17:00 now, almost four hours since we departed Raasay and we’re somewhere south of Mallaig with MV Loch Fyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Loch_Fyne just crossing or bow.
The Skye Bridge is a distant memory as we plough our way through the gloom towards Craignure in the Sound of Mull. It’s gonna be a long day as we had to await MV Loch Tarbet’s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Loch_Tarbert arrival from Mallaig prior to our departure from Raasay.
So, that’ll be why you’ve no heard from me for a while. My normal Monday, Tuesday manic rush before returning to work being compounded by the fact I’d not bee there for six weeks and I was gonna be away from home for two As well as all the normal stuff to deal with I had to ensure house, pigs, hens and Molly were ready for house, animal and dog watchers. Bedding had to be changed, feed stock replenished, beds changed and all manner of lists to be made, followed or just ticked off.
As far as I can make out (so far) the only thing I forgot to do was put one final bag of sow rolls in the ‘ready use’ feed bin and remove the grass cuttings from my lawn. Monday was a bonny, bonny day and I reluctantly went to Portree for hen and pig feed, collecting my Trailer from Inverarish on the way back at 15:00.
Raasay’s wee fishing boat MV Mary M, the Storr and Big Head from the Varragill road into Portree.
A faint rainbow as I near home, a bonny stag with his harem just on the skyline at Tarbert
and me almost burning the clutch out on me Subaru Had to unhitch the trailer to extricate the car from my foolish trailer parking spot, it got pretty smelly before I saw sense
Tuesday
Apart from all the final packing for the ‘fortnight on’ I’d set Tuesday aside for dealing with the scrawny stag who’d been unfortunate enough to wander onto my croft. I was hoping to hang him longer than a couple of days but you just cannae be choosy about these things I would have preferred to eat his liver fresh with some mushrooms and bacon but I’d just eaten a large Sunday roast before I spotted him
However, on Monday whilst travelling back from ‘town’ I’d spotted what must be the last chanterelles of the season at Henderson’s Bridge so they did me for ‘second breakfast’ after a spell of mincing.
The best way to eat venison liver is fresh, preferably still warm but this was pretty good too, fried in olive oil with chanterelles and a rasher of bacon then served on home made bread. Just what you need after a hard morning’s butchery
The first bit of which was cleaning the ‘butcher’s slab’ OK, workshop bench with the belt sander
DO NOT LOOK IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH
So, with my bench suitably polished I set about cutting the meat off the carcass and mincing it.
I do have a 2kW industrial mincer but to be honest I prefer doing simple mincing like this with my trusty ‘Porkert Number 10’
hand mincer.
The wee fella was quite damaged at the fore end with the gunshot so I just sliced the meat off the bone as far as the hind quarters. After removing the choice cuts of the ‘back strap’ and loin fillets I cut the haunches into half a dozen small roasting joints for myself and wee dog. Molly was very keen to help at this stage
The freezer having been on ‘super freeze’ in readiness for receiving all the joints, cuts, cubes and ‘dinner sized’ bags of mince was now nicely stocked for the winter.
The stags, well there are still plenty of them bellowing outside my house
Just round ‘Archie’
Almost 19:30 now and still a few hours to go, bit ‘roly poly’ as we clear Archie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardnamurchan_Point the ‘Hill of the Great sea’ in Gaelic and it’s easy to see why, it is always ‘roly poly’ here There was a boodly fine sunset over Canna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canna,_Scotland right enough but I’d still rather be home with wee dug