Not For The Faint Of Heart...

The Extreme Midget Wrestling Federation Is Coming To Casper!

I don't know what you talk about at breakfast, over your eggs and bacon, but this was one of our topics - extreme midget wrestling.    The big worry would be if the roads were bad (to Casper) and we might not be able to get there.   We would also be out the price of the ticket  - 20 bucks.

Along the same lines we also talked about new regulations that would make it illegal to walk and text.   The lively discussion finally ended with the realization that things should be left alone.   If someone is walking and texting and happens to fall into a fountain or is crossing a busy street and walks right into the path of a bus going 50 miles per hour - well that's just natural selection isn't it! 

Back By Popular Demand - More Duck Recipes

I have been getting some strong feedback about cooking duck.   It just is not that popular as a food choice.   We cooked some the other day, in a different way, with some goose.   (And yes - we are only using the breast meat.)   The 2 meats ( duck and goose) were placed in a crock pot with apple juice and cooked for 12 + hours.   You can let the meat cool (and/or refrigerate until the next day) then shred.   Once shredded -put the meat back in the crock pot with 1 cup of apple juice, 6 cloves of chopped garlic (or more), 3/4 to 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce (your choice), and 1 cube of chicken bouillon.  Let cook, on low, in the crock pot all day.   Serve on crusty buns like a pulled pork sandwich.   Also very good with coleslaw on the side or on the sandwich.   I would imagine potato salad would be a great side too. 

P.S.  Someone ask if this recipe would work with owl.  

Trash Hanging From My Porch

This is a picture of trash hanging from my front porch.   This trash was the goose and duck remains from the most recent hunt. (See duck hunt post below)  The trash is "hung" from the porch so that the wild cats in our area do not get into the bag and spread it's contents around.  Who does this?   Why don't we just throw it away?  Put it in the back of the truck and take it to town and dispose of it the same day it was gathered?   Because it is night and it is cold at the time and the next day we are busy drinking beer and it is just too easy to leave it hanging there...              

Work

No self respecting white trash Wyomingite would get a  real job.   How could you work a real job, hunt every new season of animal, hike at will, re-make a gun stock on a whim, shop for a new hunting dog, etc?   A real job would be nothing but an inconvenience!

My dear late husband tried many ways to incorporate the above activities; to camouflage them to seem or look like jobs.   For example:   This time of year - January - he was a mountain lion guide.  He would "work" for days upon days chasing dogs across country, up and down hills, on snow shoes looking for a mountain lion so a client could be called in to complete the last few miles of the hunt on snowmobiles.   This excruciating physical effort would pay a few hundred dollars per hunt but the satisfaction, work out, and stories of the hunt were worth their weight in gold.

Another "job" he had was antler hunting.   Now mind you he was a purist at everything he did so, again, this work had to be done on foot, across country, and with only a backpack to carry the treasures back to the pickup.  There was the weeks of discussion and map study that took place prior to the first steps taken in the spring.  Then once the area was determined there was the day after day hiking and glassing and finding sometimes a few antlers but not very often a full set.   This too would likely bring in a few hundred dollars depending on the market that year.   The Boy Scouts at Jackson had it made.  Walk out to the feeding ground and pick them up, auction them off, have a nice day!

My favorite "job" that he had was the year of the rattle snake.   Again after much thought and study he determined that Reptile Gardens would pay a few thousand dollars for a 6 foot Wyoming rattler.   Day after day supposed rattle snake feeding grounds were visited looking for that "big one" just waiting to be caught.  Oh - did I tell you - it had to be a live 6 foot rattle snake!   Where was I - oh yeah - so the snakes came home, to the house, and were placed in a white 5 gallon plastic bucket  - that my husband had stolen from me (Garden supplies)  -with something  heavy to wait down the top of the bucket as a lid so the snake would not escape.  Like a card board box for example.   Some how I found out what he was doing.  I am not sure if it was the buckets disappearing or the kids ratting him out but I discovered that there were multiple rattling snakes in the garage - live snakes!    I then had a fit!   Oh My Gosh!   What Are You Thinking?   You Have To Get Rid Of Those Snakes!   Of course he did not.... until one day one got lose and he couldn't find it anywhere.   He was not worried about if I ran into it or the kids but the thought of our 80 year old neighbor lady finding it in her flower garden had him in a panic.   Yes - he found it and all was well except it didn't stop the snake hunter's  "job"  he just switched to finding them, killing them, then tanning them, and making the skins into belts.  I had pint jars of rattle snake skins rolled up soaking in their secret ingredient waiting to be tanned all over my house.   He also used the bones to make jewelery like earrings and necklaces.   I don't think he ever made a dime at this "job" but he did present me one Christmas with snake jewelry as a peace offering.

Duck Hunting

This being the last day of duck season I thought it proper to give it a little recognition.   Those persons that hunt duck are crazy mad for it.  Some folks get trailers full of decoys and gear.  They pull their fancy trailers to the duck "places", get set up, and start calling in the ducks.    Then when they are done they pack everything up, neatly, into the trailer and take their ducks home.   Our duck hunting does not have this much organization or class but is just as important to our lives because we like to eat the meat.  

During duck season - if I happen to wonder over to my son's house - I will find ducks on his porch...   frozen solid.   (After all it is 20 below.)  The great out doors acts as a giant freezer which works out well as you can finish the butcher in a few days when you have more time.  No worries.   

We fight over duck.   We didn't use to but now we do.   One of my sons guides in Alaska and happened to spend some time with a duck guide.   He taught him how to cook duck.  Before we learned to cook duck - duck hunting was just something to do but now it is part of the grocery list.  

You cut the meat into 1 inch squares, then marinate the meat in melted butter and lots of chopped garlic for an hour or two.   More is better than less.   Heat up an iron skillet until water dances when you fling a few drops at it, add some high temp oil, and drop those tasty little squares in and sear each side.   They will be pink inside and taste like fillet mignon and they are called scoobies.

The grands got duck calls for Christmas this year.  We need to start training the next generation. 

Cheap Food

Growing up in Wyoming you eat a lot of wild (animal) meat.   Deer, elk, antelope (my favorite), bear, rattlesnake, pheasant, rabbit, chuckers, duck, goose, dove, fish - trout, walleye, and bass, mountain lion (not my favorite); well you get the idea.  

The real trick to eating "wild meat" is the recipe.   Cookbook after cookbook it all seems to be the same.   Marinate in Italian or Creamy Italian salad dressing for a few hours.   Grill.  

The year that we were without the most money, 1989,  ( Oh and - FYI - in Wyoming you never describe it as poor you just have more money or less money depending on the day and the jobs you have been working.)   we ate rabbit everyday for dinner.   The "boys' would go and get/hunt enough rabbit on Saturday and Sunday to last the entire week.  They would bring the gutted rabbits back to the house and finish cleaning them, skin them, then keep out the meat that was needed for meals for the next few days and freeze the rest.    I was working full time then and the "boys" were not; so the cooking of the meals fell upon the "boys".   Mostly the "meat" was put in a crock pot with 1 can of each - cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup.  Then pancakes were made to go with the "meat" when it was ready.  Once in a while potatoes would be cooked instead of pancakes but not very often.   And sometimes we had elk instead of rabbit.  This meal was repeated every day until the "less money" was replaced by "more money" or there was total and complete mutiny by the participants.   

I can no longer eat rabbit.  I always found it to be to chewy, metalic tasting, and flavorless.   I might be able to eat it if a fancy chef from NYC was the cook and I didn't know what I was eating but to have rabbit for a meal at my house cooked in cream of anything soup - not-gonna-happen.   

I still eat pancakes, however, but the "boys" do not.   When I do have "more money" I have real maple syrup on the pancakes.   I often look for real maple syrup bargains but they are hard to find.   I also don't mind homemade freezer jam, in any flavor, on the pancakes.   Raspberry, peach, strawberry seem to be the best.   Homemade chokecherry syrup is also pretty good.   In Wyoming chokecherry's are plentiful in summer and we have a sugar factory near by where you can pickup 100 lbs of sugar very cheaply to make the syrup.   

The pancake recipe we use is very good and very cheap so I will share it with you.   You can even save more money if you make your own flour and have your own chickens.

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 teaspoon soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs unbeaten
2 cups of buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter

Sift dry ingredients together.  Add remaining ingredients and stir lightly to just moisten dry ingredients.  Mixture will be thick and lumpy.  Add a little milk if too thick.  Drop by spoonfuls onto lightly greased griddle, spreading batter with a spoon.  Turn cakes as soon as browned and cook underside until browned.  Makes five to six servings.

Don't forget to serve with rabbit!

Wyoming Christmas Tree Truck

1/11/11

Well wouldn't you know that a blog about being White Trash In Wyoming would be created on 1/11/11. 

This very first post will address the purchasing of a washer and dryer for ones home, cabin, apartment, mothers home, etc.

The discussion of this process and choices just happened to have occurred in the hallway at my work today.    There is the top loader vs front load.   Fancy vs plain.   White vs "colors".   There is also the 6-months no interest deal.  Rent to own deal.  Or trade in all of our beer can's we have been saving for the last year and just pay for the things outright.    (Notice I said "our" and "we")

My friends sold their house - and as part of the deal closer - left their almost new top load washer and traditional dryer - white.    The person that bought the house gave my friends their 3-year old front load washer and dryer.   All of the appliances worked very well and everyone was very happy.

I pointed out that I would never be able to "have" a fancy front load washer and since no one at my house was computer literate that would mean that a fancy new front load dryer was out of the question too.   I knew this because I had observed a fancy front load washer one other time at a friends.    The friend had a small child that had gotten into a little extra dirt so my friend put the clothing into the washer and turned on the "soak" option to help with the cleaning.   I remember thinking, "Where is the water?  How can you soak something if you can't fill a tub up with water?"   I also remember commenting out loud, " ...well I can never get a front loader... how would I clean the blood soaked game bags, white bathroom towels, the brand new sparkling white dish towels, and brand new dish rags that someone wiped up the floor with when we were cutting up the elk?".