** WARNING: Before viewing blog, be advised that many of the pictures may contain bloody and/or gory images, and should not be viewed by young children, decrepit elderly folks prone to heart attacks, or squeamish wimps. Some of the subject matter may be objectionable to vegetarians or cow lovers.
DISCLAIMER: We will not, in any way, be held responsible for negative side effects incurred by any of the aforementioned personnel who disregarded the previous warning and viewed the post.
DISCLAIMER: We will also not be held accountable for any misspellings, grammatical errors, or misuse of weird words that the average citizen can't understand anyway.**
We arrived in the morning, only about 3 hours behind schedule, after driving through the night.We brought a van load of coolers, a hose, electric lights, saws and construction materials, winches and pulleys, and 4 people squished into nooks and crannies.
The first order of the day was to build a scaffold on which to hang the cow, so we could skin it and cut it up. There were quite a few willing hands, and it was accomplished quite handily in the first afternoon.
We thought it looked rather like a gallows when it was done, Mark only needed the black bag over his head and an ax, to be a very convincing hangman.
When it was finished it was perfect. . .almost. While trying to make sure the meat wasn't going to hang in the dirt, we forgot to measure the height of the barn we were bringing it into. . .we were a foot too tall. No problem, we all just lifted a corner and chopped off some wood. . .
and dragged it into the shed/barn/lean-t0. I took a few pictures of the actual killing, but thought it might be in bad taste to post them. Poor Timid should be entitled to some privacy. Suffice to say he was shot with a .22 which stunned him, then had his jugular slit. 
His head removed, he fit on the scaffold. If Stefan thought he was asked along just for the fun of it, he was sadly mistaken. His knowledge of butchering was quickly put to the test. Good thing cows and deer are pretty similar.
*Take note of the stylish waterproof canvas aprons that kept every-one's clothes clean; courtesy of my sewing machine.*
Mark and Stefan gutted it.
. . .And removed all non-edible appendages.
Apparently entrails are quite warm when first removed. We did most of the work at night - when it was about 40 below*, instead of during the day when it was only -20 degrees. We actually might have been able to feel our fingers and toes then.
On the up side, with it being that cold, the smell wasn't that bad.
Among the paraphernalia we brought down with us was a propane heater, which worked pretty well after we stapled black plastic over all the cracks and exits. How healthy the fumes were is still a matter of debate.
We only had a few instances of workers lighting themselves on fire.
Sandra headed up the skinning crew, though we all lent a hand; I got about 3 square inches done before someone lost patience and stole my knife from me. Then I went back to photography duty.
After the skin was gone, it started to look a lot more appetizing.
We all helped with the chopping. . .
I got to do a little cutting, but my primary occupation (after my apprentice photographer, Samuel, took over) was wrapping and marking the meat. Also, I got the privilege of getting water for rinsing the meat. Have you ever tried to repair a split hose with a grocery bag and Scotch tape? It doesn't work. Fortunately, 5 galleon buckets filled in the bathtub clean almost as well.
It only took two afternoons (and most of the nights) to finish the job. Then after a little relaxation time, we packed up, and drove off into the sunset (well actually it was closer to sunrise be the time we left, but you get the idea.)
No doubt I'll think of some very clever things I could have said about this situation after I publish this post, but my brain seems to be shorted out right now, so just imagine some very funny sayings for me.
*I am NOT a literalist.
