Joetta Newman Holder is a Kentucky native and a graduate of Morehead State University with a BS degree in Veterinary Technology.

She moved to WNC in 1992 and began her career as a vet tech in Asheville, helped start the Humane Alliance charitable organization in Asheville, and later was a teacher at Asheville Buncombe Tech as well serving as Chairperson for the vet tech program at the college. She is an avid dog lover.

She became active in search and rescue operations in 1994, and in 2015 opened her own business—Mountain Girl Outdoors- a business begun with her late husband, that is devoted to getting more females actively involved in outdoor pursuits such as camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, conservation, and shooting sports.

She with us her passion for animals and how she loves taking pictures pertaining to the outdoors.

Tune in for this fun conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by clicking here.

-------------------------------------------------------

Show Notes

Segment 1

Joseph starts off the show with his usual intro before going into the sponsored message. After the message, Joseph talks about a traditional, Scottish festival he was attending, with concerts and kilts galore. Then, Joseph introduces the guest of the episode, Joetta Newman. Joseph asks her where she grew up in Kentucky and what it was like. She talks about how she got into the outdoors, explaining how she expressed little interest in the outdoors growing up, contrary to who she is now. They transition into Joetta’s veterinarian degree and what she did as a veterinarian before heading to the break.

Segment 2

Returning from the break, Joseph wanted to learn about how Joetta met her late husband, Denver Holder. She recalls it was during her time doing search and rescues that she would volunteer to, as she describes it, train dogs in hide-and-seek. Her most memorable rescue was a lost old man who wanted McDonald's and some love. Joetta then talks about geocaching, a sort of scavenger hunt in which the player would explore the environment using GPS and apps. Joetta depicts her experience in getting over her fear of guns and learning how to shoot. This sparks a discussion on guns and the experiences between the two before going to a commercial break.

Segment 3

Coming back, Joseph asks Joetta how she created her business, Mountain Girl Outdoors. She explains how when she got more involved with the outdoors, more women were also asking about the outdoors so Denver and Joetta started up the business in response. She goes on to describe the different programs they offered, the firearms program becoming more and more popular. Now, they offer outdoors, photography, and more. Joseph switches the conversation to her part in turkey conservation. She explains her role in bringing the turkey population back up and succeeding, now having more restrictions on turkey hunting. She also talks about public events offered by her business, although right now, they only offer classes and private lessons.

Segment 4

Back from the final break, Joseph asked about Joetta’s involvement in her time as a circus photographer. She explains how her friend was a part of a circus, and she was offered to take pictures of them, leading to Joetta traveling with them for a while. Joseph then wanted to know Joetta’s ideal itinerary in Canton. She talks about her ideal breakfast, lunch, and dinner spots along with activities to do in between everything. These can include walks in different parks and ax throwing. They finish off with where they can find Joetta and her business.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:33.660 –> 00:00:45.120 Joseph McElroy: howdy thanks for joining us on this week’s episode of gateway to the smokies this podcast is about America’s most visited National Park, the great.

00:00:45.900 –> 00:00:57.720 Joseph McElroy: smoky mountains national park and the surrounding towns this area’s filled with ancient natural beauty deep storied history and rich mountain culture that we explore with weekly episodes.

00:00:58.410 –> 00:01:10.170 Joseph McElroy: I am Joseph Franklyn McElroy man of the world but also with deep roots in these mountains my family is living the great smokies for over 200 years my business is in travel, but my heart is in culture.

00:01:11.130 –> 00:01:17.730 Joseph McElroy: Today we’re going to talk about mountain girls outdoors but first let’s talk about sponsors and things like that.

00:01:18.570 –> 00:01:31.620 Joseph McElroy: So I was here to imagine a place evocative motor courts of the past, the modern and vibrant with a Chic Appalachian few a place for adventure and for relaxation.

00:01:32.310 –> 00:01:45.570 Joseph McElroy: Imagine a place where you can fish in a mountain where it’s trout stream grill that catches on fire, is he accompanied by fine wine or craft beers imagine a place with old.

00:01:46.740 –> 00:01:50.940 Joseph McElroy: Music world cultural so imagine a place with a.

00:01:53.220 –> 00:02:10.230 Joseph McElroy: Natural Heritage pavilion where they play bluegrass at a speakeasy reminiscent of New York with it played modern means there is no other place like the Meadowlark Motel Maggie Valley North Carolina your smoky mountain adventure starts with where you stay.

00:02:11.250 –> 00:02:15.930 Joseph McElroy: Now there’s a bunch of events coming up so I’m gonna go and hit the highlights of it.

00:02:18.000 –> 00:02:29.670 Joseph McElroy: there’s going to be a big holiday party and discovery teeth and it’s going to feature sad and Mrs. Claus coming by around seven o’clock and the children come and.

00:02:30.720 –> 00:02:35.520 Joseph McElroy: tell Santa there what they want for toys will be Christmas music there’ll be eggnog.

00:02:36.540 –> 00:02:54.360 Joseph McElroy: Quote quote special punch but boy there’ll be some heritage goodies desserts and cash bar raffles and prizes a reading of the night before Christmas, by yours truly, so I hope you can make it out on the 18th locals are coming stay with us.

00:02:55.560 –> 00:03:03.000 Joseph McElroy: on December 25th and 6 pm we’re going to have an Appalachian Christmas supper.

00:03:04.290 –> 00:03:14.370 Joseph McElroy: which will feature all the Turkey and ham and all the fixings and you know sweet potatoes green beans that’d be mincemeat pie black rum cake or fruitcake.

00:03:15.300 –> 00:03:26.250 Joseph McElroy: Which are traditional in these mountains other desserts pumps eggnog and a Nice cash bar and there’ll be an after-party at the speakeasy so that’s on December 25 at 6 pm.

00:03:27.930 –> 00:03:31.110 Joseph McElroy: there’ll be a new year’s Eve place in the speakeasy.

00:03:32.160 –> 00:03:47.100 Joseph McElroy: it’s good to have traditional hog gels black eye peas Greens, but in a way you’ve never had them before all right there’ll be a champagne toast cash bar lots of music live music and party favor so come out to see you have a good time it’s 8 pm to 1 am.

00:03:49.590 –> 00:04:03.210 Joseph McElroy: And then save the date I don’t know if you know about it, but in the mountains for many centuries, they used to celebrate Christmas on January six because there was a mix-up or transition from one type of calendar to another.

00:04:04.800 –> 00:04:20.790 Joseph McElroy: And so January six was the date that they would celebrate Christmas on now January 6 also in other traditions is known as a is a all kings day or something like that, but here is called old Christmas so we’re going to have some old Christmas.

00:04:22.110 –> 00:04:29.580 Joseph McElroy: celebrations going on, along with big on Thursday to January six will actually have a look.

00:04:31.980 –> 00:04:35.430 Joseph McElroy: Know like we were called a lecture but I call it like that.

00:04:36.600 –> 00:04:47.640 Joseph McElroy: Discussion by Bob Plott the resident historian here at the motel heritage expert talking about what they used to do for Christmas in math.

00:04:48.720 –> 00:04:55.380 Joseph McElroy: smoky mountains in on the on that Friday we’re going to have probably got some old Christmas storyteller and my son.

00:04:56.790 –> 00:05:07.200 Joseph McElroy: A good storyteller here in these mountains on Saturday night we’ll have Barbecue and music so keep that open and then the big event for January is the Robert Burns.

00:05:08.010 –> 00:05:22.320 Joseph McElroy: dinner that’s going to happen on Tuesday, January 25, which is the traditional day of having a Robert Burns Mr dinner now You might ask what did Robert Burns dinner well Robert Burns was the national poet lower of Scotland.

00:05:23.460 –> 00:05:32.460 Joseph McElroy: Around the time all the Scots Irish people came to the United States, and you know migrating to the mountains of North Carolina and they course really revered and.

00:05:32.820 –> 00:05:43.860 Joseph McElroy: And, and he was also an expert in a lot of the ballads if they would sing you create a lot of them, and he documented the others, so he is a national hero Scotland and.

00:05:44.250 –> 00:05:57.060 Joseph McElroy: It brings a lot of delight to the people in this area, now the burns dinner is traditionally a very raucous revolve with it, you have whiskey tastings and you have.

00:05:57.540 –> 00:06:08.010 Joseph McElroy: Really sumptuous food, you have something called hogs which some people love and some people hey but it’s always worth touching tasting one time in your lifetime is traditional and then there’s toast.

00:06:08.970 –> 00:06:19.380 Joseph McElroy: To the last season than the last season respond back and then there’s music and dancing so it’s a great night it’s very robust and fun entertainment.

00:06:20.340 –> 00:06:28.830 Joseph McElroy: And we’re going to do it now I’ll be wearing a kilt and so some of the other people so you’re welcome to come, but even the days before that starting on the Friday before that 21st.

00:06:29.190 –> 00:06:36.750 Joseph McElroy: we’re going to have Scottish themes events like a whiskey tasting and a concert in the speakeasy Saturday there’ll be another concert.

00:06:37.530 –> 00:06:48.090 Joseph McElroy: In the pavilion, if the weather’s committee otherwise it’ll be up in the lounge will have an on Sunday, with a bonfire historical program by Bob plot.

00:06:49.170 –> 00:06:54.480 Joseph McElroy: And some Scottish ballads by will William Ritter, and then Monday before the bird’s dinner we’re gonna have.

00:06:55.170 –> 00:07:03.030 Joseph McElroy: The program and we asked her Scott’s in North Carolina for presented by Mike Mclean the president of the Haywood county historical society.

00:07:03.510 –> 00:07:13.050 Joseph McElroy: And that should be all a great week of events and fun and you know and it’s great the time so come up to the mountains and cedar and day come to these events in the evening.

00:07:13.590 –> 00:07:19.440 Joseph McElroy: there’s also winter hiking as a tremendous time to visit and see things in the mouth.

00:07:20.370 –> 00:07:31.230 Joseph McElroy: Another sponsor smokies adventure.com information listings about the smoke it wedding venues books trail maps and resources, about the smokies the emphasis.

00:07:31.470 –> 00:07:42.630 Joseph McElroy: Of smokies adventures of outdoor recreation outdoor life events like weddings and adventures, hello, providing information and logic family entertainment events conventions honeymoons in war.

00:07:43.140 –> 00:07:48.150 Joseph McElroy: The goal of this site is to become the leading information portal on smoky mountains, and I think it’s reset.

00:07:49.470 –> 00:08:00.660 Joseph McElroy: So today we have a great guest her name is JoEtta Newman Holder a Kentucky native and she’s in Kentucky today she’s doing this route from Kentucky.

00:08:01.200 –> 00:08:06.900 Joseph McElroy: And a graduate of Morehead State University, with a bs degree in veterinary technology.

00:08:07.590 –> 00:08:24.840 Joseph McElroy: In 2015 she opened a business called mountain girls Outdoor that is devoted to getting more females actively involved in outdoor pursuits such as camping hiking fishing hunting conservation and shooting sports hi Joanna how are you doing.

00:08:25.350 –> 00:08:26.700 JoEtta Newman-Holder: hi just fine.

00:08:27.090 –> 00:08:30.180 Joseph McElroy: yeah it feels cold up there and Kentucky today.

00:08:31.080 –> 00:08:32.850 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Today, very cold yes.

00:08:34.260 –> 00:08:48.570 Joseph McElroy: Usually you’re in Canada, which is not far from Maggie Valley, but now we’re and usually I’m in New York, so now I’m in Maggie Valley and you’re happy so well, we all we’re all living at this multi-dimensional life these days right.

00:08:49.350 –> 00:08:55.170 Joseph McElroy: Definitely yeah so you grew up in sort of an urban setting Kentucky right.

00:08:56.730 –> 00:08:58.140 Joseph McElroy: Where was what city was that.

00:08:58.800 –> 00:09:00.270 JoEtta Newman-Holder: um ashland Kentucky.

00:09:02.220 –> 00:09:04.320 Joseph McElroy: And you didn’t really do a lot outdoors right.

00:09:04.890 –> 00:09:25.890 JoEtta Newman-Holder: No, I grew up basically being in the gymnastics world, so I spent my time in the gym and competing on weekends and that sort of thing and then, when I got a little older into high school I got into the band, and that became my life and.

00:09:27.150 –> 00:09:35.550 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Continued on into college and really didn’t get started in the outdoors until I was in college or after.

00:09:36.120 –> 00:09:55.860 Joseph McElroy: wow you know I saw statistics a statistic that was like there was you know, in terms of girls growing up and boys growing up how often they got the opportunity to be in the outdoors and it’s like almost 20% difference in the opportunities presented to them, right.

00:09:56.040 –> 00:09:59.370 Joseph McElroy: it’s nice sometimes it’s, not even a consideration, it must be difficult.

00:09:59.370 –> 00:09:59.970 Joseph McElroy: thing right.

00:10:00.390 –> 00:10:10.230 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It is and it’s also difficult for females than in later life decide to get involved, they don’t know how or where.

00:10:11.940 –> 00:10:16.980 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And it can be intimidating if, particularly if you’re going into.

00:10:18.990 –> 00:10:24.750 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Not necessarily male-dominated but more males and females.

00:10:26.430 –> 00:10:33.780 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Where they’ve had a chance to do it and growing up, and you haven’t and it can be a little intimidating so.

00:10:35.940 –> 00:10:45.120 Joseph McElroy: Now, did you will talk, I want to get into that we’re going to delve into that a little bit later because that’s what you’re doing and I think it’s potentially interesting, but I want to.

00:10:45.210 –> 00:10:47.550 Joseph McElroy: find out more about how we got here.

00:10:48.000 –> 00:10:49.620 Joseph McElroy: So did you have any.

00:10:51.630 –> 00:10:53.040 Joseph McElroy: interest when you were growing up.

00:10:53.730 –> 00:10:58.590 JoEtta Newman-Holder: um I did, and I would occasionally get to go.

00:11:01.590 –> 00:11:13.590 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Fishing on rare occasions or getting to go on a picnic or I’m here in this area there’s a State Park, that is.

00:11:16.740 –> 00:11:30.630 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Carter caves and we’d go and hype Carter page and go into the cage and that sort of thing, but as a regular occurrence really never got to and.

00:11:31.950 –> 00:11:39.810 JoEtta Newman-Holder: The local girl scouts and that sort of thing weren’t focused on outdoor stuff.

00:11:40.980 –> 00:12:06.900 JoEtta Newman-Holder: If I’d had a chance at that time being boy scouts or something closer to that maybe I would have been more involved in the outdoors but locally our girl scouts and all those types of programs are more geared toward crafting indoor stuff for women and cooking and sewing and.

00:12:07.500 –> 00:12:10.680 JoEtta Newman-Holder: that’s the thing it wasn’t a whole lot of outdoors.

00:12:10.800 –> 00:12:13.770 JoEtta Newman-Holder: opportunity so um.

00:12:14.160 –> 00:12:15.930 Joseph McElroy: I sort of know i’m.

00:12:17.040 –> 00:12:26.550 Joseph McElroy: A very mature age and I could remember that dichotomy about wasn’t girls and boys are in turn careers to do is a pretty dramatic difference in this area.

00:12:27.990 –> 00:12:35.400 JoEtta Newman-Holder: In this area too and I’m probably about your age so it’s very, very similar.

00:12:35.580 –> 00:12:42.900 Joseph McElroy: yeah so so you grew up, we did some things band stuff like that, but you went to Morehead state where you graduated.

00:12:44.580 –> 00:12:48.000 Joseph McElroy: And you’d graduated with a veterinarian technical degree right.

00:12:48.390 –> 00:12:50.220 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Yes, so that was a.

00:12:51.240 –> 00:12:52.680 Joseph McElroy: Very tech, I mean is that, like.

00:12:53.310 –> 00:12:59.250 Joseph McElroy: started, be a lot more technology involved in doing that nary work, and you, you are on a few of the other guard of that.

00:12:59.910 –> 00:13:04.350 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Well it’s more of a nurse.

00:13:05.460 –> 00:13:28.140 JoEtta Newman-Holder: nurse and the field are actually starting to adopt that name but it’s much more than that we do all the radiology we do all the dentistry we do all of the laboratory work we do everything behind the scenes, other than the diagnosis, or the actual treating.

00:13:29.490 –> 00:13:33.870 Joseph McElroy: Just knowing the technology is a pretty intensive course of action now.

00:13:34.470 –> 00:13:36.300 Joseph McElroy: Oh, my God yeah so.

00:13:36.540 –> 00:13:48.720 Joseph McElroy: So you graduated you gotten the job field, and now you are like the Chair of the veterinary technology astral astral bumping Community called bashful welcome fact right.

00:13:48.990 –> 00:13:53.760 JoEtta Newman-Holder: I was I did that for about four years, four or five years.

00:13:54.780 –> 00:14:03.930 JoEtta Newman-Holder: I started out there as an adjunct instructor when the program began, and then eventually moved into the chairperson.

00:14:06.090 –> 00:14:08.760 Joseph McElroy: Well that’s a pretty impressive career path so.

00:14:09.870 –> 00:14:12.210 Joseph McElroy: a fairly short period of time, I think rightly so.

00:14:12.390 –> 00:14:12.780 yeah.

00:14:13.980 –> 00:14:19.560 Joseph McElroy: So you know we’re going to take a break now and we’re talking about your migration to this whole outdoor.

00:14:20.400 –> 00:14:21.210 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Okay, great.

00:16:37.890 –> 00:16:52.650 Joseph McElroy: howdy this is Joseph Franklin McElroy back with a gateway to the smokies podcast my guest to edit Newman older so Joanna so around 2005 you met and married your late husband right.

00:16:53.130 –> 00:17:11.760 JoEtta Newman-Holder: I did um we met in search and rescue and he was a local and he grew up in the canton area and his upbringing and his experience in the outdoors was very, very, very different than mine.

00:17:12.300 –> 00:17:16.710 Joseph McElroy: I can imagine growing up here, you know you have to get there and what was his name I missed that.

00:17:17.040 –> 00:17:18.030 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Denver boulder.

00:17:18.600 –> 00:17:23.610 Joseph McElroy: Denver holder right so so so it was a.

00:17:24.690 –> 00:17:31.530 Joseph McElroy: Bob targets talk, he said, Bob, you know of course made some of these give me some of the information he said it was a marriage made in heaven.

00:17:33.120 –> 00:17:39.060 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It was it took us a while to get there, we eventually did.

00:17:39.810 –> 00:17:42.780 Joseph McElroy: yeah but you had some hesitation about guns.

00:17:43.470 –> 00:17:44.220 JoEtta Newman-Holder: I did.

00:17:45.450 –> 00:17:54.210 JoEtta Newman-Holder: growing up, I was in even well past college, I was terrified of guns I couldn’t.

00:17:55.380 –> 00:18:05.430 JoEtta Newman-Holder: walk into a sporting good store anything with guns, in the cases, I literally break out in the cold sweat and.

00:18:07.140 –> 00:18:13.980 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It was a really new world to me whenever my husband and I met and.

00:18:15.270 –> 00:18:25.260 JoEtta Newman-Holder: We ended up at that point, realizing that if our relationship was going to go any further then I was gonna have to get used to guns real quick.

00:18:27.510 –> 00:18:34.050 Joseph McElroy: Well, you guys met its search and rescue I mean what got you interested in search and rescue.

00:18:34.770 –> 00:18:46.470 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Well I’m got to the area fell in love with the outdoors and already had love of dogs and training and that sort of thing and so.

00:18:48.150 –> 00:19:00.450 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Through a friend and one dog group ended up getting connected to a search and rescue group in the area and it kind of.

00:19:01.500 –> 00:19:13.590 JoEtta Newman-Holder: fuse the two things that time that I love the outdoors and dogs into one thing and got to do, I like to do on a volunteer basis.

00:19:14.430 –> 00:19:16.890 Joseph McElroy: What is the essence of search and rescue training.

00:19:18.660 –> 00:19:31.320 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Basically it’s I’m trying to get the dog to play a game basically teaching dogs, how to do hide and seek and.

00:19:32.880 –> 00:19:55.830 JoEtta Newman-Holder: The difficult part is actually training the people it isn’t the dogs are really good at the whole game, and if they enjoy it they’re really good at it and it doesn’t take a lot of training for them, but the training on the human side is a lot more intensive and a lot more difficult.

00:19:59.160 –> 00:20:03.270 Joseph McElroy: Now, did you get to go out on some a search and rescue operation.

00:20:03.720 –> 00:20:08.160 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Oh yeah many, many, many yes I’m loved it.

00:20:09.630 –> 00:20:17.310 JoEtta Newman-Holder: always seemed that we got called after dark and more than not, it was raining.

00:20:17.760 –> 00:20:18.390 JoEtta Newman-Holder: So you.

00:20:18.480 –> 00:20:21.690 JoEtta Newman-Holder: got to go try and play around in the dark in the ring.

00:20:22.140 –> 00:20:23.700 Joseph McElroy: What was your most memorable last year.

00:20:24.930 –> 00:20:35.460 JoEtta Newman-Holder: um probably a little old man that had walked away from a nursing home and.

00:20:37.110 –> 00:20:57.420 JoEtta Newman-Holder: We found him and he was so incredibly cold, we found him in a creek and um I was just happy, he was talking to us, but I was trying to getting to talk to me and I didn’t really care what he was saying, as long as he was talking to me, and he ended up proposing.

00:21:02.640 –> 00:21:07.800 Joseph McElroy: that’s nice right yes he’s looking for love, maybe that’s what it out for looking for love right.

00:21:10.020 –> 00:21:19.620 JoEtta Newman-Holder: He wanted to go to McDonald’s and he was out for a while trying to get to McDonald’s and he had always been looking for a woman so.

00:21:22.050 –> 00:21:22.770 Joseph McElroy: There you go.

00:21:24.390 –> 00:21:26.160 Joseph McElroy: So, but your husband probably didn’t agree.

00:21:29.430 –> 00:21:30.030 JoEtta Newman-Holder: With me.

00:21:32.370 –> 00:21:33.780 Joseph McElroy: It was one of those kinds of proposed.

00:21:37.080 –> 00:21:53.490 Joseph McElroy: So, so you, you know you have developed some pretty impressive field, crafts still right is tracking wilderness survival navigational medical medicine, but there was something I saw you learned about GEO caching what is the geocaching.

00:21:53.940 –> 00:22:07.950 JoEtta Newman-Holder: GEO caching is something fun to do outside of search and rescue it in it actually helps with your navigation skills and how to use GPS basically it’s been going on for.

00:22:08.460 –> 00:22:21.270 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Probably 2030 years now, but people set up courses, where you have a starting point, you they give you coordinates are clues.

00:22:22.050 –> 00:22:31.980 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Via GPS that you go to, and if you get to the end of it’s like a scavenger hunt if you get to the end of it there’s typically a.

00:22:32.490 –> 00:22:54.750 JoEtta Newman-Holder: treasure at the end and basically you leave something behind some small token or something behind or there may be a note inside that you add to it or something like that, but it’s a lot of fun to go do it and in the.

00:22:56.280 –> 00:22:58.500 JoEtta Newman-Holder: haywood county area there’s.

00:22:58.710 –> 00:23:00.660 JoEtta Newman-Holder: A lot of.

00:23:02.160 –> 00:23:05.910 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Hidden treasures geocaching.

00:23:06.930 –> 00:23:08.280 JoEtta Newman-Holder: sites to go to.

00:23:08.670 –> 00:23:12.990 Joseph McElroy: or interesting is done, as a game on so.

00:23:13.080 –> 00:23:20.730 JoEtta Newman-Holder: yeah it is it’s basically a game of kind of a cross between hiding and seek and I’m.

00:23:22.830 –> 00:23:24.540 JoEtta Newman-Holder: A scavenger hunt so.

00:23:25.050 –> 00:23:26.010 Joseph McElroy: Is there an APP for that.

00:23:26.190 –> 00:23:28.920 JoEtta Newman-Holder: yeah there’s a lot of Apps actually.

00:23:29.130 –> 00:23:37.650 Joseph McElroy: Really wow yeah something somebody is a visitor could come here and use GEO caching is a fun way to engage with the environment, ready.

00:23:38.100 –> 00:23:38.790 Yes.

00:23:39.810 –> 00:24:05.850 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Definitely, and that was kind of how it was started and people wanting to get out the area or areas and explore and get other people involved, and it was about the same time as GPS has started coming out and getting more popular and affordable and then it just took off from there.

00:24:06.360 –> 00:24:08.130 Joseph McElroy: And what do you think is the best APP for that.

00:24:09.480 –> 00:24:14.100 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Oh, my goodness um there are so many of them now that’s.

00:24:14.460 –> 00:24:20.100 Joseph McElroy: fairly simple for somebody coming to the air that’s just wanted to have it sort of a casual fun experience.

00:24:21.000 –> 00:24:38.610 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Basically, if you go and search geocaching in Haywood county and it will actually bring up different lists of caching sites and you can just choose which one you want to go find your day.

00:24:39.090 –> 00:24:44.490 Joseph McElroy: Oh wow okay cool alright that sounds like a real adventure, I have to.

00:24:45.810 –> 00:24:52.080 Joseph McElroy: I’m now writing that down and they’re going to look that up because that could be great for my guests here, the Meadowlark motel, right.

00:24:52.290 –> 00:25:01.620 JoEtta Newman-Holder: yeah yes and there’s several in Maggie um and there are easier ones are harder ones train wise.

00:25:02.880 –> 00:25:07.680 JoEtta Newman-Holder: there’s actually a couple over on paper Community college campus.

00:25:08.730 –> 00:25:17.010 JoEtta Newman-Holder: So if you’re just getting started and don’t want to go out and get lost in the woods and it’s easy.

00:25:19.200 –> 00:25:23.850 Joseph McElroy: You can do some training, the first day before you go, yes, all right there you go cool.

00:25:25.350 –> 00:25:40.020 Joseph McElroy: So you overcame your fear of guns and you learned all these survival skills so then your husband was an expert in hunting and fishing and target shooting and you took an interest.

00:25:40.710 –> 00:25:42.510 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Oh, I did um.

00:25:43.710 –> 00:25:49.770 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Once we got together and I realized, I was gonna have to come overcome the whole gun issue.

00:25:51.030 –> 00:26:05.130 JoEtta Newman-Holder: He actually brought me a little, and I sat on the couch and literally didn’t open the box for probably the first two weeks and just sat there and touched it and got used to being in there and.

00:26:06.630 –> 00:26:09.570 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Then open the box and shut the box and then start.

00:26:11.640 –> 00:26:17.610 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And finally got the instruction manual out and Dug it by reading it and.

00:26:18.930 –> 00:26:30.870 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Finally, started actually touching the gun itself and then learned how to take it apart, one of my husband’s favorite stories was one night he came home and he said.

00:26:32.460 –> 00:26:34.590 JoEtta Newman-Holder: You got it taken apart now, what are you gonna do.

00:26:37.560 –> 00:26:40.110 JoEtta Newman-Holder: tomorrow night I’ll put it back together tomorrow night.

00:26:42.750 –> 00:26:51.960 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And then, it took me about 18 months before I started shooting and after that, I literally fell in love with it.

00:26:53.370 –> 00:26:54.330 JoEtta Newman-Holder: and

00:26:55.890 –> 00:27:05.820 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It kind of took off from there and I started hunting and coming from an animal care background, it was kind of interesting.

00:27:07.350 –> 00:27:13.410 Joseph McElroy: How did you make that jump from loving animals and animal care into a willingness to shoot.

00:27:14.250 –> 00:27:20.040 JoEtta Newman-Holder: I had always until that point I didn’t want to kill Bambi etc.

00:27:21.390 –> 00:27:43.890 JoEtta Newman-Holder: But once I got into that side of the culture and realized, it was a lot more than just going out and killing an animal and I was going out to do it for actual food and we used that everything that we possibly use of the animal.

00:27:45.210 –> 00:27:54.780 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It was also very, very, very social, not only with other people, but it was something that my husband and I could go out and do together and we really enjoyed it.

00:27:55.530 –> 00:28:07.830 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Because he had grown up hunting and he spent more time outdoors than he did indoors growing up, so it was one more thing that we could do together and we really enjoyed doing together.

00:28:09.660 –> 00:28:13.440 JoEtta Newman-Holder: So I got past that.

00:28:15.720 –> 00:28:27.120 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It was more of an I’m not just going out and aimlessly killing something I’m actually going out and for purpose.

00:28:28.320 –> 00:28:30.900 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And at that time.

00:28:32.160 –> 00:28:38.850 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Beef and chicken were giving me issues, and when I switched to deer meat venison.

00:28:40.050 –> 00:28:41.370 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Those issues went away.

00:28:42.420 –> 00:28:45.120 JoEtta Newman-Holder: So it was a.

00:28:47.550 –> 00:28:49.440 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It was kind of a necessity.

00:28:49.830 –> 00:28:56.250 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And overcame that severe love doesn’t kill.

00:28:57.360 –> 00:29:03.690 JoEtta Newman-Holder: mentality and it’s been it hasn’t been that bad of a journey.

00:29:03.990 –> 00:29:06.120 Joseph McElroy: sounds like you thought about it and then.

00:29:07.980 –> 00:29:19.590 Joseph McElroy: In general Nada is a big gun advocate but I’m not the I grew up here so I’m not like you know, a rabid anti-gun either you know, like you know I know the farmers got it sometimes have a.

00:29:21.600 –> 00:29:26.520 Joseph McElroy: sort of fast shooting gun, you know to take care of codes that are about to kill our livestock me.

00:29:26.580 –> 00:29:39.480 Joseph McElroy: Right and then you know and then there’s been no humankind is to destroy a lot of predators, which means that a lot of the other animals get overcrowded they starve to death, so.

00:29:39.840 –> 00:29:53.700 Joseph McElroy: letting humans, be the predators, they are in certain situations is a necessity because it’s the only alternative, so I, so we have to take a break we’ll come back and we’ll talk about your mountain.

00:29:54.900 –> 00:29:56.070 Joseph McElroy: Mountain girls outdoors.

00:30:01.980 –> 00:30:02.130 JoEtta Newman-Holder: New.

00:32:03.780 –> 00:32:14.130 Joseph McElroy: howdy this is Joseph Franklin McElroy back with the gateway to the smokies podcast my guest Joetta Newman Holder so to add to that.

00:32:15.090 –> 00:32:30.660 Joseph McElroy: So 2005 you met your husband and you were doing little certain random search rescue, but you were by far not involved in Hunting, Fishing, and all this sort of stuff 2015 rolls around and you’re creating mountain girls outdoors tell me how that happened.

00:32:34.620 –> 00:32:36.180 Joseph McElroy: It got to the point that.

00:32:36.600 –> 00:32:39.150 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It got to the point that I was.

00:32:41.010 –> 00:32:51.780 JoEtta Newman-Holder: getting more and more involved in the outdoors and more and more women were wanting to know how to get involved in the outdoors and so.

00:32:52.860 –> 00:33:07.290 JoEtta Newman-Holder: At that time I had left my job at ad tech as the chairperson for the vet tech program and my husband and I decided that start a business for

00:33:08.910 –> 00:33:16.110 JoEtta Newman-Holder: trying to get more women involved in the outdoors kind of evolved and started.

00:33:17.430 –> 00:33:23.430 JoEtta Newman-Holder: getting us thinking about doing it, and so we opened it up and.

00:33:27.270 –> 00:33:31.290 JoEtta Newman-Holder: In hopes of getting more women involved in the outdoors.

00:33:32.610 –> 00:33:33.240 cool.

00:33:35.610 –> 00:33:47.970 Joseph McElroy: And you were what we spent you were focused on like single mothers and young and old, women, and we were trying to introduce outdoor skills and familiarity of firearms about for both sport and protection right.

00:33:48.330 –> 00:34:02.730 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Yes, well, it started out trying to get women in particular involved in the outdoors because we felt that if you get the female and female part of the family involved.

00:34:03.240 –> 00:34:21.330 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Then they’re more likely to participate with the rest of the family, so if they had ways or other female children, and they would also get them out the wars and involved in the outdoors if they were married.

00:34:22.950 –> 00:34:39.900 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And the husband and the boys in the family, like to go outside and hunt fish camp, whatever it happened to be, and she felt a little intimidated or wasn’t as involved as she could be.

00:34:40.920 –> 00:34:58.050 JoEtta Newman-Holder: We were trying to give her white and become more knowledgeable about those things, so they wouldn’t be as intimidated and hopefully get more families outdoors whether was camping or fishing or.

00:34:59.190 –> 00:35:01.530 JoEtta Newman-Holder: farms or whatever it may be.

00:35:03.690 –> 00:35:17.130 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And it kind of evolved from there, we were we did everything and do everything from basic camping land navigation hiking.

00:35:18.600 –> 00:35:46.980 JoEtta Newman-Holder: We did do some fishing whether it’s regular like lake fishing or fly fishing and we started some archery classes and during the process, I became an instructor for multiple firearms and started offering introductory classes for women.

00:35:48.660 –> 00:36:01.710 JoEtta Newman-Holder: Whether or not they wanted to have a gun to protect themselves, or if there was a gun already in the House, and they were terrified of guns like I was.

00:36:02.220 –> 00:36:25.470 JoEtta Newman-Holder: And just wanted to become a little bit more familiar with guns, so they weren’t as terrifying and then it just kind of evolved from there into we were doing more and more firearms classes, then we were a lot of the outdoor classes, we were doing a few outdoor classes, but.

00:36:27.030 –> 00:36:32.280 JoEtta Newman-Holder: It became more and more of a demand for the firearm classes.

00:36:32.760 –> 00:36:33.210 Right.

00:36:34.230 –> 00:36:39.300 Joseph McElroy: So, so you initially had a broke brick and mortar school store, but to hear that right.

00:36:39.720 –> 00:36:41.610 JoEtta Newman-Holder: yeah we ended up.

00:36:43.200 –> 00:36:44.880 JoEtta Newman-Holder: coven kind of did that in.

00:36:45.060 –> 00:36:46.230 Joseph McElroy: yeah we did that.

00:36:48.120 –> 00:36:48.750 Joseph McElroy: And then.

00:36:49.830 –> 00:36:54.030 Joseph McElroy: You know, and 2019, of course, your husband died, which I’m so sorry about.

00:36:54.450 –> 00:36:55.890 JoEtta Newman-Holder: That, thank you, I appreciate it.

00:36:55.950 –> 00:37:00.540 Joseph McElroy: I had my spouse long time die in 2014 so.

00:37:02.790 –> 00:37:13.200 Joseph McElroy: I know it’s impressive that you were able to maintain and build