My Man's Man

Frank pointed me at a good blog The Hunter’s Wife and then I ran across Confessions of a Pioneer Woman (about a city girl who marries a cattle rancher) and I realized that I could blog not only about Frank’s cooking (which is delicious) but also about what it’s like to live with an avid hunter.  So look for more insights into what it’s like to live the hunting life with someone who hunts when you don’t hunt (as much.)

I’ve tried a few recipes lately (like shepard’s pie and creamed corn casserole) but they just don’t seem to turn out right the first time.  Frank tries his best to convince me they are delicious but I think he’s just trying to make sure I’m not discouraged so that I might try again … On the other hand, whatever Frank tries turns out delicious.  His new one, which I was able to replicate on my first try, is not only delicious but it’s really, really, really easy.  Honest!

Take out your crockpot and put in:

• a can of mushroom soup
• a half a cup of red wine
• a pound of elk steak cut into small pieces
• your imagination (I’m not sure what he meant by imagination so I just crossed my fingers, closed my eyes tight for a minute and hoped for the best!)

Set the crockpot on low for the day and serve over rice or egg noodles.   It’s my favorite easy and fast recipe for elk meat.

The best conch fritters in the BVI can be found at Corsairs.  When we told them that they all laughed and said "you know why we have the best conch fritters?  Because there’s conch in them!"  But it was more than that – they were spicy and full of conch.  I had to take a picture of Bill and Barbara’s plate because Frank and I had already polished ours off by the time I realized I wanted a picture of them!

Corsairs is located in Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke and it’s run by Vinny – the same Vinny from Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson.  Vinny spends November to July in the BVI and July to November in Colorado – what a life!  I asked him what it took to open a business in the BVI and he said if I applied now, my great-grandchildren might get the permit!

Everybody raved about their meal – not just the conch fritters.  Our six year old loved the place – Vinny gave him a gun to shoot pirates with and he used it to target lizards with. 

So if you are in the BVI, don’t miss Corsairs!

To read more about our trip, see Stormy’s Corner.

We’re chartering a sailboat from the Moorings for seven days and we had to order all of groceries ahead of time.  It was hard to plan all of our needs for a week in an environment we aren’t used to.  How much water do you need?  How many cookies?  What to eat for breakfast?  We ended up planning for four meals onboard: cornish game hens, salmon, mahi-mahi and steak.  Frank is planning two of them and our friend Barbara is planning the other two.  Then we planned to eat most of our breakfasts and lunches on board with lots of snacks and appetizers included.  We didn’t skimp on anything and all our food and drinks ended up costing us almost $800 (for five people) from Bobby’s.

We ordered by downloading their spreadsheet, filling out our order, sending it back to them via email and then they sent us a quote.  They will deliver it to our boat at noon on Thursday!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Murphy’s Seafood in Boise, Idaho had an entire crab menu today!  I had the crab cakes and they were yummy.

Roger Sigler is teaching dogs how to find shed deer antlers
when hiking in the wilderness.  Many people actively look for deer
antlers as collectible items – now you can have your dog trained to
look for them too.  Roger says retreivers learn the easiest.  Antlers
smell different than deer so dogs trained to find antlers will not end
up chasing deer all over the mountain!

Before you decide this is a great new business to be in (finding and selling deer antlers or moose or caribou), you should check what they sell for.  Since we have surplus of horns and antlers, we checked, and people are asking a lot on eBay but people aren’t buying much.

Photo by paul+photos=moody.

Hunting in Rocky Mountain National Park?  Before you get upset … remember that there are too many elk. From 1969 to 1999 the elk herd in the park grew 600% from 500 to
3000.  They’ve become a problem in the park where
they are destroying all edible vegetation and they are getting into trouble in town.  The plan is to get the herd back down to about 1700.  There are three different proposals for this, two plans and one idea, according to the Denver Post.

1. The park’s plan is to spend $18 million to kill 200-700 elk a year for 20 years!   And that’s to "kill" the elk, not hunt them.  They will send in sharpshooters at night with silencers to kill 700 elk a year!
2. The Division of Wildlife wants to lead guided hunts into the park.  The hunters would pay for the priviledge (money in, instead of $18 million out!), they’d get the hunt of a lifetime (good for Colorado) and we’d manage the park herd just like we manage elk in the rest of the state (experienced herd management.)
3. Another solution might be to reintroduce wolves – a solution that would have strong supporters on both sides of the debate, however anyone who has been to the park knows how close lots of homes and the entire town of Estes Park is.  That might make introducing wolves dangerous.  As far as I can tell this idea hasn’t been planned out.

Allowing guided hunts seems to be the best idea to us. 

• Hunters would get to access to some great hunting land,
• the state would make a lot of money and
• the elk population would be managed by the Division of Wildlife, an organization very experienced at managing animal populations.

Photo by creativity+.

Jim Zumbo recently lost his job and his endorsement because of a blog post he wrote.

There’s been a number of incidents where blogging has affected
someone’s career negatively.  First there was the flight attendent who
posted pictures her company wasn’t happy with on her blog.  Then there
were a couple of university professors who were alledgedly fired.  Those were because their employers didn’t like their blogging in general.  Now  Outdoor Life columnist and hunter Jim Zumbo has lost his job and a lot of his
endorsements because of one blog post. 

Regardless of how you feel about guns, you have to realize that hunters stick together and they stand up for gun rights.  (If you are into hunting as a hobby, you need a gun!)  Jim Zumbo posted a long blog post ranting about how assault rifles should not be used for hunting.   (His blog has been removed but you can read the post on Michael Bane’s blog.)

• First off, some of his sponsors made those guns, so they didn’t appreciate it. 
• Some of his employers’ sponsors made those guns, so they didn’t appreciate it. 
• Lastly, this was a well known outdoor and hunting enthusiast criticizing guns!  At a time when all hunters are extremely conscious of their gun rights and how they could be saved or lost due to public perception.  Hunters didn’t appreciate Jim’s blog post.

I think Jim Zumbo probably went hunting, discovered assault rifles were being used, didn’t like it, didn’t think about it or discuss it with anyone and went home and blogged about it – while still mad or emotionally worked up about it.

Normally, I think a company should leave a blog up even when the employee leaves the company.  (There was an IBM employee who left the company.  His blog was pulled down and then quickly reinstated when the blogosphere protested.)  However, in this case, I think it’s appropriate because it’s the company’s way of very clearly saying "we don’t agree with what he said."

Our almost six month old had his first real food last night.  Although it doesn’t look like it, he really enjoyed it.  He just takes food very seriously, kind of like his dad! 

Frank is thinking about making him some baby food which reminded me of one of my mom’s favorite baby food stories.  I guess I loved liver as a baby (I know, I’m weird) so when my little sister was born Mom made a huge batch of liver baby food … my sister took one bite and spit it up.  After that Mom never made us eat anything we didn’t like.  She figured if we knew we definitely didn’t like it at that young age, we weren’t making it up.

We don’t buy a lot of meat since we have a freezer full of game meat but when we do buy meat we go to Sam’s Club.  At Sam’s we buy the huge packages of chicken breasts, pork loin and beef brisket.  When we get home Frank separates the chicken breasts and cuts up the pork loin and beef brisket and vacuum packs them into meal size portions.  We then put them in the freezer and the day we want chicken or pork loin, we take out a package in the morning to thaw.

We use a FoodSaver Premier Series V1205 Vacuum Sealing Kit. Frank would like one of the big, commercial, restaurant quality ones.  Maybe someday, but in the meantime, this one does the job.