TOPIC: opening day...

thank goodness you were negative TN..a dear friend of mine [a modern day mountain man ] passed away oct. the 12th from the virus...

Chief... hate that about your friend... God bless his family and friends.

I consider myself lucky or blessed in that respect... no friends or family lost to covid so far. My daughter and son in law did get it... she had cold like symptoms for a couple weeks, lost sense of smell, taste, but pulled out of it and is doing fine now (that was back in April)... He hardly had any symptoms at all, little tired and stuffy for a couple days and that was it. They are both very young...and healthy, and that seems to help.

Doing my best to stay as healthy as possible (Diet - Clean Keto)... fasting 18 hours a day, eating 2 meals a day (in the 6 hour span).

Looking forward to a little Deer hunting... coming up soon. If we have any luck at that (and we usually do).. I will post a pic or two.

I am hoping for a nice young doe (good eating)... Big Racks don't thrill me that much now days... but some nice tender back strap bacon wrapped and grilled.. I can get into that.

TNHunter

guess its winter time,,50 degrees yesterday,,,28 this morning spitting snow and a 30 mph wind.....

sad day around here,father in law passed away last night...covid...

Sorry to hear that Chief.
God bless you all.

So far myself, my wife and son have not had it (that we know of)... we do know some folks in out town that have had it but they all recovered.

A few had died from covid in my county, but no one that I knew personally.

I sure hope it stays that way.

TNHunter

My condolences Chief to you and your family.

I think we're getting close to having a vaccine...hopefully.

My wife and I have been pretty careful and living where we do and both being retired, we don't come in contact with other folks much and when we must go out to shop, we mask up and do the other recommended stuff.

I ran a 100 mile race Nov 7-8, I turned 60 on trail in the woods at midnite of the 8th. It was a great experience for me. A friend finished the race shortly before the final cutoff and between her crew, family and all the excitement, several of us let our Covid guards down momentarily. I monitored myself closely for symptoms for a couple weeks + but was fortunate.

I've been quiet here on the board, not much to post about really. Still remodeling the dining room/kitchen.

I had to say goodbye to a dear friend in early October. "Guinny" (short for Guinness), had been our loyal and faithful companion for almost 13 years. I get so close to my dogs and it is so tough when that inevitable sad time comes.

I've posted one of my favorite photos of her, my wife and I have always referred to the expression on her face as "Guinny smiling" because she was usually having a fun time when she gets it. I still get choked up looking at pics of her.

Hope you all are doing well.

Good to hear from you Woodsrunner... congrats on the racing into 60 years old... and avoiding this dang covid stuff.

I will be 60 in September.. 3rd.

Doubt I will be running any races on that day... but probably will be growing some of my own food, digging some ginseng, etc...

Not much happening gardening wise now.. I picked and ate my last Figs on Dec 1... and last Raspberries on Dec 3.

Hate to see those go... but there is always next year (good Lord willing).

I do still have some lettuce, beets and carrots growing (or at least still living) and doing well in the garden. We have had several frosts, but not enough to wipe those out yet.

I got me a nice young 4 point buck last weekend.. and pressure canned 20 pints of chunky hind quarter stew..

Ingredients... I filled the pint jars half way with chunks of deer hind quarter meat.. then added some garlic, onions, celery, carrots, beef broth, salt, pepper.

Turned out really good.

I have about 100 days of survive off my own canned goods put up now. Mostly practicing for when I do retire... I plan to keep busy in retirement by growing, catching, killing, cleaning, eating -- a lot of my own food. Self Sufficiency, Sustainability, type stuff interest me more and more now days.

I have not sold my ginseng yet, but am going to try and get that done soon.

God bless you all !

TNHunter

Thanks TN. Not sure how much longer I'll be running ultras but I'm still finishing better than an hour ahead of most cutoffs. I suppose as long as the body holds up and I'm still enjoying the races I'll keep running them. I'm trying to run as many different races in as many states as possible, I haven't run in TN yet so likely in 2022.

The coyotes here are nuts. Almost every evening and sometimes early morning they're raising a ruckus. They're getting too close to our homes and I'm keeping my dogs close, one had a close call about a week ago.

I wish I was at your level of self-sufficiency, I'll likely never reach your level but hope to begin working on it next year...once this house is remodeled. I hope to finish the kitchen before Feb and that is the big one, right now we have no sink or kitchen cabinets but I hope to begin installing the new cabinets and appliances later this week. The dishwasher, stove and fridge are on the back porch at the moment.

Is there truth to soaking deer meat in salt helps to remove the "gamey" taste?

Not sure if I've posted this pic already but this guy showed up on one of my cams in Oct.

Take care all.

ive soaked deer meat in Italian salad dressing before,,,it sure helped it and made it tender as a eyeball .....

Chief I like Italian dressing... I will have to give that a try.

While in Cookeville... my wife and daughter decided to go shopping (imagine that)... and I went along too... they were going to visit some antique stores and I enjoy looking all all that old stuff myself.

I found a Huge Meat Mallet... with some really deep aggressive teeth on it. it is at least 2x the size of any I have seen now days (or the one I have now)... and again the teeth are much deeper and more aggressive. It is going to no doubt tenderize even thicker cuts of meat. It has a nice old oak handle in it too. I think it came from a old meat market or butcher shop and it has definitely been used a lot... very worn but the teeth are in good shape. On one side of the mallet head the teeth are 3/8 of an inch deep and on the other 1/4. On the side with the deeper teeth, they are shaped somewhat like a flat head screwdriver point. and the head surface with the teeth is a good 3" square.

I will have to clean that thing up good and try it out on some deer steak. I think it is going to work really well.

Woodsrunner... on soaking deer meat in salt water... my Grandfather and Father always did that... and I did it because they did. I just figured it was the thing to do.
I never knew exactly why.... but if you do process your own meat and get it to the finished point, cut up in steaks, cubes, etc (what ever you are going to use)... then soak it in a salt brine (over night)... the next day that water will be just full of blood. A lot more comes out of the meat, that first nights soaking...

Even if you kill the deer, and cut the throat before the heart stops pumping... and let them bleed out good... a lot of blood will still soak out of that meat the first night. We normally let it soak for 3 nights in salt water, pouring the bloody water off each day and replacing with a new salt brine... after 3 nights, we will process or freeze or can it.

On the 2nd and 3rd day soaking, the amount of blood that soaks out in the water will get less and less.

Why a salt brine ? I never really knew the answer to that, and it may be that it helps that blood to soak out, reducing the gamey taste ?

3-4 years ago I got interested in making my own pickles, using my own home grown cukes, and using fermentation to pickle them (not heat processing with vinegar)...

Fermented pickles are much better for you (loaded with probiotics... specifically Lacto Bacillus).

A Salt Brine is used when fermenting pickles or any veggies... you can ferment carrots, okra, green beans, tomatoes, etc...

How it works is this... all veggies right out of the garden have some good and bad bacteria on them... even if you wash them good in spring or filtered water, that is still true.
the bad bacteria is not enough to really bother us at that point... we eat and digest them just fine.

But to ferment them... you put those (washed in spring, or filtered) water cuke slices in a salt water brine (my method used 1 tablespoon of salt per cup in the brine).
What goes in the Jar (I use wide mouth half gal mason jars)... is cukes sliced how you like them, plus your salt brine, plus any spices you want, dill, garlic, red pepper flakes, mustard seed, etc...

That is it... and on top I use a fermentation lid (lets the gas escape, but no oxygen back in)...

There is some good and bad bacteria in there on those cuke slices... but when put in a salt brine... bad bacteria do not do well in a salt brine... and good bacteria thrive in a salt brine.. so after a few days (I let mine ferment for 10 day)... well the good bacteria have wiped out all the bad bacteria and the food is preserved by that fermentation process.

I am still eating pickles today (Dec 15) that I fermented back in June this year. I still have 3 more half gal jars of them out in the garage fridge, that I will continue eating on until next June.

Said all of that to point out that bad bacteria does not thrive or take over when in a salt brine... good bacteria does... and not that that would in any way preserve your deer meat... but by all means it would not be a bad thing either.

Below is the old meat mallet I found in Cookeville... needs a good clean up and I may file those teeth some... but I bet it is going to work well on making a tougher cut of meat more tender.

TNHunter