A HUGE Apology to Postal Workers in Southern Arizona

I think I've mentioned my husband, Matt, cleans skulls in his spare time. He has the whole set up...Dermestid beetles and all.








And it's a good thing we don't have neighbors right next door, because things can get a little stinky sometimes.

The couple who run our local post office still give me funny looks when I go to pick up the mail. A few years ago, Matt sent me to pick up the new batch of Dermestid beetles that had arrived at the post office. Little did I know, those things were the foulest smelling creatures I had ever come into contact with. The entire package area of the post office smelled delightfully like them. I started to explain what the bugs were for, but as I've learned, when it comes to Matt and his hobbies/business it's best just to smile, apologize and get out of there as quickly as possible. This is the same thing I do with the UPS guy when he drops frozen skulls off at our house. Sorry UPS guy!

On a side note, our four year old has gotten in on the skull cleaning...dad has put him to work. Trent is now the official sander for the local mesquite plaques we use to mount many of the Coues deer, Mule deer and Antelope. I'm already fast forwarding to the future...Trent telling his teachers about cleaning skulls ....ugh, not something I'm looking forward to explaining.

It's funny too, I know I've mentioned I grew up with a hunting dad. We had a few mounts in our house. So while most of the wives I know, took a lot of coaxing/bribing from their husbands to bring one or two mounts into their homes, I was already brainwashed into thinking it was just apart of home decorating. My lucky husband!

But then Matt started cleaning skulls. And let me tell you, that was just not part of the deal. I'm sorry, I'm a pretty easy going girl...heck we have a whole heard of Coues deer hanging above our living room T.V. But skulls...yuck!



So for the last couple of years, Matt never pushed or bribed; he kept every skull outside. That is until a couple of weeks ago. He mounted his archery Mule deer from last year on one of the mesquite plaques, and asked me if it would be alright to hang it on the wall just for a few photographs. Well, needless to say, three weeks later the skull is still there. And darn it, it's kind of growing on me. Maybe it's the mesquite plaque that softens it a little.



Maybe I'm becoming a little too connected to this hunting world. But I still want everyone to know, while I may have a Mule deer skull hanging in my living room, I still love Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel too. So there!

Interesting Arizona Elk

We were up in the White Mountains scouting for turkey this weekend, and came across this cow elk...





You can really see the difference when she's next to another elk...



Is is just me or does she remind you of a llama????

Take Me To A Taco Stand....

Yes, I have to admit it, my favorite foods come from a taco stand. Being so close to the border, we’ve got a few. And they are the best!

My current favorite is a little stand called Vaqueros (Cowboys)…carne asada tacos, quesadillas with beans and my new favorite papa’s vaquero (cowboy potatoes) are just a few of the choices.

Something about me....I’m kind of a health nut. The type that will drink smoothies with spinach and fish oil just to offset all of the lard and grease taken in at my favorite taco stand. I know a little strange...

Anyway here’s the Borderland Adventures, Papas De La Frontera version of Papa’s Vaqueros Con Carne Venado (Venison Cowboy Potatoes):

6 Servings

Ingredients:

6 large baking potatoes

1 1b. thin cut venison steaks (grilled and chopped into small pieces...great way to use those random cuts on meat you have)

1 tbl. butter per potato

16 oz. sour cream

2 cups queso fresco (feta will work as a substitute also)

2 cups monetary jack cheese shredded

Tortillas (flour or corn)

Hot Sauce

Mojo Crillo Marinade

1	cup olive oil
1/3	cup orange juice
1/3	cup key lime juice
8	cloves garlic, minced
1	tablespoon ground cumin
1	tablespoon ground coriander
1/2	habanero chile, seeded and minced
1 1/2	tablespoons kosher salt
1	tablespoon granulated sugar

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender. Add the mixture and venison to a zip lock bag and refrigerate for 1-4 hours.

Directions:

Oil and roll baking potatoes in coarse salt.

Next give them a few stabs with a fork.

Then place them in the oven at 350 F for about an hour.

In the meantime, fire up the grill and cook the venison (I typically marinate the meat in mojo criollo) Grill the venison for just a few minutes on each side, depending on how thin your meat is.

Remove the steak pieces to a cutting board, and let rest for 5 minutes. Thinly slice the carne asada across the grain on a diagonal. Then chop it into bite sized pieces.



Set your oven to broil, and go to work loading up the potatoes. Add the butter, carne asada and both cheeses. Place the potatoes in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.



Once the potatoes are out of the oven, add the sour cream and hot sauce. We usually scoop the mixture out of the potato and into the tortilla. Ahh...a delicious cowboy potato...Borderland Adventure style. Enjoy!

Oh..I almost forgot to mention, these are great to take along on a camping or hunting trip. Premake the potatoes, leaving out the sour cream and hot sauce. Wrap them in foil and when you're ready, heat them over the fire...just like our favorite breakfast burritos.

Archery in the Schools

Courtesy of Arizona Game and Fish Department

Here's something worth looking into....

Arizona Game and Fish Department is offering the Archery in the Schools Program for students in fourth through twelfth grades. The international-style target archery program covers history, safety, techniques, equipment, mental concentration, and self-improvement while providing integration of social studies, mathematics, visual arts, history, and English/language arts. Instructors undergo an eight hour training provided by Game and Fish at no cost. Currently, Arizona Game and Fish is offering loaner equipment kits (10 Genesis bows, five targets with stands, BCY backstop netting) at no cost with the option of purchasing $4800 equipment kits at a reduced amount of $2400.

For those of you living in other states check out the NASP Archery Internet Site for information on archery in your local schools.

Coues Deer and Coyotes

There once was a jogger named Jamie, o.k. so maybe she was more of a fast walker but she liked to pretend she was a desert marathon runner. Each weekend she would lace up her New Balance shoes, and set off to see what she could see. On the occasions that she came across the elusive Coues deer (our own little Sonoran whitetail deer) or gray ghosts; she was thrilled with delight.




What a treat it was to see the does fanning their beautiful white tails....



And to catch a glimpse of a small buck quickly making his way through the desert. Yes, Jamie loved her weekend runs.


A young Coues deer fawn such an incredible sight...


But then one weekend Jamie wasn't able to find any Coues deer in their typical hangout. Were they just out of view or maybe hiding from something? Hmm...



As Jamie continued to look for the Coues deer, they were nowhere to be seen. All that remained....



Ahh, a natural desert predator, the coyote, especially deadly for young Coues deer fawns, and sometimes even mature deer.






Looking like it was ready for it's next meal, Jamie continued on jogging or was that walking? The desert...always something to be seen.

Henhouse Pottery Contest

Just a quick post....

I am loving the blog Henhouse Pottery, which I recently came across. Julia raises chickens,keeps bees, makes pottery, cooks some simple recipes, knows something about curing horns, and is always fall off your chair hilarious! I love that her blog mixes it up a little bit,not all hunting (but she did just share a photograph of an elk she took).

Check her out! Oh, and this weekend she's having a giveaway contest, so get over there quickly...

Illness forced vets to euthuanize recaptured jaguar

Sad turn of events here in Arizona:

AZ Central stated: Jaguars are protected as an endangered species but on Monday night one of the rare felines was euthanized after being captured, released and recaptured by state authorities.

The roughly about 16-year-old jaguar was put down because of failing kidneys.

A necropsy, the term for an animal autopsy, will be completed at the Phoenix Zoo and could offer more information on the death as soon as this week, according to Bill Van Pelt, an endangered species specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Blood work results as early as Tuesday could offer insight into when the animal's kidneys started to malfunction. Officials say that kidney failure is a common ailment in older cats.

The jaguar gained attention when it was found Feb. 18, caught in a snare the game and fish department had set to catch cougars and black bears as part of research.

The jaguar was collared with a tracking device and released near Tucson, offering much hope to researchers about the insight they might gain into the feeding and movement habits of the rare species of cat.

But officials became worried when the jaguar stopped moving as much, had an abnormal gait and lost weight.

A team of game and fish biologists and a wildlife veterinarian began looking for the jaguar on Sunday. They found him shortly before noon Monday and transported him to the zoo, where he was put down at 5:15 p.m.

The loss of the jaguar hits on an emotional and scientific level.

“The secrets we were hoping to unveil are still going to be secrets,” Van Pelt said.

Since 1971, only six jaguars have been documented in the United States.

This particular jaguar was the only one spotted in the U.S. in more than a decade.

Trail cameras first snapped photos of the jaguar in 1996 when the cat appeared to be about 2 years old. Pictures would capture him from time to time after that, and researchers named him Macho B.

When inadvertently captured last month, they recognized him by his spots.

“I've been with the Department for 18 years and Macho B has been a part of my life for 13,” Van Pelt said.

He said all sedatives given to Macho B had been tested on other jaguars and big cats, and all were within prescribed limits.

Before releasing the jaguar last month, wildlife officials had called him a fine-looking animal – even at 16, which state officials said is older than any other known wild jaguar.

Macho B had weighed 118 pounds at that time. Two weeks later, he weighed 99.5 pounds.

“I'm saddened by the death,” said Michael Robinson, a conservation advocate with the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.

He called the death a blow to the recovery of jaguars.

Robinson's group fought to get the jaguars on the list of endangered species in 1997 and is fighting in federal court for a recovery plan for jaguars.Van Pelt said recovery efforts must largely focus south of the border, since he said 99 percent of the jaguar population is outside of the U.S.

Historically, jaguar territory extended as far north as the Grand Canyon, Van Pelt said. They currently live predominantly in Mexico and South and Central America.

Republic reporter Emily Dean contributed to this story.

Desert Rat asks a good question: Now here is my question… often, it comes up in Hunter’s Ed Classes, etc. “What if I find a deer/elk/bear/etc obviously sick or injured in the woods? What if I’m out in the middle of nowhere and find an animal struck and mortally wounded? “Leave it be” is the answer. “It is the policy of Game and Fish to let nature take its course”

This doesn’t apply here?