Deer

I might as well start right back where I left off, right? After all, as a very wise person once said, "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...."

So I will back up to something that happened about 3 weeks ago now....we finished processing the last two of the three deer we were given, once again by our neighbor Terry. He was helping the town of Hot Springs cut down on their massive population of deer and dropped three in our driveway for which we are very thankful!

Of course the first thing that has to be done is to skin it (thankfully the messy gutting out took place before they were ours and in a different location). Matthew is usually left to do this part on his own, along with the cutting up of all the meat. This year, Jenna offered - a decision she may still be questioning for quite some time - to come over and help us out in the process....?!?!

First the deer has to be hung from the ceiling of the garage....

then the hide is pulled off, and yes, it is as hard as it looks! Before we had the time to process the deer we had a stretch of really cold weather - where Matthew could hardly shave off chunks of meat because it was so frozen, let alone skin and cut one up. So at this time it was just barely warm enough to be able to process but still a tough job to skin.But then comes the fun part....oh wait, now I remember why Jenna came! She got to use power tools=)Then big hairy chunks of meat begin to show up in the house for the inside crew to start on.Monica is the official meat washer....sickest job of all if you ask me! But she manages to humor herself with some rather gross tricks=)The cleaned meat them moves onto the cutter....which this time was both Matthew and Jenna.Some of us have to take a break every once in a while from all the hard work=)

Then the grinding begins!!! Matthew cuts out the good roasts, then some steaks, then cuts up some pieces for stew meat....and the rest we grind into hamburg, or more properly said, deerburg. But then hamburg isn't made out of ham either, so....anyway! We all take a turn at the grinding since it is a tiring job! Zach probably does close to 50% of it though....and always with a ready smile for the camera=)
Jenna took a turn....

as did Logan.... and Alana....and even Jesse, though he could hardly reach!From there Monica (once she's done washing) and I weigh and bag up all the meat. I was given a handy tip by a friend so I'd been saving bread bags for months and we stored our 1 pound lumps of hamburg in a doubled over bread bag knotted shut! Worked perfectly and saved lots of money on Ziplocs=) There's no picture for the packaging part of the ordeal...

Once we are done that we store it in the freezer, a little bit in the upstairs and the rest in the freezer in the basement. This year Logan and Zach got creative and saved themselves many steps up and down the stairs as our runners.

Logan would stand at the top with the pile of meat on the floor beside him-
And toss them down to Zach at the bottom who would then put them away=)

I have to be honest and say that throughout the whole evening I have to keep reminding myself to chant my little mantra "I'm thankful for the meat, I'm thankful for the meat, I'm thankful for the meat...." I'll just say that it is not my favorite way to spend an evening - BUT - I am always thankful for the time our family spends together working side by side, and for the friends crazy enough to join us=)