Tag: mountainlife

Family

1 year ago. . .

Middle Creek Mama

1 year ago today Kaston was released from Children’s Hospital.

See, the day before he had been in a sledding accident. We loaded up the whole family + two of my best friends and headed to the mountain for a fun day of playing in the snow.

We were only there for a short amount of time before Kaston went flying to the hill and ended up hitting the concrete at the base of a ski lift pole.

I tried everything I could to position myself to catch him, but the ground was odd and there was no good way of knowing which way he was going to go.

We headed home. He vomited. We knew it was a concussion. We headed to the ER.

Mind you, he did cry and he didn’t complain.

Our local ER jumped right into action and got him in for a CT scan, which he even walked himself to. The scan showed our worst fear, a skull fracture and a bleed. There was no way for them to know if it was a brain bleed or blood seeping in from the outside of the skull. So a helicopter was called.

Thankfully there was a helicopter already in the area and got there within 15 minutes.

We watched as they loaded our boy and followed. What took them only 30 minutes, took us 2 hours.

Later, we found out that had it been another 30 minutes later, the helicopter wouldn’t have been able to fly him because of the weather!

My parents were waiting at the hospital for Kaston. They parked near the helicopter pad. I will always be grateful for how Children’s allowed my parents to be with Kaston until we were able to get there. My mom also was able to give them a lot of information, so there wasn’t too much chaos to deal with once we got there.

My mom kept me updated on every test that was done.

By the time we got there, Kaston was in an ICU room and just really hungry and thirsty, but unable to eat or drink because of the vomiting. It was a long night. They wanted to keep an eye on the bleed for any changes.

Around midnight or maybe 1 am, they moved us to another room and his eating restrictions were lifted. He had some jello and a string cheese.

The next morning, once the kitchen was open, he devoured some pancakes and strawberries 🤣

The doctors came in to review things and do their final evaluations and said he was ready to be discharged. Wh

What started out as one of the scariest experiences of my life, turned out okay. We were released before noon and he requested spaghetti for lunch. We stayed with my parents for a few days just in case anything changed and we needed to go back to the hospital.

Brinley was the best big sister through all of this 🥰

Things I learned –

WEAR THE HELMET – I don’t care what is going on, just wear it. I have spent countless sleepless nights, sick to my stomach because I didn’t make him wear one. My guilt and shame is astronomical. And let’s be honest, rough and tough little boys probably need them just when walking around. The day we got home, he tried to do a head stand and jumped off the couch 🙄

CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL IS INCREDIBLE – we don’t live even close to one, but they’re so worth traveling to. In this case, our local ER was wonderful, but that’s not a very common story. If you’re dealing with a kid and think you need an ER and live close enough to Children’s, just go straight there. They’re the best there is.

TRUST YOUR GUT – you know your babies better than anyone, trust that. I had a couple people tell me that Kaston was fine, just knocked the wind out of him. We knew better.

NEVER TAKE YOUR BABIES FOR GRANTED – we have a positive story, it ended better than I could have even imagined. When we heard the words “bleed on the brain” everything seemingly closed in and suddenly I was imagining my life without my sweet boy and I couldn’t take it. We could have lost our boy that day, but Yah saw fit to spare him. He was back to normal so quickly. I know there are so many families out there who didn’t get to leave with their children after terrible accidents. And all I can muster up to say is just don’t take them for granted, live in each moment with them and cherish every second you get with them. We get so caught up in every day life that we don’t usually have time to stop and just be in that moment with them. In those moments, his messy room was not an issue, his leaving the door open on cold days seemed so insignificant…all the things that I had ever been upset about didn’t matter, because all that mattered was getting to see my son again and Paise Yeshuah I did.

And today, I am reminded of all of it. I’m reminded that life is precious and so fragile. I’m reminded that everything could change in the blink of an eye. Like a vapor, all that I love and cherish could be gone. I am reminded that instead of life being completely different amd empty, we got another chance and now a whole year with of craziness and laughs and hugs and snuggles and life with this boy….and for that I am so grateful.

So I encourage you today, and every day, to hold those you love close. Stop letting petty things get in the way of living and loving. These babies are so precious. Go love on them a little extra.

We praise Yah for another year of life with this sweet, crazy, wild boy. We are so grateful he is here with us 🤍

His silly personality is the best and keeps us laughing 🥰🤍
Family

Did you know? 👀

Middle Creek Mama

With the recent harvest of my elk, I wanted to share something with yall. . .

Did you know that elk have ivory?!

They do! There’s not many sources of ivory that are native to North America, but elk have one of them.

They have ivory teeth! But not all of their teeth.

Elk are ruminants, which means they have a ruminant digestive system, have an even number of toes, and don’t have top teeth. . . .except for their ivories.

Some people call them whistlers. Some folks called them buglers. I call them ivories or just elk teeth.

I have quite the collection of teeth from over the years. I think I’ve collected enough of them to practically be a dentist 😋🤣 I’m for hire. I work cheap, but you have to sign a waiver (I’m kidding, mostly).

I’ve seen many pictures of Native women’s dresses adorned with ivories and they’re just so beautiful!

Others use them for jewelry, which is also beautiful. I hope to have a ring made with one of my teeth eventually! But for now, my collection just sits in a bowl 🤣

Elk Ivory

The ivories in the photo are from the cow I harvested last week. Cows have significantly smaller ivories than bulls.

I know some might find it odd, but I love them! Every set of ivories I have remind me of a special hunt and the sacrifice that a beautiful critter made so that I may live.

Family

Elk Down!

Middle Creek Mama
The kids and husband got to accompany on my elk hunt 🥰

December is my favorite month, but not for the reason you’re probably thinking.

We don’t do Christmas, we don’t do trees and lights, or the sweaters and cookies (anymore). . . What I love most about December is cow elk season.

I am not a trophy hunter, though I do have a few heads on the wall (not monsters by any means). I strictly hunt for meat. And friends, if you’ve never had an elk steak in your cake hole, you’ve not truly lived.

This year I was blessed to get a crop deprivation tag from my husband’s grandmother. While the powers that be are trying to make people think the elk herds are suffering here in Southern Colorado, anyone with a pair of functioning eyeballs can see that they’re thriving. Some of the old timers I’ve been blessed to know tell stories about how elk weren’t even in this part of the country until the 80s when the department of wildlife brought in elk from Yellowstone and from the Vermejo in New Mexico, which is actually really close to us as the crow flies.

My husband’s grandpa would talk about how he remembered when the first walk started showing up at their ranch. It was cool to see at first, but now they’re a nuisance.

Anyone who has ever built a fence can attest to just how big of a nuisance they really are. And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE elk. I am still very much that giddy, childlike person in awe of these critters. I will never not exclaim ELK! every time I see one 🤣

But these days we have an entire herd on the ranch. They’re not always there, but when they are, they tear up fences and eat valuable grass that we need for the cattle. And in our part of the world, we just can’t support both cattle. So every year we are given an allotted amount of crop deprivation tags by the game wardens/Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

ANYWAYS. . . I got an elk.

It’s been cold here, so we quartered her and hanged her in the shed out back. I have been chipping away at quarters while my husband has been at work. I also had some wonderful friends come help me this week! We visited and laughed while the kids played and my friend’s husband and I cut away at meat.

My daughter also an amazing helper! She jumps right in and helps trim the dried bits on the outside!

Side by side comparison of a pronghorn shoulder and an elk shoulder! This elk was huge.

It brings me great peace of mind and joy to have all this in my freezers. My family will eat healthy all year long with this!

Here’s a time lapse of my daughter and I working on one quarter of the elk. This was a shoulder. I typically send all shoulder meat to the grinder.

We absolutely love elk meat. We eat it for almost every supper.

We eat more ground meat than anything else, so that’s what we make the most of when butchering.

We ended up with about 25 lbs of tenderize steaks. I have a tenderize that attaches to our grinder. It makes the steaks into cube steaks. We use this for chicken fried elk steak, fajitas, stir fry, and burritos…and whatever else I can think of to throw it in.

We got 4 bags of tenderloins. Elk tenderloin is about as good as it gets. There’s 2 tenderloins on critters. I cut them in half. I like to cook them “whole” rather than sliced into steaks.

We 8 bags of backstrap. Backstraps are the pieces of meat that run along the spine on the “outside” (if that makes sense). Forever, we sliced these into steaks. But one year I was lazy! I cut one into four chunks and tossed them in the freezer. When I cooked one, we fell in love. The way I cooked it, it turned out like prime rib 🤤 it was SO good. So now I also keep these “whole” rather than slicing into steaks.

We saved about 15 lbs of meat for my dad to make brats with. My dad really makes all the best stuff.

This cow was so meaty. She had meat in places I haven’t ever seen on elk before. She had a full on brisket, too! I was able to pull the whole brisket off to also give to my dad. He has it in a brine for corned beef…I mean, corned elk, which he’ll slice for sandwich meat.

I just finished up with vacuum sealing the burger!

We ended up with 70 lbs of ground elk!

We like to mix beef fat into our burger, which also helps to stretch it further. Elk is very lean, so adding some fat into is always a good idea.

I also saved out about 2 lbs of burger for supper tonight! We had frito chili pie 🥰

Now we are packing for a lovely little trip to the Bahamas! Stay tuned for all the shenanigans that ensue with that! 🏝🐷🥥

Do you hunt? Do you butcher/process your own meat? I’d love to hear how your family does it!

Family

Hunting Family

Middle Creek Mama

I am many things. First, I am a sinner saved by the blood of Messiah, whose sacrifice allowed me to be grafted into His family. I am a wife. I am a mother. I’m a homeschool mom. I am a cow chaser and a horse piddle-arounder. I am a guitar player and a gardener and I’m a “why-did-I-just-say-that-weird- thing-er”….but right up there, pretty high on the list, I am a hunter.

I hunt. I grew up hunting. I continue to hunt and teach my kids to hunt, too.

As far back as I remember, hunting was a big deal to my family. Whether it was a day shooting a mess of squirrels or waiting for dad to come home with a whitetail, there was always some form of hunting going on. I even got to spend much of my childhood playing with beagle pups, because chasing rabbits was also of utmost importance.

When we moved to Colorado I got to be more involved. I got to stay at camp while the guys were horseback looking for elk and I got to be part of the butchering process when an animal was down.

Not a hunting trip, but a scouting trip with some wonderful guys, and thats me in the lead. And as I type this, I realize most of the horses and one of the men are no longer with us and I just can’t help but feel immense gratitude for having known them. We miss you dearly, Karsen…and what I wouldn’t given to him my Jughead (horse) back 😭 good horses and good men are hard to come by these days. Cherish them while they’re here.

I remember the day I took my hunter’s safety test and the excitement that filled me. I remember the first time I filled out a hunting license application. Back then they came in the hunting magazines and it was a stressful process 🤣 you know, back before everything was done on the good ol’ world wide interwebs.

The first deer I took was a monster two point by Colorado terminology, but a 4 point in Oklahoma.

Don’t come at me for my orange, it had already been taken off.

My dad and I had been walking in a pasture checking horses when this absolute booner stepped out. My dad let me rest my rifle on his shoulder and that’s that. We took him home and got him in the freezer. That’s a memory that will last as long as I breathe. My first deer and I was hooked. I even took the hair tie out of my braid to secure the tag.

As I grew, I spent countless hours in the woods with my dad.

I’m pulling these photos off an old Facebook page, so they’re not the best quality…nevermind the picmonkey editing days 🤣

My dad and I were inseparable. Turkey every spring, archery, muzzleloader, 1st, 2nd, 3rd seasons in the fall, and December and January cow seasons. We hit as many as we possibly could. We would even break in the fall to head back to Oklahoma for a few wild hogs, a couple whitetail, and a mess of squirrels.

It was mostly good times, except that one time with his bull, but we don’t talk about it, because my feelings are still hurt about that one 💔🤣 I’ll even tell you about the time he had me belly crawl across a pasture full of cactus just to still not be able to get to the elk, but not the bull story 🤣

We put miles on the horses…and we rode some dang good horses. We saw beautiful country. We weathered some good storms. We saw too many elk and deer to count. We ate gas station burritos and polish sausages when we got back to town and would have the best naps when we got back home and would always put on trash tv like Jerry Springer or Maury, finding out the father was always so entertaining 🤣

When we would get a critter down, Mom was always home waiting with a knife to help process it. She may not hunt, but she’s a butchering machine.

My brother was already grown and away with the Army by the time I really got into hunting. However, I’ve got some pretty good stories with him, too. And I pray for many more in the future.

Hunting with my dad helped shape me into who I am…the jury is still out on whether I’m someone worth knowing or not 🤣  but nevertheless, the lessons I learned through all of that time with him gave me immeasurable skills and knowledge.

Not only did I learn the value of working hard to put food on the table, but I learned how to find the food, bring it home, put it up, and prepare it. I learned how to butcher all these animals, which saves me a ton of money now. I can put my own meat in the freezer, without the need for someone else to package it for me.

This isn’t the bull that hurt my feelings, so it’s fine 🤣

These days I don’t hunt much with my dad. Schedules are different. Life is busy.

Instead, I’ve been hunting either alone or with my husband.

My husband and I have gotten into some pretty cool country to hunt. We absolutely love getting away from everything and being in the woods.

Anniversary archery hunt too many years ago ❤️

And now, I get to pass on my love for hunting to my children along with my husband.

This year, I was able to take the kids out with me on my pronghorn doe hunt. They were with me for the whole hunt. They helped me spot her, get ready for a shot, and find her in the field after she was down. Then they got to help with the entire butchering process and now get to eat all that we harvested.

Making pronghorn breakfast sausage!

Hunting is a huge part of our life.

It isn’t about the thrill of the kill, honestly, I hate the killing more and more every year. It isn’t about bragging about antlers. It isn’t even about the number of heads on the wall or in the shed.

It’s about the time spent with my family. It’s about being in the woods and listening to the sounds. If you’ve never taken a nap under an aspen while a bull bugles somewhere in the distance, I don’t feel you’ve truly had a good nap and that saddens me for you 🤣

It’s about having the healthiest, most organic meat on this earth available to feed my family.

It’s about knowing how to take responsibility for myself and get the job done, not relying on people to provide it for me.

It’s about taking time to appreciate all that Yahuah has provided for my family and me. Each animal we are blessed to eat is prayed over and greatly appreciated. We do our best to honor each animal we are provided.

Hunting is a family thing. I am grateful my dad trained me up so that I may continue this lifestyle.

May your aim be true and you steaks be tender ❤️