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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2wT3UmF:danceswchopstck replied to your post “NYS Hunter Safety Course”
Interesting! Thanks for writing it up! Cool that they were so sensible, too. I hear you re nuisance deer. The plant nursery I visited yesterday made a point of noting which plants were “deer-resistant.” My dad fished some but didn’t hunt. One of my uncles presumably did, because I remember him bringing us homemade deer jerky one time during my childhood. It tasted good but was hard as rocks.
The vegetable manager explained to me today that the deer have been destroying the beets not because they like beets, but because they eat the beet greens, and then tug on the stem and uproot the whole thing, but then they leave it lying. I’m personally offended about this because I love beets and am seriously considering staking out the beet patch with a rifle now that I am legally allowed to do that. (It’s not hunting season, but nuisance permits don’t have a season. I don’t actually know who’s legally allowed to use a nuisance permit, whether you need to be a licensed hunter or not. I just figured it was a good idea to get my license.)
If you make anything with venison you have to add fat! Good thing we have so much rendered porkfat around here…
unicornduke replied to your post “NYS Hunter Safety Course”
yeah I’m vaguely thinking about it to help my dad with his nuisance population but I’ve never actually shot a rifle before and the people around here definitely all learn when they’re young. I haven’t gone but I’m sure I’ll learn at some point in the future
oh man. Yeah, I learned as a kid. I went yesterday before our family dinner and got my dad to review basic marksmanship with me, because i felt like it was a long time since I’d last shot a gun, but in fact, it wasn’t long, and I hadn’t really forgotten any of it. (Sister came along just to shoot the pistol she carries, because she felt like the ammunition had been sitting in it for too long. I guess that’s the kind of problem you’d like to have, with a gun… Man I cannot overstate how tiny my desire for a concealed carry permit is. I don’t want to lug that shit around.)
I am sure that if you find a local rod and gun club they would be delighted to teach you. It might cost a bit, but it shouldn’t be exorbitant. I don’t know, honestly, because everyone I know also learned as a kid from a relative. (The reason for this might be that my father took it upon himself to be that relative for basically everyone we knew, including random acquaintances.) But I know that’s the sort of thing one can take classes in!
Hunting licenses are deliberately inexpensive because the idea is that everyone should be able to access that kind of sportsmanship. The DEC guys actually did say that at the end of hunting season they’re really tolerant about people trying to use up their tags, I don’t remember specifically what they said but the guy said “I want everyone to get a chance to get their freezers full.” A genuine reality of this county, and I think a lot of the rural counties of NY, is that a large number of people who hunt do rely on hunting for sustenance. I know that’s part of my motivation– we’re lucky, we have all the chicken we can eat, but man, having something in that freezer that’s not a chicken (or, in the spring, a pig; we get tired of pork right around April) is a tremendous relief.
In fact, while I was out of town, one of their regular deer season guys came around and bagged two nuisance deer for them, and was good enough to cut them up here and leave most of one in the freezer– so we’re eating venison stew tomorrow for crew lunch for chicken slaughter day. (The challenge is always that we can’t eat chicken on slaughter day because nobody’s got an appetite for it, so it’s hard to find something that’s not a chicken but is also really hearty for picky eaters. Around here, though, venison’s a staple food– out in Buffalo a lot of people turn up their noses at it, but around here, man, that’s just what you eat.)
I have reasonable confidence I could cut up a deer with help, but only because I’ve assisted with a pig. I would love to learn how to tan deer hide, but that seems like a separate skill set…
But it would be really convenient to bag a deer right around the same time as we process the fall pork, because the pigs always have too much fat on them, and deer are so lean you have to cut the sausage with lard if you want usable ground meat. It’d be nice to be able to combine them fresh instead of trying to thaw frozen stuff and make it work.
Interesting! Thanks for writing it up! Cool that they were so sensible, too. I hear you re nuisance deer. The plant nursery I visited yesterday made a point of noting which plants were “deer-resistant.” My dad fished some but didn’t hunt. One of my uncles presumably did, because I remember him bringing us homemade deer jerky one time during my childhood. It tasted good but was hard as rocks.
The vegetable manager explained to me today that the deer have been destroying the beets not because they like beets, but because they eat the beet greens, and then tug on the stem and uproot the whole thing, but then they leave it lying. I’m personally offended about this because I love beets and am seriously considering staking out the beet patch with a rifle now that I am legally allowed to do that. (It’s not hunting season, but nuisance permits don’t have a season. I don’t actually know who’s legally allowed to use a nuisance permit, whether you need to be a licensed hunter or not. I just figured it was a good idea to get my license.)
If you make anything with venison you have to add fat! Good thing we have so much rendered porkfat around here…
unicornduke replied to your post “NYS Hunter Safety Course”
yeah I’m vaguely thinking about it to help my dad with his nuisance population but I’ve never actually shot a rifle before and the people around here definitely all learn when they’re young. I haven’t gone but I’m sure I’ll learn at some point in the future
oh man. Yeah, I learned as a kid. I went yesterday before our family dinner and got my dad to review basic marksmanship with me, because i felt like it was a long time since I’d last shot a gun, but in fact, it wasn’t long, and I hadn’t really forgotten any of it. (Sister came along just to shoot the pistol she carries, because she felt like the ammunition had been sitting in it for too long. I guess that’s the kind of problem you’d like to have, with a gun… Man I cannot overstate how tiny my desire for a concealed carry permit is. I don’t want to lug that shit around.)
I am sure that if you find a local rod and gun club they would be delighted to teach you. It might cost a bit, but it shouldn’t be exorbitant. I don’t know, honestly, because everyone I know also learned as a kid from a relative. (The reason for this might be that my father took it upon himself to be that relative for basically everyone we knew, including random acquaintances.) But I know that’s the sort of thing one can take classes in!
Hunting licenses are deliberately inexpensive because the idea is that everyone should be able to access that kind of sportsmanship. The DEC guys actually did say that at the end of hunting season they’re really tolerant about people trying to use up their tags, I don’t remember specifically what they said but the guy said “I want everyone to get a chance to get their freezers full.” A genuine reality of this county, and I think a lot of the rural counties of NY, is that a large number of people who hunt do rely on hunting for sustenance. I know that’s part of my motivation– we’re lucky, we have all the chicken we can eat, but man, having something in that freezer that’s not a chicken (or, in the spring, a pig; we get tired of pork right around April) is a tremendous relief.
In fact, while I was out of town, one of their regular deer season guys came around and bagged two nuisance deer for them, and was good enough to cut them up here and leave most of one in the freezer– so we’re eating venison stew tomorrow for crew lunch for chicken slaughter day. (The challenge is always that we can’t eat chicken on slaughter day because nobody’s got an appetite for it, so it’s hard to find something that’s not a chicken but is also really hearty for picky eaters. Around here, though, venison’s a staple food– out in Buffalo a lot of people turn up their noses at it, but around here, man, that’s just what you eat.)
I have reasonable confidence I could cut up a deer with help, but only because I’ve assisted with a pig. I would love to learn how to tan deer hide, but that seems like a separate skill set…
But it would be really convenient to bag a deer right around the same time as we process the fall pork, because the pigs always have too much fat on them, and deer are so lean you have to cut the sausage with lard if you want usable ground meat. It’d be nice to be able to combine them fresh instead of trying to thaw frozen stuff and make it work.
