know. I, I'm pretty, I think I'm gonna bring my rifle this time.
Yeah. But, uh, but yeah, now I was like, ah, cool. I've never been to Idaho. No. I'd only been to a little bit. I wanna see more. That's what it was. I never been to Montana. Figured I'd drive through and do a road trip and seemed like an adventure. It was just like
Tana Grenda: a lot of country. Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. It was fun. So I'm excited about it again.
Tana Grenda: Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: Uh, I, um, I did, [00:09:00] I, I, one of the other things I noticed is that like with these women going into it, uh, and again, we talked about veering skill levels and comfort, like comfort in the outdoors. Um, do you see like, um. Do you see as they develop this new capability and skills in the outdoors, how it, how it changes, how they, how they live their lives and sort of move through the world when they, when they get out of it?
Tana Grenda: Yeah. It's very impactful for a lot of people because it's, I guess it really parallels life. Yeah. Like if you have confidence in what you're doing in your skill level, you're gonna have confidence in the other things that you do in your life. Whether it's your job or taking care of your family or you're leader learning something new.
Like, especially with all of the retreats that I've done and I can't even, I don't know, I think I'm almost to 20 retreats that I've hosted at this point, like [00:10:00] since 2021 or since COVID, whenever that was. Uh, I kind of started this to really bring people together and allow them to have personal one-on-one connection, not just through.
The screen or sitting at home and being quarantine. And so throughout all of these retreats, like the common, probably the most common thing that I hear time and time again is it changed my life. Like it helped me realize what was important. It helped me realize what my priorities were. It helped me know what my passions are and that I need to push for those and not just like throw my life away doing this job that I hate, for instance, or I've lost myself in my kids and I haven't taken time for myself to go hunting more or to, you know, take time and go spend a weekend with women.
I mean, it helps people prioritize themselves. It helps them prioritize like what's important to them. And then I've had some people straight up like quit their [00:11:00] jobs and move to a different state because just realize that they didn't want to live their life the way they were living it anymore. And after being surrounded by other women that pushed them and inspired them.
It made them more confident in their life. They had the confidence to do it. And the, I don't, I don't really know why. Like, I just see it time and time again that these events create a safe space for people to come to learn, to gain confidence, to grow, to make connections with like-minded people. And then they come out of it and they make changes in their life that they wouldn't have done before.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Tana Grenda: I don't really know why that is. It's just really cool and I love being part of it.
Tiffany Bader: It's, and you know, I, I was thinking about it too. 'cause I, I saw it, I, I think it had a positive, like really life changing impact on my life. Um, I think, I think you hit a few, a few things there that, that affected me, you know, having kids and, yeah.
I, I wasn't, I wasn't the maternal type when I was younger and, and I met [00:12:00] the right guy. I knew I wanted to have kids. And when I had kids, I, like, I knew, I was like, I don't wanna put them in a daycare. That's not for me. I'm gonna quit my job. That I loved. Uh, that probably defined me a little too much, but I, I knew I needed to stay home and take care of the kids, and, and I threw myself into that a hundred percent.
And I a hundred percent lost myself in it as well. Right. Like, so to be able to come to a place that was just for me, uh, was, was really, really amazing. And I thought about, you know, other people that I met there. And, and I wonder, you know, we, like you said, we live at a time where we're staring at our screens all the time and a, a society that's so terrified and scared of like everything and things that we shouldn't be scared of, right.
And we're put in this place and. You are showing us things and putting us in situations where people will generally fear that and then they build these skills and [00:13:00] competence and things. They're like, I don't need to be scared of that. Like, yeah. Do you, do you see stuff in, in life where there's a natural fear and, and as well as a bush pilot, like that's not the safest, you know, hopping on an Air Canada flight to Toronto is infinitely safer than jumping in, like
Tana Grenda: Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: One of those teeny tiny little planes. Like, do you see, do you see a lot of that in, in your own life where you're in what would be a really scary or not scary, but typically unsafe situation? But, um, you know, you, it's, it is safe, right? Because you have the skills, you have the competence to do it. Um, I gotta imagine in your life there's a lot of dangerous things that you're doing, right?
Tana Grenda: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Our life sounds pretty dangerous. A lot of the things that we do day to day people would not even think about doing because I mean, I've even met people that are like husband and wife won't ever fly together because what if he both died? They were gonna leave the kids. And I'm like, I can't [00:14:00] live that way.
Like I can't constantly live in fear what could happen. Like I could die of a heart attack on the couch eating Cheetos watching a movie. I could die in a car accident to go pick up my kids from school if I played it safe. Like I'm really not a person that plays it safe. I'm a big risk taker and I have fears, but I feel like my fears are healthy.
But yeah, when it comes to like our dangerous lifestyle, I've equipped myself with the skills needed in order to survive. Like I've survived a lot of near death situations be because I had the skill level to survive it. And so that's another reason why I started retreats actually, is I was in a pretty bad survival situation with the bear attack and.
Um, coming through that experience was very traumatic for me. But also I came out of it knowing like, if I didn't have this and this and this and this and this experience and skill, I would've died. And I wanna be able to teach women and empower women so that they can go in the [00:15:00] wilderness without fear, knowing that they can protect themselves, they can take care of themselves, and they can survive anything if they're prepared.
And so that, that's another like underlying reason of why I started retreats. Not just connection, but also giving people the skills and the empowerment to survive anything. And that can be in life, it can be in the wilderness, but when you have the right mindset and you have the skills and the confidence, like a lot of that fear will go away.
And I mean, I mean, it'll still be there, but you know that you're equipped to handle it. And I think. It just helps people to take the leap and not live in fear all the time and be so scared of everything. I mean,
Tiffany Bader: yeah,
Tana Grenda: I dunno, that's at least how I live. I'm like full risk taker, like I don't care. I'm not gonna sit and play it safe like ever.
Tiffany Bader: So. So what are you, what are you afraid of?
Tana Grenda: Am af Oh, okay. Deeply. I'm afraid of being ripped apart by a bear and dying.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah, [00:16:00] that's fair.
Tana Grenda: Yeah,
Tiffany Bader: I'm too, I'm too, that's
Tana Grenda: probably my biggest fear. Close. Uh, so yeah, that's probably my biggest fear. Another fear would be that my husband dies, an airplane crash doesn't come home.
I mean, that's a very, very common thing that I think in the back of my head. But I'm like, you know, I have a lot of faith and I have faith in God and our his plan for us. And if that's his plan, then that's his plan. And I will cross that bridge when I get to it. But. You know, every day. I'm thankful when he comes home and when I come home.
'cause I've been, we've both been in some sketchy situations that we could have not made it out of. So, but at the same time, like it's given us such a cool life that I feel like if I died today, I would be perfectly content. 'cause I lived a lot, you know? So, yeah, I, I do have fears, but I guess if you have faith, you can't have fear.
So I try to have more faith in fear. That makes sense.
Tiffany Bader: And that's a good way to look at it, right? [00:17:00] Like, I mean, it's not like you're changing your life to avoid bear encounters.
Tana Grenda: Oh, no,
Tiffany Bader: no.
Tana Grenda: I decided to move into the heart of the highest bear population in all of Alaska.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. Uh, my retirement plan is to move up to Northern vc, so like, right there.
Yeah. But I think, I think there's a healthier respect you can have for bears. And like he said, you know, you, you take precautions and you educate yourself and mm-hmm. But. I would be so disappointed in myself if I spent my life sitting on the couch 'cause I was afraid or I never flew because after having kids I was suddenly afraid of planes.
But yeah. Um, you gotta push through that.
Tana Grenda: Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Tana Grenda: Even like near death experiences that have taught me a lot. And I think that is the reason why I just live life, like with no regrets because I've been so close to death so many times that I'm just like, well, tomorrow I could go and, uh, I'm just [00:18:00] gonna live and have no regrets and live my bucket list and do everything I possibly can in the amount of time that I have on this earth.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Tana Grenda: And I think that's changed my perspective, not just traits, but just the hard things and the trials that I've been through have changed my perspective on like what's important and what I wanna prioritize.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Um, so. I and I, I, I agree a hundred percent. Going through hard things makes you understand what's important.
Like it focuses it like a laser.
Mm-hmm.
Um, Travis and I had some challenges like a year after we got married and things that we had to go through. And I look at it as a blessing at this point in my life. Like I wouldn't change it for anything. It was hard. It was an eight year fight and
Tana Grenda: Yep.
Tiffany Bader: It made me realize like that first weekend we, we fell into that issue that all I cared about was my husband and my child.
That's it. Like I knew I don't [00:19:00] give a rat's butt about anything else. Material things don't matter to me. I genuinely don't care. Yep. Uh, I could be living on the street as long as Travis and our kids are there. Right?
Tana Grenda: Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: And I don't think many people have had that, that challenge to have them focus and know that deep in their core.
And I also think not being challenged by stuff is what makes people so afraid of stuff, right? Mm-hmm. You know, they like, they, they put too much power in things they can't control and things that are not real fears.
Tana Grenda: Mm-hmm.
Tiffany Bader: Um. You know, I, I was on a plane one time, a old Cessna Beaver, and we were flying the whole family and our dog are flying taco about lake, not flying with your husband, but flying with the entire family and the dog in the backseat, uh, from a, a remote lake.
We went on a fishing trip and we flew back home and sitting in the backseat looking up on the dash of the plane, [00:20:00] and this red light goes on, and the pilot and tra were chitchatting and no one's paying attention. And, um, and I look at this light and I'm just watching, I'm like, oh, that doesn't look good.
That doesn't look like something, that shit I wasn't on before. Like I, and, and then all of a sudden it goes dead silent. And for anyone that's been in one of those planes, they're very, very loud. And then the, the lack of sound was deafening. And, and then the plane just starts going. Like this. And, and I look, my son was working on his pilot's license at the time, and I look at him and he's like, just like, whatever.
I look at my daughter, she looks at me and we grab onto each other, like death grip and the pilot's swearing and he is like pulling a lever and pumping and like pressing buttons. And, and I'm like, well,
Tana Grenda: what kind of fuel?
Tiffany Bader: Yeah, he, he, he ran outta fuel, one of the tanks, uh, ran outta fuel and I guess he was trying to like pump the fuel through the line, whatever, from the second one.
But I didn't know because I don't know anything about flag, [00:21:00] but I was like, well, at least we're all gonna die together. And, but in like after the fact though, apparently the pilot was telling, um, my husband that like, oh, these planes break down all the time. And you know, there's lakes everywhere. We'd be fine.
We would just like cruise and land on one of the lakes and thinking about it after, I'm like, this hasn't scared me from going on a small plane. If anything, it's just like, you know, it's just. It
Tana Grenda: happens.
Tiffany Bader: It happens. Right. And I, you know, we all survived. It was fine, but yeah. I thought we were all gonna die.
I thought that was the end of our family.
Tana Grenda: This is the end.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. Yep.
Tana Grenda: Of those moments. This is the end.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. Yeah. But it, it puts things into perspective too, right?
Tana Grenda: Always.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. Yeah. Are there any things, like, aside from bears that, that freak you out? Where, like, maybe, maybe give a bit of a background, like where you guys live, what, what your, what your life looks like.
'cause I, I understand it's quite different from, from most [00:22:00] people's day to day.
Tana Grenda: Yeah. I mean, we live off the road system, so we don't have Walmart, we don't have grocery stores, we don't have the road, we don't have gas stations and all the amenities and things of the modern world. I joke with people that we live like 20 to 30 years in the past, like we just got unlimited internet.
Um, we used to have to pay and not. I have more than like a hundred gigs and it was like $600 a month. Like it was insane. And then, um, we didn't used to be able to stream on our TV like everyone else used to. I mean, starlink, starlink really opened the world to being connected. Um, so yeah, you have to, you we're landlocked, so you can only get here by airplane or I guess if you took a boat, a several day journey on the ocean in a boat.
But we are pretty landlocked. So it's like living on an [00:23:00] island, but you've got land all around you. So the only way in and out basically is by airplane. And with that comes a lot of challenges, especially because we have six kids and so you're trying to make sure that they're well fed and my kids eat like insane amounts of food.
I've got. Four teenagers right now. And so they eat a lot. And so a lot of our food is from our subsistence lifestyle, which is killing moose, caribou, and salmon. Like we've got four freezers full of this and this will feed us for a year if we shoot two moose and three caribou and we catch 500 pounds of salmon.
And we, we do all that every single year and process it all ourselves. And that's basically what we live off of. And then I ship things in either from Costco on an airplane or Amazon. 'cause Amazon is free shipping. Uh, but it takes about four weeks to get here on Amazon. So any like, mail, things like that really slow, like none of my Christmas presents are gonna get here in time, but it [00:24:00] happens every time.
I'm like, I need to start in October. I forget till it's November. And I'm like, crap, it's Thanksgiving. I haven't ordered Christmas presents.
Tiffany Bader: So Amazon ships to your door or does it ship to like a, a city center and you have to flight it in?
Tana Grenda: It ships. Um, so it'll go to Anchorage to like the main center and then it will come in on a cargo plane, like either on Alaska Airlines or one of the cargo planes that bring out like food and stuff and supplies.
And then we go pick it up at the airport. And then there's like a little post office that if it's shipped, like that's for UPS and FedEx, it's a pain to get here. If it's through USPS, it'll go to the airport and then they deliver it to the post office and then they sort it there. And it's a little post office that you can get your mail out.
But yeah, it's just a little different than post places.
Tiffany Bader: You're getting your Amazon Prime membership like value for sure though,
Tana Grenda: eh, for sure. But then they, they kind of catch on and then you'll start to try to [00:25:00] order things and it's like, we'll not ship, we'll not ship there. And they kind of caught on to.
Oh, we're, we're actually gonna ship. Um, we're not gonna free ship to the bush, we're just gonna free ship to the road system. So it's kind of tricky. Um, eBay works sometimes if you can get free shipping with eBay, but yeah, if I'm like shipping food in from Costco or somewhere else, it's over a dollar a pound.
So just like in US dollars, if I do like a $500 grocery order, it'll cost $250 just to ship it. So about half the cost of whatever the groceries are, which are already very inflated. Coming to Alaska, you're paying just to get it to you. So it's expensive. Um, there's a lot of sacrifice of living here. We have zero family, zero friends.
It is literally just me and my family and like. We are a tight-knit unit. And that's pretty much it. Like also, but our [00:26:00] waterways here only get you so far. So our plane allows us to access a lot of land that otherwise you wouldn't. Like where I live, you could fly a hundred miles, I don't know what that is in kilometers.
Sorry, a hundred miles east, west, north, south and like not hit a city or a house. I mean, we're truly like in the middle of nowhere. And I love it. And then there are times like in the winter when it's dark and cold and I have nobody that I'm like, man, I need to go somewhere. And so that's why retreats are so awesome for me 'cause I get to go and like, have friends that way.
Meet people.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. So, so talk, talk about the retreats. 'cause I, I saw you were recently on one in Florida that looked like freaking amazing.
Tana Grenda: So cool. Yeah, we did. Um. I just, I love doing trips that I would love to do and then bring people in that are like me that would also love to do it. Like [00:27:00] I'm very much a group kind of person when it comes to those kinds of things.
I mean, I enjoy hunting by myself. I enjoy hunting with my husband, but if I can go with a group of women that are like down for anything, oh, it's so much fun. So we did a Florida hunting retreat last week. We went down to Florida and originally it was just like a gators and hog hunt. And so we had eight gator tags and we could shoot three to four hogs per person if we wanted to.
So that was a lot of killing. And then like three days and we could keep whatever we wanted off of them. So we were gonna take a lot of meat home. But then we ended up getting like really focused in on gators more than the hogs. And so we shot eight gators and then. One of our friends on the trip was like, I've shot a bunch of iguanas down here.
It's really fun. Do you guys wanna do it? We're like, yeah. So we, we uh, rented a couple boats, hired a couple guides that took us out, and we did this a iguana hunt because they're invasive there and so they want you to shoot as many as you can see as many as possible. Wow. And so we shot like 55 iguanas in [00:28:00] three hours or something.
My god. It was fun. We had like air guns and you'd go around and like spot in the trees and those things were so crazy tough. Like reptiles, I had no idea how tough they were. I,
Tiffany Bader: I
Tana Grenda: would shoot one eight times and it wouldn't die. And I'm just like, what is going on? But these iguanas were huge heads, like this big, and they were just huge iguanas.
I, that was so fun. Like, the gator hunting was so fun, but the iguanas to me were, it was constant action and so much shooting, which I love duck hunting and stuff. And so it was just like that, like you're just shooting anything that moves kind of is really fun. And then those same guides were like, oh, have you guys ever gone python hunting?
They're like, no, no. Yeah, we go and catch pi. I'm like, catch pythons. I'm like, you catch them or you kill them? He's like, we catch them live. Like we gotta hunt them outta the Everglades 'cause they're invasive and they were released. And so we try to go catch as many as possible live bag 'em, [00:29:00] and then we freeze 'em to kill 'em because if you like shoot 'em or chop their head off or whatever, it ruins the, their skin because they release a bacteria that will break it down.
So you can't actually kill them only by freezing them in a freezer and then you thaw 'em out and then you can skin 'em. And then they make like boots and all the sorts of stuff outta snakes and they're solving the evasive pro, um, problem of the pythons down in Florida. And then I think some people get bounties for 'em.
So we were like, I, I thought most women were like terrified of snakes. I'm not. But um. I asked the group, I was like, does anyone wanna go python hunting or am I crazy? And they're like, we're down. I'm like, okay, let's go python. So even though some people were afraid of snakes, they're like, we'll do it. So we went and caught two pythons live at night and, and it was like shed hunting in the dark, like walking around with [00:30:00] flashlights and headlamps looking for them and trying to avoid anything that killed you.
I mean, it was, it was the most bizarre cool thing. We were like, what are we doing? We don't know what we're doing. But these guides were just like, let you off the boat. They're like, oh, watch out for the black snakes. You know, the cotton mouse, the, or water moccasin is what they call 'em. Those will kill you.
Watch out for this. And there's, and there's poisonous spiders and I'm like, okay, uh, do you have anti-venom on the bow? He is like, Nope. We're like, okay.
Tiffany Bader: But nobody died. So
Tana Grenda: nobody died. We just went full send and we got two pythons. One was over long. It was a wild experience, but I would totally do it again.
It was so fun. And I'm like, who else in the world like would do that? Like girls trip, let's go catch some pythons in the
Tiffany Bader: athletes. Totally. No, like girls trip around here is like, okay, let's go up to Whistler [00:31:00] and drink wine and eat food and complain about our husbands. Like, I don't wanna do that. Like this.
I saw, I saw a clip from the trip where this one gal like jumped outta the boat. And swam through the water and grabbed an iguana with their bare hands and then brought it back to the boat. I was like,
Tana Grenda: yeah.
Tiffany Bader: Uh, okay, that looks cool.
Tana Grenda: Well, it's funny 'cause we just come from gator hunting and I. There was a couple times we like lost a couple gators and couldn't recover 'em till like the next day because when they floated up, because they'd sink to the bottom and then you'd have to like fish 'em out or lasso 'em out.
And there was a few times I was like, can I just like jump in and get 'em? He's like, there's like 70 gators in there, you wanna jump in there? I was like, I dunno. I, I guess not.
Tiffany Bader: Do I not? Is that a bad idea?
Tana Grenda: We were iguana hunting. Then we asked those guys and we're like, can we swim in this water? 'cause there's a few times we had to jump in to retrieve the iguanas if the dogs couldn't find them.
And[00:32:00]
he was just like. I mean, if you want to, but it's your own risk. And then a couple girls did it and I was like, oh gosh, this is, I hope they signed the waiver.
Tiffany Bader: I think one was wearing like jean shorts, like just little cutoff jean shirts too. It's not like there's, for people, for people that haven't seen this clip, uh,
Tana Grenda: girls
Tiffany Bader: first there is no, there is no protective gear, nothing.
It was just like, eh, just jump in the water.
Tana Grenda: Just jump into gator infested waters. Guana. It was a wild time. It was so fun. It was.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Tana Grenda: I would totally go back.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah, that looks
Tana Grenda: trip again next year.
Tiffany Bader: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So you guys, so you got hogs, gators, pythons, and iguanas.
Tana Grenda: Mm-hmm.
Tiffany Bader: Meat wise, what were you, you're keeping hogs, gators and iguanas.
Tana Grenda: You can eat iguana. Yep.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Tana Grenda: Um. Gators. We kept that. I guess the tail is really good. Yeah, I haven't tried it yet. It's in my [00:33:00] freezer, so I need to cook it. Okay. Because I've never had gator and then, yeah, the hogs, you can keep those too. Yeah. So it's pretty cool. You can go And we didn't kill as many hogs 'cause it took us like three days to kill all the gators you wanted.
But I think we killed three hogs.
Tiffany Bader: Huh? And
Tana Grenda: we shot at like five and recovered three, but mostly archery. Like we were trying to stock 'em archery, so it took us a while to do that. Um, but yeah, and then we decided to do the guana thing and then the pythons and it was just a really cool all around trip of just, what else can we go hunt?
This is cool.
Tiffany Bader: Oh yeah, that's, that's super cool. That's,
Tana Grenda: it's just a different world. Like from Alaska, you know, I'm surrounded by bears and moose and caribou and stuff. And then you go to Florida and you're surrounded by like snakes and there's gators literally everywhere. Like in this one little canal.
He's like, oh, there's probably 70 in here. I'm like, that's like more than [00:34:00] fish. Like you don't even have 70 fish in a stretch like this in most places. Like there's 70 gators in here. I mean, it's just insane in some, it's, it wasn't a gator farm, which I didn't want to do. I didn't wanna go to a farm and like have 'em bait 'em on a hook and then shoot 'em, like that just seemed stupid.
So this was more of like spot and stock hunt on, it was on private land, but not a fence or anything. So they can come and go and Yeah, we, we kind of like spotted stock him and then after we shot him, then he would cast in a big hook and, and then another hook on a rope and try to lasso him out, which got wild when two of them were not dead yet and we were like wrestling daters.
Tiffany Bader: Oh my gosh.
Tana Grenda: One girl holding a rod here and one girl holding the rope here and the guy going down [00:35:00] there trying to like put a knife or like, and try to kill it. But these reptiles, they are so tough. Yeah, like I thought bears were tough. These reptiles do not die and even after the gator is dead, they will still have nerves and stuff that twitch and move for 24 hours.
So they'd be dead. And we'd like have it on the road next to the side by side to like take it back and its tail would start switching. It would start, spinal cord is cut and it's been shot through the eye and it's just like, how is this thing still moving? And then they duct tape the mouth because they'll bite you for 24 hours.
Even if they're dead.
Tiffany Bader: That's
Tana Grenda: so cool. Oh
Tiffany Bader: man. That's unnerving.
Tana Grenda: They'll growl and do their little like really low vibrating growl, which is super creepy if you've heard 'em.
Tiffany Bader: Nope.
Tana Grenda: Yeah. I was like, this is wild. This is cool. Gosh,
Tiffany Bader: that, that's awesome. [00:36:00] That's super awesome. It's
Tana Grenda: not like swamp people, like we didn't know what we were doing, but they're like, we're the swamp sisters rednecks.
And the iguana hunting is so funny because if you've ever, I don't know if you've been to West Palm Beach, but West Palm Beach is like a very ritzy rich area. Million dollar houses, and then they've got these like canals and rivers that run through it. Well, we were like the rednecks okay with like air guns and backwards hats and jean cutoff jeans going through these canals for shooting the iguanas.
'cause they're invasive. And then you've got like these ritzy people out in their yard just looking at us like, what are you doing? There'd be these huge alarms in the private, in their yards, but you can't shoot 'em, obviously private property. And you'd just like go past the super fancy houses and then you'd get to like public land of trees and start shooting the, it's like,
Tiffany Bader: oh my gosh.
Tana Grenda: Bizarre. We're like going through this rich part. It's like [00:37:00] the rednecks. And we asked, the guides, we're like, do they like you doing this? And they're like, oh no, they hate it.
Tiffany Bader: It's funny you say that. 'cause in, in BC here we have a similar thing with the, uh, there's fallow deer on a few of the Gulf Islands or like the little islands just off the coast from Vancouver.
And so you have again, these like beautiful properties, this idyllic space. But deer are just causing so much damage and so many problems. And of course, they don't want hunters going there because like, they love the deer, but they hate the deer. Right? They, they love the deer, but they love them. And if it's someone else's problem.
Mm-hmm. So what our government has decided to do is spend millions and millions and millions of dollars to hire a sniper team from New Zealand to come over, fly around in helicopters and shoot them from the sky with, uh, a guy with a dog on the ground. Because that, that it, it, like, it makes no sense, but that's
Tana Grenda: season for it.
Save a lot
Tiffany Bader: of money. [00:38:00] No. 'cause all the, it's all private property there. And so they, no one, no one wants a hunter's there to, to shoot them. So they just keep growing and growing and causing more problems. But, but
Tana Grenda: they want someone shooting down at their house.
Tiffany Bader: Believe me, nobody, no Hunter and VC is like, this program makes sense.
Like, I think everybody here's like, you know, like, I would do that for free. Just let me, let me go me out. They contacted us to, uh, to help with some training, just for licensing and stuff. And I remember Travis is like, okay, we'll do it for free. Just tell them that I need to be on the helicopter too.
They're like, yeah, no, that's not gonna happen. But yeah, I
Tana Grenda: so many volunteers, like, you don't need a sniper. You just need a good hunter to go over there and just take 'em out. And then you could still use the meat and give people the meet and not waste 'em, you know?
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. And the, and the, it's funny, when it came back, the results of the call that they did, so there's [00:39:00] the fallow deer, and then we have our local, like blacktail, they ended up shooting like 30% blacktail, so it was just.
It's, yeah, it just doesn't make sense. I, I have to shake my head a lot at these, these programs that Yeah. They just, you know, the, the reality of life doesn't, doesn't make sense. But I don't know,
Tana Grenda: the wildlife management is a little lost on them. Yeah. We know how
Tiffany Bader: to do it. Yeah. As long as we don't see it.
You know, I, I'm gonna buy my chicken wrapped in plastic at the grocery store, and, but you, you shouldn't, you shouldn't eat, you shouldn't eat duck. 'cause that's cruel. Right. Yeah. So, so as well as like, you know, all of the other stuff you do, you, you also do like fitness coaching.
Tana Grenda: Mm-hmm.
Tiffany Bader: And is, is it mostly directed for, for hunters or is it like just anyone that wants to.
Get in better shape. And,
Tana Grenda: um, I love working with [00:40:00] hunters specifically, but I also love working with women that just need help with their health. Like if it's hormonally or, I mean, there's so many different types of clients that I worked with that it's hard to say that like, I only work with this person because truly I just meet you where you're at.
Mm-hmm. And with what your goals are and what your struggles are, and we work on that. And so I worked with people that cannot gain weight and help them gain weight. I've worked with people that like cannot lose weight and help them lose weight. I've held people that just have a lot of hormone issues to balance their hormones and gut issues that they can't figure out and they need a more holistic approach.
Um, I mean, I work with so many different people, but as long as people are willing to like put in the work and they're ready for change, like. I can help you. Yeah, I'll help you if you're willing to be helped. I cannot help you if you're not willing to put in the work. And so I've worked with hundreds of different clients over the years and I [00:41:00] love doing it.
I really do. I really geek out on a lot of the health, fitness, nutrition side of things.
Tiffany Bader: Hmm.
Tana Grenda: Because I myself have dealt with a lot of like autoimmune and. Gut issues and hormone issues since I was a kid. Um, and so I had to like learn a lot from a young age and really dial in my nutrition from the time I was like 12 years old in order to have a quality life.
And so I think that led me into helping people on that side to be healthy. And, and it just goes into also just living your best life. Like if you aren't healthy and you aren't feeling good, you're not gonna be able to do the things that you wanna do. So how do we get you to that point where you are feeling at your best, no matter what age you are or what you're struggling with, or what point of life you're in so that you can like do the things you wanna do and not feel held back.
That would be my whole approach, not just with hunting, but just. You living life you want to, and not feeling [00:42:00] held back by it, even if it's just needing to keep up with your kids or wanting to be able to go on a walk with your friends or go on this hike next year or do the elk hunt next year. Like whatever it is.
So we take that goal and we run with it.
Tiffany Bader: And how do you, how do you balance that yourself? Like, you're obviously busy, you said you got six kids in the house right now. Mm-hmm. Uh, hunt and all these things. How do you, especially with issues that you have, uh, health wise, how do you balance pushing yourself, fueling yourself, like taking care of yourself and your family and, and all the, uh, business stuff as well?
Tana Grenda: It's loaded question.
Tiffany Bader: You can take this multiple ways.
Tana Grenda: Uh, I, I'll
Tiffany Bader: just sit back.
Tana Grenda: I went crazy for a couple of years because I tried to do too much. I've had to pull back and set boundaries with myself of this is as much as I can handle and this, like, I have to let this go and I have to let this go. [00:43:00] Um, I mean, we have a lot of different pieces in the works.
Like we've got rentals and real estate and things like that. And then we've got our kids that are needy in the EST way.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Tana Grenda: But just, they come from a lot of trauma and so there's a lot of like special needs that we have to take care of in therapies and things like that. And they're in sports, you know, and then we've got just our lifestyle of wanting to hunt and trap and do all of that.
And then, you know, I've got coaching and I host retreats and I think I just have to be careful about. Doing one thing at a time, like maybe this week I focus on retreats, launching those, marketing those. And then next week I'll write a book and then I'll send it to my illustrator and be like, illustrate this.
And then the next week I'll be like, okay, this week, I mean, I work with my clients week to week, but this week I'm gonna push for a couple more clients. Like I just take things in stride one piece at a time, because I have been at the breaking point [00:44:00] where I'm a workaholic and I'm a perfectionist, and my worth used to be tied to how much I did and how much I accomplished.
And so I would just go, go, go, and do, do, do. Until I was so exhausted that I would break. And that really fueled my autoimmune issues that would come about. And I've been able to put a lot of that in remission just by pulling back, lowering my stress. I keep my nutrition dialed because there's no way that even if I like falter on it a little bit.
That I will feel good. So my nutrition is like number one. And then my movement every day, like every day after I wake up, I get in my routine. Um, I eat breakfast and I go work out. Even if it's just a long walk. Um, I move first thing in the day and that like clears my brain for the day. And then, yeah, I don't know, I don't really know how I've [00:45:00] survived because it's been a lot and it's been a lot of stress.
But my husband is a big support. He's at home too. And so he'll help with the kids here and there or take them off my hands. I need like a couple hours the computer, quiet time, get stuff done. He's super helpful. But I think the biggest thing to balance it is you just have to know your limits and you have to set boundaries and you also have to have your non-negotiables, like my non-negotiables or I have to walk every day or get a workout in just to feel good and like.
Have my body like, you know, not be inflamed all the time. I have to eat like, almost to perfection for my nutrition. Or I'm gonna feel like crap.
Tiffany Bader: What does that look like for you?
Tana Grenda: And like, if those three things are in order, then like the other things fall in. But if I don't sleep and I don't eat great or, um, I don't get a workout in, like, my day kind of falls apart.
So [00:46:00] I have to make sure I do those three things to feel like I'm human.
Tiffany Bader: It's funny how those three things though, as simple as they are, are like so tied to each other. The second I, the second I stopped drinking alcohol, cut out processed foods, walked every day. Like my, I think since birth, my non-negotiables been sleep.
I've, I've been always a good sleeper. But like, I, it's, it's hard and fast. This is what I have to do. My life has changed, you know, like, I like. I, it just, I feel so much better. And if you get a good sleep, you have the energy to work out. If you eat properly, you don't hurt when you work out. Right? Like, and they all just play into each other, so you're more likely to do these things.
But yeah, I think you have to make it a non-negotiable, like you said. Otherwise it just gets pushed to the background. Oh, I'll do it later. It's like, no, I have to do it. Or I'm gonna feel like crap.
Tana Grenda: Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: And then I'm gonna be terrible. Right?
Tana Grenda: It's like I do that before I do anything else. [00:47:00] Before I check my emails, before I do, like, I am gonna eat a good healthy breakfast.
It's gonna set the tone for my day and I'm gonna go work out. And it helps that I, I made a little home gym here because I wasn't as consistent when I had to like, go to a gym. Um, but with all of it at home, and I've got a 2-year-old at home like. I don't have an excuse to not do it, you know?
Tiffany Bader: No, it's funny.
You sitting there, you're like, ah, you know, it's this time and I've got this to do and this to do, and then you hear about people waking up at like four o'clock in the morning every day and just doing it. You just, you just have to make it a priority and, oh, I don't that it's good. No, no. Nobody,
Tana Grenda: like seven.
Tiffany Bader: Nobody does. But it, it calls you on your, on your, on, you know, kind of on your bullshit and like, yeah, I gotta get this done. But
Tana Grenda: if you need to wake up early, good. I gotta sleep. I gotta get like seven hours to function, so,
Tiffany Bader: oh, yeah. Seven. And I'm tired. I like,
Tana Grenda: I need [00:48:00] like, yeah. Eight is probably better.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah.
Yeah. Eight or nine is my, yeah.
Tana Grenda: And most people are like, oh. I, if I get five, it's a good night.
Tiffany Bader: I, I can't do it. No, I, I like to think of it as like, you know how people use the term hangry when, when they get too hungry and they get angry? I'm like that with, with, um, if I don't get enough sleep, I just like the troll comes out and you do not want anything near me.
Just an un human being.
Tana Grenda: Yeah. Sleep. Yeah. I'd say the biggest thing with health is like sleep, nutrition, water, and movement. Like those four things, if you can just prioritize those four things, like a lot of things in your life will fall into place because you'll have energy and you'll feel better and inflammation will be down.
Like, it just, it makes a huge difference. So,
Tiffany Bader: so for women, when they are working with you and say they're planning a big backcountry hunt, what, what do you tell them for like, how to go out [00:49:00] and push themselves physically, uh, on a hunt. But then also have the reserves to like actually hunt, you know? Are there there tips or tricks or things you, you tell 'em to do or?
Tana Grenda: Well, I like to work with people if they're gonna plan on a big one, at least 12 weeks in advance. Ideally, six months is ideal to be very prepared. Like if you're gonna go on a big back country hunt and you haven't prepped at all and you haven't hiked at all and you haven't put a heavy pack on your back, like you're screwed.
I'm sorry, like you're gonna die.
Tiffany Bader: No,
Tana Grenda: no, you're not gonna die. Or you're gonna feel like dying the entire time.
Tiffany Bader: Hey, you're probably not gonna get anything either 'cause you're just gonna feel
Tana Grenda: like
Tiffany Bader: garbage.
Tana Grenda: At least prepare 12 weeks in advance. But a lot of the strategy is mimicking what's gonna happen in the back country.
So a lot of rucking, a lot of strength-based training. Core is super important. So building core strength. Building strength in your glutes and your hamstrings. 'cause most people are very quad dominant. Your, your glutes and [00:50:00] your hamstrings are very important for your climbing and your hiking and your core.
And so like we focus very much on like core and glutes and hamstring strength-based training and then endurance with being able to put a pack on your back and do wrecking with women, especially wrecking is one of the best things that you can do for your health long term. With aging, there's so much research behind it and like when we have little kids it's easy 'cause we're like carrying little kids around all the time.
But as they get older, like what kind of weight are we carrying on our back? So if you can be rucking either with a vest or with a pack that's weighted a couple times a week, it's going to help not only your cardiovascular health but your muscles. Like that resistance training for women is so crucial.
So we do a lot of rocking, a lot of strength-based training. Um, but I don't like to overtrain because women don't like women and men are very different in their training. Men, you could have 'em train two to three hours a day and they would get insane results. Women, if you train 'em for two to three [00:51:00] hours a day, their body is going to freak out.
Our bodies are very different in that we don't handle stress as well as men do. So I don't like to overtrain women. Like a lot of times they're doing 30, 30 minutes a day, maybe four days a week, and that's enough. Um, and then maybe like a long hike on the weekend. But you don't wanna overtrain as a female because you're just gonna kind of shoot yourself in the foot and then you're gonna deal with more hormonal issues or inflammation issues because your body's like, wait a second.
Like we're, we're not gonna handle this as well. Um, especially women of like fertility age. If you're in the age where you can like have kids and you've got like normal cycles and stuff, your body doesn't like a lot of stress, it can handle some right. Oftentimes with what amount of stress women have on them these days, throwing more stress onto them just adds fuel to the fire.
And I've seen women that [00:52:00] like overtrain actually like gain weight because their bodies are just inflamed and like pissed off if they're doing to. So it's very much finding the balance and actually teaching women how to rest more, feed themselves more, not cut out food. A lot of women need more food than men sometimes.
Like more than you would think. And so like, have you ever seen a man like just not train, eat a meal, eat like one meal a day and then just like climb up a mountain like it was nothing? Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: Oh, it's like Travis, he, he'll, he'll go do that. He goes and does like, you know, a hundred pushups and comes out, he's like, look how Jack I am.
I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? Like, how is that fair?
Tana Grenda: Husband like started the diet after his and lost 10 pounds this week. I'm like. Dude, that would take me a year.
Tiffany Bader: Yeah. This new diet I invented of candy, corn. Yeah. It's like it's really paying dividends. Come on.
Tana Grenda: But it's a very different approach with women versus men.[00:53:00]
And I think that women going into any sort of training or any sort of goal with health and fitness have to go into it with a different mindset because they expect to have results like Amanda does. They expect if their husband's doing it that they should have the same results. And nine times out of 10 women's bodies react completely opposite of men's.
And so you have to add more rest, more food, short bursts of intensity. And I've seen that work for women time and time again versus just like grinding them into the dirt with hours and hours of cardio or too much time at the gym, like women have too much going on. I don't even have more than. 45 minutes in a gym, like time-wise, like 30 minutes is good.
So it's being more efficient with your time, allowing your body more rest and learning how to manage stress. And I've seen women's bodies like really respond well to that. So I know that's load loaded answer, but I think if [00:54:00] you're a woman listening, that's the biggest takeaway because it's so frustrating to watch men like lose 10 pounds in a week, cut out sugar and like get a six pack, and you're just like, this is so unfair.
But there's a reason because our biology is so very different and our hormones are so different. Like men, their hormones reset every 24 hours. Our hormones don't reset for on average every 28 days. So imagine a man like 24 hours of one day. That's a month for us. So imagine a month being an entire day.
That's what it takes to reset ourselves. And we are going through so much in those 28 days, up and down, up and down, up and down. And then we reset. Like our bodies do not react in a 24 hour cycle like mint's do. And so the approach to training, the approach to nutrition has to be [00:55:00] different. And I think that's really hard because women are not taught that we're taught to like live in this 24 hour world and expect our, our bodies to catch up.
You know? I don't know if that makes sense, but I I like geek out on this and I go on tangents.
Tiffany Bader: So do you, do you think as women we benefit more from like, like wild food, whole food forage, like basically all, all the food that you're going out and harvesting?
Tana Grenda: Yes.
Tiffany Bader: We, we benefit more from that sort of.
Consumption,
Tana Grenda: I think back to, okay, my body is still like designed the same as it was back in the cave woman days. What was I doing then? Like if I lived back, then I would be hunting, I would be gathering, I would be eating a lot of meat. And so that's what I do. Like, I'd mimic a lot of what I would do if I was living in the woods.
Um, I eat a ton of protein, like that's my main source. I'll eat some veggies here and there. I'll eat some fruit here and there. But [00:56:00] like I eat a lot of protein and a lot of fats and that has been like the biggest help for my inflammation. Everybody's different. Some people can handle a lot, but um, with me, I have a lot of like histamine and mast cell issues and so my body can't handle like grains, like I haven't touched gluten in years.
Like, I can't do it. I will blow up like a balloon. I will have achy joints and feel like I have arthritis at 34 years old. I can't work out. I'll be sore. And as long as I like eat really good and super clean, like my pain, my inflammation, my flare ups gone, and stress too. Like if I'm stressed, I, the same thing will happen.
But if I lower my stress gone. Like, it's crazy how just my stress, my nutrition and my sleep like literally runs my life. And it makes a huge difference.
Tiffany Bader: I think the [00:57:00] more in tune you are with, with what you're putting in your mouth and how it makes you feel. Mm-hmm. Like I, I, I feel like. Western medicine is, has failed us in a lot of ways when it comes to that sort of thing.
Um, you know, the food pyramid and, you know, just have a nice big bowl of oats for breakfast and then a nice sandwich for lunch. And I've lived my life like that for such a long time and have just reassessing what, what I'm putting in my mouth, how it makes me feel, and start cutting out things that don't make me feel good.
And just being ruthless about it mm-hmm. Has completely changed my life more than anything. I mean, I was borderline, uh, they thought I had a, uh, thyroid problem. I stopped eating, you know, grains, cut out dairy and eggs and it's like, oh no, you just, like, you can't eat that stuff. It doesn't make you feel good.
Right. And it's. Like it, they wanted to put me on medication for it. And it is just, you know, food I'm eating makes me feel bad. [00:58:00] So, and then, you know, there's, there's my husband who will eat hot dogs for a whole weekend and be like, why don't I feel good? You know? I think that might be it.
Oh man.
Tana Grenda: True. I could never, I don't, I don't think I've ever eaten a hot dog, to be honest.
Tiffany Bader: No. And in full disclosure, this, this was when he was, this was when he was like 18 years old. And, and he is, he is a very different person now. And I'm sorry, Travis, if you're listening to this, to throw you under the bus like that 'cause it truly was when he was 18, but, um, oh, my husband
Tana Grenda: still does that.
I'm like, he can't eat like crap and expect to feel good. Well,
Tiffany Bader: I think he's got an iron gut though. He can, he can handle it better than I can, but, um, so. Retreat. Next one coming up. What, what's that one? Is it, is it the, uh, rendezvous in Idaho or do you have something else coming up soon?
Tana Grenda: Yeah, I think that's the next one.
I was trying to think. Sometimes [00:59:00] we have one in January that's like in Cavo or somewhere warm, but once I decide to throw one in next spring rendezvous. And then in July I'm doing a ke, a can women's fishing trip. So if anyone wants to come up and catch a ton of halibut and salmon, that's the second week in July.
Tiffany Bader: Wow.
Tana Grenda: In Ketchikan, Alaska. And then August is my Alaska Wilderness Retreat. So we fly out in the bush and do a full week out there. That'll be my, I think, ninth Alaska trip doing that. That was really fun. And then what else have we got coming up? Oh, and then I'm doing a Costa Rica tropical women's fishing trip in November, which will be a lot of fun.
Tiffany Bader: So that, that's on a boat catching like. A big trophy type fish.
Tana Grenda: Um, Dorado, which is mahi mahi tuna. So all that is like meat You take home. Delicious, delicious fish. And then you have kitchen, big stuff like Marlon and [01:00:00] um, blue Marlon, like they caught a blue Marlon last week when my husband was there. They, it was like 350 pounds.
Crazy. And then they did catch a tuna. A tuna that was 180 pounds and they got all that meat. He brought home like two full coolers of ahi tuna, which is just good. And then, yeah, um, when I decided to go, which is next November, think it's November 14th, that week, it's the mahi mahi tournament. So the rado are really running well.
And that's like. Really good meat and then you can snook, which is even better than mahi mahi. So I love these strips 'cause one, they're really fun, but two, you get to bring a lot of fish home, which is awesome. And you fill your freezers. It's delicious.
Tiffany Bader: I've never been a fan of the, like the pink camo and Right.
The, i i, I feel like it's, I dunno, it's just kind of dumbs it down for women and we don't need that. Like, you we're [01:01:00] totally capable and we can do this stuff ourselves. But I will say your, your event has definitely opened my eyes to the value of women only, uh, events. And it's, it's a different, and, and for that matter, for men only events, right?
Like, I think there's real value in, in having men together with other men to like feel safe and they don't have to be this like man in front of women or, and, and with women, the same thing. Like there's no. It, it reduces or eliminates the competition, I think.
Tana Grenda: Mm-hmm.
Tiffany Bader: Right. Like the dynamic's totally different and it's, it's incredible.
It's, yeah.
Tana Grenda: Yeah. I, I've had people be like, why don't you do like a men and women's? I'm like, you're just different. Like, that's why I try to have all women instructors too. Like occasionally you bring in a male 'cause you just cannot find a woman that will do it. But, um, for the most part, like I try to keep it very women focused and have women photographers and everything [01:02:00] because it's just a different feel and it's a different comfort level.
And women can like, let their guard down and just be themselves, feel like there's this pressure to like perform or, I don't know, not that men are like bad in any way, but I think if men are there, you feel like. You can't ask certain questions 'cause you'll feel dumb or, you know what I mean? Like, it's different.
It's different.
Tiffany Bader: It's true. I, I, I was asked to teach, I do, uh, hunter education up here and I was asked to teach a women's only course. I'm like, uh, fine. I'll do it. And I did it. And I like, I felt so ashamed because I couldn't deny the fact that for these women it was a. It was, it was a course they wouldn't have done otherwise.
Mm-hmm. And the only reason they did it is because it was a women's only course. And it's funny too because out of those courses I have people that like I still communicate with and [01:03:00] the, you know, they'll reach out and be like, ask me questions and stuff like that. And I think their experience was so much more positive because it was a women's only environment.
Mm-hmm. And I, I teach other women in, in, you know, both sex classes and I don't have that same connection there.
Tana Grenda: Yeah.
Tiffany Bader: Right. I, I've heard the odds scream in the background. Um, do you, is there anything else you wanted to chat about?
Tana Grenda: Unless you want to,
Tiffany Bader: yeah. Okay.
Tana Grenda: I'm good.
Tiffany Bader: Uh, we didn't mention your book. I, you, you, you did a, you did a kid's book.
Tana Grenda: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, I two out, um, one of them is more northwest hunting, focused elk, deer, things like that. And it's all like hunting base for children because I, I couldn't really find any, like, good hunting children's picture books that e that like encaptured the, or captured, like the thrill of the hunt and the emotions of [01:04:00] a hunt and like how exciting it can be, you know?
So that has been really fun project, like just a passion project and hopefully will turn into something more.
Tiffany Bader: It's good, it's good for, it's good for kids to have alternatives to Bambi, right? Like
Tana Grenda: yeah,
Tiffany Bader: it's not,
Tana Grenda: go shoot something guys out. Eat it.
Tiffany Bader: I think hunting was the most, like formative experience in my son's life when he shot his first deer. Like it changed that boy. Right. Um, it's nice when hunters and outdoor lifestyle is put into a positive light.
So, um, for any listeners out there who have kids or like maybe just, you know, like reading at a kid's level
Tana Grenda: mm-hmm.
Tiffany Bader: I don't know, maybe they like reading kids books. Check. Where can they find your book?
Tana Grenda: It's on Amazon right now, stuck in the rut. You can type in stuck in the rut, [01:05:00] um, and it should pop up, but it, the full thing is stuck in the route.
Chasing Dreams is book one and then Chasing Alaska is book two and that one's all Alaska focused. So Moose, caribou, bears, um, yeah, it's, it kind of throws in like my passion for Alaska and like the wildness of it. And then another cool part of these books is my dad actually wrote. Them, um, with me, with these lyrics that he wrote to like this rap years ago, like 15 years ago, as as a teenager, he was like, oh, he like wrote these raps about hunting because our hunting YouTube channel is called Stuck in the Rut.
And so we started filming our hunts and posting our hunts on YouTube and did a lot of family based hunts. And so he wrote these lyrics and I was like, I'm gonna do something with these rhymes someday. And so I like pulled some of his rhymes into these books and like made books out of 'em. And he didn't know I was doing it.
And then I surprised him and he was like, wait, what did you
Tiffany Bader: [01:06:00] copyright infringement?
Tana Grenda: I wrote these bullet. See.
Tiffany Bader: Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome.
Tana Grenda: So it's very, it's like a family legacy for us too.
Tiffany Bader: That's super cool. Well, I'm gonna put links in the, uh, in the writeup for the podcast when it comes out so people can find that.
Uh, put links to your website for any ladies that have some free time in June.
Tana Grenda: Yeah,
Tiffany Bader: check out the rendezvous. Yeah. Um, it's been a real pleasure chatting with you. I really look forward to seeing you in person in, uh, in June. And uh, thank you so much for being on the podcast.