Oh Baby Wild Deer!

Murder takes it’s toll on your mind. Standing in the dark, with only the headlights of our pickup for light, I didn’t have a clue as to how to dismember her body. I'd seen this done a few times during my life, yet in the grisliness of the moment, everything I knew left me.

Our "friends" who had deserted me for the warmth of their homes, had stuck me with the unpleasant task of disposing of the evidence of their kill. Clearly, they weren't coming back. I was the only one left to finish the job. Apparently, I'm just an accessory after the fact.

Beneath the tree, saw in hand, knife pursed between my lips for safe keeping, my thoughts ran wild:

This isn't something I even remotely signed up to do. What do you do with the parts of a body that you don’t want? How was I ever going to do this all by myself? What if the bears pick up the scent of her blood? Or, more likely, what if the pack of coyotes that we hear every night, shows up?

Well, at least they’d strung her up by her feet, and I didn’t have to look her in the eye. Except, I had to lug a ladder from the barn in order to proceed with the dastardly deed. By the time I got positioned to begin, I was so frozen with nerves and cold, I could barely make a cut.

Thus, began my first skinning and gutting of a doe about fifteen years ago.

When you live on seven hundred acres, two miles to the nearest neighbor, six miles to the nearest paved road, and the nearest town with more than one stop light, is forty-five rugged mountain miles -- the last thing you want to be doing is standing far from the house, outside in the dark, skinning and gutting a deer. Especially, when you are the only one home. This was the situation I found myself in during that deer season years ago, when my husband was away on a job assignment.

The decision to allow hunters on our property wasn't an easy one. We did occasionally harvest a deer for the freezer. However, my husband saw no sport in hunting animals that walked around like they were pets and even followed him at a cautious distance when he fed the livestock. Then, there was "Oh Baby Deer" (more about her in a minute).

So it came to be after a few years, that we had let a small, but select group of hunters, have free range in terms of hunting on our farm. We did this because the deer population was massive, and we were tired of seeing emaciated deer. Plus, the deer had become nuisances in their efforts to find food, even to the point of getting into the chicken feed. Fencing them out was just not an option, and all deer repellents failed.

Later, In one deer "event" my husband spent several weeks hand planting eight thousand deer resistant loblolly pine trees. It only took the deer a few days to eat every one of them. Another time, a buck kicked our front glass door in, our guess is because he saw another male in his reflection.

Additionally, as land owners we had the unwanted problem every deer season of trespassers. Even with locked gates, strangers from near and far seemed to have the idea that it was their God given right to hunt on our property, despite posting no hunting signs everywhere. This was an annual nightmare, as my husband worked long hours away on the road as part of a railroad freight crew. It got so bad, that after having one dog shot and killed by hunters, we had to lock up our pets.

The day we decided to allow certain hunters on the property each season came when I had two men show up hunting, drunk and refusing to leave. We had no phone service. It took a gun and our Great Dane to persuade them to leave.

By letting hunters we knew on our property to hunt, at least I had a number of men that we knew as friends, to patrol the property and keep livestock and pets from also being shot.

It wasn't even deer season, when we came across a doe with a newborn fawn. Someone had not only trespassed, but they had shot and killed the doe apparently for sport.

We bought the little girl in and against common sense proceeded to bottle feed her. Very cute and fun. As a juvenile, she would come running from the woods upon my simply standing outside and calling, "Oh Baby Deer."

Fun only lasted so long, then as she matured she became a problem. She would follow us out whenever we left in the car, all the way down to the highway. She would kick the door when she wanted food, violently.

There are very good reasons why it is never a good idea to feed and make wild animals dependant upon you. Although, we were eventually able to wean her, she is an example of why there are laws against doing such things in most states.

An unusual childhood coupled with survival training as a Vietnam Veteran, gave me a lot of uncommon knowledge for a girl. I'm not your typical mother or grandma -- I'm just as comfortable in remote locations, as I am in the biggest cities in the world. I love them both.

Normally, I leave the hunting up to my stronger half, since like most of the male species, he relishes the hunt. However, having lived on both remote ranches and farms, there have been times when I have had to hunt or starve by boredom of only having canned food. Many times our roads were impassable due to snow for weeks at a time.

For the novice hunter, here are some basic successful common sense hunting principles:

• The biggest advantage you can have in hunting is to see your quarry first, before it sees you.
• Look for fresh signs of wild game, such as tracks, beds, and warm or moist droppings.
• Cautiously peep over ridges, examining first the distant, then the closer ground.
• In the woods, move slowly and stop often. Remaining motionless is an immense advantage over a moving animal.
• Locate watering holes, feeding grounds, or well traveled trails and wait quietly for the game to come to you.
• Anywhere vision is limited (dense forest or rugged country) -- silence is mandatory. Avoid stepping on dry sticks, leaves, or brushing against vegetation.
• On open ground (or very mountainous terrain) wild game is generally seen and shot at a distance. Silence isn't as golden, but you must keep under cover.
• Move up or across the wind (never down wind) when stalking game.
• Think creatively in terms of utilizing natural cover and contours, even if it means going way out of your way upon approaching game.
• Keep the sun behind you. This is because it is difficult to get a good shot looking into the sun. Also, you'll be less visible to the game and they will be more visible to you.
• If your prey has spotted you but not fled, do not approach it directly. Instead, move in a zig zag approach.
• Move when your game is feeding.
• Freeze if your wild game looks up or stops activity.
• Get above mountain game. As a rule, wild game never suspects danger from above.
• Never silhouette yourself on a skyline, as it makes you highly visible and suspicious.
• Wear camouflage clothing appropriate to the landscape.

There are some things to know about preparing and cooking with venison:

Under temperatures of forty-five degrees, it is always a good idea to age the deer a day or so (with skin on), by hanging it upside down in a cool area before skinning and gutting. Additionally, Always irrigate the body cavity with clean water. Always be careful not to cut into the intestines.

• You must remove all fat and fibers, every speck of them.
• Venison can be too dry, so it must be cooked with either fat from beef, or bacon.
• Venison can also be cooked with salt pork.
• Dry deer meat is very tough and stringy, like goat meat.
• Roasting vegetables with venison helps to keep it from being dry.
• Deer meat can be smoked exactly in the same manner as a ham.
• Always serve deer meat regardless of how prepared, on heated plates. For some reason, it cools rapidly and becomes unpalatable -- if not served on warm plates.
• Deer meat is one that if not cooked creatively, you can get very tired of it, very fast.

Lastly, in today's era of health concerns, experts are recommending that you wear rubber gloves until you have washed the meat, because of chronic wasting disease and Lyme disease concerns.

As with other wild game recipes, there are certain tried and true methods for cooking venison. Generally, I always soak any kind of game over night in milk, to me it takes the gaminess out of the meat. Sometimes the simplest of recipes are the tastiest. I learned this method of preparing deer meat while living in northern Arizona. Supposedly, it is a recipe that came from the Apaches.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of venison that has been soaked overnight in milk (free from all fat and sinew).
• 1/2 cup of beef suet
• 1 level teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 level teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 finely diced pepper of choice

Instructions:

• Grind them all together and form into patties.
• Cook in frying pan until done

Remember that venison is one meat that should be eaten immediately for best taste. Do not allow to cool and serve on a hot or warmed plate.