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Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Family Works While I "Bust A Move" and Photograph Them






I've come a long way from hysterics when it's time to process meat. Yes, its true. As a new bride, my husband thought to assign me the task of processing his venison. He delegated a leg to me to have done by the time he got home that night. Being a temporarily obedient wife, I went out and dragged the frozen leg in. It made a thud on the counter. The leg looked too much like what I'd seen in surgery rotation that week in nursing school. I ended up dragging the leg back out unprocessed. When he got home, he was frustrated I hadn't followed his directions. He tried again to get me to help him and I became hysterical. Over the course of the evening, his mother had directed me by telephone to take some Valium and go to bed. Then she told me to put him on the phone. It was a long time before he expected my help with processing meat. I spend a lot of time putting flesh back together and it's hard for me to take it apart.
Fast forward 15-20 years. I've come to appreciate processing our own meat. I know what's in every package. I know it's always fresh, lean, organic and processed on clean equipment. The only cost is the hunting tags and the labor we put in. It is the bulk of our diet for the year.
My husband and eldest son cut the steaks, roasts and hamburger pieces. My oldest daughter also started cutting this year. "Art Dog" floats with packaging, helping with hamburger grinding, cutting fresh garlic to mix in, etc.. Super Catman is just learning to run the grinder. What do I do? Well, I do a lot of meal preps. I help with grinding and packaging occasionally. I get jerkey and sausage preps started. Last time, I found the opportunity to "bust a move" to KJ52's "Do Yo Thang". I don't think the kids were very impressed. Oh yeah, I clean up the big messy kitchen when it's all over with!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would have a hard time with that too - although today we boiled a live crab; that doesn't seem quite the same though. Our oldest daughter thinks that meat pieces are gross looking- it's really funny to leave something thawing in the fridge- I make sure I'm in the room when she opens it up, she reacts the same everytime!

toytrkman said...

Actually it was 9 years ago that you started helping, I have a picture to verify that. It was fall of 2000. This would be 9 years after our wedding. Thanks dear!

Becky said...

Oh, this one really made me laugh out loud. Oh my! The pictures of your children working are wonderful.

Heather said...

Is that your oldest son with a beard? How can that be?!