Right now, our house remodel is consuming much of our time. With that said, many of our farm/automation projects are on hold. Many, but not all. As any fellow homesteader knows, there are always small side projects to tackle, projects that cannot be ignored.
With the deer hunt over, one of those tasks was processing some venison.
Many people bring in there deer to a local processor or locker plant. Our local processor charges a flat fee of $70 to skin and quarter the deer. That does not include cuts and packaging. Worse yet, you never know if the meat you get back was yours or someone else's (what were their animal handling practices). Did they give me all of my meat back? With that in mind, and also knowing that we will in general have at least one steer a year to process, I finally broke down and bought a meat grinder.
It arrived on Tuesday! Our small group also meets every Tuesday evening, but I couldn't wait until Wednesday to process it, now could I? Not with that new grinder sitting there!
I had quartered the deer Monday evening after work. Come Tuesday evening, after we got the kids tucked in bed, Shelly and I took to the garage. We were able to piece out, grind up, and package the deer by 1AM. I have a loving and patient wife!
We ended up with close to 50lb of meat.
So, I had to run some quick math:
Grinder = $360USD ($75 of which I paid for with crypo through egifter.com)
Deer License = $31USD
Freezer Bags=$3USD
$360+$31+$3=$394USD
With 50 pounds of meat, that comes out to $7.88/lb for fresh, grass fed, organic meat. Then, consider that the grinder will be used for all future deer and cattle we process here and the numbers start to look really nice! Eventually, all things equal, the cost/pound should start approaching $0.70/LB
And, to boot, I can bring the hide in to a local scrapyard and they will exchange the hide for a set of new work gloves or a small amount of cash. As a further bonus, the chickens and cats also enjoyed picking off the leftovers that we missed.
Aside from processing venison, I also got an old window from our house moved to the south side of the barn. My hope is that it will help capture some solar heat in the barn on the upcoming cold winter days.
I measured up and marked out the wall. Then I used the reciprocating saw and cut myself a BIG hole!
Once cut out, I installed the outside frame and header. The goats were good sports through the commotion. Our bucky-buck however, made some tasks a challenge, as he had to smell, taste, and rub his head against everything new and out of place. Including my ladder. Easy fix? Toss a hay bale outside.
Finally, I framed up the wall below the window. Much better! In a year or two we hope to gut this room out and get it spray-foamed. At least this is a good start in the right direction!
Not only do we get to capture some natural heat now, but also some natural light! There is nothing like a well lit barn!
Next outdoor project... Firewood collection.
-Jeremy
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Looking good! Just added you...pretty good looking rack! Cooking up some Cow tongue today...running out of main cuts so we are trying this for the first time today!
Blessings, Melissa
Never had cow tongue before. My brother always takes ours and loves them. Enjoy! Maybe some day I'll be brave enough to try it.
I am now convinced that is what they make corn beef hash out of...tastes exactly the same....very interesting....
Congratulations on the successful hunt. Just had a venison sandwich myself. Life is good!
You did a really good job with the window. I recently had to put one into a building with metal siding and it's more difficult than it looks!
Yours turned out great! Yeah, installing windows on an existing wall it not enjoyable, especially with steel siding. I didn't trim my window out yet like you did. I am in the process of putting up red steel on the walls, so once I get to that side of the barn with the red steel, I'll wrap up the window project.
Nothing beats fresh venison in the freezer! My husband has given up on being able to go out this season... but his cousin has met his quota for hunting, so we are paying him for the meat. Suppose to pick it up in next week or so. 75-lbs of VENISON!
That will be lots of good eating!!
Most definitely! I'm already having food fantasies about chili... jerky... yup!
That window is beautiful.
Good job on handling the deer yourself and how cool that you were able to pay for some of the grinder using crypto.
Is the firewood for this winter or the next?
Thank You! It is a nice big window. The firewood is for next year or the following. We have a nice pile already put away and seasoned for this winter :)
I was a little concerned if you were going to use it this winter, but figured you had your ducks in a row. :)
My ducks are far from in a row, but my firewood is seasoned :D
That looks like a nice fat cap on that deer. You must live where the feeding is good.
For sure. I was surprised by the amount of fat myself. There is definitely no shortage of food!
Getting ready to start grinding myself!
We try to take 2-6 deer per season, but the temperature is 20 degrees above normal, so we'll probably get 2 this year.
I definitely don't envy the remodel job!
Happy holidays!
Nice! Good luck with the hunt!
I am hoping to shoot a few next season. We have so many deer here! Our zone had a 3 deer per person limit this year. Needless to say, our garden will be getting a deer fence next Spring.
There is certainly a value to knowing where your food comes from that’s for sure. Enjoy those fried deer steaks. Hehe
For sure!! In my case, the strawberry patch! They picked it clean this fall, little buggers :) Sweet revenge! Those steaks sound amazing!
Don’t forget to sign up for the seed giveaway next Week