Yes, this would be my goats.

When you're talking turkey, I think there's nothing better than roast turkey on Thanksgiving. That being said, if you're into raw and vegan (and even if you're not), you just might be impressed with JP's hysterical raw vegan "turkey" recipe.  He even does a hunt for his turkey.   Have a great Thanksgiving!

It's close to Thanksgiving,  which means you're probably thinking about cooking your turkey.  If you raise your own turkey, hunted and gotten a wild turkey, or have ordered an organic or fresh turkey, this brine is for you.  It'll probably work with conventional turkeys which are brined at the factory, but may make your turkey salty. For the best taste, have a turkey which is fresh or not been brined.

Anyway, here is the recipe.  Enjoy!

It's hunting season which is a prime time for us to fill the freezer for our year's supply of meat.  My husband and I have become fairly proficient in hunting deer, but until recently, we hadn't quite scienced out my shooting.  Most of it had to do with not being able to put my cheek against the stock and see in the scope (fixed), a really bad case of buck fever (somewhat fixed), and a clean bore when I shot it (I need to have a dirty barrel on my rifle).  So, this year, we filled our deer tags within the first two weeks.

Two Bucks in a Row

What's weird is that we had two bucks appear in almost the same place in two consecutive days.  My husband got a whitetail spiker (yearling buck with straight horns) the first day.  The second day, I found a mule deer that was barely a fork (splits into two points at the end).  So, not only did we have venison, but we had two deer we had to dress, quarter, and butcher.  So, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning cutting up and packaging the meat for this year.  Three deer last about 6 months for two people if we don't eat venison every day.  We do have a goat wether that needs to go into the freezer, but that may be an early 2018 project, if we don't find elk or try for deer in other game units.

Snow

There's not much to forage right now with snow on the ground.  I'm hoping to convince my husband to go back to the rosehip bushes after general season ends and see if I can gather some more.

Goats, Chickens, and Turkeys

Right now, we've gone from warm to cold temperatures. We've had snow and rain, making the pens an unholy mess.  The critters are feeling stressed.  Not sure, but our llama may be having a relapse of Epi -- a very dangerous blood-borne parasite. I've started her on treatments for it.  I have one goat with mastitis -- an infection of the milk bag.  I've been trying to get Today or even Tomorrow -- a well-known mastitis treatment for cows.  There is none to be had in the entire town; everyone has sold out.  So, I have some mastitis treatment on order and need to treat her. 

Chickens seem to be okay.  I discovered the oldest turkey hen I have is blind in one eye, possibly due to a fight.  My blue slate hen and bourbon jake turkeys are doing great right now. Since I have a tom turkey in the freezer from last year, the other turkeys are safe for Thanksgiving.

Is this Ms Evil?

I've been doing some research about growing your own yeast.  A lot of articles recommend using a boiled potato and the potato water.  Others recommend using fruit or raisins to grow yeast.  In the following video, The King's Roost recommends using the yeast already in your flour.  Cool, huh?

The first day of rifle season for deer and elk is always fraught with worry.  This year, we knew I'd have to harvest my deer first because I had drawn an antlerless whitetail tag and my husband didn't.  We went to a place we've been successful in the past.  So, we decided to try out the new blind and hopefully get our first deer for the season harvested.

Deer Blinds Are Not All Sunshine and Roses

We've hunted from one farmer's blind during game damage season last year, so we figured we understood the principles.  We did, but only marginally.  We set up our mobile blind in the spot that afforded us the best view of the areas where we knew the deer would come out.  On the plus side, it kept us out of the wind. On the negative side, you have severe blind spots because if you had all the windows open on the blind, it would be no better than standing in the middle of the field and waving your arms.  We thought the deer would just ignore the blind.  Wrong.  The deer, despite being habituated to human stuff being left in the area all the time, were very suspicious and preferred to keep a fence line between the blind and themselves.  Add to this the uncomfortable sitting position that you must stay in for hours.  It's less than optimal.

Ambush Hunting Versus Pack Hunting

There are two types of hunting in my book: like a wolf pack or like a cat.  Both are effective, but my husband and I prefer the wolf pack version for various reasons.  With the wolf pack method, you do what a wolf does.  You cover a lot of territory where the animals are.  When you use the cat-like ambush, you go where you believe the animals will come along and just wait.  Both are very effective ways to hunt, as any wolf or mountain lion would attest to, if they could.  So, what we were out of our element.  We had to sit and let our prey come to us.

Finally, Deer!

As usual, when you're waiting for deer, they just materialize out of nowhere, as though Scotty beamed them in.  This time it was a small herd: a doe and her two yearling does.  We waited for them to cross the barbed wire fence that separated the field we sat in from the back forty, but they were having none of it.  Eventually, we decided I should just shoot whichever deer provided the best target.  This time, I did everything right.  I had a firm cheek weld to my rifle, thanks to my husband's modifications to the stock.  I held steady.  I pressed the shot.  The gun went boom.  And...

Nothing.

Nothing?

Hunting Goes Surreal...

"Miss."  My husband whispered, adding to my profound disbelief.

The deer just stood there.  I reloaded.  Same drill.  I held steady.  I pressed the shot.

Nothing.

I said a few choice words under my breath, and I started shaking. The deer I was shooting at moved to a less than optimal presentation, so I reset my aim on her sister who presented a good broadside target.  My husband whispered to shoot again.  Now, I had absolutely no faith in what I was doing.  I shot.  This time, a definite hit and she fell where she stood.

I was still shaking when we got out of the blind.  The other deer hadn't moved much since their relative went down, but on seeing us, they barked and ran off.  I went to the doe and saw that my shaking had moved the rifle to her neck, rather than the shoulder I had aimed at, and had dropped her with a spine shot.  It was a quick death, even if it wasn't quite where I had intended.

Thanking Your Prey

I thanked her for giving herself to me and apologized for taking her so young, but I had to eat.  We field dressed her after I tagged her, and brought her home.  I feel it is important to thank the animals that we hunt.  This is an animal that gave its life so that we could eat.

It made for a successful, if strange hunt.  My husband was quick to point out that the stainless barrel was clean when I shot it.  Every time I've been shooting successfully, it has been dirty, which may suggest that this rifle prefers having a dirty barrel over a clean one.   Mass-produced stainless barrels can have burs and other imperfections which affect accuracy.  A few rounds through them smooths those imperfections over with a copper coating from the bullet jackets, and the gun groups tighter.  I'm pretty sure that I did everything right on the first two shots, so I'll accept that suggestion for the time being.

Game meat is the best possible protein source on the planet, but do you know why? This wonderful podcast produced by the Nevada Department of Wildlife will give you all the info.

NPW Podcast

Truth is right here.