Rural Life
During Skype today:
Me: Hey, Dad, can you teach me how to fish and hunt when I get back?
Dad: O.O Uh, sure, if you want...
...
Me: So, after you bring the animal back, how do you gut, skin and clean it? I was looking up how to do large game (brought to you by Esquire's guide to being a man) and I remember it said that you have to hang it up by its hind hocks, slice down the front, cut around the joints, then pull the skin off like a glove.
Dad: Well, it's not QUITE like a glove, you really gotta pull pretty hard and really put your weight into it.
Me: Where did you clean the stuff you caught back when you still hunted? Did you have the little hanger for big game?
Dad: Oh, small game you don't need to hang. You only need to do that for deer. I'd just hang them up on two nails in the garage. You know the little overhang between the two doors outside? They weren't easy to get up there, but I could do it.
Me: What about the innards? I mean, I can see you feeding those to your dogs. Did you keep the skin and give'em to a leather tanner, or something?
Dad: Nah, we weren't into that. I'd just have grandpa's wheelbarrow underneath when cleaning them. It'd catch everything. We'd chuck everything that wasn't meat, but I'd keep the heart and the liver. I like heart, especially beef heart. It's very tender. Tough to find though. Nobody carries beef heart around here anymore.
Me: You should come back to China. There is every part of every animal still available on the menu and in the market...
Needless to say, I will never look at my grandparents wheelbarrow the same way again...
Me: Hey, Dad, can you teach me how to fish and hunt when I get back?
Dad: O.O Uh, sure, if you want...
...
Me: So, after you bring the animal back, how do you gut, skin and clean it? I was looking up how to do large game (brought to you by Esquire's guide to being a man) and I remember it said that you have to hang it up by its hind hocks, slice down the front, cut around the joints, then pull the skin off like a glove.
Dad: Well, it's not QUITE like a glove, you really gotta pull pretty hard and really put your weight into it.
Me: Where did you clean the stuff you caught back when you still hunted? Did you have the little hanger for big game?
Dad: Oh, small game you don't need to hang. You only need to do that for deer. I'd just hang them up on two nails in the garage. You know the little overhang between the two doors outside? They weren't easy to get up there, but I could do it.
Me: What about the innards? I mean, I can see you feeding those to your dogs. Did you keep the skin and give'em to a leather tanner, or something?
Dad: Nah, we weren't into that. I'd just have grandpa's wheelbarrow underneath when cleaning them. It'd catch everything. We'd chuck everything that wasn't meat, but I'd keep the heart and the liver. I like heart, especially beef heart. It's very tender. Tough to find though. Nobody carries beef heart around here anymore.
Me: You should come back to China. There is every part of every animal still available on the menu and in the market...
Needless to say, I will never look at my grandparents wheelbarrow the same way again...