The Bacon Adventure Weekend

Want to rock out with me on my next Adventure Getaway? Visit THIS PAGE to read about all that we have planned, from dove hunting to falconry, oh my!

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Friends! It’s been a little while since I’ve written to you here, but if you follow my Facebook page or my Twitter or my Instagram you can probably tell why. It’s been a caraaazay busy time.

I am currently in Prince Edward Island, Canada shooting a TV show and I just finished eating a piece of crane jerky. I knew you were wondering about what I just ate so I thought I’d share. You’re welcome.

But I want to tell you about the past few weeks! Specifically, the latest Girl Hunter Weekend I just had. Oh boy was is fun. It went like this:

After Thanksgiving, I took a road trip from New York to Arkansas with a friend. We packed the car up with Girl Hunter Weekend gear and drove south. I like a good road trip from time to time, don’t you?

We stopped off for lunch in Nashville at my old stomping grounds. I lived in Nashville for a few months so I took a quick walk down memory lane before I popped back in the car.

Then we crossed the magical Mississippi River to our final destination.

There was a full moon over the Mississippi which was beautiful to look at, but made it tricky for hunting, since it encourages the animals to move at night rather than at sunrise or sunset.

My friend Paul Michael is working on a new building and I took a quick tour. There was an old sign painted on the wall that had a super old school 3-digit phone number from waaay back. Isn’t that cool? I didn’t know there were 3-digit phone numbers ever.

Then we did the world’s biggest grocery shop in order to feed my peeps that were arriving. This is basket #2. Basket #1 was equally overflowing.

This was the place of our weekend, a deer camp that has walls made from the siding of old homes in the Delta. Those were the colorful gift bags.

Key of A was one of our sponsors again, and I just loved, loved, loved the necklaces they sent for the ladies. They also sent money clips for the men which were super cool.

Our first night we ate one of my all time favorite things to eat–a whole hog! Marinated for days and smoked for many hours, then layered with bacon and molasses. Amen.

Those roasted apples complete me.

We got up very, very early. And made our way in different groups to the deer stand in the dark and waited for the sun to come up.

This was my view from my stand.

These were some of my deer stand snacks. I love peanuts the most. What are your favorite deer stand snacks?

The gal that I was with got the first doe of the weekend — an 8 year old.

My friend Frederick field dressed it for her. I’ll show you the step-by-step on that another day.

I also made him save the liver so I could cook it. I was like “Hey Frederick, save a girl some liver, okay?”

And he was all, “Yes ma’am.” He was so accommodating and polite. I love men who save me the liver.

Back at the camp we had to remove the bottom jaw bone in order to see how ground down the teeth were. This is how you tell its age which is an important data point for conservation purposes.

Then we showed my friends of the weekend how to skin a deer.

They have a way for us to do it very quickly which uses an electronic pulley system, but I wanted to show them the slow way at least once.

Then we hosed it all down nice n’ good.

After we hosed, the boys rolled it into the walk-in cooler to let it age. I like to age my deer up to 17 days.

Then, we had our butchering class! Since I had officially called this weekend “The Bacon Adventure Weekend,” I showed my guests how to butcher a whole hog. Mmm, I love me some whole hog.

And then I taught them how to make bacon!

They were good students. These two were sisters who were honing their pioneer skills. They wanted to learn how to be completely self-sufficient. They had never hunted anything before and their husbands said they had doubts that they had it in them.

Say wha?

In fact, that was what a lot of men told a lot of the women that were at this event. As you can imagine that didn’t sit well with me.

So we texted him this picture when she killed her first deer. And we initiated her with the blood of her first deer on her face.

That made me feel better. Also, did I mention she was a vegetarian for 20 years? That made me feel even better. A convert!

And even better, the man who taught me to hunt was the one who was with her when it all went down.

Then I went out with her again the next day and within the first 10 minutes of sunrise…

She harvested her second deer.

And we brought back the heart and liver for her to bring her husband, hehehe.

Then later that night, we had another first for another women!

We gave her a glass of whiskey and sent her doubting husband a picture.

Men, stop doubting your women!

Meanwhile, this fellow who joined his wife on the Bacon Adventure mixed some sausage for our sausage making class.

I showed them how to clean the sausage casings.

And then I showed them how to stuff the sausages.

And we hung them to cure overnight next to the deer that provided the meat.

Then I cooked liver for everyone to try.

People scarfed it up around the campfire.

We also had s’mores for dessert.

And bananas foster for dessert.

I also made this. But we didn’t have it for dessert. Do you know what it is?

It was such a fun group! It was a weekend I’ll never forget. Sign up for my mailing list on the ride hand sidebar of this website to be informed of future events.

And if you have any suggestions for where you would like future Girl Hunter Weekends to be held please leave them in the comments! We’re working on more action packed fun for next year.