A Note to Eve

Dear Evie:

Thanks for wishing me a Happy Thanks-giving. As for your question, did you kill your own turkey? The answer is: no, turkey season is in the spring. :o)

But, if we had been stalking an unlucky turkey, this is what his "track" would have looked like. I took this picture on our "farm" on October 25th.

Much love, Leslie

Pickin' Pecans

This is what a pecan looks like when it falls off the tree. Isn't is splendid? This pecan is about 2 inches long. Now, that's a pecan!

It's one of the many gifts of the Lowcountry's bounty...pecans.

As a born Yankee, I learned to say "pee-CONS'", with the accent on "cons." Here we say PEE-cans...unless it is in a pie and then it becomes "pee can" pie, with equal emphasis on the "pee" and the "can", go figure.

So, here's a picture of my husband pickin' pecans under one of our favorite trees. Look at the size of the basket. We've got a bunch of baskets full. How many? More than 3. They should last us awhile!

And, we are going to comb over every inch of the earth and pick up every pecan because here's something you might not know. Pecan trees yield fruit every other year -- so next year, no pecans. You gotta get them while you can.

There is nothing quite like a fresh pecan. True, they are difficult to crack, but that makes it more fun.

We have a special device in our kitchen just for shellin' pecans. You can adjust the back to hold the pecan, located on the left hand side, depending on the length of the nut, then grab the lever on the right hand side and swing to the left...CRACK! The sharp point on the right hand side, pierces the shell and it cracks perfectly in half, if you do it right. And, if for some reason, it doesn't crack quite right, you can still use the pick, which looks like a utensil you might use to remove the hard-to-get pieces of a lobster. Lots of effort, plenty of reward.

There it is. The meat of the nut. And, when it comes right off the tree, like in the above picture, it will be supple and moist and ... absolutely yummy. I've gotta go...am going to go crack a PEcan.

Kayaking and A Pistol

FLASHBACK: Sometimes I will have written a post, but not entered it on the blog. Since we are on the gun theme, I thought I would include this one...


The moon is full, which means the tide is high and that translates into terrific kayaking through the marsh grasses out back. 12 noon is high tide so I went to the back room to change into my kayaking gear, only to come out to find Landon…packing a pistol. Toto, I’m not in Kansas anymore…apparently I’m not in New York either. Why take a pistol to kayak? Because of the possibilities of alligators, of course.

Landon explained it this way: “I take the pistol so that when we see an alligator, I shoot you. That way the alligator has something to eat.” Very funny, that Southern humor.

What are the chances of seeing an alligator? Well…half-way into the trip, guess what we see? That’s right, an alligator about 50 feet away. Landon dismissed the danger with a “Oh, he’s just a small one. About 6 feet.” To which I replied, “Sweetie, please take out your gun.” Not only did he pull it out of its holster, he cocked the trigger! Maybe I can learn to like guns after all. We didn’t have to shoot, but when we came back his way, we did see his back glistening right under the water and his eyes poked up. I paddled faster. Pretty exciting day for a city girl like me…

The Glock is My Best Friend

Today it happened...

I held a pistol for the first time.

My husband and I wanted to take a walk and you know that situation with the "wild dogs" next to us so we needed to arm ourselves, to protect ourselves.

Funny how guns can seem to be so strange and I still have judgments about people who have them until I realize how important they can be in giving me a sense of security in this wild land called "the country."

Who knows? Maybe I'll actually learn how to shoot one some day. More experiences like the "wild dogs" and I'll learn pretty quickly!

The View

Here's the view as I was driving home from the Ride 'N Dine tonight.

Going Crabbing...

Well, what fun! One of the most hilarious parts of my new life is that quite often we go out to catch our dinner...flounder, redfish...and now crabs.

We put the crab pot out last night and promised to return in 24 hours to see what happened.

Not much actually. Here's what we got. A really little crab. Oh well, that's OK because even though it was too small to keep, I still thought it was fun. And, now I know how to catch crabs.

What a life we have. We catch our dinner and we can pick the vegatables too. I like the simple life. The simple, healthy outdoors life suits me. What about you?

Ride 'N Dine Tonight

Tonight is the Brays Island Ride 'N Dine. I'm more "dine" than "ride" these days, but I'd like to change that. Just this morning I spoke to Jim at the Equestrian Center about starting my riding lessons again. I haven't been on a horse since the end of January. Think the ladies at Brays are giving up on me?!

My husband will ride Comet, the Wonder Horse. Isn't he a cutie? (I meant my husband, of course.) :o)

Comet is a Marsh Tacky, a type of indigenous horse that ran wild on plantations down here in South Carolina for centuries. Marsh Tackies can actually trace their bloodlines back to Spain and have their origins in the 16th century when Spanish colonists sailed to new lands with ships full of animals and supplies, which they would unload on islands to be used for provender for the next trip. They had a different logistical long-term planning approach from the English settlers who preferred to take with them what they needed for that trip.

The Marsh Tacky horse has been an endangered species, there are less than 200 left in this country. You can read all about them here: http://www.marshtacky.org/

Qualities or traits of a marsh tacky? According to the website, Marsh Tacky horses are "excellent on trails, sure-footed and swamp-savvy " Alligators don't spook them. The heat doesn't bother them. They know how to forage on grasses down here.

My husband selected his horse from a group of wild horses that used to run on a plantation down here in the Lowcountry. When he was a little boy, he used to climb up a fence and then onto the back of his childhood horse and together they would ride bareback down the deserted beaches and into the rivers, where his horse would roll over onto her side, while my husband, as a boy, would scamper off her back to sit on her other side so that she could scissor-kick and propel them both to the other side. Marsh Tacky horses can swim!

Hopefully, that won't be necessary tonight.

BTW, have I told you that in the last 3 times that my husband has ridden Comet, he has bucked? What do you think Comet is trying to tell my husband? Please offer your comments in the section below...

Quail Experiment Failed

Last night I tried my hand experimenting with cooking quails. I modified a recipe, but used a sauce that totally overpowered the meat. Frankly, it wasn't very tasty.

Also, I wonder if it's really worth it, spending so much time preparing birds this small? There's hardly any meat on the bones. The ROI was poor. Lots of time. Little return. Almost no meat.

So, my appeal to you...does anyone out there have a good -- and relatively easy -- quail recipe? I'd sure appreciate it!

Freezer Burn

In December, Mr. Stanley called to ask when he could bring over the processed deer meat from Landon’s successful hunting outings. He has “harvested” as they say down here, 3 deer, 2 bucks and a doe. That is a TON of deer meat. Where to put it?

Today we’ll have to clean out the freezers. What a hilarious concept! In New York, in my tiny kitchen apartment, I had a freezer which had an icebox the size of a shoebox. I could fit two ice trays, a gallon of ice cream and some assorted frozen vegetable packages. That was it. But, that was fine because I never cooked – the meals I ate consisted of dry cereal or oatmeal or a salad or Chinese takeout or sushi that I would pick up on my way home. I never needed anything from my freezer.

Here in the Low Country, it’s different. We have 4 freezers. All of them needed to be cleaned out in order to make room for the new meat.

The refrigerator freezer in the mud room contains whatever your would need to make desserts…frozen pie trays, blueberries, peach mixture, pecans, strawberries from Mr. Stanley’s garden, and a couple of cooked pies – pecan, blueberry and apple.

Our kitchen refrigerator freezer contains two entire shelves and trays of frozen vegetables that I can use in the various stews that I will be making this winter. The top shelf consists of already prepared meals – Salisbury venison steak, BBQ venison, venison stew. On the next shelf, we have easy to prepare deer meat; maple sausages, some frozen cube steaks that I use in stir fry meals. The bottom shelf drawer holds our fish, mostly catfish.

But it is the industrial size freezers in the garage that need the most work. It took me (and Miss Mary and Miss Flo) 2 hours to get them cleaned out and thawed and the contents organized. Here’s what they look like:

In the small freezer, we have birds: quail, chukka, pheasant, mallard ducks (with the heads still attached for auditing purposes?!), woodcock, wood duck, and We have 65 pounds of shrimp: 20 pounds of small/medium; 25 lbs of medium and 20 lbs of jumbo.

The large freezer is for our venison meat – we still have lots of deer for last season. I’m going to have to make a crock pot a week in order to eat all of our roasts! We have 12 venison roasts, 8 deer tenderloin, 3 backstraps , four shopping bags full of cube steak, stew meat, and then the sausages…we have maple flavored sausages, country flavored, bratwurst and regular sausages. We must have 20 packages of ground venison -- that’s a lot of hamburgers!

Guess I won’t have to go to the grocery store to buy meat – whatever happened to a simple stir fry chicken dish? :o)

I'm All Geared Up...

But, it’s not what you think.

Not I’m all geared up as I’m excited, but I have gear to do more activities that I could have conceived of. I’ve got horsebackriding year, skiing gear, motorcycle gear, deer hunting gear, kayaking gear, shrimping gear, oyster eating gear, and now fly fishing gear.

Be prepared, always prepared is the "Scouts" motto. Well, thanks to my husband, I'm ready...for anything. Being married to Landon is like being with my favorite camp counselor. There's always another activity around the corner! So much fun...

Riding Atticus

Today I took my horseback riding lesson with the ladies from North Carolina. I rode Atticus. My teacher's name was Michael, a funny name for a woman, I thought.

She was a great teacher.

The first thing we did was to make sure that the saddle fit the horse properly. She determined that it was riding on the horse's shoulders and so we fit a white cushioned pad in between the saddle and the horse's skin. Then we lengthened the stirrups for me so that my legs fell around the horse's girth and not so that I was perched on top with my legs bent. It felt funny. While I liked having more of me in contact with the horse, I felt less secure than I did with my legs pressing against the top of the horse's back.

So, onto the lesson...I learned so many things. I learned that I could hold the reins more comfortably, widened my grip so that it was easier to pull on the reins to communicate with Atticus. I learned that in order to signal to Atticus that I wanted to turn right I could push down slightly in the right stirrup, give it more weight, so that he would know that I wanted to turn to the right, and not have to rely so much on pulling the reins.

With horses, it's all about communication and about building trust. Horses are pack animals and live in constant fear that they are prey. The horse wants to be led, but needs to know that he can trust you, and if you are going to be perched on top of a horse that weighs 1,200 lbs, you need to know that you can trust him. So, it's all about mutual trust and communication -- and two-way communication. I am learning that there is a difference between having the horse want to follow you and imposing yourself on the horse. That's what my instructor Jim tells me, and I understand the concept, even if I am still learning how to translate it into action.

As my friend Barbara tells me, riding horses is about staying present. You have to stay completely in the moment. Riding is about finding that exquisite attunement between the rider and the horse, finding that balance between reading the horse and communicating your own needs so that you are reading and responding to each other in one fluid motion within an environment of trust. Horses are intuitive. They can read people. The challenge for the rider is to be able to read the horse.

Skiing in North Carolina

Landon and I came up to the mountains to get away and to take advantage of the wonderful low temperatures and snow.

Here is a picture of us on the chairlift.

We had so much fun, even though it was a holiday weekend. Check out the slopes!

Watching the Moon Set

What a wonderous place to live. This morning I awoke at 6:30 am and saw a bright light in the sky. It was the moon setting over the marsh.

Thought you'd like to see it too.

DEER HUNTING SEASON...

...is over! Sigh. :o)

Last night marked the end of deer hunting season. My husband was intent on getting one more deer to stock our freezer. And, he did it! He's such a good provider, in the most primitive sense, he puts meat on the table! Now I'll have roasts and stew meat and more. So, if the economy gets really bad, at least we know that we can still eat meat.

Fishing

Two weeks ago, my husband and I visited some of our land in North Carolina in the Bethel Valley and on the property is a beautiful small trout stream. Since he LOVES to flyfish, he jumped out of the car and said that he wanted to take a couple of casts before we moved on to our next activity. Well, you know what happens if you try to rush? Take a look... :o)

'Coons in the Corn Pile

There are raccoons in the corn pile out at Hoota Woods.

We bought a camera to put on our corn feeder so that you can see what kind of critters come and eat in the night -- and when they come to eat.

Lookyhere...it's a raccoon party! How many do you see?

Somehow, it's fun to know that when I'm tuning in to see Jon Stewart reruns, we have raccoons feasting in the field. Why, it's a wonderful life!

MY HUSBAND IS A WINNER!!!

Yes, that's right. Check this out...

My husband won first place in today's fishing tournament. I'm so proud of him.

Tonight we ate his catch for dinner. Yum...

Yea! He won. How was first place determined? Total number inches of fish caught. And, everyone knows...

...inches matter.

It's the Rut...BANG BANG

Last night, my husband

"took" another deer. Two deer in 48 hours and not only deer, but two mature bucks. That's pretty amazing. Truthfully though, I don't know whether to be awed, or disgusted. (Northern sensibility says to be disgusted, Southern sensibility says to be proud that my man is manly enough to fill our freezer for the winter! )

I know, it's gross. But, you know what? For those meat eaters of you out there, hunting is a more humane way to "harvest" meat than the way most commercial meat -- pork, beef -- is taken. Do you know how they kill cows?

As I understand it -- and remember that I am still, to some extent, a city girl -- there is a philosophy behind responsible hunting and a very strong link between hunting and conservation.

Responsible hunting is about preserving a healthy herd of animals, and the way you do that is to "thin" the herd so that all animals will have plenty of access to food and water in order to be able to flourish and grow. You see, in the wild, it's all about having access to food and water. If the deer start to proliferate and the herd becomes overpopulated, the deer will start to become weak, skinny, have deformed racks, and start to behave erratically. That's what you see in neighborhoods where housing has encroached upon the natural habitat of deer and they start running around your backyard, eating your impatients and other flowers and just standing on the side of the road.

Since you want a healthy herd of deer, you need to maintain the size of your herd and in hunting, you do that by "harvesting" the older, weaker animals. You only take those older, mature animals, the ones who soon would be pushed out of the herd, the ones who are at the end of their prime. That's why the hunters on this sporting plantation (yes, I live on a sporting plantation)...that's why they only shoot male deer, bucks, who have at least 8 points on each antler or rack, or who have at least a 15 inch spread between their antlers. They would never kill a young buck, especially a button buck, a young male whose antlers look like little buttons on top of their heads because they haven't poked through the skin yet.

Apparently, this is the time of year for "the rut" when the bucks and does get together for alittle "birds and bees" action.

Last night, when in his deer stand, my husband noticed that the girls, the does, in the field were "atwitter," which usually signals that a male deer, a dominant buck, is nearby and "ready for action." So, my husband made grunting noises to simulate another male deer in the area. Bucks are highly territorial and so when the dominant buck heard the sound, he came out of the woods to confront the intruder, which unfortunately wasn't another buck, but was my husband...and well, you know the rest. Normally, big bucks are very wary and become nocturnal, rarely coming out of the woods in the daylight or even dusk. Only during the rut when they want to get "sump'em sump'em" do they let their guard down. Watch out guys...

My Husband "Took" The Monster

Around 7:45, he called. “I got the monster,” he said. "I just took a huge buck!"

I could hear the excitement in his voice. This was the one he had been waiting for.

He snapped a picture with his cell phone and sent it to me from the field. And, here it is…a massive 10 point!

For those of you who don't know, a 10 point refers to the number of points on a deer's antlers, commonly called a "rack." Here, on the sporting plantation where we live, you can only shoot a deer that is at least an 8 point, or one with 15 inches between the antlers. That means it is a mature deer, and one that can be "harvested."

Deer hunting is a HUGE part of the South. My husband waits all year for the opportunity to "take" a buck. "Take" is a euphemism for kill. (This northern city girl is still getting used to all this "taking.") This deer weighed 175 pounds, roughly the equivalent of two does, and will do much to replenish our meat coffers. You should see the size of our freezers. We'll have plenty of meat for me to cook up this winter! More on that in upcoming posts...

I'm so proud of my husband. He's a great provider. Of course, being a city girl, a great provider used to mean a guy who had a great job with a big salary so that we could pay the bills -- but down here, a great provider is a guy who has a great shot so that we can fill our tummies.