What Did You Do Today?

[Eric Krewson]

I finished up with the deer, yesterday, I had 48# of packaged meat, mostly bone free except for a neck roast and one side of ribs. It took me a solid 8 hours to trim the meat of sinew, fat and membrane, debone, grind burger, make cube steak, package and vacuum seal, and another hour or so cleaning up the equipment. A lot of work for an old man.

The next one this year is going to the processer, If I skin it, quarter it up and take it to the processor packed in ice in a cooler it only costs around $50, not a bad deal considering the outrageous prices others are paying for processing around the country.

[Pappy]

Good looking meat Eric, I do a lot of that myself and yes it is a lot of work, but as a lot of things I do it's a labor of love, not really work. I really enjoy it especially on a rainy/cold day. I know most processor's do an OK job but can assure you they don't care for it like we do, so as long as I am able I will keep doing my own. 
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

Looks good Eric.

It is a lot of work but very rewarding if your family likes venison. And like pappy say. When you do it yourself you can get a little fussier than a processor might.

Personally I always find the dragging them out, skinning and gutting to be the hardest part.

I kinda enjoy the rest of the process. I get help with my wife and son though to, so it’s not all on me and more of a family tradition which I really like

I’m really lucky that my wife is so good with it. I can bring two front shoulders in and put them on the kitchen table. She will debone one and I’ll do the other.

It’s how we both grew up. I try to pass it on to my kids and grandkids. They have all helped making pork sausage.

Bjrogg

[WhistlingBadger]

I always butcher my own meat, and I kind of enjoy it too.  Mostly I enjoy seeing a freezer full of meat and thinking, "Wow, I did that!"  It's a satisfying feeling of accomplishment.

[JW_Halverson]

I am working at a hotel these days. It's a great gig - easy work and I enjoy helping guests with their questions about where to go and what to do in the Black Hills.

Last week I finally got the phone call at the hotel I had been waiting for!!! This woman from a large city back east was inquiring about hotel rates and so on for next summer. I was happily giving her the answers she needed when she paused the conversation and said she had an important question for me. She asked in a very serious voice: "Is your hotel haunted?" I replied in an equally serious tone, "No. Our hotel is not haunted." Poor woman, I could feel her deflating on the other end of the line. Then I told her, "Ma'am, I have been in Keystone since 1883 and in all that time I have never EVER seen a ghost here." The silence on the line was deafening as I imagined her doing the mental mathematics. And then the line erupted in laughter. When her hysterical cackling died down she told me to book the dates, haunted or not, she wanted to stay here so she could meet me.

When I turned around, there was the general manager standing behind me with a grin on her face. "You know you are fired for that, right?" she said. "Yeah, I figgered." I responded. But then I do something every week to get told I am being fired. I love my boss, she's a one-of-a-kind real deal. If she tells me to go fight a bear I'll rip off my shirt, rub down with honey, and get to fighting the bear. Because I know she'd be right there beside me in the fight and fighting to win.

[WhistlingBadger]

I am working at a hotel these days. It's a great gig - easy work and I enjoy helping guests with their questions about where to go and what to do in the Black Hills.

Last week I finally got the phone call at the hotel I had been waiting for!!! This woman from a large city back east was inquiring about hotel rates and so on for next summer. I was happily giving her the answers she needed when she paused the conversation and said she had an important question for me. She asked in a very serious voice: "Is your hotel haunted?" I replied in an equally serious tone, "No. Our hotel is not haunted." Poor woman, I could feel her deflating on the other end of the line. Then I told her, "Ma'am, I have been in Keystone since 1883 and in all that time I have never EVER seen a ghost here." The silence on the line was deafening as I imagined her doing the mental mathematics. And then the line erupted in laughter. When her hysterical cackling died down she told me to book the dates, haunted or not, she wanted to stay here so she could meet me.

When I turned around, there was the general manager standing behind me with a grin on her face. "You know you are fired for that, right?" she said. "Yeah, I figgered." I responded. But then I do something every week to get told I am being fired. I love my boss, she's a one-of-a-kind real deal. If she tells me to go fight a bear I'll rip off my shirt, rub down with honey, and get to fighting the bear. Because I know she'd be right there beside me in the fight and fighting to win.

Brilliant!   

[Eric Krewson]

Out walking my normal exercise trail and spotted an oyster mushroom bloom, we had rain and 58-degree temps for a few days. There are more mushrooms that emerge in the winter than one would expect.

Of course I had to pick some. I sauteed the mushrooms in butter with onions, then hit them up with a splash of wine. I put the finished mushrooms on a plate of spaghetti, they were amazing.

[bjrogg]

Still a long time before any mushrooms in my neck of the woods Eric. Looks good.

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

I went mushroom hunting again yesterday, I found a bushel basket of oysters in places I don't normally look for them but I was about a week or two late, they had all started to turn to mush.

We have 5 more days of deer season, I have killed 2 deer, modern stuff, I carried my flintlock most of the time but got skunked so I went modern to put some meat in the freezer. I decided to wrap it up for the year, shoot and clean my B/P guns and put up the mountain of clothes and stuff I keep out to hunt with.

I have 3 trail cameras out on my neighbor's place, I never used trail cameras where I hunt until the last couple of years when old age caused my mobility to decline. I have another one on my food plot that I plant below the house on my land, I didn't get any daylight pictures at all until yesterday, a little spike walked across the plot and posed for a picture.

I started pulling cameras yesterday. Even though I am not hunting anymore I think I found a good creek crossing close to a blind I built in the hollow below the house. I moved one camera down there just to see what uses the crossing for next year.

My deer drag-a-matic 2000 ate up the soft metal gears and quit working. I did get a buck out of a bad place and back to the truck with it this year before it gave up the ghost. I think a little grease on the gears would have prevented its demise.

Behold! The future deer drag-a-matic 3500 with bigger and tougher gears. I will replace the strap with 100 ft of mule tape and add a bracket to strap it to a tree. I won't use the hand crank and will run it with my cordless drill.

[JW_Halverson]

Hey, that looks great, Eric! Someone gifted me with a couple hundred feet of that mule tape and it's some really tough stuff!

[WhistlingBadger]

Got a nice bullsnake skin on a juniper/elk sinew bow.  Now I have to let it dry for a month or so before I can really start working on it again.  Tom Petty was right...the waiting is the hardest part.

[JW_Halverson]

I spent some time today working out my driving routes and lodging for my trip to Oklahoma for the world famous OJAM.

I am starting to get seriously excited to go, and I am sure it's gonna be a good time. In the next 11 days I am going to sort through unfinished bows and pick the three that are coming along. I'll sharpen up tools and clean/organize the tool box. I'll get started organizing the gear I am taking along as well as plan out some healthy meals and snacks, though I definitely intend to stray off the very carefully constructed diet I am on!

I'm planning on staying in Stillwater on Sunday night when the party shuts down so that I can get a good night's sleep in a clean bed and a shower (or two). Before I leave I plan to do some snooping online and find a good/fancy restaurant in Stillwater for a celebratory dinner. (Any recommendations would be appreciated)

[Eric Krewson]

 Last year I was invited to an informal black powder get-together a few miles from my house, I didn't think I would like it but decided to drop by anyway for an hour or so, I ended up staying all day, all of us were of the same mindset. Turns out it is held twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall. The guy who held it had to move so his range was no longer available.

I have a great friend who said he had a 100yard range I could use but I never went over there and had never seen it. When he heard the spring event was about to be canceled, he invited everyone to his place to shoot at his range.

Turns out his range was perfect; it was in a bowl with a chirt pit and sheltered from the wind.

8 people showed up, we did much more shooting the bull than shooting our guns, there is something about like-minded people sharing their past experiences that is always engaging and interesting. Dave's wife made us some of the best chili and cornbread I have ever eaten, so it was shoot a little, eat together, talk a lot, just a very fun day. Last fall I found out a bunch of the guys were interested in making selfbows so I ended up giving them some wood, a tillering gizmo and a lot of bow making instruction.

One attendee was a member of the North South Skirmish Association, he is only 26 but dedicated to his craft and always has either a period correct replica or an original civil war firearm to shoot. This day he brought an 1855 Springfield that had the Maynard tape system installed, he didn't shoot the taped caps and used the standard cap/nipple configuration. He let everyone shoot his rifle and loaded it with the standard paper cartridges. He was an exceptional shot off hand, I never saw him miss a gong out to 50 yards.

Not Grant but his rifle;

[gifford]

Now that sounds like my kind of black powder shoot, more visiting than shooting and yet enough shooting to justify the time and effort needed to clean up the old smokepole the way it should be done.

PS great looking Springfield.

[bjrogg]

Looks like a good time JW. Thanks for taking us along.

Bjrogg