An early morning surprise, amatuer pruning/training, and a failed burn

Some of what's been going on around these parts.

An early morning surprise.

I’m going to attempt to describe processing a deer without veering too far off into the philosophical. I didn’t kill this one, but I was offered the harvest. It was an early morning surprise. It was 30 degrees outside and misting . I put on my clothes, grabbed my knives, and told my two older boys to come along.

I tried to act like I knew what I was doing. I had done this before, but it had been a few years. We pulled up to the foggy, wet scene where the doe lay. The shot wasn’t great, but thankfully the wound wasn’t near the intestines. I started cutting.

This wasn’t the plan. I had decided that I didn’t have the time or capacity to do this. The process of dressing, hanging, and preparing the meat for cooking (trimming, grinding, etc.) takes a lot of time. In addition, I wasn’t sure the place I wanted to hang the deer would work out and I don’t have processing equipment.

But here I was, elbow deep in the chest cavity of a deer, in the rain, at 8am.

My sons (8 and 5) were not thrilled. They didn’t like the look or the smell of a dead animal being cut open. It was important to me that they were there with me. I want my children to know where their food comes from. I want them to learn what it looks like to responsibly harvest an animal; to understand that life is sacrificed so that they may eat and live.

Thankfully the weather cooperated and the deer was able to hang for 7 days without getting above 40 degrees. This allowed the meat to age beautifully. A friend who loves the act and art of processing deer agreed to help me. He spent an entire afternoon showing me the craft of taking a whole animal and slowly, carefully breaking it down into the different cuts, destined for the kitchen table.

Pruning in the Orchard

Let me repeat I do not really know what I am doing. I feel like I do. But I don’t know.

I know that pruning is best done in the mid to late winter. So, I did that. Next, I know I want a certain look for my trees. It is a look of low hanging limbs that are easy to reach and open canopies with few major branches. And so, I got to pruning. I pruned the whole orchard. The pruning was a non-negotiable.

“Training” as I am calling it, is negotiable. I want the “look” and the functionality of the “look” and I think some extra training will help. Like most negotiable things, after a few hours, I got bored and decided I would leave some trees with no training to see how they compare. Stay tuned!

😬🤷‍♂️

Some “training” pictures.

I cut up an old hose and used it to run the string through. I then tied the string to stakes, pulling the branch downward.

Prescribed Burn

Y’all, I am so excited about this little patch of woods behind our house. It is about an acre and small enough that it feels like I can really get to know it. The trees, the birds, the grasses, flowers, and forbs, the rocks, the visitors, the residents. I’m 36. Lord-willing I’ll have 36 more years to witness and steward this little patch of woods.

Part of stewarding this little patch of woods is using fire to open up the canopy and soil to sunlight. Fire has a cleansing effect and also a rejuvenating effect. The idea is to burn away much of the leaf litter that has built up on the surface of the soil so seeds that have been dormant for years have an opportunity to sprout. The floral diversity that will result from opening up this dormant seed bank will attract all kinds of wildlife including new pollinators. If the fire gets hot enough, it will kill a lot of the smaller trees and shrubs in the understory. This will open up the canopy so that sunlight can hit the forest floor further energizing the newfound growth underneath.

Towards the end of February we tried to get a burn in. The day got away from us and the humidity in the air shot up as the day got late. Nothing would burn. I wanted to knock it out in February before the ephemeral wildflowers start blooming in March. I think there is still a chance.