without strangling Hunter OR my children.  It’s a miracle! 

Seriously, though, deer season is over.  Now the man keeps trying to go duck hunting.  We don’t EAT duck.  His response?  “Not yet.”

We were blessed with plenty of meat this year.  Hunter took 8 deer for our family to eat plus split another deer that someone else shot.  We paid to process only 2 deer (so we could have cubed steak); the rest we did ourselves with my KitchenAid mixer and grinder attachment (see the sweat on my brow from worrying about him breaking my true love).  He also took 1 wild hog which was a surprise to us all; we had this one processed as we had no idea what to do with it. 

I am surprised to tell you how much I like the wild hog sausage.  It tastes very good.  It has a strong flavor but it isn’t gamey.  I hope he’s able to get another one soon since we’re almost out of sausage!  We haven’t been real impressed with the pork chops from this hog though.  Just tough.  I think we’re out of them now but if not, I think I’m going to try the crock pot next time.

Hunter took the last 2 deer during the last week of the year and we processed them ourselves.  Here’s a picture of the final product (no worries, no blood!)

There’s about 15 packages of ground, 1.5lbs per pack as well as tenderloin, backstrap, hams for roast and ribs (new, we’re going to try it anyway).  And stew meat!  Man does this help our budget; help, heck, it saves it.  We would be unable to do $70-75 per week if we didn’t have meat available to us like this.

I know it’s not for everyone but it works for us.  At this point in my life, it’s just like using ground beef.  I’ve learned how to cook venison and how to cook it well (I like to think anyway).  Eleven years ago, I wouldn’t touch the stuff.  Now, it’s about 80-90% of what we eat!

I’d like to say that peace will reign until next September but Hunter swears he’s going duck hunting again and that he can hunt pigs year round because its private land and that he’ll turkey hunt this year.  Sigh…I need a hobby.

C-re