Let The Harvest Begin (GRAPHIC PHOTOS)

                       WARNING...GRAPHIC PHOTOS OF DEER BEING SKINNED

Like I mentioned in my earlier post,we got a deer that was hit by a car.He hung over night in our tree in the backyard. Saturday morning,The Menfolk,Zach,and nephew Brody went out hunting,but were not out long.They didn't see any deer,but they did see a mink.

This past weekend was mighty busy,as we planned on having Brody up to hunt,then harvest the turkey  that we had sold. Then we got the call about the deer,so that was added to the mix.Saturday-out early hunting,then home to harvest the deer. Some photos of the skinning:

                                                             *GRAPHIC PHOTOS*

He let Nephew Brody try his hand at skinning as well,under his guidance:

                                                       *END GRAPHIC PHOTOS*

After the deer had been skinned,then the real processing began. We have a food vacuum sealer and that keeps the meat nice and fresh.Thankfully,most of the meat was good and not ruined from the accident. The whole process of skinning,butchering,and processing took about four hours or so. We have medallions,roasts,and steaks. I have meat in the fridge that I am going to make into burger today.

The Men were exhausted by Saturday night.Sunday they harvested the turkey that we sold. We let Nephew Brody harvest the turkey,since it's not something he normally does. Zach,who is our turkey harvester,was fine with it because he knows that he will be helping with the rest this week (he has the whole week off from school).

We don't have any fancy scales,so our method of weighing turkeys is to stand on a regular scale,take note of the persons weight,then put the person on the scale with the turkey.The difference in weight is the weight of the turkey. The one we sold was 19 lbs and a Tom. We did sell it for incredibly cheap,on par with frozen at the supermarket.(a mere .75 cents per lb) We had not been keeping track of feed costs,so we really had nothing to gauge it on. Selling one was last minute decision. Our customer,Stephanie,told me she would like to get one from us next year,and I told her that the price would be much more. She seemed pretty pleased at any rate,which was a good thing.

The rest of the turkeys will be taken care of over the next couple of days. We have one for our neighbor,one for Rick's Dad,one for Brother Dale,one that we are trading for some pig meat,one for us,and three that we are donating with food baskets. We only sold the one.No money making venture this year,which is fine.Next year,we plan on keeping track of costs,buying more and selling some at what the price should be. I don't like the thought of charging people I know,though.It's just who I am.

Our neighbor,Kelly got a call about a hit deer.The Menfolk are going to help him harvest it,and he is going to give us some meat in exchange for the help.So we are going to get more venison!!

There won't be much hunting up until Thanksgiving Day. Everyone is going to be busy. 

Today: Menfolk-process Kelly's deer

            Me:make fresh pumpkin puree from two Sugar Pumpkins;finish shopping list and food basket             list. Make venison burger.Begin cleaning house.

Tuesday:Menfolk/Zach:some hunting in the AM.Begin turkey processing.Shop for food basket items.

              Me:Shop for week and Thanksgiving.Make venison sausage.

             Zach :Make up the food baskets

Wednesday: Menfolk/Zach:Process more turkeys. Deliver food baskets.Make my Birthday cake(Rick and Zach insist on it)

                    Me:Iron table cloth,wash china and special glasses/dishes,make gluten free pumpkin pie,stuff turkey with citrus,make venison sausage stuffing,and celery stuffed w/cream cheese and olives.

Plus,there always other goodies that pop up.How do you prepare for Thanksgiving,if you celebrate it?

It's 3:10 AM ....Do You Know Where Your Deer Is?

Very early this AM at 3:10 (or is it very late at night??)I woke to the sound of our phone ringing. Lately,we have been receiving "Private Caller" calls around 3:00 AM,which have been nothing but beeping noises,much to our annoyance. Usually,when a phone rings in the dead of night (or is it dead of morning??) one assumes it's not good news-something terrible has usually happened,which is why these annoying beeping calls are even more frustrating. I heard Rick answer it,and heard him say," Rt 16? Where?" When I heard this,I knew it wasn't bad news.None of our loved ones would be out and about up here,since none of them live near us.Especially that time of night ( or is it morning???)

A deer had been hit,and we are on a call list for any deer or moose. We have friends in the Middleton Police Dept who have let it be known to other Police Depts in the local area that they can call us any time of the day (or night) when they get a call about dead deer or moose,so we are on their call lists. We don't get them often,but we have a couple of times.

This deer was not far from the house-maybe about 10 minutes down the highway.It was a buck,weighing about 140 lbs.

When Zach woke up,Rick told him we got a deer,and he thought Rick had gone out and shot it. He wasn't fully awake yet,and didn't stop to think that it was still dark out. :)

At first,when Rick and I were first married and he got the same kind of call,I thought it was rather...well...weird getting roadkill. I won't lie. The thought of getting something from the side of the road conjured up images of  hillbillies scrounging for food,scraping up possums with a shovel (which I actually saw many years later on "My Big Redneck Wedding"-YUCK!) We weren't hillbillies,and we weren't starving. I mentioned this to Rick,and he replied that we weren't getting an animal that had been there for days.It was fresh,just like he had shot it. Better to get it,and at least not have it's death be in vain,than to just have it rot by the side of the road. Well,that made sense. When I saw the deer,it looked just like it would've looked if it had been hunted. It wasn't gross,and it was fresh. It took a bit,but I got over that mentality.

It's funny that this happened this morning (or is it last night??)because Nephew Brody is coming up after school to spend the night and go hunting with Rick,Brother B,and Zach tomorrow. After Brody gets here,then the deer cutting process will begin. We will vacuum seal the portions. I will actually get to try out my my meat grinder on My Precious (aka the Cuisinart),as well as my sausage maker. They have been lying in their virginal state in a drawer since I got them last year. We are fortunate that they The Menfolk can process and cut up their own deer,and we don't have to bring it to a butcher. I'm not sure if they will cure the pelt or not (another thing that they know how to do).

It's a good thing we invested in a new freezer this past week.

An Early Birthday Present

Yesterday did not begin well. I woke up and the whole house smelled like cat pee. I knew that the litter box needed to be changed,but I couldn't remember if Rick had bought litter on Tuesday.There wasn't any in the house.If he had,no one had changed the box. Rick was snoozing in the living room,but woke when I came in.My first words were,"Phew! The house stinks from the litter box!" To which my not yet awake hubby replied,"Well,why didn't you change it yesterday?"  Of course, my mind (which wasn't awake it's self yet) immediately goes on the defensive and my imaginary hackles go up. "Do we have litter? Where is it?" "It's on the porch," he replies. "Fine," I grumble.Now I am completely annoyed.Why didn't he just change the damn litter yesterday? What am I,a mind reader? I look out on the porch,and it's the 35 lb container,which yes, I can lift,but it's still heavy and awkward. So of course, I make a great show of carrying this monstrosity into the house,and I drop it rather loudly on the bathroom floor. "I'll get it,"Rick calls,just as annoyed. "Oh, no,it's apparently my job," I said,snidely. And I so I proceeded to  change the litter. I was completely annoyed with Rick for a while afterwards,and he he apologized later. I guess he felt I was blaming him,but I wasn't,I was just commented on what I smelled.I guess it wasn't the best thing to come out of my mouth first thing in the morning. Even we can get snotty with each other once in a while,though it doesn't happen very often.Especially before our first cup of coffee!

That seemed to set the tone for the day-I wound up with a headache,which made me feel real tired and just down in general.

Rick and Brother B went to their Dad's yesterday,then went to do some Christmas shopping in Newington,then went grocery shopping.They were gone quite awhile,which I knew they would be,but they didn't get back until almost 3:00,having left before 9:00. After they unloaded the groceries,Rick told me to put down my crocheting,close my eyes,and hold out my hands. He had Zach put something in my hands,which,I discovered was a Kindle $50 gift card.Rick then gave me something wrapped in his coat."This is an early birthday present,because if you don't like it,it would have to be returned the weekend after Thanksgiving,and since your birthday is on Thanksgiving,it wouldn't give you much time to use it and decide." I took it out of the coat wrapper,and this is what it was:

 I had discussed  e-readers with Rick on several occasions,and whether or not I would like one. I love reading,always have.I am not as voracious of a reader as I used to be,since life gets in the way,but I still love books.There is nothing like curling up with a good book. E readers would certainly save on storage space,and since we only have so much space,I don't have room for a lot of books.However,I was not sure if I would like the "feel"of an e-reader.

Rick had been thinking about buying one for me for a while,and stopped into Barnes and Noble to check them out. He picked the day that the Kindle Fire came out,(which he had no clue about) so there was a line at the bookstore when they showed up. Rick liked the look of the Fire,and it's capability (music,books,magazines,web browsing) and he liked the touch screen as opposed to the older models. Barnes and Noble had just received the shipment,and they said they were the first store to get them in the state. It came with a free $50 card,which is cool. The only thing was,they were told that we could download books through a USB cord connected to the computer,which we can't.We need WI FI. So they are now down at Staples,getting a WI FI router. In all honesty,we needed one,anyway. Our old computer is in Zach's room,and since we now have high speed and no longer have dial up,we would need a router for him to use his computer. We can also now use Rick's old lap top.

So I have now entered the 21st century regarding reading. I am anxious to begin my e-library! It was a nice early present.