We Had Squirrel For Dinner

Recently, we had squirrel for dinner.

Not a nice large, fat, friendly, squirrel; a nasty, little, evil, red squirrel.

Here's how it happened (because I know you are all wondering how on earth this came about)...

We have an abundance of walnut trees here.  Perhaps you have read about our walnut escapades.  But we have these nasty red squirrels (click the link to learn about them - I like how they call them a "chainsaw with paws").  S1 decided he had had enough of them and set a trap for one in a tree near his shop.  He baited it with on of our abundant walnuts.

I had been at work all day and work days are boy pick up days from school so they were all in the suburban with me when we pulled in the driveway.  "Look," S2 pointed, "It's your hawk!"

S1 has a hawk.  It's a little friendly red tailed hawk.  The problem is, hawk's aren't really pets.  And they eat chickens.  And, we found out, squirrels.  But this hawk seems to like S1 and sorta hangs around his shop and follows him out then he goes hunting.

The hawk caught S1's attention and it suddenly dawned on him that he had, in fact, caught himself an evil red squirrel.

And the hawk, being so friendly and all, had been helping himself to a squirrel leg.

Really.

Anyhow, the boys got the squirrel down and were just as thrilled as could be about it, missing hawk eaten leg and all.

As we happen to be huge Duck Dynasty fans, they really really really wanted to eat the squirrel.

S2 was especially interested in eating the squirrel brain because Miss Kay says they are the best.  And, apparently, squirrel brains make you smart - so says Miss Kay.

Really, there was no reason why I couldn't make the squirrel so I said, "Sure, why not?"

(After typing that sentence I am a little worried about myself.)

The boys cheered.

S1 made short work out of skinning the squirrel.  I walked into the kitchen to find this....

I had already made up a chicken stuffing bake (not knowing the boys would be catching dinner) and since there was so little squirrel meat - especially since it was an evil little tiny red squirrel missing a leg that the hawk had helped itself to - I gave up my piece of meat for the boys to eat.

They were appreciative.

This is the teeny tiny four pieces of squirrel meat cooked in a pan with a small can of cream of mushroom soup.

Daddy seemed to suddenly have an issue with eating squirrel brains so those we did not cook up those.

I only wished I had gotten a photo of the boys eating these ridiculously small pieces of meat.  But seriously, the pride in their eyes because they had put "meat on the table" was adorable.

Later that evening, I had to listen to this conversation....

"We learned on YouTube a better way to skin a squirrel today." Then they told Daddy all the different ways you can skin a squirrel (and other varmints). Daddy then said, "Learning a lot in home school today?" S1's response, "If I know how to do all the math problems in the world but don't know how to properly skin a squirrel, what kind of man would I be?"

It concerns me greatly that this is now hanging on our (only) bathroom wall....

In case you don't believe me that this is now hanging on the wall (it was first cut out and placed on our John Deere stepping stool (where I took this photo) but now it is properly displayed above the hand towel holder), here is a link for the article from Field and Stream. They really wrote an article on how to tan a hide in the bathtub.

Send help. Please. Coffee may not be enough to get me through this one.