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Back from “crashed laptop” land. I finally got a new one - the old one was two months shy of 5 years old so I got my money’s worth. October, prior to the crash, was way too busy - two family reunions and one wedding so we were out of town for 3 weekends straight. It certainly made my favorite month of the year go by very fast.

The garden is all cleaned out. Since this was the first year I was planting in two new raised beds, I was happy with the results - I learned a lot for next year .... and I would like at least two more raised beds! For sure I want a dedicated herb garden - the herbs in pots dried out too fast in the summer heat while everything in the beds did great. I looked out the window the other day & there was a big Red-shouldered Hawk sitting on top of my ‘hoop house’ with netting on it. I was thinking “wow, how gorgeous!” when it dawned on me that the bird had his claws around the pipe ridge pole the netting was draped over & I was concerned he might get them tangled when he flew off! Fortunately, he managed without a problem - whew!

Last night, we processed our 2nd deer using a new meat grinder. Actually, it’s the 3rd deer harvested this season, but we didn’t have the meat grinder for the first one. We’re trying sausage recipes from friends & recipes on the internet. The grinder is a 1/2 horsepower & can process 300 lbs. an hour! This deer had about 30 lbs of meat, maybe a little more - the buck before was much larger. Anyway, I am looking for a really good venison chili recipe - I’ve seen several online that look good, but I’m looking for one that somebody has tried & can recommend. Sausage recipes welcome as well. I made spaghetti two days ago with a package of spicy sausage & it was outstanding. :-)

Good to hear from you. Hubby just bought me a new HP all in one to replace my crashed computer, which I had since around 2006 with windows xp. It was just a cheap Walmart/Dell package with the printer, screen, and cpu for about 400 bucks IIRC.

Still trying to figure it all out.

Those raised beds are addictive.LOL I like them and I like using the retaining wall behind them for pots. I can stand on the patio and take care of the pots and two of the beds without bending over. Easy to water them there too.

What model is your meat grinder and approximate cost. We have been discussing getting one. I like to substitute turkey or chicken dark meat for ground beef in casseroles and soup. Healthier supposedly and cheaper for sure than beef.

Still, in stores it is several bucks per lb. I can get chicken quarters for around 80cents per lb. here, so it should work out cheaper still and I would have the bones to make great soup stock.

Hubby is not a hunter, though he did when he was a teenager, and could if push came to shove. My Grand Daughter shot her first deer when she was around 15 or 16 thanks to all her Uncles helping show her how.

Her Hubby just got a small buck, but she stays home with the kids most of the time now. Three kids under age 5 keeps her busy, and it’s hard to find a babysitter for a week in the deer woods.LOL

Congratulations to you and happy sausage making.

Allied Kenco has everything you need for making sausage at home. http://www.alliedkenco.com/

I can’t tell you how many hundreds of pounds of venison summer sausage I’ve made over the years. I tried a few different varieties of seasonings and settled on the Legg’s brand. It’s a fairly mild mix so I would add a few things to spice it up, but it’s a good reliable baseline to get started.

It’s been several years since I made any at home. There was a tragic smoker accident that resulted in a pile of burnt, twisted, melted stainless steel sheeting and 16 slabs of pork ribs that even my dogs wouldn’t eat.

I’m brewing a plan to build a new smoke shack that will use my Traeger to make smoke but I’m not sure I’ll go back to making my own summer sausage. It’s really easy to drop off bagged meat at the locker plant and pick up finished sausage a couple months later.