Our Weekend and Our Dear Deer Lulu

This weekend was a deer hunting season, so Shawn wanted to go hunting. He invited my brother-in-law, Jamas, to go, too. Since our guys were going to be at the Cherri Orchard hunting all weekend, Celeste and I met up there, too, with all of our kids. Well, since the grandkids were going to be there, my mom and dad decided they'd make the trip, too. It ended up being quite the gathering!

Shawn and I went up with our kids a day earlier than everybody else and he went out on his first run on Friday morning. I got up with the kids around 7:30 or so. Shawn came in around 8:30, elated and.....bloody. Yuck. He had spotted 7 deer that morning and managed to shoot one with one clean shot straight through both lungs. I'm not sure what it is about men and killing things, but Shawn was pretty excited.

Here he is after he arrived, covered in blood.

More bloodiness.

Okay, so you're probably wondering why he's all bloody. He shot the deer on the back 40, so he had to carry her on his shoulders for a long way to the pasture. He had already gutted her so that the blood would drain out and it would keep the meat from becoming too "gamey." The result is that he looked like a bloodthirsty maniac.

Once he got inside, Shawn, Kai and I went in the van to the pasture to pick up the deer. When Kai saw her lying there gutted, he said, "Oh, Daddy---that deer has two big ouchies! We need to fix him! You didn't mean to shoot it, Daddy. It was an accident." When we explained that he had shot the deer on purpose so we can eat it, Kai still maintained that Daddy hadn't meant to shoot it and that it was an accident. He didn't seem disturbed by it, though.

After we drove the deer up to the Cherri Orchard, Shawn hung her up to drain. Here's a picture of him with his deer (and poor Bo).

Later that day, Shawn prepared the deer for butchering. We spent some time that day and the next preparing all the meat Shawn got. It looks like we will have some pretty good meat for a while now. Shawn and I guessed we probably got about 50 pounds of meat, mostly in ground venison, but also in some steaks and jerky meat, too.

Never would I have thought that I would be content (nay, excited!) to handle dead deer meat. I helped Shawn package it as he ground up the meat. Afterwards I decided that since we will be eating this same deer's meat for many months that perhaps we should give her a name so that we can remember to be thankful that she gave her life that we could eat. Shawn decided Lulu sounded like a nice name, so Lulu it is. We labeled all of the freezer bags, "Lulu."

It was a good weekend. Jamas, Cel, their kids and my parents all came up and Joe also came down for Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Despite several more trips out to hunt, the guys did not get any more deer after Lulu. Shawn took a long shot at a deer Sunday morning, but it was a bit too far. Celeste and I got the chance to hang out with each other and I got to meet her new purse that she is currently in love with. The kids got the chance to have a blast getting into mud and playing with toys that were a part of Grandma Gabriel's "sociological experiment."

There are two more deer seasons this year and I think Shawn will probably go hunt for at least one of those. I'll keep you posted!