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12 SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | NOVEMBER 2021 By Clare Mendez, Resident November and December, is big game season for many states around the country. We're talking white tailed deer (Bambi's mom and dad). Sporting goods stores are packed with men and women buying guns, ammo, gloves, wool socks, and boots. Oh, don't forget the florescent orange vest lest you be mistaken for a deer yourself! Next, load up the station wagon with your gear, lunch, hot chocolate, and find your favorite hunting ground. Let the hunting begin! In those fall months, it's not unusual to see a large animal strapped on the roof or trunk of someone's car once it's been "tagged." The happy hunters returning home. When the daily temps are below 32°there is no need for a freezer to store your meat, just tie the dead deer with a rope and hang it on your porch. Why not let some of the neighbors admire your hunting skills for a day or two, right? Later it will be butchered in sizable portions for cooking. Once all that lean meat is sliced, diced, and stored, it's time to take the head to the local taxidermist. Once there, he will stick the tongue back in the deer's mouth, attach glass eyes and mount it on a plaque. Afterwards, when your guests come over, you have a conversation starter. Everyone wants to hear about your hunting expedition. How you had the animal in your sights, aimed, and blah, blah, blah. What do you do with it once it's lost its appeal and everyone you know has heard your triumphant story? Does the Goodwill take mounted deer heads? I've never seen one there. Have you ever tasted grass and mineral fed animals with literally no fat on their bodies? Venison has the highest protein and lowest cholesterol content of any major meat. A 3oz serving has 19.5 grams of protein, which translates to: not sweet and juicy like the fattened cows and pigs we're used to. It has a ripe, earthy taste that no matter how you slice it or cook it, it will always taste the same. I've had my share of ground venison, venison steak, stewed venison, and many other ways it is creatively prepared. Time to take some of that bacon grease you've been saving to flavor up the pan, or drown it in gravy. That was the story of my life, as well as many others. The deer meat was our primary source of food throughout the winter. But, gosh, with so many hunters in my family (Dad, four brothers and one sister) we ate venison for months on end. Maybe that's why I have a wild streak in me. Everybody has stories to tell. Write one down that is on your mind and submit it to the Communications Committee for review and publication in The View. By Theresa Rossetti, Resident Have you taken up a new hobby since retiring, downsizing or just moving to SDV? I bet a number of us have, whether it be billiards, swimming, tap dancing, bocce or maybe a craft you've been wanting to spend more time on. At The Lodge or in the comfort of your own home, spending more time on something you love or have grown to love is a perk of the 55 and over group. So, let's talk about the fall season obsession of many. Yes, I speak of football, as in NFL obsession, Fantasy Football, football pools, spending all day Sunday glued to the tube switching back and forth from game to game on your Season Pass subscription. Not to mention the College and High School games. Growing up, football was not a thing in my family. My Dad was a baseball fan, devoted to the Yankees. To be perverse, I was a Dodgers fan, the Brooklyn Dodgers of Ebbets Field, not the faux ones of Los Angeles. My heart was broken by Walter O'Malley and has never healed. Then along came the family of the guy I married. Season ticket holders of NY Giants ducats from the '60s till they got too greedy many, many, many years later. I thought it was cute that uncles went together to the games, loyally freezing their you know what's off at Yankee Stadium then at the Yale Bowl, Shea Stadium, and Giants Stadium over the years. The game on TV was just a good excuse for me to take a nap after my mother-in-law's Sunday Sauce dinner every weekend. Now we come to the present. Somehow, at this stage in my life, I decided to join in on the obsession, sort of. I watch the games, my loyalty switches from team to team just about every year, there is a certain team I always despise (the one in that state where that Tea Party took place a couple of hundred years ago). I have a vague idea of some of the quarterbacks' names, possibly the occasional running back's and am fairly certain which team is in which state. Somehow or another I wound up in an online pool run by a friend of our younger son. It's fun, I'm terrible, my son is worse, but one of our daughters-in-law is usually in the final round. For the last two years our currently 10-year-old grandson makes better picks than I do. Now he has convinced his dad to put together a family pool, just for fun and bragging rights. My goal is to at least not finish in last place. I'm all ears if you have any inside tips for me. Deer Me ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

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