Processing...

Note:

These pics are not for the

faint-hearted.

You were warned!

I, personally, never DREAMED

I'd have a carcass on my

kitchen table.

I guess I'm still not too old

for a few surprises!

A few posts ago you saw the beautiful bucks 

that the boys shot.

Well, all that good meat needed to be

processed.

It started on a Monday a couple weeks ago, with Jonathan's buck.

I had just finished cleaning and 'sterilizing' everything,

when on Wednesday morning, Daniel shot his.

Sigh!

Not really, I'm SO thankful for a freezer full of meat :)

It's just A LOT of work and I happened to be SICK that week~

So, we pulled everything back out 

and processed our second buck.

Altogether we calculated about 20 pounds of homemade sausage,

around 5 pounds of jerky (it has to be frozen before curing/drying...),

about 40 some pounds of ground beef,

and another 10 or so of back strap, tenderloin, and stew meat...

Not bad!

Daniel with one of the legs~

Dave cutting off the main carcass~

Jonathan cutting up the meat to go through the grinder~

Me working the scale and grinder~

One of my favorite things for processing~

My second favorite thing for processing~
I LOVE my seal-a-meal-absolutely NO freezer burn.

I need to mention here that we didn't get 

Olivia in any of these pictures-although she was a 

great helper at my side.

She just so happens to be our 'family photographer'

too !