Trying to Process Deer Herd

 We all checked in our deer on the Indiana Deer Check-in website, which BTW is easy and awesome.  Thus, we are 100% legal to process these deer as we wish.  We wish to not do them ourselves.  So Sunday afternoon, I take them (with the tags) up to Young America to have Simpson's processing do it for us.  They are very reasonable when it comes to price and you get your own deer back!

I arrive expecting to chat with the owner, Frank, whom we have been dealing with for the better part of 30 years or more.  I pull in from the W, as I always do, and the alley is blocked.  Ok, I turn around and drive in from the E, only to see orange cones and signs up - and deer stacked all the way out to the alley.  That's a lot of deer!

The signs said something to the effect that they had too many deer to process today, so come back tomorrow after 10 am.  Wow!  It's a good season already and everyone has figured out that Frank is a good value when it comes to processing deer.  Dang it!

So I do the only thing I can, turn around and come home.  I took the back roads into Flora going by all the places we used to hunt with Dad, Uncle DC, and Cousin Shane.  I stopped by Frank Shank's old farm and took a pano pic of the killing finger.  I smiled and thought of the hours and lead spent there and how many deer we've taken from Carroll County.  It's a lot over 30+ years.  All good memories!

Panoramic photo of Shank's old farm - facing S.
The house and barn are long gone, but the killing finger is still there (center frame)

The deer are now hanging in the barn.  Good thing it's 33 oF still.  They will be fine for a few days, or a week or so.  I'll take them up later.  What else can I do?  Certainly not going to process them ourselves.  One?  Maybe two?  Sure.  Four?  My poor back can't take that.

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