Lucky Me
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This past Saturday, Amylynn called me to share the news that her hubby had taken down (killed) a 9 point buck. I was really thrilled for them. That's a lot of meat! The hubby-man asked if they were keeping the skin. (He's always wanted a deerskin) They said, "No. Would you like it?" Sweet!

It seems that deer hunting is a lot of work. Amylynn's hubby made his kill about 2 miles away from his vehicle. He was hunting on an island, so not only did he have to drag 185 lbs of deer through the woods,(alone!) he also had to get it in and out of his boat.

Anyway, she had called because I'd offered to help with skinning and butchering the carcass. I thought it would be an awesome learning experience. And it was.

I drove out to their home and parked in the driveway. Right as I was pulling on the parking brake, Amylynn walked out of the garage; and I busted out laughing. Because she is *always* fashionable. ALWAYS. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I saw. I beheld a vision in plaid and denimn. With a knit stocking cap. She looked like she'd just stepped off the set of "Fargo". And she still made it look good.

I felt a little out of place. I was expecting the job to be messy, so I wore my old paint stained sweats and a few layers culminating in an oversized sweater that I'd ripped the collar out of. I looked like crap, and she made plaid look runway good. Thus the laughter.

Anyway. We walked around back and I saw my first ever non-roadkill deer carcass. He was hanging by his back legs from a tree, with his head and chest resting on a cardboard mat. He was cut open and all his guts had been removed, so you could see what his ribs looked like from the inside. The skin had already been pulled off his legs and Amylynn's hubby was working on stripping the butt and tail.

It is astoundingly easy to skin a deer, at least once the initial cuts have been made. You just grab some skin and pull on it until you see stuff that looks like cobwebs between the skin and the muscle; then you use a scalpel or very sharp knife and cut the cobwebs. You don't have to use any pressure at all.

So we cut and pulled for a while, until we were stooping to reach more hide. Amylynn's hubby came out of the garage (where he was putting together their brand new meat saw/grinder) and pulled the buck higher up so that we didn't have to bend. Isn't he sweet? The we cut and pulled some more. :D

Their daughter offered to make us coffee, "Because it was cold outside, and she thought we might like something hot to drink." That was impressive.

We took a coffee break and hubby-in-residence raised the deer even higher. The we finished cutting. Amylynn's daughter brought a trash bag and we folded up the skin, bagged it, and I tossed it in the back of my truck.

Unfortunately, putting together the meat saw didn't go as well. The manual was a mess. It had blurry pictures of crucial parts, diagrams that were incomplete, and references like "see figure 22b" when there was no figure 22b -just a blank space with the text "22b" underneath.

So I didn't get to help quarter the deer, which is a shame. I was standing for a long time yesterday, and my foot hurts too much to go back and help today. I'm hoping that he catches another deer, so I can have the butchering experience.

Nevertheless, I have a big 'ol deer skin folded up in my freezer right now. As soon as I finish this blog entry, I'm going to look up some local taxidermists and find out what else I need to do to prep the skin for tanning. Yay!