Sunday Bloody Sunday

This is the opening weekend of modern rifle deer season here in the Ozark Mountains. It's like a bloody holiday here. You won't see many menfolk working at their jobs this weekend, a tradition. It's time for the deer woods, drinking, gambling and other male/ family bonding time.

Although I have witnessed this tradition here I have never joined in. Alcohol and fire arms is not something I want to be a part of, but still...I deer hunt with my cars :(

I do regularly reap the rewards. Today it was two rib cages. Not much meat on em but some. I gave one away to a fella that was here helping me move sheet rock for the new barn apartment. (more on that in another post)

So I had one ribcage. I decided to get the hacksaw and cut it in small enough pieces to put in my dog food cooking pot. After throwing a small tarp on the patio table I went to work. There was luckily two other bones in the bag to keep Tonka busy while I worked. Although they were unwieldy they cut up pretty fast. I hosed them off and double packaged them in plastic grocery store bags. Seven I dropped in the freezer. That'll give Tonka meat for months and he'll like it.

Tonka's Food
I feed Tonka dry gravy dog food mixed with what I cook him. It varies some depending on what I can get free or cheap. I start by boiling  a pound or two of meat in a pretty good sized pot and then add 2 or 3 cups of brown rice. After the rice is cooked I put in anything else I have like leftover veggies. (Right now I have some baby food and rice cereal that was expired and was getting thrown out at a local store.)

After the soup cools I refrigerate it. A pot will last him a week or ten days. I spoon it over his dry food, add hot water and stir. He loves it!