October Complete

The pirate is out of control, the baby elephant is crying, the witch is cackling,

Cleopatra is pouting and they haven't even had any candy!

This year, we added dressing up to our "pumpkin bars and jack-o-lanterns with friends" tradition.  We started this low-key Halloween tradition after we found out about certain food allergies that one of our little goblins had.  The kids had fun dressing up this year, just like they did back in the days when Mom and Dad weren't so MEAN, and when we let them go trick-or-treating. lol!  Melita enjoyed it all so much and didn't have a clue she was missing out on anything! :)

Okay, I'll call that enough for tonight.

Randy's home tomorrow after being gone for 10 days!  We are so ready to have him back!!!

Have a great weekend everyone,

Alison

Just Another Link In the Food Chain

More hunting was done at the farm this last week over the Thanksgiving holiday. Randy shot two more deer (a fork horn buck and a doe). This coyote was also shot by someone, maybe even by 2 someones.

I like this picture of Colter and Randy with the coyote. They said after they left, a bald eagle came for lunch. It's nice to know they helped out the food chain a little bit that day.

They also helped out our food chain. We are going to attempt to make summer sausage and jerky with the meat we got from the most recent deer. We love summer sausage and jerky and it's another great protein snack to have around.

Sometimes people ask me to post recipes for wild meat. I guess I don't have any special recipes. Mostly I just substitute the hamberger in most recipes with the venison or elk hamburger. I always add onion and sometimes garlic. We also grind a few pounds of 50/50 (pork meat/pork fat) combo when we are grinding the meat. We did not do this with the elk and it is very good. I cook steaks in the crock pot with seasoning and cream of mushroom soup most of the time. Then I serve them with potatoes or rice. I haven't done roast much. Has anyone else? What do you do? Randy and his Dad did Elk steaks in a George Foreman Grill one day after their elk hunt and he said they were awesome.

That's about all I know about that...

It's nice to be at the top,

Gone Hunting 2009

Early morning in The Breaks

Randy and his Dad met at one of their favorite hunting areas to go elk hunting. Randy was lucky enough to get an elk right away, so they headed back to the farm and he tagged a dear too. Here are some pictures from their hunting trip.

Taking the shot...

The elk ran down this ravine and fell into this tight spot...

Now the work begins...

Dad and Randy with Cow Elk

His very first Elk!

The scenery of the morning...

The Bone Trail

The road to no where...

A barren land...

Randy took this picture at Sunset...

They went out the next day and looked around some more...

And then hunting back at the farm...

Dad, even though you didn't get your name drawn to shoot an elk this year, you sure got some great shots! Thanks for sharing all your pictures with us! We all enjoyed looking at them and entering into your hunting trip.

and family

Days Of Hunting

Hunting season is in full swing around here now.

This seems like an appropriate time to share these pictures. They were taken about a year ago when we were visiting Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. These elk have found a place to hang out for the winter on the National Elk Refuge. For more pictures from our trip click here.

Good luck to all of you hunters! (and their lonely, forgotten wives...)

I think I'll go shopping now,