Meat for the table

November 29, 2012 – Thursday

14 degrees

Pentoga Road

I’m writing quickly as I’ll be riding with Sargie to Iron Mountain this morning and later, onto our storage unit to gather some boxes of Christmas decorations. It’s that time of year.

Hmm, does the white stuff mean the swimming season is over?

Ice and snow on the diving platform

The big news from Pentoga Road is I harvested a deer yesterday, a fairly good-sized spike horn buck. He’s been coming around, chasing the girls, and yesterday, I decided since we needed the meat, it was time.

I wish I could brag about my shooting prowess, how I adjusted the scope on the rifle for the elevation, wind, and humidity, but in all reality, the shot was close, very close. When one lives IN the woods rather having to drive TO the woods, the critters are never far away.

FOLLOWING IS GRAPHIC – SKIP THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU HUG TREES AND TICKLE TEDDY BEARS

I could see fairly well through the scope and use it as one might binoculars. The buck refused to turn sideways for a good heart/lung shot. I waited for quite some time with the gun ready to fire. He eventually sensed I was close by as he raised his head, looking directly at me. The deer was quivering and jumpy, indicating he was about to bolt. I decided to take him by putting the shot under his chin, into the windpipe, resulting in a direct hit on his heart and lungs. He jumped into the air making a ¾’s turn, ran about twenty feet towards the woods, and crumpled. When cleaning him later, I found the heart completely disintegrated, as were the lungs. Other than the heart, no meat was wasted.

OK – YOU CAN CONTINUE READING

Compared to cleaning a caribou, a deer is a piece of cake. I dragged him to the barn, had him hung from the rafters (using a come-along), gutted, and skinned within twenty minutes. I HATE skinning a cold animal, especially a large one, so decided to get that chore out of the way. I’ll brag a bit more and say I didn’t put one nick in the hide. There’s a local person who has a sign in his yard saying he buys deer hides. I’m more than happy to let him have it.

My buddy, the blue jay is just hanging out, waiting for some free goodies

I worked most of Wednesday morning on classes… again. I’m completely caught up with this semester’s class and feeling good about it. If I could just complete next semester’s ALST 600 classes, I’d be at the top of the world. It’s coming, but feel it’s almost the same process as writing a book; some chapters zip by, others are a struggle. Right now, academically, I’m struggling a bit. It will unfold, of that there’s no doubt.

My tootsies got chilly during yesterday’s five-mile hike in ultra light running shoes. I purchased an inexpensive pair of boots yesterday at Walmart, something that ought to get me by until I can get a real pair of cold-weather hikers.

Indian Lake was almost completely frozen over except for a spot in the middle that the wind was keeping open. We’d be ice fishing in the next few days except a warm front is to come through this weekend and predicted temperatures are to be in the lower 50’s for a day accompanied by rain! After that, it cools off again. Oh well, its not even December yet. There’s an entire winter left ahead for drilling holes in the ice and catching fish.

I had to hurry yesterday after cleaning the deer to get to Iron Mountain before dark. Since the glare of others’ headlights makes driving difficult, I was relieved when I pulled into the parking lot. Sargie still had an hour to work, so I walked around and did some window shopping. I found the pair of boots on clearance and we also purchased a pair of discounted summer sandals for Sargie.

The foxes are active

It was fun riding home together and we talked the entire way. She made a “Thanksgiving casserole” last night by combining all the leftovers from Thanksgiving (except the cranberries, they are long gone) into a cake pan, making biscuits to put over the top, then throwing the whole thing into the oven. It was delicious and there was enough left to have it again tonight.

So, does that mean we’re having leftover leftovers?

God lives up there somewhere

This morning will be spent at the storage unit and around Iron Mountain. I need to stop at Home Depot and buy some dog-eared fence out of which to make ermine boxes for trapping. Now the hunting season is almost finished, it’s time to get serious about trapping again.

I hope to hike this afternoon, no doubt will grade some projects, and I promised Sargie I would vacuum and sweep the floors. It seems some insensitive person, in his enthusiasm after shooting a deer, sneaked in the house and tracked all over as he was looking for a knife, paper towels, and all the things necessary to put meat on the table. Darn him, anyway! Didn’t his mama bring him up any better?

Time to get this uploaded and greet the day. Daylight’s burnin’. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

As Kelly Labrock used to say in the old Prell Shampoo commercial, "I can't help it I'm beautiful..."
The hat was given to me last year as a gift from my friends in the Ukraine. It's warm!