Naseby and the Hunt

Welcome to Naseby! Truly above worry level.

David and Kimmer are amazing. David grew up in NZ but lived in Alaska working as an acupuncturist for 30 something years where he met Kimmer a native Alaskan who has hardcore wilderness survival knowledge. I've been learning so much from the both of them. Most of the food is homemade, and there is a wealth of preserves. To put it simply, this is how I want to live.

This is Buddha, and his brother Herb is not pictured. They are the happiest dogs I've ever met. David and Kimmer have 70ish acres on which the dogs go rabbit hunting while David and I work in the field, mostly we've been fencing and setting up irrigation for their orchard.

Soooo... David invited me to go Tahr hunting with his friend Brent. Tahr is an introduced Himalayan Mountain Goat that thrives in the high altitudes of the McKenzie Basin in NZ. David was a vegetarian for 13 years but is now an advocate for intelligent meat eating. Kimmer actually lived above the arctic circle for seven years surviving off of only what she could forage and hunt. I've come to the understanding that everything dies, and that game hunting is much more humane than buying slaughterhouse meat from a supermarket.

Brent and David having some wine the night before our hunt. Brent is a contract hunter for DOC (Department of Conservation), he helps keep the introduced possum species under control.

I'm sure that what follows will shock my friends and family who know that I've been a vegetarian for 3 years, at which point I was even a raw vegan...

We biked into the mountains, and it was about an hour before we spotted what we thought were two Tahr halfway up the ridge. Brent, was the first to spot them.

As we moved closer we had to keep an eye on them so we didn't lose track of our meat, a game of stealth When we finally got close enough, we discovered that what we had seen were actually two Chamois, a goat-antelope native to the Swiss alps.

By the time we worked our way up the hill, we came upon only one of them, an old looking male laying on a rock. He knew we were there, about 180 meters away yet he didn't move. Three times David silently told the animal that if he wanted to live, he should run. The Chamois stayed where he was so David fired...

David talked me through the whole process as he gutted the Chamois. Showing me all the organs, which are nearly identical to a humans. Here he is holding the heart. We packed up the animal, I carried out the head and the organs.

David the adventurous drove us home through a beautiful 4 wheel drive route.

Upon my suggestion we made a shepherds pie using the organs: as he cut the heart, liver and kidneys he gave me more anatomy lessons.

Kimmer was pleased.

And so we sat and munched on our hard earned meal.

Later that night we cut and packed the rest of the cuts into the freezer for storage. Again, I learned valuable anatomy lessons.