While I'm not a huge animal lover (example: I like to watch dogs but not so crazy about petting them and the smelly hands after I have petted them or any other critter) I've always felt defensive of them.
Zoos really aren't my idea of a good time.
There's something so depressing to me about these majestic creatures plunked into artificial habitats so that we crazy people can walk about and gawk at them from the free side of a big old electric fence or tall, tall sheets of shatterproof glass.
Often the crazy people are stuffing their faces with junk food.
So weird to me.
I also used to give my brother-in-law a hard time about going out and killing Bambi. It was unfathomable to me that anyone would choose to spend their free time tracking down these beautiful creatures only to kill them. It seemed to be such an egotistical and twisted kind of thing to want to do.
And then to eat it?!
Yuck!
But, the romantic in me started to look at it as a family tradition handed down, father to son to grandson. I liked the idea of the masculine camaraderie and something that human beings have participated in since they learned to carve spears.
I was supportive of my husband starting to hunt. I love that his dad hunted with his grandpa and uncles every year and that they all looked forward to that time together. I thought it would be great for Mark to have that time with his dad and uncles (and friends too). And our boys too, one day.
And then I started to look at our grocery bills for our family with 4 small children.
I started to get nervous about watching them grow
and keeping them full
while not breaking the bank.
Which leads me to a day that I never- in a million years- would have predicted, even just 6 years ago...
Today our freezer contains this...
And there's a whole lot of summer sausage and hot dogs on the way...
Not only am I excited about the meat, but I'm also looking forward to the European mounted antlers.
Who have I become?!
A practical woman with 6 mouths to feed- one of those mouths will moderately partake of the venison, while the others can't get enough of it.
I've never seen the kids keep coming back for more as they did with the venison tenderloin we prepared the other night.
It's natural.
I know the animal lived a good life.
No hormones fed to it.
It wasn't stuffed on a feedlot.
It's the circle of life, we honor that, nothing is wasted.
And I'll admit, I'm curious about this famous "back strap" that's supposed to be so good...
My lesson?
Never say never.
You just can't predict all your future circumstances.
No comments:
Post a Comment