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The Huntress

DISCLAIMER: If you are a vegetarian do not read this post. Go no further. This post is not for you. You have been warned.  I love my vegetarian and vegan and breatharian and raw foodist friends and don’t want to offend you.  I talk about shooting rabbits, along with the how and why of it.

If you have been on Andrew’s facebook you know that about 2 weeks ago I went out shooting and got 2 rabbits.

For years we will take our truck bush and run out of meat only see meat hopping by just to annoy us.

Add to this the fact that I prefer animals to live their lives free.

Then I think that if I can’t kill and prepare an animal I have no right eating meat. Meat comes from animals and not plastic wrappers. It is fact.

Something else. Here in New Zealand, rabbits and possums are introduced. The rabbits are breeding like … rabbits and taking over the countryside. Possums, well, possums have no natural predator and are taking over. They are also breeding like rabbits and eating the native bush and the eggs of the native birds. The New Zealand saying is, “The only good possum is a dead possum”. Sorry, if you think they are cute. The only pictures we get to see here of possums

government drops poison. Not good.

With all these thoughts I have been suggesting that Andrew get a gun and get us some food. I have seen him kill chickens, ducks, geese and fish. He hates cleaning them and makes a ridiculous mess of it, to be honest.

Anyway, after years of frustration I met this woman, Tracey. We started talking and I found out that she is a hunter. A woman hunter!!! A huntress!!! Fantastic. Not only that but she hunts for the meat. She hates it when hunters just leave the animals that they shoot. She has a huge vege garden. She is all about self-sustainability. She is quite an amazing woman.

What a shift. I have been thinking all along that Andrew would be the hunter. You know, man stuff. No way, I can be the hunter, I mean the huntress.

So, left the truck early on the Saturday morning singing to my kids. “Bye baby bunting. Mummys gone a-hunting. To Catch a little rabbit skin. To wrap my baby bunting in.”

I was going out shooting with Tracey and her man, Mac. They taught me how to be safe with a gun. How to kill a yellow plastic bag and then it was my turn for rabbits. My heart started racing when I spotted my first bunny. I think the bunny must have been deaf because I made SO MUCH NOISE! Anyway, shot it and then shot another one. I was afraid I would turn all girly but no way. After we had a bit of lunch Mac showed me how to skin and gut the rabbit. I skinned and gutted mine with precision and then I wanted to skin and gut all the rest of theirs to make sure I had it. Mac didn’t mind, he just watched, smiled and gently helped when needed.

skinning a rabbitAfter we got back to their house Tracey showed me how to cut it up a rabbit for different meals, recommended some ways to cook it up and home I went.

The next night we looked up recipes for rabbit and settled on a Spanish rabbit stew with chickpeas (garbanzo beans).  Andrew cooked it up in our gypsy pot on a pinecone fire.  Plenty to spare from the rabbits so fed a few more families and had enough to bring out on another night.  What fun.

In the last couple of weeks I have applied for a gun license. Last night I got some training, through beads of sweat, passed the test while my husband was off eating pink ice cream on the other side of town. Another story. Now I am just waiting for my police interviews.

Excellent. My goal is spending less money at the grocery store. I have been learning how to forage and hunting fits in quite nicely. What else can I learn about now.

7 Comments

  • tina on December 3, 2013

    Wow you are Amazing, next you can put together workshops …the woman has mad skills!

    • admin on December 3, 2013

      Perhaps we can do a workshop together on women with mad skills. : )

  • tk on November 7, 2013

    love it. absolutely LOVE it. debbie, of COURSE you’re a huntress!!! i LOVE that you’re owning it. I love that you’re the kind of woman people put on their avatars. you rock!!

  • Tony Arcus on October 7, 2013

    Bunny, Bunny, Bunny
    In my tummy,
    It’s a good cooks world.
    Aha-ahaaa
    All the herbs I could use
    For my little Bunny
    It’s a good cooks world.

  • Iphie Burg on October 7, 2013

    HAhahahaha, what a woman!!!! I am so proud of you! I wish I could be there watching all this… Love you miss you!
    Iphie

  • mhmoore on October 6, 2013

    I too am impressed.way to go. years ago living in Maine, we had a family rule, if you shot/killed it…you ate it….tough lesson for a 14 years old with his first bb gun and 12 dead squirrels…but over the years we ate squirrels, possum (ok not great), rabbits, moose, bear, deer, snakes and gators as well as several feathered critters. I think giving the kids a reality check of where their meat comes from is a fantastic way to live. BTW, women were usually the huntress’ in our family too.

  • Rachel on October 6, 2013

    I am very impressed!