Oh yeah. I should probably answer Evan's question about hunting,
"So did you go yet or what?"
I've been holding off answering because I believe that hunting stories fall under the category of don't kiss and tell.
Yes I went hunting. No I didn't kill anything. I might be able to tell the tale of hunting, I might even be able to make you understand what it meant to me, but I don't think I will.
I'll tell you though that I didn't carry a gun, my friend did, and she didn't shoot anything. I could tell you about our strategy, my feelings, my sensations, but not on a computer screen. Find me and ask me. I'll sit under a tree and tell you all about it.
My roommate killed a three point buck this fall. It was the last day of hunting season and she was very affected by it. She's been hunting her whole life, but never killed an animal before. This time, she did, and hit him right in the heart. I helped her scrape the hide yesterday, but the snow was falling down and freezing the fat. We needed to dip it in hot water to soften it as we went along. The hide was draped on an angled post and then scraped with a draw knife in a downward pulling motion to get the fat and flesh off like the woman in the picture above. There are so many colors on the inside of a deer hide! Red, blue, white, and they mix together like fingerpaints. It took longer draws with the knife to start out, but at the end of the process when the fat chunks were smaller, shorter faster draws were required. The water we used to keep it warm and workable formed a slippery sheet of ice under the hide that made it very hard to get any purchase or leverage so I found myself bracing myself against the post with my thighs. When I scraped, blood and water ran down the post and onto my legs.
Didn't bother me though. I've changed a lot since the adamant vegetarian days. I have been enjoying Laura's venison for a couple of weeks now. Some of it has been very tender and good. You know, my blood type is O negative (or positive, can't remember) and that means I'm supposed to eat meat and fish to be healthy according to this nutritional theory that the different blood types are indicative of your ancient ancestors who were either hunter/gatherers (O blood types) farmers (A blood types) or dairy-ists...(B blood types) And AB blood types are sort of a hybridization of the rest... Don't quote me on any of this. All I know is I feel strong when I eat meat. I feel satisfied after eating relatively little of it, and there are other feelings too. Reverance during the eating is a big one, but bodily, I feel like i'm the perfect size when I eat meat. My insides feel settled, and I'm not too big or too small. I feel able and appropriate.
Where will I get meat in VT this winter? Oh yeah I'm going to VT in two days. I cannot even contain myself.
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