january 11

VOLUME 103-----------JANUARY 2011

SHOOTIN', HUNTIN', AND RELOADIN'

WITH THE OL' MISSOURI HILLBILLY

January 11, 2011

Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday Brother Ed!!!

I know. Late Again. My alarm clock sounded three or four days ago, and I'm just now getting around to shutting it down. The alarm ringer for 'get the newsletter done' comes in the form of an email from my very most favorite brother Ed! (I should point out here that Ed is my only brother, and 'very most favorite' in this case is a relative term.)

Actually, I was only waiting for Ed's birthday so this could be a birthday greeting as well!

Hope your Christmas and New Year season was a merry and happy one. We were with our Washington family in the familiar tradition. Rick, Christi, and Jennifer were here on Christmas Eve for our annual Chicken Bisque supper. Ann complained that the bisque was not her best effort as it wasn't quite as thick as it should have been. I didn't see anyone dumping any out of their bowls!

As usual, Jennifer and I lobbied vociferously for opening gifts before supper but were voted down again!

Everyone received way too many gifts and Christmas loot to list them all, but I'll hit a couple of highlights. (ME FIRST) Jim: Amazon Kindle Reader, bluetooth remote keyboard for my MacBook computer; Ann: Amazon Kindle Reader, electronic piano keyboard; Jennifer: Barnes and Noble Nook Reader; Christi: Gift card for Nordstrom's, crystal bowl; Rick: Craftsman cordless trim and jig saws.

Jennifer's big surprise came Christmas morning! As I've reported earlier, Jennifer made the East Valley High School cross country varsity squad. She consistently ran 5th out of the seven varsity girls and improved her race time at nearly every meet. Lettering as a freshman ain't bad in a school this size!

Her Letterman's (or in this case Letterwoman's) jacket was under the tree Christmas morning! Jennifer knew the jacket had been ordered but they were told it wouldn't be here before Christmas. I guess Santa's Elves worked some overtime to get it here!

Jennifer and her Letter Jacket

The kids were back again on Christmas day when baked ham, escalloped potatoes, and other assorted goodies were on the menu. Rick provided the ham; Little Heifer did the cookin'!

I finally got some pictures of the results of Missouri deer hunting the other day. In fact, I got pictures from both 2009 and 2010! Brother Ed's hunting cabin sees plenty of action every November. In addition to a buddy or two of Ed's, his sons, Jason and Scott bring along some friends as well.

I think I put some pictures of the Huntin' Cabin in a newsletter a few years ago, but here are some recent ones with the 'new' addition weathered to match the original unpainted cottonwood lumber.

Ed's Huntin' Cabin - The little building to the right of the cabin may be the only outhouse in existence with a glass door.

This area of Northwest Missouri is ideal habitat for whitetail deer, and their size, in both body and antler tends to be about as good as it gets! Here are some pictures of some bucks from the past two years.

L to R: Jason's 2009 Buck, Jason and Friend 2010 Bucks (Jason on right), Another Friend Another 2010 Buck.

As I said last month, we had record snowfall in November. A lot of that melted but it looks like December and January may not be far behind!

Snow laden trees behind the house on January 2, 2011

We have remained in contact with a parent of one of our Hunter Education students from last year. Mike grew up in Trenton, Mo, about 60 miles from our home area. He is now a Veterinarian here in Spokane. He shared with us, a recipe for preparing pork tenderloin which was posted in Ann's Corner November 1st.

Figuring there has to be a better way to tenderize the pork than our previous method, the splattery mess of pounding it with a meat hammer, we made a recent sojourn to Cabela's, just across the Idaho border.

I had purchased what was called a meat tenderizer a couple of years ago that consisted of two rollers with bumps, tied together with o-rings, and turned with a hand crank. What a joke! Dang thing would barely mash your finger! It went to the dump after one attempted use. It was one of those $19.95 'Ginzu Knife' type specials, so no great financial loss.

Cabela's had what we were looking for. This one is also hand cranked, but looked to be something that might work. Here's a picture.

Cabela's Meat Shop and Smokehouse brand tenderizer.

The cuber/tenderizer works on the principle of two opposing rows of cutter wheels that score the meat on both sides. There are spring steel combs on each side to prevent sticking to the rollers.

We began with a whole pork loin from Costco. I sliced the loin into three quarter inch thick slices and ran each through the unit three times, at a different angle each trip. The result was tenderloin that was very tender and easy to chew. What an improvement and time saver over the 'beat it to death' method!

The appliance has been used only once, prepping the tenderloin to try Mike's marinade and breading recipes, but it should also be great for wild game meat. We'll let you know how that works out with some moose and deer meat at a later date.

This month's hillbilly wisdom comes from another of the 'paraprosdokians' provided by Steve Kemp:

"A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station."

Well, It's time to shut down here, So . . . .

'Til next time, Keep 'em shootin' straight, shoot 'em often, and above all, BE SAFE!!!!!