It's comin' on summer here in the Lone Star State and that means heat....and Skeeters! One thing that we make SURE we do is stock up on our heartworm prevention for our dog Crusty and the cat Whiskers. Last year we got sad news when Crusty went in for her yearly eam. Even though she was on a preventative...she tested positive for heartworms. Several vet trips and hundreds of dollars later, Crusty is none the worse for wear and worm free. But the road was not an easy one. I urge everyone with pets to take the precaution and get their fuzzy friend on something if they aren't already. Many vet offices accept Care Credit and you can get the total interest free if the balance is paid off within the alloted time rame. Very easy to apply and super easy to use. Hey, You can even use the Care Credit card at people doctors....just ask my dentist :D
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I am soooo frikin' excited to be going to RT this year in Kansas City, MO. WEEE!!!!! Can't wait to hob-knob with other authors and kick back for some learnin' and good times :) Are you goin'?
Here's YOUR chance to win a copy of Fried Pickles and the Fuzz :) It's easy to enter :)
So Fried Pickles and the Fuzz is releasing later today :) WOO HOO!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see what folks think about it :)
Hope y'all are doin' well. Fall is finally upon us and with the new school year and the changing of the leaves comes...Deer season. As expected my other half is again in full swing this year giving me plenty of time to work on my newest endevor. A fun, quirky series about a tiny west Texas town called Big Creek. I have finished the first in the series and hope to have 2 & 3 done soon.
In today's age everywhere you turn folks are going on and on about livin' healthy and eatin' right. Now, let me just say that I'm just as interested in linin' longer and bein' healthy as the next person...but I've got my limits too.
I REFUSE to put my family into debt every time I go to the grocery store. If you gave me $2 and told me to buy something for my family to eat for the next 2 days....you can bet your sweet keester I wouldn't be buyin' apples. I'm going for Ramen and Conchitos y'all!!! Her's the thing. Poor folks have poor ways. I was raised poor, grew up poor and have spent the better part of my adult life below the poverty level. I am all about eatin' right. My family LOVES fresh veggies but when I am posed with buyin' fresh or canned? Unless that fresh is on sale ......I go canned simply because my dollar goes farther. I have the ut most respect for those who eat whole gains all the time and eat nothing but fresh food, but let me tell ya, if it comes down to it, my family has NEVER gone to bed hungry and nothing in our home has ever suffered from the way we eat. I don't defend the way my family eats and I don't criticize the way yours does. We love to fry and batter. We enjoy our bacon and pork rinds. Our burgers are deer, and our turkey is fresh. Our pork is processed here at home and our chicken came from the back yard. I make juice and jelly from fresh grapes, and have a winter garden that keeps a small supply of fresh veg flowing into our home through the winter. I have no problem at all with vegetarians or vegans. I believe it is a choice that they have made and as long as they are happy with that choice then who am I to say anything about it. All that I ask it that you have the same respect for me and mine. We are carnivores who go a step beyond most and instead of going to the store to buy that pack of pork chops we go out into the woods. Live long and be happy :) Sustainable living is a term that can be found all over the place now days. Back in the day it was just called....livin'. Since my family and I are fairly familiar with harvesting and storing our own food, I figured that I would do some blog posts about different things and methods that we have tried.
First let me start off by saying that my family and I love to be as self sufficient as we can. Our reasons vary a little from having fun planting and growing a garden to enjoying hunting and fishing and not wanting any of the harvest to go to waste. Over the years I have weighed the "cost" of hunting for our meat and what it would cost us just to go to the store and buy it. Now, I won't sugar coat it. Hunting ain't cheap. Especially if you have a gunge-ho hunter in your midst. At minimum you will have camo cost, license, weapon cost and ammunition cost. Of course those are pretty big purchases that are not needed every year :) If my husband came to be and asked for a new bow or rifle every year I think I'd have to hurt him. As far as cost for ammo goes it really depends on what you are shooting. My husband hunts during bow archery and rifle seasons here so we are a well armed family. I can usually count on purchasing at least a dozen arrows to start the year and figure on just as many broad heads. Now, because my husband uses carbon arrows the cost is a bit more than the old stable aluminum. But in reality we have had better luck with carbon arrows as they are less likely to bend upon impact. They either break or don't. With aluminum you have to worry about ANY bump causing a bend in the arrow which will cause it to fly off. Lets estimate $100 for a dozen arrows and heads :) Moving on. Corn. Many a hunter spends hours upon hours toting bag after bag of corn, protein feed, mineral blocks, molasses licks, and other feeds into the woods to help attract the deer. This past year with the drought, corn jumped to about $10 per 50 pound bag. WHEW!!! My hubby was lind enough to start limiting the amount he dolled out to the predictable Bambi and also reset his feeder to limit the amount of corn it was putting out each time it went off. So hunters go as far as to plant food plots. Not that I am against food plots because many other wild animals can benefit from the plot. They are fantastic balance and many of our local land stewards keep them planted year after year on property that is not used for hunting. But for the sake of this blog we will just guess that my hubbers spends about $200 on corn each season. Currently we are sitting at about $300 spent and he isn't even out the door yet :) Moving on. Since we have a small piece of property, hubby must drive to his hunting spots. Most weekdays he just stays late after work so he doesn't have to burn the extra gas but weekends are a different matter. Twice a day my husband is in the stand from September to January....EVERY YEAR. I shudder to think of the money that is spent on gas to go to and from the hunting area on all those weekends. But it is what it is. We will make it a nice round number of say $200 in gas for the entire season of weekend hunting. That is roughly about 1000 miles. Now what happens when he bags that deer? Well, this is where I step in :) Hubby brings it home and quarters it and puts it into and ice chest full of ice for me....which it then placed in my kitchen :) Fun times. We take the meat quarter at a time and process it into our steaks, tips, and meat to be used for grind. Once it has been processed I break out my handy dandy food saver thingy and vacuum seal all the meat in serving size packs and into the freezer it goes. So lets recap....... Hunting License $50 Arrows $100 Ammo $35 Corn: $200 Gas $200 Sealer bags $40 Total: $625 And that is JUST deer season :) Dove season is the bane of my existence. It is expensive and for the return on the amount of meat you get.....not worth the time IMHO. But every year we buy about 2 cases of shotgun shells and out the door hubby goes. Cost....Shells $80 Gas.....$ UGH not sure I wanna know So now comes turkey season which I love. Now hubby doesn't really "hunt" for turkey....he's just real good at being in the right place at the right time. Plus with all the time he spends in the woods during deer season he pretty much knows the habits of all the animals who live there :) So spring and fall turkey season are pretty easy. There are no extra expenses and he brings me home a couple of nice big birds . Last but not least we get to fishing. Because it can be done any time of the year, fishing is the catch all. My hubby really only goes fishing in the spring before the water gets too hot and starts to dry up. Once the water starts getting warm the fish can start to taste a little funny. I don't really calculate what he spends to go fishing...why? Well, because after this many years of being married to him I KNOW the man will provide meat for his family and I also know that if he is hunting or fishing he ain't in my hair here at the house :) So as long as we can afford the gas I am fine with it. So lets recap on how cost effective it is for my family to be self sufficient when it comes to our meat. It runs us somewhere around $800 per year (just off the cuff) to hunt and harvest our own meat from the wild. What kind of meat do we get? Deer, turkey, wild hog, fish, dove. We process the meat that we kill into ground meat, sausage, chirizo, tips, steaks and sections of back strap that we stuff and cook on the grill. Do I buy store bought meat? Not really. Lunch meat and bacon are really all I buy from the store as far as meat goes. We prefer the taste of our wild game over store meat. In reality do we save money by harvesting our own meat? Eh, probably not, but for certain it is healthier for us and we have a real good idea what that animal has been eating since most wild game tend to stay within a two mile radius from where they were born.....with the exception of hogs and obviously dove as they are a migratory bird :) Next post I will talk a little about our garden and growing a winter garden so you can have fresh veggies all year long....without having to can or freeze :) With summer here and the kids out of school I find myself taking a breath. I LOVE summer break! I enjoy having the kids around all the time. We get to do more together. Not only do we have the garden to tend but the chickens, the horses and the yard. Lets not forget the house :)
But don't think that I am some slave driver that cracks the whip on my little ones. They spend more time playing and watching TV than anything else. I went out this morning and let the "girls" out of the coop to peck around the yard. I fed the horses and let the dog out. I started laundry and made popcorn for the snack of the day and I started planning dinner. Now I need to get the dishes washed and the floor swept. Oy. I am working on a few new short stories. YAY! My goal is to have 3 wrapped up in the next 2 months but we shall see. The one I am currently working on will NOT be erotic as I wanted to try my hand at a sweeter tale. But have no fear. Man Enough is coming right along and it has enough yumminess to temp. Until the next time, keep a smile on your face :) |
CalicoI'm just a simple country girl, in mind, body and soul. Archives
March 2015
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