Valentines weekend

On Valentines Day evening, my true love gave to me... A caribou! 

Little Bear and I dropped Matt off to head out hunting with my dad and two other guys at early o'clock Saturday morning. Once they got into the hunting area, an hour down the trail by snowmachine, they spotted a group of caribou on a hillside across the river. According to the range finder they were almost 250 yards away. Matt was the first to take a shot, and he put his shot exactly where he intended. Later he said that if he'd had more time to think about how far away they were he might have tried to see if they could get closer, but his rifle was sighted in at 200 yards and he felt confident he could make the shot. And clearly he was right! 

I'm so happy for him! This was his was his first big game animal, and he was pretty excited. And we're so, so grateful for the meat; it's healthier than beef, and we like the taste much better, and it's definitely much less expensive than anything remotely comparable at the store: natural, organic, etc red meat with pretty much no fat in it at all? That's crazy expensive, easily around $11 a pound here, so we never buy it. 

We spent all yesterday afternoon cutting meat, working through both hind quarters, the backstrap, tenderloins, neck meat, etc; I just have the two front quarters to cut this afternoon, and hopefully I'll be able to grind everything we're setting aside for that tomorrow so that everything will be in the freezer.

This morning, I'm spending as much time off my feet as possible so that I'll be able to make it through cutting both front quarters this afternoon; after spending most of the afternoon standing yesterday, last night and this morning I can barely walk... yay, pregnancy sciatica. I put off this afternoon's chiropractor appointment for later this week, because we need to get the meat cut and frozen as quickly as possible. I'll be very happy when Thursday afternoon gets here, though!

Most of yesterday was spent in old clothes that we didn't mind getting caribou blood on, but before we headed out to Mass yesterday morning Matt offered to snap a photo so I could link up with What I Wore Sunday.

Shirt: Anticipation, Once Upon A Child

Skirt: Cali-Fashions San Francisco, a hand-me-down from my mom's teaching days

Shoes: Sarah-Jayne, garage sale find

Necklace: freshwater pearls from my mom

We're having lovely above-0 weather right now, perfect for a shorter skirt outfit yesterday. I don't think you can really tell in the photo, but the skirt is a forest green. I'm not sure how pink became a central element of my wardrobe—many of my college friends could tell you my less-than-positive feelings about pink—but I've been finding myself wearing it pretty frequently this last year or two, particularly paired with green or brown. Or denim. Or black. Okay, so pretty much everything.