Deer
So for two years I don’t get a deer and then i am surroudned by them.
On the way to the blogmet, I’m maybe ten, fifteen cars behind a truck, and i see a line of deer run out of the treeline. Several cross, most are turned, but the truck taps one large doe.
it endovers in air and I pull to the side, for a couple reasons, I want to make sure the poor bastard is dead, and because I’m always.. curious.
I am looking at the deer and a cop pulls up, he’s seen me stopped with my flashers and thinks i’m in trouble.
“No, just making sure this deer is dead. It is.”
“fresh?”
“yeah. I just saw a truck catch it. Didn’t look like the driver even noticed. I always hate to see the meat get wasted, but this one is pretty buggered up”
it was, the legs were broken and the head beat up pretty bad.
The cop asks “is there anything you can do with him? you want a permit to posess? ”
“no, I don’t have a cooler and I won’t be going home for a while. Besides, there’s enough damage that the backstraps are about all that’s left.”
“Wish I knew how to get them out, I love deer. My brotherinlaw gives me some sometimes. I don’t hunt”
“I can get them out if you want them. Do you have a cooler?”
he did, and I had the white hunter and some rubber gloves in the truck, so I filleted out the backstraps. When I had them I cut off a little piece and ate it.
“yuck, that looks nasty”
“Don’t knock it” I said”unless you try it”
“is it safe?”
“Well, I think deer tend to be a lot safer and cleaner than most farm animals, and this meat isn’t in a body cavity where it could be contaminated by bacteria, so I think it’s safe, but by no means follow my advice, I’ve had intestinal parasites before”
In the end I ate about a three by three chunk of backstrap, and he even sampled a bit “Damn, that’s better than the best rare steak I’ve ever had” and he took the rest home in his cooler.
So that’s how I ended up at the Broad Ripple brewpub smelling of deer blood and ran to the bathroom so I could check to make sure I didn’t have any in my beard, which I did, so I’m glad I got that wiped off first.
by the way, if you ever have a chance to go there, eschew the hot air hand drier, it doesn’t work so well. Prying the lid off with my knife, i discovered that the hot air is actually generated by seventeen small butterflies eating refried beans. Go right for the gas-station-paper towel thingy, you’ll thank me.
13 comments Og | Uncategorized
Not to mention it sounds like ya made a new friend in the process.
Wow! Fresh roadkill by the side of the highway! I’ve said it before: Og, you know how to live!!
Seriously, though, you’re a good man to be concerned about that animal and the possible consequences of leaving a hobbling deer to wreek further havoc on the highway.
Also, I love you engineers! The hand dryer seems to be weak, so you pry off the cover and check it out! Classic!!
(the prying off the cover to reveal farting butterflies was artistic licence, Slash. But thanks for playing along!!!)
Blech. You be damned careful youg feller. Some of the herds have come down with something called chronic wasting disease. I can’t remember how it works but if I seem to think it is like mad cow disease except its for deer and it is transferable to humans.
I can tell you that eating the back strap you will have next to no chance of getting Chronic Wasting Disease. That is found in the brains and spines of infected creatures. Just like mad cow disease, which is it relative.
Deer that have the disease die from it so you have little chance of catching it.
But you can go ahead and be afraid if you like as that leaves more for us of that eat them.
Good job, Og. I think I might have taken a chance on the hams and picked up a cooler and ice as soon as possible. Still all in all glad you made a troopers day a little brighter.
There has been no incidence of CWD (locals call it scrapie) in Indiana deer herds thus far. Backstraps don’t contain neural tissue (at least not in the way the spine does)so they’re relatively safe. I checked the hams- I think the deer must have tried to turn back because the truck apparently hit it in the back, the haunches were a mess. It then apparently landed on it’s face, busting up the front legs pretty bad, though (thankfully) it seemed to have killed the deer almost instantly. backstraps were pretty much all that was left.
Og, I’ve been hearing some good things about the liver in a deer. Especially if you grind most of it. Form what I’ve heard the liver in a deer is different than livers in other animals. Anyway I’ve been thinking about harvesting the next one I get.
Sounds like the truck preground the deer, which is what usually happens when deer meet trucks. I still have three tags to fill so I hope I’ll get one or two yet.
Paul: You can make a sort of a deer liver pate that will make you slap your gramma to steal her portion. Or you can thin slice it and pan fry it.
Og, I found it easy to believe that you would actually open a hand blower to see why it wasn’t working (though, I didn’t fall for the bean-eating butterflies LOL) because I’ve been around engineers all of my life. My dad is a practical engineer (such as yourself) and I have worked for and with practical and theoretical engineers my whole career. You guys are constantly teaching me something and I find all of you interesting and amusing!
Hmmm, I’ll have to give that a try on the next one I harvest.
Thanks
[…] Kinda puts me to mind of a december sunday. […]
Okay, I was at that blogmeet, and if I’d known you’d just eaten raw deer I would have sat closer to you. Damn. :-)
Mmm, roadside deer. sounds delicious