The Butcher and His Wife

My grandmother called around 6pm.

"Pap says 'Bring a knife.' He says I can't say anything, but you should come over."

My grandfather, 88 years old, shot and fell a young deer wandering through his property. The legality of this may be debated by the Game Comission of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania but old timers in this part of the world, as far as I've ever known, take actions and seize opportunities when they're presented. 

My grandfather wanted to both show me some butchering techniques and share the rewards. I wanted to photograph a process that preceeded most of the meals I recall eating at my grandparent's house in the winters when I was younger. I got these few shots in between hacking at and through the rib cage with a oversized meat cleaver out of the Acme catalog. 

I took home about half of the animal and put it to good use, one of those hind quarters included.