Skill of the day -- Squirrel Pole

Right up front, let me just say a few things:

1. I prefer eating the conventional meats (beef/chicken/pork) as much as the next guy.
2. When given the path of least resistance, I'll probably take it, same as anyone.
3. I did not grow up on a farm, in the backwoods or in a third-world country.  I'm a Southern California native, who has taken up residence in NW Montana for the past 2 years.
4. I have never eaten squirrel meat, so I don't know how it tastes -- but I'm curious.
5. I have eaten wild rabbit, which I have hunted, dressed and cooked myself, on more than one occasion.
6. If you are offended by people harming furry little forest creatures, please stop reading now.
7. Always practice safe trapping and hunting habits.
8. I believe there's room enough for all of God's creatures... right next to the mashed potatoes.

OK, now that that's out of the way...

Today, I decided to try my hand at making a "Squirrel Pole" trap. Of course, I used "found" materials: a ratty old 2x4 and some old electrical wire.  The wire sheathing was a nice shade of "forest brown", which I figure will serve to camouflage the snares.  Apparently these type of traps are supposed to use several of these "nooses" down the length of the pole, but I was feeling lazy, so I only used 2 -- top and bottom.

Why in the world would I want to trap -- let alone eat -- a squirrel or two?  Well, there are a number of reasons:

1. Squirrels are plentiful, and generally very healthy.  They're everywhere!  They're also "cage-free" and "free-range", fed on natural fruits and nuts.  From what I understand, most states (at least mine) don't require any licensing or "tags" to hunt or trap squirrels.
2. Trapping is silent, productive and (mostly) free.  Nothing attracts unwanted attention like even a single gunshot, even from the humble .22 rifle.  If we ever find ourselves in a situation (like during the Great Depression) where many, many families only had food on the table if they could hunt/trap/gather/grow it themselves, I want to be prepared to feed my family without having to rely on whether or not the grocery stores' "cellophane-wrapped meat packs" were available.  While hunting can be effective (if one is skilled at it), it requires constant maintenance for the duration of the hunt.  Trapping is more efficient in that (a) you can re-use your "ammunition" (traps);  (b) you can effectively harvest from several places all-at-once, thereby increasing your take; and (c) you "need not be present to win", so to speak.  Set the trap now, check on it later -- even 24 hours later, if the weather is cold.
3. Squirrels are very easy to "process".  They are much, much easier to handle (field-to-freezer-to-table) than are deer, elk or any other larger game.  Heck, my 7-year-old daughter could skin & gut a squirrel... and probably will, at least once, if I have anything to do with it.  (Yes, that is one of the requirements of growing up in my household: getting exposed to dressing wild-caught game, large and small, on land and in water.) 

There are probably many more reasons to familiarize yourself with the hunting/trapping of wild food sources... what do you think?  Leave a comment below, and let me know about your experiences.  I'll let you know what ever came of my modest attempt at squirrel trapping, ASAP.

Have a productive day!
Psalm 24:1

Venison Report, ongoing...

So, after marinating the meat in my "secret sauce" for about 3 days, I dehydrated it at 170 degrees in my oven (propped open about 1") overnight.  In the morning, I sampled a piece...

...and my face shriveled up like a Fresno raisin.  "Holy antlers, Batman!  That's salty stuff!"  I must have soaked it in the sauce too long, I mourned.

Later that day, I stumbled upon a sample of my friend Michael's venison jerky, and tried a piece.  Now granted, Michael is about as close to a Montana Mountain Man as I'll probably ever meet:  if it can be done in Montana, he's done it.  Twice.  And well.  As the jerky melted in my mouth, making my teeth lazy, all I could think was "Dang that guy!  He got it perfect!  How'd he do it??"

I humbly and embarassingly admitted my failure to Michael last Sunday, in hopes of getting some helpful advice.  When I got to the part about my use of a cup of salt (!) in my "special sauce", he just winced and chuckled a bit.

"What recipe did you use?", he asked.

"Something I got... off of... the... internet...", my voice trailed off, in reply.

More chuckling.  Then a sincerely kind and encouraging smile:

"You know, just a couple tablespoons of salt, or a little bit of soy sauce works much better", he said.

I questioned, "OK, but doesn't that decrease how long the jerky will 'keep'?"

"Well," he smiled (and his eyes lit up like a child's), "with my recipe, I'm not worried about how long the jerky will keep... I worry about how long I can keep the jerky!"

I thought back to how scrumptious that sample was... and how I uncontrollably finished the bag... and I saw his point.

Next time, I'm going with "handed down" preservation recipes... not Googled ones.

Have a great week!

Venison Report, cont'd

Well, here's the meat: sliced thinly and soaking in the "special sauce" for 3-4 days...

Venison Report

WARNING:

If you are a member of PETA, I apologize in advance for offending your sensitivities.

Now that that's out of the way...

This morning the three wanna-be deer slayers (My two oldest children and I) went over to our friends' house, who had graciously offered us one of their deer, a buck with a mere 4" of antler on his cranium.  When we arrived, the animal had already been expertly eviscerated, decapitated and elevated by his hind legs:

Now let me just brag right now on a couple of young gentlemen, whom our family is proud to know.  Matthew, I believe, is about 13.  He's the lad responsible for our family's recent motherlode of meat.  He dropped that buck in his tracks with a shotgun slug, right out in his own backyard.  Handy.

Then there's his older brother Daniel, who seems to live-and-breathe hunting-and-skinning.  At 14 years old, the way that guy wielded a skinning knife and a sawz-all was downright impressive:

With the skills these guys have, it would have been easy for them to make sport of our inexperience.  But the best thing about Matthew and Daniel is that they have been diverted, by loving and wise Christian parents, from the trap of cruel and thoughtless peer pressure so pervasive in public education.  These guys have been taught to show love and respect at all times, and they wear such qualities like badges of honor.  They were glad to be able to help us out, without needing so much as a word of oversight from their father (who was occupied nearby).

Hats off to young people like this everywhere (including my beloved children), who will undoubtedly bring hope, healing and provision into this broken world, in Christ's Name.

The Deer-Slayers??

Last Saturday, my oldest kids and I got our first taste of deer hunting.  Now I had shot, dressed and cooked wild rabbit back in SoCal, but I never had to don camouflage to do so... pretty much just watched out the backyard.  In fact, for the first 40 years of my life, I had never hunted anything.  (Fishing, yes, but never hunting.)  But in the last few years I started to awaken to just how metropolitan my existence had been, heretofore, and to how necessary it will likely become for me to become adept at procuring and processing my family's meat supply.  Hence, my interest in hunting and trapping what seemed to be the most plentiful game in North San Diego County -- rabbits.

But now, I was in Big Sky Country.  Deer country.  Elk country.

I started to think about how super-gnarly it'd be to go out an bag some animal that weighs more than I do.  So, as soon as the ink dried on my Montana driver's license, I took these two great kids (my oldest kids, in the pic) and my dear bride and signed us up for Hunter Education.  A few months later here we were, out with some local friends, on the lookout for whitetail west of Marion.  The weather was fine, and the "rut" (the mating season) was nearly at its peak, so I'd been told.  So by all accounts, it was reasonable to expect a fair amount of deer sightings... easy pickings, right?

Well, not so much.  (I know, I was probably ridiculously naive about the whole process.)  Notice something conspicuously absent from our picture?  (And no, I'm not referring to my son's hunter-orange vest.  He had it off only in transit from one hunting site to another.)  Turns out a couple of us only saw a couple of deer way off in the distance, toward the very end of the day... to far to go after, so late in the game.  So it was with no small sense of disappointment and frustration that we closed out the day empty-handed.  Since the season ends this Sunday, I was mentally preparing myself for a freezer devoid of venison this year.  I was gearing up to learn as much as I could about making next year's outing more productive.

Then, my friend Dave (who took us out last Saturday) called me today, saying he had an extra deer he was willing to give us: we just needed to come over and cut it up into pieces small enough to get home. So it turns out that we'll get the "processing" experience before the "procuring" part.  The hand of Providence can work in peculiar ways, sometimes.

More pictures to come, next time...