Sausage

Asked for and received a sausage stuffer for Christmas 2009 (this one), and it has taken me forever to get around to ordering supplies and actually making the sausage. Order some casings and spices from The Sausage Maker and got busy.

I had made some bratwurst last year from a kit, but the spices were just so-so and since it was just venison it was too dry. This year I had the processor add a little more fat to my ground and I found ground pork in 1-lb packages at Kroger. The ground venison packages are an almost exact 1.5-lbs, so using 2 gives me a nice 3-to-1 ratio of venison to pork.

I bought 4 mixes - jalapeno, italian, bratwurst and breakfast. Today I just made italian and jalapeno (4-lbs each), and added some grated cheddar to the jalapeno. Most of it is in vacuum bags and frozen now, but I've left some out to grill soon.

Jalapeno cheese - pre-linking

Last time I tried this it was a nightmare. Had a grinder that wouldn't work well for this, and ended up resorting to a hand-held stuffer. Also had all kinds of fun getting the casings on the tubes. Two things made this attempt a lot easier. First off, the 5-lb stuffer worked great (although moved around a bit to much, but I know how to fix that next time). The place in the link above is the least expensive I've seen one like this. Second, I order pre-tubed casings. Fits on the tuber really easily and made that part a breeze.

I'm hoping I can pop a feral hog this year, would be great to use as the pork portion of the ground.

Project: Arrow Saw

During the ten or so years I've been hunting, I've always been a firearm hunter. First rifle for deer and a couple of years later shotgun for dove (and later turkey).

Last year, I finally broke down and bought a compound bow. I figured I could have a lot of fun shooting it (and what else could I shoot in my backyard?), and eventually maybe even go hunting with it. I had no idea what I was getting into. As I am sure any bow hunters can attest to, there are a lot more things to be concerned with for archery than with firearms. Draw, weight, arrow type, mechanical or regular broadhead, etc. Fortunately the good folks at Cabela's hooked me up with a nice bow that fit my rather short arms and set me up with some arrows - the $100 gift card for spending enough money with them didn't hurt either.

When the salesman helping me left to the back room to cut my arrows, a gigantic question mark went up. Cut my arrows? I had not stumbled on that in my pre-purchase research. It was all cool - included in the price. After some practice in the back yard (and I can attest that a 50-lb draw will put an arrow through a steel door), I headed out to the lease for the start of bow season. Didn't see anything but rain, but I'm looking forward to this season.

A couple of months ago, I began thinking about getting some more arrows. Found some online at a better price than the Cabela's purchase last year, but they would need to be cut. Maybe I'll purchase an arrow saw? Yikes - I had no idea those things were so expensive. Not sure what exactly I was searching for on Google, but I stumbled across this DIY arrow saw.  Wow - that is pretty cool!  I decided to try it, but just repeating the project wouldn't be worth blogging about.  I needed to put my own modifications on it.

Old business

Posting a video I shot with my digital camera in 2007.  The camera won't zoom while recording in video mode, thus this is actually two videos stitched together.  I fortunately got zoomed in before the action took place.

Not much of a fight, but pretty cool and the first time I had witnessed something like this.  I've always told people who ask me why I hunt that being in the blind in quiet observation of nature is the main reason.   Getting some meat for the table is a bonus.

Making Camp

I didn't grow up a hunter.  I didn't grow up against it, but (other than squirrels and rabbits as a youth) my dad didn't hunt and it is rarely something you just fall into.

About 10 years ago after several years of prodding, I finally accepted an invite from my father-in-law to head down to his deer lease in central Texas.  Unlike previous years, my wife was instrumental in me going as she didn't want her dad heading out alone (a decision she would later regret).