Thank You Lord for this Meat

Here are the results of my butchering. I am truly grateful for the food that I am able to provide my family. Between the deer I harvest, the generosity of my friend Seth this year and my friend Jayson in past years I have been able to save on our yearly grocery bill by using venison rather than beef in most of our red meat meals. Not only does it save money it's much healthier for us all. There is very little waste other than the hide of the animal. I cut all of the meat from the bones and the bones are saved for the dogs (I gave these ones to the farmer that Ariel worked for, she raises herding dogs for her sheep and I felt it was a fair exchange for letting me hunt their property.) The meat is separated into stew meat, steak meat and everything else that can be ground up into burger. If I get more than one deer during the year I will often save a brisket or the occasional roast but tend to stick to the 3 basic cuts mentioned earlier. Growing up I witnessed my Uncle and cousins butchering deer, they all worked as meat cutters in their 8-5 jobs and by paying attention to what they were doing (despite the fact I was usually stuck packaging) I have been able to save money by processing my own meat. I think the greatest part of this is I am teaching my family to be self supportive by hunting for meat, raising chickens for eggs and meat and the joys of growing fruits and vegetables. Now don't get me wrong we still rely heavily on our local grocery store but there is still a great deal of satisfaction knowing that if needed I can ensure my family will not go hungry.

Sneak attack turns into vacation venison

So yesterday was opening day of private land deer season and I decided to let Ariel have the day off from school and spend it with me in the woods. Ariel was up and dressed at 4:00am much to my surprise. She reminded me of my childhood when I went into her room to wake her up she was sitting in the dark, fully dressed with a big smile waiting to surprise me! After stopping for a drink and breakfast snack we were off to the farm. We were in the woods before the sun came up and were settled into our back to back stands. I had informed Ariel to watch the thicket behind me as the deer like to sneak past and have surprised me on more than one occasion. Legal shooting time began at 6:14am and it was 27*F. At 6:20am I heard Ariel whisper in a shaky voice "There it is!" I asked her, "there what is?" She then informed me "it" was a deer and with her hand shaking in excitement pointed towards our future dinner. I was able to place the cross hairs on it's vitals and in the blink of an eye it was all over. My shot placement was perfect and with a double lung shot the deer went less than 2o yards. I can't wait till next year when Ariel will have her hunting license and hopefully I will get to watch her shoot her own deer!

Some Like it HOT!

Growing up I always enjoyed spicy hot food. I remember eating nothing but pickled hot peppers with white bread for lunch in high school and my mother letting me have my own jar of cherry peppers in the fridge at all times. I have passed my love of all things spicy to my wife and while she was pregnant with Alex she craved my bread & butter hot pepper slices on just about everything. So it is no surprise that Alex has a complex palate and enjoys his food with a little kick. This past week we were all craving Buffalo Style Hot wings and as luck would have it we drove past Wings over Springfield several times this week in route to Alex's soccer games. Here are a couple pictures of Alex enjoying his "Red Alert" Boneless Wings and a nice cold glass of milk!

Your only as old as you act!

So here I am, reflecting upon another year of life and despite growing older and hopefully wiser, I refuse to act any older! This past year seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye. In the past 12 months I have enjoyed a great deer hunting season, I have watched both my children grow mentally and physically, I witnessed my daughter experience her first paying farm job, I went through tough times at my job earlier this year and then non stop business recently. I have expanded my obsession with raising my own food/livestock. I experienced the obsession with Facebook and the twisted people who enjoy invading peoples lives via site hacking. I have congratulated friends who brought new life into the world and grieved over the death of friends and loved ones. I experienced the Flu and got trapped in an elevator. I got to spend time with my brother and his family thanks to their New England vacation. I have said goodbye to multiple pets and welcomed new pets to our family, I have found out there are people who are even more crazy about chickens then me at Backyardchickens.com. I began my 15th year of marital Bliss with my 29 year old (forever) wife! I enjoyed a great week of vacation and since closing my Facebook account I have been faithful with my blogging. The past 35 years have been very eventful and I am grateful for each and every day that I have experienced during those years and look forward to many more. Thank you to all my friends and family who have not only made this past year special but have molded me into the man I am.

Awana Carnival Night

The Kids decided to dress up this year for Carnival Night at Awana Ariel wanted to be a kitty and Alex decided that he wanted to be Optimus Prime from Transformers. I think its great that my son's favorite toys are the same toys that I enjoyed as a child. (Transformers, Matchbox & Hotwheel cars and Lego's)
The nice thing about living in the country is we don't have to deal with Trick-or-Treater's and enjoyed a nice quite evening together as a family. We had an unplanned candle light dinner due to the wind storm which fell a tree and took down the electrical lines on the lower half of our property. We made the best of the night and after admiring all the pretty flashing lights from the fire truck, police car and utility vehicles we settled in for the night. I have to admit I am spoiled and don't really think about what life would be like without all our modern conveniences such as electricity and lights!