Fresh Meat

 I went out early to feed, water and clean Blueberry's stall. The filly is doing great. Both of the mares that are currently in season were both up in the paddock. They were waiting for some grain. They don't get much but when they see me feeding the others of course they need some too.

On the way back down to the house I just had to take a picture of the redbud tree. It is in full bloom and just gorgeous.

Right after breakfast Mark and I hooked up his aluminum trailer and started the 3 hour drive to Elgin to meet Kim. We arrived before Kim so worked on cleaning up the yard while we were waiting for her. She has some beautiful flowers in the yard.

When Kim arrived we loaded up Jon's mower and his wet dry vac along with the left over hospice supplies then left for home. While we were at Kim's, Joan and mom picked up Nancy then had a party to dye Easter eggs. Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley helped with that.

We arrived home around 4:15 pm. Mike had Blueberry and her filly in the outdoor arena.

They were moved back into the stall before I went to help Mark unload the mower.  Below Mark is driving the mower over to Joan's while she is on her way over to mow with one of the other mowers.

Diane was out for a walk. I took the golf cart to bring Mark back after dropping off the mower at Joan's. When we reached our house 2 beautiful white egrets flew up into a tree by the pond. 

I parked the golf cart and started walking toward the fence to take a picture when Mark said, "stop!" I was just about to step on a mushroom. We both had to stop what we were doing and look for more.

He found a handful.

He took those in the house to put in some salt water and I decided to look for more and started walking down our drive when I heard a car coming down the road then a big BANG. I thought there might be an accident but heard the car keep going. I thought maybe it was a tree that fell so was looking into the woods when I reached the road and saw broken car parts scattered on the road a big smear of blood and a big doe. I walked over to see if she was still alive. Her back legs were broken in many pieces and it looked like her neck was broken.

 I called Joan to see if she wanted to butcher it then called Mark to help load it on the golf cart. This doe was so heavy it took Joan, Mackenson, Mark and I to load her. God really does provide fresh meat when needed. Joan is hosting Easter dinner tomorrow and now she has something special to serve.

Taegan and Berlica helped.

Below Berlica is sharpening the knife for Joan while Taegan holds the leg out of the way. 

Rachel and David came over to show how to harvest the back straps.

Rachel showed Joan how to make the steaks out of the back straps.

Below Mackenson is carrying in a big bowl of deer roasts.

Once the meat was harvested we asked Joan if we could open up the uterus as I was sure this doe was pregnant. 

The fawn was fully developed. Berlica wanted to see the heart so Joan took that out next. 

It is amazing to see how the blood is pumped through big arteries into chambers. Once we finished the rest of the body was put back on the golf cart and taken over to our place for buriel.

Berlica and Taegan helped me put the body where Mark is going to bury it.

We were sure hoping the people staying in the foaling apartment were not looking out the window as we were dragging the body off the golf cart. The back of the golf cart had to be hosed off as there was so much blood pooling on the back and just as I was hosing that off the guests drove by. Hopefully they were far enough away that they couldn't see what I was hosing. On the way back down to the house I had to take one more picture. Whisky was standing at her grain bucket (she had already been fed) but was hopeful I was bringing more while the red bud tree behind her was almost glowing. 

The next job that needed to be done was to get Rosalie covered. She is in but so worried about Evan getting to close to her filly she would not stand. I finally called Mike, he came, he handled Evan while I twitched Rosalie. We had a successful cover.

After cleaning that and myself up the 2 pans of brownies and a cake were baked for tomorrow. Once those were in the oven I fried up the mushrooms that I had soaking in a egg and milk mixture.

If you would like to learn how to remove the backstraps from a deer and how to make the steaks watch the video but it is a little graphic.

Below is the video of the dissection of the doe, first to check out her uterus and then her heart.