It was chilly early in the morning when Jed hiked with Lizzie from the lodge to the meadow to retrieve the buck. The grass, wet with dew, drenched their legs from the knees down. Lizzie gasped when she saw a black figure vanish into the woods as they entered the meadow. It had been under the deer, leaping unsuccessfully to reach it before Jed and Lizzie frightened the creature away.
“I thought you said there were no wolves in Maine! What was that animal?” Lizzie’s voice quivered.
“It looked like a dog to me. There are no wolves. There haven’t been any in Maine for years. Some people want to re-introduce them, but they haven’t been able to. There’s just too much opposition.”
Jed untied the rope holding the deer and lowered it. He didn’t tell Lizzie, but he watched carefully to see if the creature would reappear. Jed knew wolves were not supposed to be in the area, but there were no people around either. So where would a dog come from?
Using a couple of short pieces of rope, Jed tied the forefeet together and did the same with the hind legs. He then threaded a pole between the legs so they could carry the deer between them. He took a towel from his backpack and folded it carefully to make a pad and placed it on Lizzie’s shoulder, and then he showed her how to lift without hurting herself. “We’ll take it easy going back. Just say when you need a break, and we’ll stop.”
It was on their second rest stop that Lizzie saw movement in the trees. “Jed! There it is again!”
Jed quickly unslung the rifle from his back then set the butt down on the ground. “It’s okay. Looks like John Johnson’s Labrador Retriever that got lost. I wonder how it survived the winter last year. You don’t know John, do you?”
Lizzie shook her head.
“John is from our Greenville plant. He brought his dog up with him last fall to train him for duck and goose hunting. The problem was he had never shot a gun around the dog before, and the first time he shot, the dog got scared and ran away. We weren’t able to find him. I’ll have to give John a call and let him know we found his dog.”
Jed’s shoulders drooped. “Oh, yeah. I guess I won’t call him either, will I?”
After slinging his rifle on his back again, Jed picked up his end of the pole. “We’d better get moving. If we sit too long we’ll stiffen up, and it will be twice as hard to get moving again. I have an idea the dog will trail along with us. Maybe we can get him to follow us to the lodge.”
Though the dog trailed them as they finished the trek back to the lodge, it would not come out of the woods, despite frequent calls.
At the lodge, Jed had Lizzie help him hoist the deer onto an outside table so he could butcher it. He sliced a couple of nice steaks and suspended them over an open fire in the fire pit to broil while he cut up the rest of the deer. The hike out to the meadow so early in the morning and then the trek back carrying the deer made him think he could eat the whole thing at once!
After eating, Jed taught Lizzie how to scrape the inside of the deerskin to get all of the meat and fat residue from the skin.
“You know, Jed, I should be grossed-out by this, but it’s kind of fun, you know? I had no idea about butchering or tanning hides.”
“I always thought so. Mom hates it. She doesn’t mind cooking the meat or eating it, but she hates anything to do with butchering game. I’m glad you are willing to help. I don’t think I could do it all alone.”
Lizzie was pleased at the comment and gave Jed a smile. “I feel so helpless up here. I want to do all I can to help. Just tell me what to do, okay?”
“That’s good! In the Indian villages, it is always the squaw’s job to chew the hide to make it soft and pliable. I’ll let you do that.”
“Yuck! Now that is gross!”
Jed laughed and pointed to a log extending from the corner of the lodge. “We’ll beat and stretch it soft over there. I’ll teach you how we do that, unless you want to chew it.”
Lizzie threw a little piece of fat at him and stuck out her tongue. With an inward sigh of relief, Jed realized Lizzie was coping with their situation. He decided to wait until the hide was soaked to scrape the hair side. Wet-scraping seemed to be the easier way to go for Lizzie.
While Lizzie carefully scraped the deer hide, Jed took care of the meat. He cut out as much as he thought they could use before it spoiled, and then he began the process of making jerky to preserve the rest. He carefully cut away any fatty portions and scraps and threw them toward the trees where he had seen the dog skulking in the shadows. The dog pounced on the scraps ravenously but would not come close.
Once the meat was sliced into thin strips, Jed and Lizzie worked together to marinate the meat with spices and salt in preparation for drying. Once, Jed noticed Lizzie was humming as she worked.
When scraping was finished, Jed filled an old hollow oak stump with water and put the hide in to soak and start the tanning process. The tannins from the oak would begin tanning the hide and would loosen the skin to ease hair removal.
After the meat soaked in the marinade for a few hours, Jed laid the meat on racks he suspended over a very low fire, built with wet hickory chips, which smoked, dried, and flavored the meat.
Before the day was over, Lizzie had a much deeper appreciation for the work required by the women who had pioneered the country. Her back and shoulders ached from scraping the hide, and her hands cramped from holding the scraper and slicing meat. Her skin was shriveled from being damp for so long. She knew she was going to be very ready when bedtime came, but the exhaustion was satisfying when she saw all of the meat piled for smoking. She and Jed would trade off getting up during the night to be sure the fire in the fire pit was burning properly so the meat would be well-preserved and unscorched.