During the process, Mr. Field and Stream, who has dressed deer before, commented that I was much quicker than his first and that he didn't know how I could stand the smell. The smell was not really any different than that I remember from the rabbits. And, I've had lots of practice on rabbits. Mr. Field and Stream's experience ends with field dressing, so the roles were reversed and I instructed him on removing the hide properly for tanning and quartering the deer. I learned this with Game Processing: Field To Freezer.
I am no expert butcher. It took a really long time to cut all of the meat into steaks, roasts, and stew meat. I also made a bit of hamburger, but it did not come out very nice. At the end, I felt like I was hit by a truck ... it was an exhausting 8 hour manarthon session between the deer and the sap. We are guessing though that we now have an extra month of meat in the freezer and I now have another hide to tan. Maybe, I'll only make this one into rawhide. Unfortunately, the deer was hit in the head and the skull was crushed ... I was not able to save the brain. Regardless, the journey to my moose hide boots, my MooseBoots journey, continues.
I know that feeling. I feel much the same after a day of processing apples or strawberry jam, but the next day, and all of the days after when we have yummy food to eat, it's totally worth it ;).
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful that you are willing to do it, even though it's not easy ;). But many of the things most worth doing aren't easy to do, which is what makes them worthwhile.