Adventures in generosity

On Saturday, November 23, I hit a deer.

 

This could be a sad story of meaningless death and destruction and $2600 in auto body repairs.

But it's not.

I had a car full of kids on their way home from Mark's birthday party.  After determining that no one was hurt except the deer, Jeannie exclaimed, "I've always wanted to be in a car when it hit a deer!"  Her youthful enthusiasm in experiencing the power her older relatives have in deer hunting lifted my spirits and gave me courage.

I decided that now that the damage was done, I may as well take the deer.  I dropped the kids off, bought some trash bags, laid them out in the back of the van, and drove back to the deer.  

I couldn't budge her.  Not an inch.  A nice man stopped by to see if I needed help but we both had bad backs, so I thanked him for his kindness in stopping, drove home, and called my brother.

Dan informed me that I had 2 hours from death to get it gutted or lose the meat.  That left me with 50 minutes on the clock, not enough time for him to get to me.

I called my neighbor, Mark, who has a truck.  He said he'd help.  

I called the Tollefsons and between them, they knew how to gut a deer and they had the equipment to hang it up, too.  They also sent Kiernan to help haul the deer into the truck.

We found the deer with 35 minutes to go.  The guys heaved it into the truck in a jiffy, we drove home, and Sandi and Tom got busy gutting- all in the dark on the coldest, windiest night so far this season.  They all left it hanging in my deep-freeze garage in time and took off to do the shopping they'd all been leaving for when I called.

God bless good neighbors!

Next- van repair.

Headlight and turn signal out.  Passenger side door won't open because of bent fender.

The pros recommended $2600 in body work- darn plastic vehicles!  Van's not worth that much which is why we took the collision insurance off it this fall. 

Tim bent the fender back with a hammer claw so I could get the door open.  Yeah, Tim!

I called Lindstrom Motors to ask about a replacement light and a field expedient repair.  Kevin inspected for internal damage and didn't find any leaks.  He drilled two holes and zip tied the bumper back on.  They're hunting for a used headlight assembly but in the meantime, he installed a tiny orange turn signal bulb to keep me legal.  All for free the day after Thanksgiving.  So kind.

Even if the assembly turns out to be $600, we're still $2000 and a lot of kindness ahead here.  I figure $12/pound for venison is a lot better than $40- yikes!  

Ah, yes, the venison.  Since I don't actually know anything about how to process deer, I debated having it professionally done for $100+.  Until the repair bill hit me.  Then, I decided to ask my friend from church, Sean, to help me.  He came over with his dad and all the tools, removed the hide, sawed the carcass into pieces, disposed of all the leftover bits, and took the meat and bones home to defrost and process in his heated garage, all the while joking and dispensing knowledge such as the best place to get the meat ground into sausage. 

 

And finally, my Sunday School class.  I walked into class late the day after I hit the deer.  Dave, the leader, announced, "Here's Amy the Deer Slayer!''  And the whole class burst into cheers and applause.  

Anything, everything, little or big,

becomes an adventure when the 

right person shares it.

--Kathleen Norris

This could be a sad story of meaningless death and destruction and $2600 in auto body repairs.

But it's not.

It's the story of brave, kind, generous, knowledgeable people- an elementary school girl, the Good Samaritan, men and women, teen-age boys- who made my story into an adventure. 

This kind of generosity can't go unanswered.  

Venison anyone?  It's organic, free-range, and corn fed- very tasty.

I hope you like it.  I killed it myself.