The Joys of Hunting Season...

Hunting is a whole new world for me, but it's one of the main reasons Noah wanted to move up here.  Hunting season started in the middle of October, and though it's beginning to wind down, it's not completely over yet.  Yesterday was the last day of deer season, but antelope season is still open & Noah has gone over to Kaycee today to see if he can get one last antelope.  (I must admit that antelope meat is tasty--I didn't know if it was going to be any good, but turns out it is!)

This part of Wyoming is one of the prime hunting spots in the US.  Hunters from all over the country and even the world flock here every fall to hunt.  It's the last big tourist event of the year.  Once the hunters clear out, things are pretty quiet until the summer tourist season opens again in late-May.

Anyway, hunting may be fun for the hunters, but for non-hunters like myself, hunting season means just one thing:  meat processing.  I'd never processed game meat before, but I did have some ideas about how it was done:  I envisioned surgically-scrubbed instruments, people wearing pristine white lab coats, surgical gloves & masks, and some type of white, gleaming, immaculate, germ-free environment.  SURPRISE!!  Ain't nothin' like that!!  After the animal is shot and gutted, Noah strings it up in our grungy garage and lets it hang there for a day or two to "cure."  Once the carcass is cured, Noah dismembers it with his meat saw, knife and/or machete.  This process is not for the squeamish as it is accomplished with a lot of loud cracking and squelching noises...

That's an antelope on the left and a deer on the right.  Note the super-sanitary surroundings!!

After Noah  dismembers the carcasses, we have to wash the parts with a mixture of vinegar and water to remove any hairs that may still be clinging to the meat.  Then Noah starts cutting off small pieces for me to feed into the meatgrinder.

Here's Noah cutting the meat off an antelope haunch in preparation for grinding.

Buckskin Lily grinding the meat.  (Don't be fooled by the staged smiles--this is hard work!!)

After all the meat is ground, the next step is packaging.  Noah portions the ground meat into seal-a-meal bags, and Buckskin runs the sealer.

Noah putting the ground meat into seal-a-meal bags.

Buckskin running the sealer.

After all that hard work, it's time for the best part of all:  cleaning up!!!  Since Buckskin is such a good cleaner-upper, she gets to tackle this step, and she always does so with great enthusiasm:

Here's Buckskin trying to clean out the insides of the meat grinder.  Fun!!!

But all the hard work is worth it in the end.  Noah & Buckskin are now stocked up with all the deer, antelope, and elk they can eat.  Whew!!!  I think they'll survive another winter!

Unfortunately, Shirley Shot was not able to be here to help with the butchering this year (and she did such a great job last year!!)  I think we'll have to bring her up next year to help Noah again--it's a shame to let her miss out on all this fun!! 

Everyone's invited to our house for dinner...we've got plenty to go around!  Just let us know when you're coming...Talk to you all soon!!

Love,

Buckskin & Noah