Processing the Deer

After we field dressed the deer it was time to start processing the deer.

First we had to skin it out

The Final product

Summer Sausage

Vacuum Packed Steaks

And lots of Jerky

Jerky out of the dehydrator

Of course before it got to this point we had to do a lot of cutting grinding and mixing.

First thing was to remove all the meat

Then cut it into smaller pieces and remove all the silver seam and fat.

Grinder loaded and ready to go

Hopper full

Grinding the deer meat for Jerky and Summer Sausage

Grinding the pork loin to add into the Summer Saugage

Mixing the Deer, Pork Cheese and Jalapenos for the Summer Saugage

Heating up the smoker the lower temp the better the first few hours

loading up the Summer Sausage

Smoking and cooking complete

Final product


Nothing like eating you own processed, food knowing everything that goes into it!

Son's first Deer

I haven't had time to do much blogging lately so I thought I would do a little catching up. In my last post we were going deer hunting, my son shot his first deer on the first day he hunted which was on a Monday morning. I hunted on Saturday and had seen a nice 8 pointer that I didn't shoot hoping my son would be able to take him. He only had a couple of days to hunt due to school, that morning we had only been seeing does, late in the morning this little buck came in and I told him to go ahead and take him since his time was limited.



Of course that evening I went back to the same stand and the 8 pointer came through about the time I got into the stand. Since we had meat I didn't take him, we will let him grow some more.

Until next time'

Tim

Deer Season Is Upon Us

Here in Kentucky, next Saturday is the opening day of gun season for deer, this year there will be an emptiness however, since this will be the first season without dad. I have so many fond memories of hunting with him, we hunted everything that there was a season for, but deer hunting was always special. When I was a kid, deer were few and far between in Kentucky, I had never even seen a live deer out in the wild. In 1969 my dad was holding a revival in the small western Kentucky town of Tulu, one of the congregation asked dad if he would like to go deer hunting one morning, of course dad jumped at the opportunity to go, and killed his first deer, it was a small four point buck. I remember mom waking me up early one morning and taking me outside to see a deer strapped on the trunk of the old white Pontiac, dad had drove in late the night before and I was asleep. I wasn't even sure what it was at first, I remember all the neighbors coming over to check it out because in was a rare sight to see in Louisville at that time.

Over the next 40 years I always looked forward to deer season and hunting with dad, we harvested a lot of deer over the years together, the last couple of years dad could no longer hunt, but when he felt like it I'd drive to the power line that runs across the farm and set in the truck with him so he could enjoy it. He taught me so many things about hunting and life on those trips that he will be missed so much. Now it's time for me and my son to continue the tradition that he started with me.

Until next time,

Tim

Trees and New Toy

Friday and Saturday I went down the farm to plant some fruit and shade trees I picked up at Lowe's for 75% off. I picked up two Golden Delicious, one Red Delicious, one Winesap and one Bartlett pear. I will be ordering some more trees from Stark Bros. this week, I need a pollinator for the pear tree plus a couple other apple as well as some pecan trees. I also planted three Autumn Blaze Maples in front of the man cabin.

We haven't had cattle on the farm for about 20 years but we still have a lot of rotted manure over at the old feed barn. I went and got 20 gallons of the black gold to mix in with the soil I planted the trees in.

Black gold (rotted manure)

Fruit trees

Autumn Blaze Maples

I've been looking for an all terrain fork lift for a while to haul logs out of the woods and load my sawmill with. I found a Lull telehandler on Craigslist which will do what I wanted plus it will also be a big help when I start building my barns and house on the farm since it will extend 27' vertically and lift 6000 lbs 38' into the air. The only drawback was it was in Boonton, New Jersey, so I loaded up the Semi and was off for a 13 hour drive to pick it up. My friend Rick was on vacation so he went with me, after loading it up we went ahead a drove back into West Virginia to avoid the morning rush hour the next morning.

Sitting in the hotel parking lot in West Virginina

The day after we got back I went ahead and took it down to the farm and dropped it off. Saturday morning I moved some logs I had cut and were setting on top of the hill in the middle pasture, it made moving them much easier than using my skidsteer plus I can move a lot more logs at a time due to its capacity.

Until next time

Tim

Rain

Finally, we have rain coming down, I almost forgot how good it smelled. I actually went outside and stood under the awning for a little while just feeling the mist hit me in the face while I took in the smell.

Until next time,

Tim

Fall Break

The kids had their fall break week before last so we took a few days and went down to the farm. My daughter and I went down on Friday and the wife and son came down Saturday afternoon. The first day we went to Holiday World in Santa Clause Indiana, it's only about a 30 min Drive from the farm. We spent the day riding rides, ate then went back to the farm. As you can see in the pictures below the leaves were starting to change to their fall colors, the weather was great all week and I got a few things done around the place.

We enjoyed campfires every night roasting marshmallows and making smores.

We cooked out Ribeyes one night over Hickory wood, YUMMY!

Tia and Samantha (Sam) enjoyed their time running around and chasing everything in sight.

I spent most of my free time Excavating the front of the building and putting down grass seed, I also seeded where we had ran the water line and electric line.
The more I get done around the farm the harder it is to leave everytime.

Until next time,

Tim

Fall cookout

This past Saturday we had a cookout at the farm with several family members and friends. It was a beautiful sunny day in the high 60's with a slight breeze. After feeding our faces we went on 4 wheeler rides, fishing in the pond and shooting some trap.

I went down on Thursday with my friend Rick and his son Luke (5 yo) to get everything ready for the cookout. We started by getting the area ready by installing a culvert and leveling the area where the cookout was going to take place. Next we put down gravel moved the smoker in place, installed the cook top and setting the picnic tables up. My cousin Ron brought over 3 additional tables and chairs and we were ready to start cooking.

Preparing to install the drain tile

Moving dirt from the big pile to level out the cookout area

Loading dirt into dump truck

Dumping at site

Tile installed and dirt leveled

The gravel spread out

Smoker, cook top and picnic tables set

Chickens on the smoker

Chickens, Boston Butt and Pork Loin

Smoker in action

Doodlebugs with my sister and her grandson

My sisters husband, cousin Ron and his Dad my Uncle Billy shooting the breeze.

Nephews riding the 4 wheeler

Mom and her friend Mary

Hungry people waiting on food, the secret to a good bar-b-que is to have it ready at least an hour later than you tell everybody, that way they are good and hungry and will eat anything.

Cut up smoked chicken

Time to eat

Nothing much better than a beautiful day, family, friends and good food.

Until next time,

Tim