We count anywhere from 15 to 25 deer in our field in the evenings. The turkeys flock in groups from 10 to 30. Pheasants create large scrapes. Mice, voles, rabbits and squirrels abound. Hawks, falcons and eagles follow. Having the soy beans harvested, but the field untilled, leaves sufficient food to attract birds and beasts of every stripe.

The eagles would not say no to a chicken dinner. The chickens, on the other hand, have kept the hair on their chinny chin chins inside.

We harvested 4 deer off our land this year, and a neighbor gifted us one more. This allowed us to make 115 lbs of sausages. Brats. Potato sausage, smoked and unsmoked. Kielbasa. The chickens contributed to the brat pile. We bought pork to add to the potato sausage and kielbasa. I really like our home made sausage, even if we have more to learn.

Lightly smoked potato sausage. The unsmoked version eats well too.

Smoked kielbasa. We found a batch Michael missed when running the smoker, so we have a few unsmoked kielbasa to compare. They are better smoked! We will save the unsmoked to grill in the summer. His missing a huge bowl of sausages tells you how tired we got.

Bratwurst in process. The brats made with broiler meat turned out noticeably lighter in color than the ones made with slower growing chickens. They are all tasty.

This is the chest freezer after taking out the sausage meat. It isn’t empty! Roasts and chicken and soup bones fill the bottom layer.

Getting to that bottom layer will now be a challenge. It took us about a week of early mornings and late nights to refill the freezer.

The untilled soybean field not only sustains the wildlife. It allows us to feed these growing families too. We began over-producing meat due to the pandemic, and now continue due to inflation. It all gets eaten. Even so, Michael and I continue to lose weight and gain strength. Work and the cycles of life are good.