Can it, deer

D was home visiting his family last month and a friend sent him back with some wonderful deer meat. He also made sure to bring me deer bacon, which is one of my new favorites! Since we were so successful canning caribou meat last year, D wanted to try the process with deer.

First step is to cut the deer meat away from the bone and sinew, and into chunks. D did this part.

We added beef bouillon paste to boiling water and cooked the meat until just barely browned. The meat inside was still pink since the canning process will cook it the rest of the way.

Make sure your puppy is thoroughly and completely ensconsed in the kitchen. That way he can trip you up and almost knock you out when moving about the area.

Next step was to prep and clean the glass pint jars for canning. We added the meat, a big scoop of canned tomatoes, canning/pickling salt and juice from the cooking process. After all were filled the rims are wiped down, lids are placed on and bands are lightly screwed on.



All that was left to do was place the jars in the canner and pressure cook for 75 minutes. We had so many jars that it took two separate cooking sessions, so that was an all-day process. I am thinking about buying another canner - maybe at the end of the fishing season this year, which is when most of these go on sale.

Juneau Trip 3

Our work event concluded around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and after a quick lunch my team headed to Mendenhall Glacier, locateed just outside Juneau. This whole area is part of the Tongass National Forest and the glacier flows into Mendenhall Lake. One of the other girls had been here before and pointed out a trail that starts at the base of the Visitor Center and winds around to the waterfall (barely visible at right in the photo below).

Mendenhall Glacier, from the visitor pavillion.



So huge!



At this point in the trip, I was EXHAUSTED. Actually, we all were - but couldn't pass up the chance to do some sightseeing.

 Later in the day and right before we headed to the airport for our 90 minute flight back to Anchorage, some of us took the opportunity to shop downtown. Most of the stores were closed because it was the off-season for tourists but a few were still open. This place had 75% authentic Native Alaskan items and 25% fake stuff from China - a better percentange than most gift stores!

"Oosik" is the Alaska Native word for...well, you can read it yourself.



Walrus skulls with scrimshaw art on the tusks.



Love the vivid colors of Alaska Native art and crafts.

That's it for my Juneau photos. I hope to take D back for a visit sometime next year - maybe in April of 2012. Alaska Airlines offers a constituent fare (30% off posted rates) to Juneau when the State Legislature is in session, which is a pretty good deal.

Happy Love Day

Life Update

Honeymoon - we leave Thursday morning and I couldn't be happier! My suitcase has been half packed for, oh, A MONTH. D pulled out our snorkel gear - isn't it funny that two Alaskans have their own snorkel gear? - and we plan on using them almost every day if we can swing it. D very sweetly checked out some great travel books from the Library last month and I made copies and marked those suckers up with notes. I'll also have my iPhone 4 (did I tell you peeps I finally got one?) for on-the-go info. Oh and we rented a Jeep! Fun fun fun.

Work - I'm at that burned-out stage again. Last week we were in Juneau and yesterday we had another health fair. Long days and one day off a week are taking their toll. I have been preparing people at the office for my 10-day honeymoon absence and by the way they are acting you would think I'm leaving for a month or more. I fully expect Monday through Wednesday of next week to be long days as I get everyone's last minute requests carried out. We're not pregnant yet, but I think people's heads are going to explode when they contemplate my 3 month maternity leave!

Dad & recovery - he is at home and getting stronger everyday. The Mayo Clinic will have him back for a visit 100 days post transplant, which is sometime in March.  Thank you for your prayers and support! Mom is taking amazing care of him. If you peeps are ever sick you will want my mother as your caregiver because she has singlehandedly brought my Dad back to health AND kept him healthy throughout this process. Although I suppose his excellent attitude and great physical shape (cancer notwithstanding) had something to do with it too. :-) Dad's risk of infection is still high since the pre-transplant chemo wiped out all of his immunities. We had a different scare right after he came home - a blood clot (DVT) that was thankfully treated in the Knoxville hospital. Mom is trying to fatten him back up again and it looks like Dad may even try to play in a disc golf tournament again soon!

Weather - cold and clear again. Yesterday morning on my drive into work at 6 a.m. it was -4 degrees. Time to fire up the woodstove. D went snowmaching with some buddies from work but he left me plenty of wood for fire-making. He is very considerate like that.

Entertainment - D and I had date night - in the middle of the week even! I had a free movie ticket set to expire this past Wednesday so we hurried on over to the brand new movie theater on the east side (near my high school) and saw "True Grit." D is a big time western fan (I'm enjoying them more and more) and this was a very good film - we recommend it.

Marriage- In Hawaii D and I will mark 8 happy months since our wedding! We're not taking this for granted and know that every day, week, month and year that we are together is a milestone to be celebrated and thankful for. No baby news yet but we'll let you all know when we have some! And hallelujah, I finally sold the rest of our wedding stuff. I had a big tote filled with the last bit of wedding decor plus the burlap tablecloths. This woman is planning her daughter's wedding and grilled me on all of our details. She even wanted to see our wedding photos! I drew the line at that one. But I got a good price for everything and we both parted happy. D says I should start my own wedding planning business, but then I would say goodbye to all of my weekends in the summer. I live for summer!