Northern Farmer

Today there was so much traffic on Dairy Road, that’s the little dirt road that my family lives on, because deer hunting opens tomorrow morning. Most of the time one car goes by in the afternoon, our neighbor lady when she comes back from her job as bookkeeper at the local co-op. We’re going to have to lay low the next couple of days around here because there should be a lot of lead flying. Might be a good time to head for the Twin Cities because it seems they’re all up here. Naw, still won’t go there, I think the last time was in 2000, that should be good for the next decade or two. Some folks used to always badger me that my family wasn’t getting enough culture. For cryin out loud, we have everything a soul needs here. If we want dance we throw on some bluegrass, if we want sports we go to a small town rodeo in summer, if we want to see someone speak that thinks they know it all just stop in at any bar out here.

We don’t go deer hunting anymore. To put it bluntly I freeze standing still, even if it’s fifty above. Can work outside all day without any problem, just can’t stand for hours on end waiting for a deer to come by in the woods, especially when we see them all the time close up day to day. The best deer hunting stand is my kitchen window. Enough said. Plus it gets me that we’d have to pay big money to buy a license to shoot an over populating animal that ate on our farm, fattened up on our crops, knocked down our electric fences. It’s starting to look like serfdom Europe, where only those with money can shoot the king’s deer. But the laws of nature are sure, wherever the kings are overstepping their authority, Robin Hoods appear.

While I’m on the subject of deer hunting, I wonder what the average cost ends up to be for a pound of venison hunted the “modern” way. By that I mean what does the average hunter with all the gear, trucks or SUVs, manufactured deerstands that look like an oil platform out on the Gulf of Mexico and trailer to haul it up here, clothing, etc, spend to gut shoot a hypered out deer, let it hang for days, and finally haul it back to the cities on top of the SUV or in back of the pickup in heavy traffic getting a good dose of exhaust and road spray on the carcass. MMMmm MMmm, makes me hungry just thinking about it.

So tomorrow we’ll pretty much stay around the farmstead, split and stack wood, take care of all the critters here and in the evening we’ll roast some pumpkin seeds. We won’t be eating any of that delicious venison that the hunters are running around the countryside for, just our humble farm meats and veggies. And in a few days the countryside will be quiet again. We’ll be left alone again in our uncultured world. I can’t wait.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 4th, 2005 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.