Ian came through once again with a freezer full of venison for the winter of 2018. He is proud to have successfully hunted a doe on the opening morning of deer season. The boys named her Sally. As always, it was a family affair.
Both Seamus and Liam helped with deer hunting preparations leading up to opening day. They hiked with Daddy out to the tree stand (Seamus even climbed halfway up behind Ian before Ian noticed and freaked out). They spread out apples for the deer (and rogue cows). And Seamus even allowed Daddy to coat his winter boots in deer pee to "spread the scent" - ew (Mama was not too pleased about that one).
The actual hunting was all Ian.
Seamus and I once again helped with moral support during the field dressing, relocation and hanging stages of processing the meat. Last year Seamus was happy sitting in a stroller watching the forest while Ian and I gutted the deer and sang to him. This year he desperately wanted to see and help. So, he watched the field dressing process from 10 feet away strapped into his stroller asking all the while if he could "come closer" to "see better". Thankfully he was appeased with us counting down the minutes until he could come closer without ever actually delivering on our promises to move his stroller right up to the action.
Seamus did, however, get to help Daddy drag the deer out of the corn/winter wheat field and load her up.
I am not sure we could have managed without him seeing as I was absolutely no help at all. Seriously, moral support was the name of the game for me this year. Oh, and I held Sally's leg during the gutting, helped flip her over to drain and rolled her Dexter-style in the blue tarp. We'll call it deluxe moral support.
I am happy to report that Sally is now hanging in our garage and I did not have to hug her carcass to help lift her up this year. Thank goodness for small miracles (like Ian's new winch system).
A couple of days like this and then she'll be off to the butcher before Grandma Cora shows up next weekend and has a coronary. We just need to keep the garage door closed so we don't offend any sensitive neighbours or give the non-country kids on Liam's school bus nightmares.
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