You Are What You Eat

I recently made a run to Miesfeld's in Sheboygan to fetch the last batch of venison from the 2024 deer season.  It took a while for everything to be processed; yet it's completed. 

Garlic summer sausage, snack sticks, wieners and bacon.  Yes, there is such a thing as deer bacon.  

I had previously taken an additional batch of venison to Marchant's Meats in Sturgeon Bay to have brats and regular summer made.  Much faster turn-around.  And by the time you read this all but the shares belonging to a couple of hunters will have been distributed and likely found its way to a summer grilling session. 

In case you're wondering about the economics it works out like this:

Four deer skinned, cut and wrapped was $520; split six ways is $87 a hunter.  Everyone received a generous helping of steaks, chops and burger.  On top of that there was another generous selection of brats, wieners, snack sticks, summer sausage and bacon.  $560 total ($381 Miesfeld's and $179 Marchant's) split six ways is $93 a hunter.  All-in that comes to $180 a hunter.  And if you've been paying attention to the price of meat lately this is a decent deal; considering the overall yield.  (Note to self - take photos next time). 

I take payment by check or Zelle®.

Fun Fact:  Three additional deer were donated to the food pantry network of northeast Wisconsin thru DNR's deer donation program. 

In The News

Making the local paper can be a good thing or a bad thing - depending-upon the circumstances surrounding the coverage.  In this case it is a good thing; on a couple of levels.

First, promoting the idea of non-confrontational dialogue covering current events and difficult topics is a good thing.  Actually accomplishing it makes it a better thing.

For several years now I've been the class coordinator for a Learning In Retirement course titled: A Fine Kettle Of Fish.  It's a class covering current affairs held spring and fall semesters at the local community college.

I am also a participant most Friday mornings in the Third Avenue Discussion Group; Group for short.

Made a bunch of new friends of all political persuasions and of varied backgrounds.  Further evidence the peninsula is really a little-known giant brain trust. 

You can read all about it here.  

Serpents

 

The other thing materializing that is a sure sign of spring are the Eastern Fox Snakes.

They've thawed-out, emerged from their dens and have taken to sunning themselves at every opportunity.

Allow me to introduce you to Pantherophis vulpina – the Eastern Fox Snake.  This is a valuable animal to have around your yard as they dine principally upon rodents.  If you are a gardener they are your ally.  Belonging to the family of snakes that are constrictors - upon seizing their prey they coil around it to suffocate the animal.  After which they swallow it whole.  Their lower jaw is unhinged allowing this critter to swallow a rodent or bird five times the diameter of their head. Yum!

This snake has many large reddish-brown, chocolate brown or black mid-dorsal blotches along its back and other smaller blotches on its sides on a background color of yellow, tan or olive-gray. The head of adults is usually a dark copper, rust or orange color. They live in a variety of open habitats including marshes, sedge meadows, prairies and old fields.

Their diet consists primarily of rodents and ground-nesting birds. Young fox snakes will occasionally eat amphibians. This species is the most frequently encountered snake in people's homes, especially if the house has an old rock foundation where the snake(s) may be hunting for food or hibernating in the basement. The fox snake is often mistaken for the venomous copperhead due to its head color and subsequently is often killed. 

Copperheads do not live in or near Wisconsin. Fox snakes are also often mistaken for rattlesnakes, as they often "rattle" their tails in dry leaves, grasses or against objects when disturbed. Their pointed tail distinguishes them (and all other Wisconsin snakes with pointed tails) as a non-venomous species in Wisconsin.

Doggo is still trying to figure out if they are friend or foe.... 

Talking Turkey

 

After a couple year-long turkey drought the dam broke yesterday and I dropped a real nice gobbler with a record-breaking fifteen minute hunt.  

Yup.  No sooner than a sat down and made some initial calls this gobbler walks-in from behind me, quietly making a beeline for my jake decoy.

Kaboom!

I never even unpacked the book I brought to read.

I didn't pluck this bird choosing to butcher it and break it down into its component parts.  

I got two - three pound - pieces of breast meat; I'm thinking stir fry and risotto for starters.  The hind quarters are destined for homemade wild turkey vegetable noodle soup.

My pals Lawyer and Braumeister are on deck with tags for next week and the following.

 

Observations

From a Face Book friend I've known for a very long time there is this:

 

The Real Luxuries In Life

Time

Health

A quiet mind

Slow mornings

Ability to travel

Rest without guilt

A good night's sleep

Calm and routine days 

Meaningful conversations

Home-cooked meals

People you love

People who love you back 

Schneehund

 

 

The dog loves herself some snow.

From last weekend we got enough overnight to head-out for a post breakfast romp.  Not quite enough for snow shoes but 4-5 inches of white stuff nonetheless.  1.2 miles for me.  Somewhere north of 2 miles for the doggo.  And 3 miles for our guests.

Ruby is absolutely nuts for snow and was tearing-it up at every opportunity.

Then she can sleep it off later..... 

Just Ducky

I’m not raising expectations; but visitors can expect pretty good chow if they’re hanging their hat here for a spell. 

 

Just the other day there was Duck Confit; including duck fat fried taters and pickled red cabbage. 

 

Remarkably, the spuds were imported from Alberta, Canada. 

 

 

Raising a toast to good friends and our friendly neighbors to the north….

 

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Easy Duck Confit Recipe

Duck confit (con-fee) is one of the most luxurious of foods in French cuisine. This means seasoned and cured duck legs bathed in their own fat and slowly cooked to falling-off-the-bone perfection. This is followed by crisping the skin in a pan or oven – resulting in a sinful combination of juicy meat and crackling skin.

Authentic confit takes several days to make but this recipe is a mash-up, work-around, hack of the NYT’s Melissa Clark recipe that you can cook in an afternoon. It is really good and super easy.

Get yourself some duck legs. They’re not easy to find unless attached to the entire duck but Bunzel’s in Milwaukee has them in pairs from the freezer case. A specialty grocer may be the place to source them fresh or frozen.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Rest the fridge: 1 to 4 days

Cook time: 3 hours

Ingredients

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf, crumbled

4 duck leg quarters (about 4 pounds total), rinsed and patted dry but not trimmed

Duck fat-fried or smashed garden potatoes, noodles, spaetzle and lightly-dressed bitter salad greens such as arugula, chicory and/or radicchio, for serving

Preparation

Pat the duck legs dry with paper towels. Using a needle or a very sharp knife and prick the skin all over. Focus on the skin that covers fat. Do your best to avoid piercing the meat itself by pricking the skin at an angle over the drumstick and the center of the thigh. You are doing this to give the fat that lies under the skin a place to seep out – if you don’t do this, it will be far more difficult to get crispy skin.

In a pestle combine salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf pieces.  Crush thoroughly.  Sprinkle duck generously with mixture. Do not skimp on the coarse salt. Place duck legs in a pan in one layer. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 24 hours. Your legs can fester for up to four days.

The next day, heat oven to 275 degrees. Place duck legs, skin side down, in a large ovenproof skillet, with legs fitting snugly in a single layer (you may have to use two skillets or cook them in batches). Roast uncovered until fat starts to render – about one hour.

If you are making duck fat-fried taters this is a good time to ladle rendered fat into your fry pan.

Reduce heat to 250 F, flip duck legs (skin side up), cover pan with foil or a lid and place it in oven and continue to roast for an additional hour.

After one hour shut the oven off and use this interval prep your salad and other sides. The legs will hold just fine for up to an hour if they are covered and undisturbed.

After the sides have been prepped raise the oven to 375 F and remove the foil/lids. Bake an additional 30 minutes – checking periodically to make sure the skin is browning nicely.  My new GE Profile convection oven is perfect for this task.

Immediately prior to plating your meal open the wine allowing time for it to breathe. If needed, finish your legs under a low broiler setting for a few minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

Use the fat for cooking vegetables or frying eggs or potatoes. Strain the fat through cheesecloth if you intend to keep it in your fridge for an extended period. Tightly-covered it should keep for up to six months.

Deer Camp

Comings and goings of various hunters during the November gun opener....

Starvation Averted

Picked-up four processed deer today and moved what felt like a bazillion pounds of steaks, roasts, backstraps, burger and scraps to the basement.

The auxiliary freezer is filled to the brim and two additional grocery bags of venison apportioned among the remaining two freezers.

Yikes!

 

Station Spotting

 

Hosting guests for the weekend. 

 

NASA scheduled a flyover of the ISS for the occasion.

 

There’s a first time for everything.

 

If we’re lucky the northern lights may pay a call….

 

 

Deer Camp

Deer Camp 2024 is in the record book and the guys have left.

They clean-up pretty good too - leaving the house pretty much how they found it There is a bloody footprint in the garage but that's fine as it's in the garage.

 

The contraption in the photos is our camp meat pole. Introduced in 2016 our meat pole is unique. I'd like to think of it as a fine example of hunter ingenuity.

 

 

First, it is portable. Four guys can assemble and disassemble it in a matter of minutes. When not in use it is stored in the barn and out of the way. You can drive the Mule thru it between the legs for ease of hanging up to five deer on gambrel-equipped pulleys.

 

 

Secondly, it chronicles how many deer were taken (bow and gun kills) by year for each of the last nine years. If you do the math the total on the beam in the photo tallies-up to 94.

That's not the lifetime total; however, as our Deer Camp celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year. Which would include an illustrious or notorious (you pick) collection of hunters over three decades. 

 

Some have retired. A few have departed the earthly realm for their happy hunting ground. Some are on hiatus. And the rest have moved-on or moved away.

 

You're probably thinking: How many deer total?

 

If I was inclined I could pore over the early written camp diaries and find totals there. There's a big bag of old school metal ear registration tags somewhere which might be moderately helpful.

 

The guys were talking about it last night and their best guess is we're likely close to or slightly north of a couple hundred deer since 1994. Many of which have been donated to the food pantry network here in northeast Wisconsin.

 

So, we're fond of saying: "Eat more deer."  They're all-organic, free range, healthy fare, a terrific excuse to get together socially with friends and family and a renewable resource.

 

Cheers!

Buckaroos

Today is the the opening of the nine day regular gun season.  The latest possible start date possible as set by state law.

By the time you read this we'll be on the lookout for these boys...

Deer Camp

A couple of days before deer camp a hunter's wife puts her foot down and tells him he has to stay home and whittle down his honey-do list of chores.

The fella's friends are upset and understandably disappointed that he cannot join them at camp.  Alas, they are powerless to do anything about it.

Two days later the crew has gathered at deer camp.  The fire is stoked in the wood burner.  Blaze orange bibs and parkas are hung in the fresh air on the porch.  Even the boots toe the line.  Firearms are carefully stacked on the gun rack at the back door.  Bunks are claimed and everyone is enjoying a refreshing adult beverage and shooting the bull in the testosterone-infused atmosphere.

Suddenly the dog barks as the door from the garage opens and the heretofore grounded hunter materializes.

Dang dude!  How did you manage to talk your wife into letting you go?

Sidling-up to the kitchen counter and opening a beer the hunter explains...

This morning I was sitting in my chair feeling poorly when my wife came up behind me.

She put her hands over my eyes and said - 'guess who?'   I pulled her hands away and was surprised to see she was wearing a flimsy negligee from Victoria's Secret.

A collective gasp emanates from the group as the hunter continues.

Then she took my hand and pulled me over to our bedroom. The room had candles and rose petals all over.  On the bed she had handcuffs.  There were ropes too.  She told me to tie and handcuff her to the bed.

Another collective gasp from the rapt audience.

You know I follow directions - so I did what she told me to do. 

 

Then she said - 'Do whatever you want.'

So, here I am.

 

Independence Day

The week preceding my South Dakota vacation (likely Monday, October 28 or thereabouts) a couple of economic news feeds caught my attention with some pre-election chatter.   

Equity, fixed income and currency markets were beginning to signal a Trump win.  

With that I thought to myself:  Election too close to call.  Bad news for Team Harris.  All of which was confirmed Wednesday morning November 6.  Donald Trump had won both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

With this came a big mandate for change.  And a bit of relief for me about something long in the making and now confirmed.  The party of Ronald Reagan was dead.  I take no joy in its passing; only relief in that it is now over and done with.

As a general rule my opinions about Donald Trump have reflected that I do not think very much of him as a person.  Nothing in this recent election outcome has changed that view.  His exhortations invalidate everything I have been taught about how to live my life and everything I've imparted to my daughter about being kind, generous, loving your neighbor, being accepting, showing understanding, empathy, being truthful, ethical, sensible and levelheaded.  Not being a bully, selfish and an asshole.

There is a reasonably good possibility that about half the people reading this would tell me that they like Trump because he says what's on his mind, he tells it like he sees it and doesn't have a filter.  Well, sometimes it's OK to have a filter.  There was a time, not so long ago, when being an asshole wasn't cool.  If you were a shitty person and kept it to yourself, society was a better place because of it. 

I am the product of a lifetime of unintentional, prior influences and imprints.  Dig deep enough into my implicit biases and you'll likely catch a whiff of cold war.  So, get over it. 

In 2016 I considered Donald Trump to be a goof and a joke; not to be taken seriously.  While my life got along swimmingly with his policies during the first three years of his administration all of that changed with the COVID shit show of 2020.  In over his head, by the time the election rolled-around more than enough people had enough of the drama that I believe it cost him the election.

2024 was different.  In a disciplined fashion Donald Trump tapped-into working class anxieties and resentment over inflation and the general economy.  It doesn't matter a lick if I feel my world is doing better if a plurality of my countrymen do not. I've learned to be cognizant of this.  I can do better.  We can do better.

Donald Trump won the White House, the Senate and the House.  The Trifecta.  SCOTUS is icing on the cake.  Donald Trump is no goof or joke.  He brought home the first popular vote win for the GOP in two decades.  He is the real deal. He expanded the GOP base to broadly include a meaningful number of minority voters.  He deserves a great deal of credit for that.  Consequently, he has a ginormous mandate for change and an abundance of goodwill.

Speaking of which, political parties undergo generational change.  And my generation has been shuffled aside as there is no place or role for us any longer in what was previously known at the Party of Reagan.  Social media has been fertile ground for fourth grade caliber ridicule.  Being derisively called a NeoCon is apparently a new pejorative.  Who knew? 

None of the foregoing amounts to much.  Sticks and stones.  It is the loss of friends and acquaintances who have excommunicated one another over perceived grievances that is the real tragedy.  Perhaps this will heal with the passage of time.  We'll see.

In the fourth paragraph of this post I alluded to a feeling of relief.  A consequence of the election outcome is being relieved of the burden of party.  Doesn't matter which party either.  I'm done rolling that boulder up the hill.  I'm basking in the warming glow of something I find strangely liberating; and it is not my laptop.  My newfound independence is a second chance to look at the world with a clean slate.  Independence Day has come to November 6.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try to stand for something other than our base instincts. I'm capable of better.  Donald Trump won fair and square and there wasn't even a whiff of political violence as a consequence.  That speaks volumes.  So, I'm going to sit on my hands for a bit and wait for detailed policy proscriptions to materialize.  You know, stuff that will improve your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  Along with making the world a safer place.

Bring it on....

Friday Music

A buddy of mine sent me the YouTube link to this video.  If I had to hazard a guess he sneaks over here periodically to read my forbidden fruit and knows something of my musical tastes.

Anyway, this Orange County, California quintet has been around since 2011 and while the band has evolved, the music they make remains faithful to bluesy southern rock.  That's right, Orange County California.  

From their latest album released this year, Robert Jon and the Wreck - Ballad of a Broken Hearted Man....

South Dakota Ringnecks

Got back home Monday late afternoon following a trip to South Dakota to chase pheasants with my new dog and nine of my buddies.  Most of the guys are long term hunting and fishing pals along with some new ones.

Here's a handful of photos from the festivities.

Drive west including an unplanned Minnesota blizzard.

 

Some photos from the field.

All the corn was off the fields so we exclusively hunted cattail sloughs, reed canary grass you could barely see over and other natural cover.  Ugh.

Add rain and wind and it was the toughest hunt in memory

A day's tally of dead birds.

Lounging around the house.

The Red Rocket (Ruby) is a natural.  She put-up her share of birds on her own and had several retrieves.  First trip out - I think she's a natural.

She shes got some aches and scrapes so if you're looking for a Pro Tip for a sore schnoz there is this... 

And So It Begins

The calm before the storm.....

 

Bonk!

Today was to be a soft opening before the South Dakota trip. 

After a year of training, five guys, sixteen birds and one dog at Woodfire Lodge in Brillion. Sure, it’s a canned hunt; but no better way to make all that hard work come together. 

Cancelled. 

Yesterday we spent an afternoon at the animal ER in Green Bay. 

The Red Rocket collided at full tilt with a steel fence post holding a bluebird box. 

Dog 1 - Nest box 0

Anyway, no broken bones. Close call with the right eye.  Sutures in the face. 

Any of you who’ve raised hunting dogs have been to this rodeo before.  This is one, tough working doggo. 

The debutante has to chill for ten days.  Stay-tuned for SD….

 

 

 

Pizza! Pizza!

Tossed some pies in the Forno last night with some pals.

After a dalliance with instant dry yeast, 2024 has been witness to the return of sourdough leavening.

An altogether superior bake.

Bonus was tomatoes and sweet peppers from the garden….
 

The Least I Can Do

Turns-out my pal, Braumeister, has a Level Two charger in his garage just like I do.

If I have to travel to the Naked City and stay overnight if he and the missus are in town I might be able to score a spot on the fold out couch and top-off my battery overnight.

If he's reading this he might get a chuckle from the title...