Another Day....Another Deer (or 2)

The kids and I did our 3rd and 4th deer today (one was small - otherwise 2 in one day is too much!). Deer #5 is hanging in the garage and on the Saturday schedule! I have been grinding most of the meat for jerky, but I also canned some for the first time. Yesterday we decided to try some of the canned meat before I end up with 30 jars and we don't like it! I had soaked it in a salt brine as the canning book suggested to pull out some of the "wild game" taste. It worked great! There was very little game taste in the meat that we tried - it could almost pass as beef. We all liked it, so we will definitely be making more.
On a more exciting note, we had a lady from the extension office out today to give the kids a short lesson on embryology. She explained the stages of a chicken in an egg, and brought some chick embryos preserved in formaldehyde at different stages of development. She also left us some educational materials and worksheets to learn more about the parts of an egg and how a chicken develops. Plus, she left us an incubator to use to hatch our own chicks. Since my homemade incubator was a complete flop, we are excited to try out the real one and watch some eggs hatch!! We put in 42 eggs and are hoping for a 75% success rate! I will update more on the incubator in a few days.
It has been a crazy week and I am ready to get back into our regular routine (which includes meals and NOT hanging out in the garage all afternoon!) Maybe after this weekend, when deer season is over!