That's one good looking deer.

When I got back from elk hunting, I had a voice mail from Northwest Specialty Meats in Clarkston, telling me that my doe was ready to pick up.  10 days is pretty good turn around, so after going into work this morning, I decided that after a week and a half off, I should probably ease back into things, so I took the afternoon off to go pick up my deer. 

Clarkston is located over on the Idaho border, which means it is a 300 mile(295) round trip from where I live.  That's a pretty extreme trip to make to go pick up the meat from one deer...but, I swear, when I shot the doe near Pomeroy, which is only half an hour from Clarkston, it made sense. 

At the time, it seemed like the right choice.  There is not an overwhelming number of places that process wild game.  The one located in the Tri-city area has mixed reviews.  Central Washington has a few places, but all of them would have required me to drive 1.5 hours PAST my house to drop them off, meaning the deer would have spent nearly 4 hours in the back of my truck on a day with highs around 80-degrees.  So...yeah...Clarkston made good sense...it just didn't feel like half-way through a 5 hour round trip this afternoon.

Yeah, that's all of it in that milk crate.  It's actually more than I thought I would get...these folks know how to pack a milk crate.  Underneath the vacuum packed steaks there are 22 1.5 pound packs of burger, and then one 1 pound pack.  Add in the 10 pounds or so of backstrap and sirloin, and that's 45 pounds of venison from my little doe. 

The first taste test will have to wait...everything was frozen pretty solid in their freezer, so I have some steaks thawing in the fridge now.