Deer Hunting

Deer hunting is a time honored tradition in the valley where I grew up. There has been more than one teenager embarassed when riding with parents in the car and came upon fresh road-kill. The parents stop and throw the deer in the trunk and take it home for breakfast. Waste not want not.

One fall I happened to be home for deer season. My brothers were teen-agers and wanted to go deer hunting. So Dad took us. Early Saturday morning at the crack of dawn we got up, caught and saddled the horses and rode across the fields to the Castle rocks at the foot of the mountain. We arrived at the rocks and Dad points to Stines canyon and said, "Let's ride up to that bunch of quakies (quaking aspen)." We rode up to the quakies and out bounded a deer. Dad unlimbers his rifle and it's dead on the ground. He field dresses it and puts it behind the saddle.

Dad points to a big rock across the face of the mountain. "Let's ride over to that big rock." We rode half way across the mountian and sure enough in the buck brush below the rock out bounded another deer. Boom another deer bit the dust was field dressed and put behind the saddle. Dad says, "Lets ride to the edge of Almo canyon." We rode over to the edge of the canyon and another deer bounded out of the brush. Another deer bit the dust was field dressed and tied behind the saddle.

"Let's head for home," Dad says. We pointed our ponies down hill and rode down the mountian. We were riding along a ravine behind the Castle rocks when Myron bailed off his horse with his rifle. Boom another deer bit the dust with a head shot no less.

We rode along home and hung the deer in the root cellar. Mom was somewhat dismayed at the prospect of processing 4 deer. We skinned them out and a few days later we cut and wrapped in the kitchen. We were in the midst of this project when my sister who was still at college called. She was calling to inquire if we could feed the soil judging team. They would be coming in a couple of days. Mom said sure. I cut a roast big enough and plopped it in the roaster and put the pan in the freezer. A couple of days later we cooked a ranch dinner with roast, potates. gravy, vegetables, salad and apple crisp for dessert. When we served dinner we let everyone guess about the meat. The soil team stuffed themselves with good home cooking. When everyone was stuffed to their satisfaction we told them they had been eating fresh venison. They didn't belive us.