I do believe that if you are going to spend your afternoon working with death you should spend your morning working with life. Everlasting Life. So, I spent this morning in the ministry, assisted cleaning the Kingdom Hall, went home to care for the two most helpless men in the the Known Universe, and by 2:30 I was outside doing what must be done if a person is going to give their meat rabbits a purposeful life. The hardest part of the whole process was catching the two bucks. I caught the does with some effort, and put them in with their mother, and then harvested the two buck teens. Viewing it as a biology lesson made the task easier.
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| Two buck meat rabbits all bled out |
I have read all sorts of descriptions of how to hang the rabbits. I must say that some clothesline and a board which topped the fence in that spot were more than sufficient. My pocketknife was all that was required to dispatch the stunned rabbits. More force is required to stun them than you might think. If you are planning on doing this, do not hold back your strength. Be decisive, unhesitating.
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| In the kitchen to begin the butchering phase |
From this point on the only tools employed were a pair of Kitchen Shears, some slight use of a non-serrated steak knife, and a large pair of clean Pruning shears,
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| Removing the pelt carefully so I don't damage it or any internal organs. |
One pelt was much easier to remove than the other. This may be the origin of the expression "thin-skinned". The second rabbit was very thin skinned.
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| One Rabbit Pelt, One Skinned Rabbit with his boots on |
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| Yes, pruning shears are the best way to cut through those difficult joints. |
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| The stomach cavity emptied of all its contents, but we still had to deal with those rabbit private parts. |
There was no information in my resource book for handling the private parts of the rabbit. I managed to deal with them without much difficulty, but I wish I had had more information on them, maybe a diagram.
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| 8 pieces of rabbit all ready to soak in salt water for a couple of days. |
All in all, it was a good experience. I wouldn't want to do it every day. From start to finish took me just under 3 hours and I was glad it was only the two instead of the four I had thought it might be. Ronny called me after the whole thing was done and said I was very brave. I replied with his favorite line, "I married
you, didn't I?". We all agreed that this had required bravery and concluded by agreeing it was good that I had neither skinned nor eviscerated him. Yet.
The poor bunnies! Well I hope they taste good.
ReplyDelete-Patient "B" of the 3 Laugh Mates
Did you do it alone? If so, I marvel at you. I marvel at you anyway.
ReplyDeleteThink how much faster it will go next time.
Post when you cook them!
Mrs. G, I did do it alone. Remember Ronny is the sensitive one. The worst part was the stunning, but the most time consuming part was the skinning. If I weren't hoping to get some use from the pelts I would have done it differently and it would have gone faster. Plus next time I'm sitting on a stool in front of the sink because bending over it for so long gave me a crick in the neck. We should be eating Rabbit by Tuesday, I think. I will definitely post on Wednesday about the menu. :)
ReplyDeleteGood going girl. Few these days know the sound of dying bunnies. Not a cool sound to hear. Once I was involved in the butchering on over 50 and by the end, our nerves were shot (as where the nerves of all the neighbors!).
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking of raising meat rabbits again. But I won't ever harvest that many rabbits in one time again! I would prefer one dead bird or bunny at a time from now on! I guess I'm getting old. Not sure about wiser, just old.