STILL ROOM FOR A TEXAS WILD HOG

Friday, 8:45 AM.  19 degrees, wind W, calm.  The humidity is 87%, the barometer 30.12 in.  The sun rose this morning, shining like a pale lantern inside a gray tent at dusk.  There is still a high overcast covering the dome of the sky, the ascending sun casting only a faint glow behind it.  We were gifted with about three inches of fresh snow last night, and the pine trees are heavily  festooned with it.  The stark white of new snow everywhere reflects the dim morning light, pushing back the darkness.  If the sun manages to free itself it will be a very beautiful day indeed.  The lower Chequamegon Bay is frozen over enough that small villages of ice fishing tents have sprung up across it; no pickup trucks out there yet, unless they are at the bottom.
        We took a little trip yesterday to the Four Corners Store Road, southwest of Sanborn, which is south of Ashland.  And then another four miles to Barb and Steve Robertson’s farm, where we picked up a  quarter of a beef that we purchased from them; grass fed, no hormones, professionally butchered, all the cuts wrapped and labeled.  They slaughter four black angus steers each year and sell three, this one being two and-a-half years old.  We have 159 pounds of meat, which cost $3.45 per pound.  I am estimating about one-third is ground meat, one-third roasts, and stew meat. and one third-steaks and chops.  Can’t wait to try it!  The freezer is now pretty full but there is still room for a smaller Texas wild hog, which we will see about hunting for in March.
        We saw two large flocks of wild turkeys yesterday, feeding in cornfields along Four Corners Store Road.  One flock had eighteen birds, the other around thirty.  They were quite tame, and there were a number of really huge birds in each flock.