Today is the first day of deer hunting season. If you’re against hunting or are vegetarian – I’m sorry. But don’t worry I won’t post any pictures or get graphic on you.

The Jonas family are not vegetarian, so I’m always interested in finding sources of healthy meat for us to consume. In case you were wondering, we don’t eat our goats, so raising goat meat is not an option for us. Hunting is a good source of healthy meat, but we don’t personally hunt. We just don’t have the time, money, or energy. Besides, why should we hunt when we have friends who hunt?  Although the boys do like shooting bows and arrows.

We have been blessed with a friend who loves to hunt (the inspiration for our hunter soap), but his family doesn’t like venison. So he brings the deer to us. Today is a special day where just the youth are allowed to hunt. Our friend has a son and a niece that both hunt. Last year they brought us 2 deer on this day.

We weren’t quite ready then. Today we are.

Our friend brings us the deer already field dressed and we… do the rest (I know, I promised I wouldn’t get graphic, and I won’t).

But venison is just such a gift. I haven’t bought red meat from the grocery store in 2 or 3 years! We have venison to last us the year round. And it is so much healthier than anything I can afford to buy. No antibiotics, no hormones, no grain (unless the deer gets into the corn fields). And when you are feeding 10 very hungry mouths, that is quite a financial savings.

I’ve got the pressure canner ready. The grinder is ready. Jim is ready for the outside work (still not graphic).

Now – we just wait for the phone call!