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. 

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!

Deer Camp

Still plenty of hunting opportunities remaining until the close of the deer season in January of next year. But we punched our dance card for the gun opener this last weekend.

Dropped-off four deer at Mark’s today for skinning, cutting and wrapping. And donated an additional five for processing and distribution to the local food pantry network.

Enjoyed plenty of quality time in the woods, terrific food and a lot of yuks. Great group of friends. 

 

Deer Camp

I wonder if any of these buckaroos are hanging on the meat pole this morning?

The Deer Camp Chronicles

Old time style photo of the camp meat pole

Postmortem

The last, larger, organized deer camp wrapped-up yesterday and by the time you are reading this my former business partner and her ten-year-old son will have left to return home.

I don't normally wax-philosophical about deer camp but indulge me.  This is the postmortem.

This year the plan was to host a normal camp.  With all of the eating, drinking, socializing, yuks and close-quarters living arrangement upstairs on the second floor. 

With COVID variants cropping-up and case counts climbing as everyone at our latitude began to move indoors on the advice of three medical doctors I figured it prudent to ask everyone wishing to stay here to be vaccinated.  All of the docs agreed that vaxxing is never a sure thing, but considering the lodging arrangements and abundant co-morbidities among my circle of hunting pals and their families being vaccinated reduced probabilities of bad outcomes like community spread.

The hunting part had few, if any, risks as hunting from an outdoor deer stand is about as socially-distanced as you can get.

Sleeping multiple individuals to a room and shared bathrooms - not so much.

Small group bow hunting basically fell off the cliff altogether.  A consequence of the vaccine request, scheduling conflicts and me.  The only weekend I had to pull it-off had to be cancelled due to a last minute conflict for a small non-profit I head.  I was the asshole on that and will not allow it to repeat.  There will be more small group bow hunting in 2022. 

The gun opener had some difficulties too.  As a consequence of the vax request one hunter socially distanced for drinks and meals and lodged off-site.  One hunter was pissed about the unvaxxed individual breathing HIS air, gave me a lecture on the subject and went home early.  Two of our group stayed home altogether.

I'm not making a political display over any of this - I'm just following the best medical guidance I have at my disposal and follow best practices under difficult conditions.  Moreover, I cannot please everyone.  

Does that make me an asshole? 

On balance, it was a successful camp - seven deer on the old meat pole.  And everyone that attended and stayed to the end had a terrific time.  Perhaps the future will bring less vaccine hesitancy and less spread of disease and a real return to normal.

This past weekend was actually a resounding success.  A small group of vaccinated adults, good food, adult beverages, plenty of yuks, five dead deer on the old meat pole AND a ten-year-old hunter got his first deer!  

No drama.  No assholery.

And things seemed a wee bit less rushed with fewer hunters traipsing all over the landscape.  It just doesn't get much better that that.  I think next year I'll invite my pal Smokey Joe and his kid to join us for the December antlerless hunt.  That would be fun. 

In conclusion that amounts to twelve deer this year with some additional hunting for me and anyone that wants to show and follow the guidelines.

I should also point out that if the hieroglyphic tally on the old meat pole is to be believed (and I have no reason not to believe it) in the past five years we've witnessed a total of 69 dead deer hung from its pullies.  That is impressive.

I'd like to raise a toast to Wisconsin's top big game species - Odocoileus virginianus - the whitetail deer.  And my hunting friends too.

 

Deer Camp Recap

Yesterday was a day of rest with everyone here at camp sleeping-in to 7 AM.  After a delightful breakfast of strong black coffee and Shit On A Biscuit...

We off-loaded seven whitetails from the meat pole and loaded-up the pick-up truck.  

Four deer to be processed into steaks, chops, burger and bagged scraps along with the three remaining deer donated to the Northeast Wisconsin Food Pantry Network.  

There is also the following;

Deer camp wine - courtesy of my neighbor and his wife who happen to be wine-making enthusiasts 

Deer camp bread - second loaf pictured after the hungry crew devoured the first loaf in one sitting

Deer camp homemade biscuits - the vessel for the creamed chipped beef (above)

Deer camp fish fry of wild-caught perch, walleye and crappies

Deer camp homemade clam chowder

Deer camp flag
 

Deer camp dog

And a deer camp sunset 

All in-all more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  We reconvene in December. 

Deer Camp

Yesterday morning my pals Sid and Lawyer stopped-by to load seven deer in the pickup truck and disassemble and store the meat pole in the granary. 

 

Two deer each were dropped-off at Marchant's Meats and Sausage and Door County Custom Meats for processing.  They will be broken down into delicious component pieces including smoked and fresh sausage.  We're going to cast our net a bit wider and send some of our business to local meat processors to take measure of their cutting and sausage-making skills.

 

The three remaining deer were donated to the Northeast Wisconsin Food Pantry network where resources have been seriously strained as a consequence of Covid’s economic damage.

 

 

 

Seven whitetails is an impressive showing for a whirlwind deer camp that spanned roughly forty-eight hours and came close to not even happening.

One of the things we've done for years is to hold out some of the kill for group communal use during Schützenfest and the following year's deer camp.  It is always good to grill-up some delicious deer loin for dinner.

 

 

You are what you eat. 

 

Eat more deer!

The Meat Pole

Bow hunting is now upon us but the weather has been unseasonably hot with temperatures into the 80s and 90s.  Yikes!  If someone was fortunate-enough to kill a deer they'd never have an opportunity to hang it from the meat pole.  The carcass would have to go directly into the machine shed and someone would be up into the wee hours skinning and butchering the animal.

Not fun.

In any event the weather conditions will moderate very soon and before too long hunters will be patiently waiting for the opportunity to take a big game animal and the meat pole will be erected in anticipation and festivities will follow.  Some of you readers may recall that deer hunting around this locale has been generally excellent and there was even a short moment we ran out of places to hang our deer before butchering. Something needed to be done and it was only a little more than a year ago the brainchild of a easy to assemble, easy to disassemble, meat pole was born.  And that nifty, new meat pole received considerable use last year both early and later in the season.  As initially easy to put-up and take-down some glitches manifested themselves - namely inexpensive rope that was both slippery to hoist and slippery to hold a deer.

Those technical shortcomings have been remedied.  All the rope was replaced with marine-grade, solid-braided nylon anchor rope - complete with loops for easy of hoisting. Additionally, carabineers have been installed so that these heavy-duty big game gambrels can be easily attached and detached with a click. 

 click on images to enlarge

Purchase these online from the comfort of your laptop or tablet at the Sportsman's Guide - they're more affordable than Cabela's. 

We now have the capacity and deer camp luxury to hang one deer in the shed and five more from the meat pole.  Six total.

Raising a toast to homegrown American ingenuity and hunters. 

Meat Pole

A pal of mine is off turkey hunting at his camp and he sent me this picture of birds roosting on the camp meat pole.

Gallows humor...

Herd Reduction

Last weekend brought the four day December antlerless hunt for the Door County Farmland Zone and New Guy, Six Deuce and El Diabla Roja participated in adding four additional deer (all does) to the camp meat pole.  As a matter of fact New Guy is now the 2016 reigning serial killer.

The tally stands as follows: One buck during the archery season, three bucks and a doe for the nine day gun season and the fore-mentioned four.  Total = nine whitetails of which five were girls.

That should help towards slowing the growth of our outrageous deer herd on the peninsula.

Raising a toast to my friends for all of their help in reducing the herd and restocking my wood pile...

Down Comes the Meat Pole

The previously-killed deer were frozen solid by the single digit temps and there was no way we were going to butcher these critters by ourselves today.  Besides, the visiting hunters had to return home to their own families on a snowy and hazardous day.

So following breakfast I drove to town with the fourth deer (from this morning) to be processed by the butcher at Marchant's.  And Six Deuce, New Guy and El Diabla Roja took down the frozen three and sent them back to Eagle, WI.  For a deer camp that could use three more deer.

click on image to enlarge

And they disassembled the gallows in a matter of minutes and put it away in the barn.  Everyone wins!

 

 

Threefer

Six Deuce shot two this morning and New Guy another walking out to his stand this afternoon.

Five minutes of hunting.

Good work if you can get it.

click image to enlarge

El Diabla Roja has also joined the group.

Out Comes the Meat Pole

Six Deuce and I got the meat pole assembled in ten minutes.

click on image to enlarge

Little did we know that it is also a drive thru model...

The Meat Pole

A reader inquired about the meat pole set up for deer camp this year.

You may recall that a year ago we were inspired to revisit our deer hanging set-up and came up with a novel mechanism for handling deer by means of constructing a new meat pole.  A week before camp Six Deuce and I reassembled it in short order.

This is what it looked like at the close of the second day of camp last weekend.  

click on image to enlarge

It is quite capable of handling up to five carcasses with ease.

Furthermore, assembly and take down is a snap.  The brackets remain affixed to the horizontal bar along with the pulleys.  The four legs as simply inserted into the brackets requiring no bolts or fasteners.  Four of us took it apart and stored it in the barn yesterday in about ten  minutes.  

This is an uncomplicated solution for any deer camp.  The brackets can be purchased online for less than $100 and the 4x4, ten foot timbers, pulleys, cleats and rope from any big box home improvement store or local lumber yard. 

Someone needs to inform the manufacturer of these backyard swing set brackets that they need to market a meat pole kit through retailers like Gander Mountain and Cabela's/Bass Pro Shops.
 

 

The Meat Pole

It was last year during the gun hunts that a crisis emerged.

We had killed so many deer that we were running out of places to hang them.  I'm not making this up.  They were hanging in the shed and from a couple of apple trees in the yard.  

Don't believe me?  Check out this ghastly image...

click on images to enlarge

See?  I told you so.  What a sight.  And right in the yard no less.  Dead deer hanging everywhere.


Long story short, when you're out in a deer stand with your thoughts a couple of us spend a great number of hours brainstorming  a more efficient way of hanging the deer.  Maybe a permanent fixture or something that rolled around on wheels.  We settled upon a contraption that could be assembled and disassembled seasonally - and stored in the barn when hot in use.

A proper meat pole!

One of my pals - New Guy - sketched some plans for this complete with a list of materials.  The implementation part of the plan was to acquire the materials and build the pole sometime in the summer so it would be ready and handy for deer hanging by the time deer season rolled-around.

Since November I have misplaced the plans twice.  Therefore I'm posting them here in case they are misplaced again or worse case - permanently lost.  

Unless the entire world wide web goes down I think the plans are safe here.  

 click to enlarge