Thread: Getting back to living off the land.....

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

Went out for a hunt last Friday; 4 days after my last hunt. The goal was to help a friend get her first goat. She eats meat and wanted to be able to harvest her own. She has shot rats and a rabbit with her scoped air rifle. I was going to take her out last year; but Covid and then the busted ankle put paid to that idea. So we finally got out and she got her goat with my 223.

It really surprised me how stressed I was! It wasn't until she'd dropped the goat that I noticed how relieved I was. I wanted it to go well; clinically and clean. And that was exactly how it happened. Her range of emotions was amazing. Really nervous about doing it right, the shakes before the shot, absolute calm taking the shot, and then shaking like a leaf and nearly crying from relief after pulling it off extremely well. Also the realisation of what she'd done; a tad sorry for the goat, proud that she'd done it, relief etc etc....

Now she can't wait to go again, she loved it! A couple of days later she came back to learn how to skin it and cut it up. She cooked heart and liver the day after the hunt. She first never thought she'd eat them, but decided to try it. The next evening I had a txt come through that said "Heart and liver are yum! Even the kids loved it"..... We are going to tan the skin too.

She triumphantly dragged it all the way to the car. She was absolutely determined to get it out; and was fuelled by adrenalin! It's the easiest carry I've ever done

I loved the entire experience and am still on a bit of a high over it.

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That was great. You really captured the emotion and what its all about. Damn well done.

Well done. The more people that harvest their own meat the better. It is a natural activity.... something that our species has done for thousands of years.

The new pig shelter under the chestnut tree has just been finished. It's one of the first jobs I've been able to do since breaking the ankle. It’ll allow me to rotate the kune kune pics around the property. It may seem overbuilt but the video shows how much strain a scratching pig will put on a structure!

The open front (facing north for all day sun) allows plenty of ventilation. There’s an old farming saying that says “Animal houses need 3 things, ventilation, ventilation and more ventilation”…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbHJSZn_x0A

Went for a last minute goat hunt yesterday afternoon. Shot a little 'un, but will be tasty cos they sure are in good nick at the moment. Didn't leave home til 4. There were about a dozen goats in the clearing, but I only wanted one. Wanted to test what I could carry out on the old ankle. The goat only weighed about 12kg and fitted in the day pack. The ankle held up well. Hung it under the tree last night to cool overnight skinning it and breaking it into 3 to put in the fridge for a few days.



Free range, organic, sustainably harvested meat. �� The meat is all for human consumption, as is the liver. Rowdy; my cat, ate the heart last night. The bones will be used for stock. The feet and any offcuts will feed friend's dogs and the eels in the creek. I feed the eels once or twice a week. It's pretty cool seeing them cruise about after the meat. The skin has been put at the base of a "Ya" pear tree to supress the weeds and to provide fertiliser. ��



Tomorrow I'm off for my first deer hunt since breaking my ankle in late July. Looking forward to it. When I get back I'll be putting sleepers around my new kitchen vege garden. Life is slowly getting back to the way I want it to be

Nice clean-looking carcass.

I haven't seen any goats in my area for quite a while. I wonder if they go back further into the bush during the hotter weather. I never really noticed what happened last summer. I'm hoping to see one soon as the free meat supply has dwindled and I have a new .357 magnum load to try with a heavy, flat bullet.

I had to use 3-wheel drive a few times, but made the ridge top! And best of all the ankle held up really. Also managed to climb to the top of a damn steep Parapara ridge (trying to head off a buck) without any hassles. So another step towards getting back to living off the land!

Well done. Nice photo.

Wild rabbit and cherry tomato pie and rabbit soup in the slow cooker for tomorrow

That looks very good. Particularly the glutinous-looking dollops of gravy in amongst the other tasty-looking tidbits. I have often found rabbit to be 'dry' in texture. That meat doesn't look dry. How was it?

It was moist as. I used this recipe for the legs etc and did them in the crockpot until the meat fell off the bones. I used some of the cooking liquor and thickened it with cornflour and mixed it in with the meet and cherry toms in the pie

https://www.krumpli.co.uk/slow-cooked-rabbit/

A bowl of wild rabbit, tomato, leek and watercress soup for lunch. Trying to use up everything and waste as little as possible

Everything on these plates was produced off our wee Waikato block, with the exception of the cheese which was made by our very cheese-iferous expert neighbour.

Beef, salad & veg, spuds. Nowt more required.

A couple of days ago I too my mate Beth out for her second hunt. She'd already shot her first goat (about 10-days earlier) and this time nailed a 25" billy for her second goat and first billy! I couldn't believe it as goats over 23-ish inches are hard to find in Taranaki; especially on DOC land. It's really blown me away to see the reactions of a new hunter. Here's a super quick vid of her reaction to shooting it. I'll write a proper hunt report soon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65WkFb9gbUM

Oh and a fun quick video of us trying the fillets off the old billy, One of my friends often jokes that I’m a “hard up hua” for eating goat. Here, for a laugh, we try eating the fillets of a 7 or 8-year old billy goat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gdiiRIjet8&t=5s

Awesome, my first goat was as 29" billy (South Otago), have never seen a bigger one.
We didn't take any meat off him just the head, stunk to high heaven
We were fortunate to be able to clean up several young nannies for tucker which was really good eating

Otago has way better heads than Taranaki, here they tend to be scrubby things. As a youngster we would trophy shoot nearly every weekend. We'd walk for 2-3 hours into DOC blocks and only look for trophy billies and it was super difficult to break out of the 25" range. I eventually got a 29" after about 5 years of trophy hunting. And about 6 years ago shot a 31" head.

Beth used the meat off this billy for her dogs. I showed her how to cut it up yesterday. She is absolutely hooked on hunting!