I've Been Busy

I've been busy.
I don't mean just lately, but for a long while now.
I know.....I know. Some of you are thinking. Good gosh. How can that be? You don't work, you stay at home all day and play on the computer.
IF ONLY that were true. well, ok sometimes that's true. But most of the time it isn't.
Moving out here to the Ozarks has added a few more job titles to my list of mom, wife, chicken wrangler and internet surfer.
I have been busy. Really. AND I have proof.
(bet ya never saw THAT coming)

One of my new professions is.....Butcher.
Trust me. It's not a glamorous as it sounds. But I'll take you through the process..well mostly. I'll leave the really gorey stuff out.

BEFORE:
This is what our first deer hunting season brought us. This nice buck was taken in our own backyard by City Boy.....and in our yard is where my butchering journey begins......this is also where we fastforward through the gorey part....and you'll just have to take my word for it that, YES, I did do it. YES, it was gross, but I lived through it and the end product is worth doing it again.

Next, let me introduce to you my antique, swap meet find, muscle aching, hand cramping, love/hate, all purpose meat grinder.


AFTER:

Mmmmmmm.....doesn't that look lovely?

In that bowl is about 10 pounds of ground deer meat after it's first go around with the meat grinder. Because deer meat is so lean, and what fat there is on the deer doesn't taste all that great, I'll later add some beef fat and run it through the grinder again.
Now let me tell you. That there is a real work out. So much so, that I've had to break up my joyous meat grinding sessions into different days with almost a week apart to give my arm time to recover. After my first session, I whined and cried like a baby. God, I'm a wuss.

So far I've ground up about 40 lbs of deer burger and I've still got steaks and roasts left....but I'm running low on arm strength at the moment.
City Boy tried to help out one day. He did the grinding while I removed fat and grissel and cut the meat into strips. He later annouced that we should invest in an electric meat grinder.
That's City Boy slang for "damn, this is making my arm tired."
I guess putting up with him in the kitchen was worth that announcement....but I haven't seen a new grinder yet. ( I wonder....if I let him help with the housework if he'll announce I need a maid? Yeah. like THAT would ever happen!)

Someone might ask.......What do I do with all that deer meat?
Well, there's the typical ham...er, deer burgers.
Venison chili
Venison stew
actually I use it in place of ground beef wherever I can.
Here's my lastest creation with it......

That's breakfast sausage links y'all. YUM! I just pulled them outta the freezer to snap this picture. I forgot to take one yesterday when I finished. I made sausage patties also, but they don't photograph well.

Who'd have ever thought that this Southern California chick would ever become a wild game butcher?

I have butchered some of my chickens in the past, and plan to do a few more here soon. But honestly, it's just not as exciting as wild game.

Wild Turkey Season opens soon. I hope I get to be busy again.

The Absence of Mind

Good Lord! it's been a month and I haven't blogged anything!

OH the Horrors!..............The agony!...................the cramping of brain cells!

Actually my excuses are more like....

Oh the Stomach Pains!..... Grab the Puke bucket!

The lack of power......the twisting of funnel clouds!

The scratching of heads......Ewwww! the bugs I found!

but not necessarily in that order.

So as you make have deduced...

Life got in the way.

Spring has arrived here in the Ozarks. With it came our first couple sets of Severe storms that brought with them a few misplaced tornados. Thank the Lord, our closest scare was to be forced out of bed at 4 Am and into our designated storm holdout. Here we hung out for about half an hour listening to every sound that filtered it's way into our hideout and we each mentually calculated how long we could keep holding our morning urine before we busted. But, the storm passed us with no ill effects and each made it to the bathroom in time with no damage to our kidneys or each other. Many others were not so lucky. Including a 7 yr old girl from Missouri and a dozen people, including many children, from Alabama. My heart felt sympathy goes out to those families.

We were also recently blessed with a visit from the "flu bug". Barbie Girl brought it home from school and proceeded to spend the next 2 weeks on the futon in the office. Her second day back to school, I came down with it. Let just say...it was N-A-S-T-Y. I do recall one morning waking up feeling particularly crappy and asking City Boy to PLEASE shoot me. I guess it's a good thing he had no mercy for me and didn't comply. But I will keep that in mind should he come down with it later.

My very first day of feeling like a human again was to be enjoyed by spending the day with Barbie Girl and City Boy in the near by Big City doing some Spring lawn and garden shopping....but that came to a screaching halt when Barbie Girl asked me to brush her hair and I found and insectular party going on all over her scalp. Can I just say.....EEEEWWWWWW!

Now, just for clarity.....I have major issues with bugs. Knowing this, we still moved to the Ozarks....land of bugs and snakes. I know. Go figure. I've gotten alot better about the bugs around here as long as they stay outside.

So....the thought and proof that there were creepy crawlies in my house, just waiting to jump out and get me and mine, sent me into a hysterical meltdown. We won't factor in that I had just spent a whole week feeling like absolute dog crap and was too sick to even have coffee in the morning...and now I have to deal with BUGS in my HOUSE?!?!....and on Barbie Girls' HEAD?!?!?

Yeah. Ok. I yelled. I screamed. I almost cried. But I composed myself and proceeded to completely tear apart my house. Anything and everything in the house that could be washed was taken and piled into the laundry room. Barbie Girl's bedroom was stripped bare and completely sanitized. All the while she was forced to walk around with mayonaise coated hair and a Glad freezer bag placed over her head and saran wrapped in place. An Ozark shower cap.
I washed and mayonaised hair like a madwoman. City Boy left me to my rantings and went to the Big City without us.

Today, Barbie Girl headed (no pun intended) back to school, and I have my quiet time back. With the coming of warm tempertaures again, City Boy and I have been working diligently on my new garden area. It's almost finished and today I get to put in my first seeds! I'm also hoping to get out and about with the camera and if I'm extra good today, I may even get the little beasties loaded into the computer. Until then I'll leave you with some pictures of the January Ice Storm, so you can apperciate the coming of Spring as much as I do.