I'ma Huntin' Wabbit

As S and I have been discussing different ways to cut our food budget down the last few weeks several options have come available. Several areas have already been taken care of such as we obviously don't have to worry about seafood, now that S has a subsistence licence. Now with the offer of caribou we have red meat covered for a while. However, I hate buying chicken. The quality isn't that great as most of it looks like it has freezer burn or it is VERY pricey. Since our favorite food however seems to be chicken we have simply paid the price. However, a few weeks ago we heard on hotline (local radio station plays call ins for pretty much anything) someone advertising to rabbit hunt and catch as many as you want as there isn't a bag limit on the island. While this sounded interesting we didn't really know any details and we didn't get the guys number as we caught the tail end of the ad. However, last week at work S ended up talking with a couple of guys that were going rabbit hunting this Sat. and invited him to go to. They had an extra gun (since we don't have any) and offered to split whatever they caught. Having never been rabbit hunting S jumped at the chance to learn something new and went out for a few hours yesterday for a very enjoyable and interesting guys afternoon. He didn't realize however that the guys he was going with had also never been rabbit hunting. So after an hour of not seeing any rabbits they decided to head back read up on the subject then go again. Thats when they spotted them. So after about 2hours they had 2 rabbits and a squirrel. Then came the questions of how to bleed, gut and skin it. Next thing I know they are back here at the house with 2 bled and gutted rabbits and the internet pulled up to give tips on how to skin it. Finally the meat was divided up and they were discussing what to do with the pelts, up comes the internet again on how to tan hides. As the other guys weren't too interested in tanning the hides I now have two hides soaking in our garage that S decided to experiment on, using a tanning recipe he got of the internet. So the guys are back out again today, having also looking up hunting techniques, trying to catch more rabbits. With any luck I may not have to buy too much more pricey chicken as I've heard rabbit replaces chicken very well in most recipes, we'll see.