Gryphon

Well the freezer was emptied of the red and previous fallow so the space needed filling.

Iqbal

Both of the deer are male.

The older one is about three or four years old, but had one good antler showing promise with a good palm (the left one) but the right antler is pretty deficient with a cleft palm and not much else.

I wanted him out of the breeding cycle. There's another out there that needs removing.

The smaller buck is a spiker with not much there either. Should be good eating though.

Coues

Watch out for them, they will eat you out of house and home. If you don't eat them first.

Spent this afternoon cutting up the carcases. Left them hanging since Sunday evening for the meat to set. The days at the moment are about 14 to 16 deg C and with the nights dropping to about 4 deg C (this is what we call Winter - brrrrrrr!). The young one had set nicely, the older one wasn't 100% set but not bad.

Meat recovered - about 45 kg. Live weight was 85 kg (I weighed them using a scales I carry in my Landcruiser).

I was going to tan both skins as flat skins, but my dog Siegfried pinched the larger skin and buried it, not only once but twice !

The first time it was in the yard on a table at night before I salted it - I was having dinner. I had only a small amount of salt so was looking for more. Found it buried under a bush. After washing the dirt off both skins - he left the smaller one lying on the grass - I salted them with the salt I had and put them higher up on a bench. The next day I planned to re-salt them properly when someone dropped more salt off on the farm.

Went out working the next morning and came home at lunch time. Again the skin was missing

. The little bugger had got up to the bench and this time buried and hidden it properly. And as he was loose, it wasn't necessarily in the yard. So after a good yelling at the dog, I found every bone he had buried for the last six months. Then tried to let Siegfried redeem himself. Showed him the other skin and told him to "find it". He walked to the two tables where I had worked on the deer, then to the tree where I had hung the spikers head (yes that was gone too - he had got it down and buried it as well). Then to the area where I had skun the deer. But no way did he intend for me to know his hiding spot. The little bugger.

The venison should be nice anyway.