When I was in my teen years, I knew just about everything. Trouble was, my dad felt the same way about himself. Take a fall Saturday morning in my 16th year, for instance. I was up early, eating my breakfast of a can of Scotch broth soup, a favorite of mine, coffee and toast. It was raining out. It had rained the last three weekends in a row. I felt that if I didn't get out after those squirrels, I would bust. My know it all dad sat down to his breakfast and pointed out that it was raining. I assured him, the squirrels would be out anyway, 'cause they get hungry every day. Besides that, the wet ground will make it easier for me to sneak up on them. Told dad I would probably be back in an hour, maybe two, with my bag limit of squirrels. We had two cars then, and I had my drivers license, so dad said to go ahead then, take the Ford. The Ford was 1929 Model "A" four door sedan. It was our fishing car. So, I set out through the cold rain, for a favorite wooded hillside a few miles up river. It didn't take me an hour to discover how wet and miserable one could become, trying to hunt in a cold rain. Worse yet, I slipped on some wet leaves and slid down into a ravine. On returning home, wet, muddy, cold and empty handed, I had to endure my dad's snickering as he started with his smart aleck comments. "I suppose you want to get right to work cleaning squirrels. I'll go make some room in the freezer for 'em". He just went on and on like that.
@Ike Willis, I wonder what those squirrels are for? Pardon my ignorance but do you sell those squirrels or do you eat it? But that's a neat lesson to listen to the elders for they have experienced most of those things and probably advising us based on their own lessons. My father is the silent type who doesn't converse with us much but when he talks, we all listen and we try to remember what he would say. My brother did just that and now he is reaping his rewards as a good horse training, earning so much for the mastery of his trade which he learned from my father who used to be the president of the horse trainer's association for so many years.
Hi Corie. My family ate whatever game I brought home. Squirrels are rodents, related to rats. However, rats eat garbage, squirrels eat grain and nuts. I much prefer rabbit to squirrel, but my x wife, bless her heart, used to cut up the squirrel in pieces and place them in a covered baking dish along with a can or two of cream of celery soup, or cream of mushroom soup. When it was done, the soup and juices were used as a gravy over potatoes. The meat would be so tender it would nearly fall off the bone. Some of those big old squirrels could be pretty tough and chewy, but always came out tender when cooked that way. An oven bag would probably work well too, and you could add fresh vegetables and onions to that too.