She Moose

A few weeks ago Josh got a moose.  

He was out hunting with Sol (our neighbor and Josh's coworker) on his boat and got a cow (girl moose) on the shore.  Unfortunately, she spooked and ran down the bank toward the water, where she collapsed.  

Josh & Sol spent hours trying to get her out of the mud and water so they could butcher her and get her into the boat.  They were unsuccessful so they tied her legs to Sol's boat anchor and left her there, planning to go back the next morning and try again.  Sunday they brought reinforcements in Peter & Isaac (more coworkers) and were gone nearly twelve hours trying to get this blasted moose cut up enough to move into the boat and bring home.

They lost some of the meat to the water, but were able to salvage quite a bit.  Mostly we were grateful a bear (or other animal) didn't happen upon it & help himself!

Finally they got home after 8:00pm and Josh brought our pieces into the arctic entry.  We laid cardboard down and stacked it up on top.

The next day, Monday, Josh was off work and he spent the day washing & butchering while I attempted to keep the boys in the playroom.

{Those ribs there on the table were cut into thirds, that's how BIG the rib cage was!}

{Blood splatter on the floor from carrying the legs back & forth}

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Picnic in the playroom!

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After he got the meat cut off the legs, he borrowed Sol's meat grinder and made us 100 pounds of hamburger.

The freezer is now well stocked for winter, and we are so grateful for this animal that gave its life to feed our family.

The clean up was brutal afterwards, (Hello Clorox wipes + elbow grease!) but for the price of gas for the boat, the meat came to a mere $0.45 per pound.  It was a lot of work, but totally worth the end product.

Hunting & Health in rural Alaska

Our neighbor got a moose earlier this year and shared a leg with us.  Josh had to skin it, butcher it, cut it into chunks and then grind it into hamburger.  It was a long process, but one that provided us with a lot of extra meat in our freezer, which is always a good thing!

Here is that process:

{We tried my Kitchen Aid attachment, but it failed!}

{Thankfully our neighbor loaned us their meat grinder, which worked great!}

{We put roughly two pounds into each bag}

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Hunting:

Before moving to Alaska, Josh did not hunt.  He also did not own guns.  In fact, I was one of "those" moms who wasn't going to allow guns. At all. Ever. Ha!  It's funny to look back and see how much I've changed!

When they get bigger, the boys will absolutely go shooting with Josh.  The magic age, we think, will be 8.  At 8, we will let them get a BB gun and start shooting that with Josh.  We will teach them with those, and go from there.  In order to actually hunt with him, they will need to be older and stronger physically as the chase can be quite exhausting.

They would love to hunt with Josh, and I think he would love that, too.

Living out here, they understand and respect more than I ever did, the animals' sacrifice so we can eat them.  They often ask what animal the meat we're eating came from. I am very frank about it. We killed it so we can live. I don't feel bad about it because it's not being wasted.

Hunting is done in one of two ways generally-- by boat or by snow machine, depending on the season.  Josh hasn't gone hunting alone, which I'm grateful for, both because it's safer, but also because if you catch something, it's really nice to have a second set of hands to help you butcher it and get it back to the village.  The moose Josh caught our second year weighed roughly 800 pounds, so he had to cut it into several pieces in order to move it.  Hunting from a boat is challenging because you are shooting from a bobbing boat, but hunting on snow machine during winter is challenging because once you shoot it, you have to go on foot through feet and feet of snow to track it and bring it in.

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Eating:

I have only had moose, seal and salmon.  I have not tried bear or wolf.  The moose is lean, and has a "gamey" flavor, but I love it.  Moose burgers are especially good, but we also use ground moose in everything, like tacos & chili.  Too much moose can be hard on my stomach to process, so I am careful not to eat too much.  Seal, which I have only tried once, was very oily and not to my liking.  But wild Alaska salmon... is amazing! I love it baked, canned, dried.  It's always delicious!

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{Beaver Dam near Marshall}

 Wildlife:

In Alaska the boys and I have seen a red fox and a moose off our front walk.  Wolves & bear often come into town.  Everyone will get on the VHF to warn one another.  We personally have not seen wolves or bears, but both have been sighted this year in town. 

This is the most dangerous time to run into bears.  They are waking up hungry, and the river is still frozen (no fish) and spring is not in full bloom (no berries). So what you have is a very hungry guy with no access to food, and that's bad news!

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{The Yukon River by boat}

Exercise:

Josh and I work out at home using videos in our living room.  I do yoga occasionally, also at home.  The natives love to play basketball, ride their snow machines and walk everywhere.  The kids ice skate when there is ice.

People walk along the tundra, down to the river or local sloughs, 4 wheel to Mt. Pilcher and hike, climb, or walk up our little mountain.  It is dangerous now that the are bears awake, so it's important to make a lot of noise when you're walking, as well as carry bear mace or a gun.  You can also run into wolves or moose, which can be equally dangerous.  Moose are fast! And often aggressive.  They are the largest land mammal in North America.

Our boys love to go on walks, play at the playground and ride their bikes.  They, too, have kid workout videos they can do while stuck in the house, which are a nice option for those long winter months when it's too cold to get out of the house.

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Stay tuned for the rest of the Rural Alaska Living Series:

Tomorrow is Life with Small Children in rural Alaska

Friday is The BEST and the WORST of life in rural Alaska

& Saturday closes up with Weather in rural Alaska

Boys, Daddies, Guns & Moose Hunting

 Josh and our neighbor, Sol, decided to fire up the schools' snow machine and go moose hunting this fine Sunday morning.  It's partly cloudy & 17 degrees, so weatherwise, things have turned up.  Two days ago it was -42 degrees here with the windchill!

 The boys always get excited when Josh goes hunting.  

 They love to check out his gun (don't worry, it's not loaded!)

 and they love to talk about how when they're bigger they will go hunting with daddy.

 Josh packed some food, water & supplies in his back pack, brought his big gun for hunting moose and his small gun for bears (if necessary) and then got all geared up. 

 Layer upon layer to fight against the cold!

 The boys followed him around all morning like little puppies. 

 And then when it was time for him to go, they hugged him tight 

and wished him luck!

Good luck, babe! 

Hope it's a successful hunt!

slowly

Slowly we are settling in.

Creating routine, sticking to it, and being as consistent as possible in our parenting.

It's working. The twins seem to be adjusted to life back here in Alaska, whereas Wyatt, I think, will take a few more days.

Meanwhile, they are cracking me up with some of their play.  Yesterday as I was getting ready for the day, the three of them were next door in their bedroom playing "Karate School".  The twins were singing this made-up song about "We like to play Kung Fu Panda... Ninja!" I know they were making it up on the fly, but they still managed to sing it exactly in sync with each other. Blows my mind.

Yesterday at lunch Logan said he wished we had a backyard here, but that would never happen.  He thought about this, and then said, "Oh well. We can have one again next summer when we go back."

It's amazing to me how we are "home" in Washington for only three months, but because of the people there who love them, and the amazing adventures we have, they feel like that is home, too.  It makes me happy that they are so connected to a place that means so much to me.  It says a lot for our family that in twelve weeks they are able to make Vancouver feel like home for my little boys.  They are so loved.

We are still working on getting them to sleep through the night and stay in bed until their nightlight turns green at 6:30am.  Of our four nights home, three nights I have been up with each kid once.  I am feeling it today.  I am tired and lethargic.

Josh is feeling it, too.  Yesterday he went moose hunting for ten hours on the river with Buster in his boat, to no avail, and now he's passed out in his easy chair (I'm not sure how, it is SO LOUD with the three boys) and already the next week looms before us looking quite daunting.

{Mt. Pilcher}

I am not really sure what to do about our lack of sleep except let time pass.  Wyatt's been sick with a cough, so I know with time, he will stop waking up.  Jack, too, will eventually settle into the schedule.  Logan has always been my bedtime bandit.  My hope is that the toys we bought as rewards for filling the kindness jar will motivate him to follow the rules.  This morning he did two things out of kindness and earned beads.  I count this as progress and couldn't be more thrilled!

Aside from unpacking, baking and parenting, I am also prepping for our first official year of homeschooling.  I ordered some bookshelves and am planning to start the same day Marshall School starts.  That gives me a little over a week to create lesson plans for the first few weeks and map out our school year with goals & organize my curriculum.

I am planning to do school first thing in the morning so Wyatt can join us if he feels so inclined.  Plus then it will be done for the day early, and we can have the afternoons free to do as we please.

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I wrote the beginning of this post yesterday (Sunday), and now it's Monday morning.  The kids slept through the night (yes, all three of them!) and I slept for seven hours in a row! I was so happy when I woke up and it was 6:30am!  I am feeling great!

We did our new reading routine this morning, and listening to Logan read Wyatt his hard back books did my mommy heart proud.  He was also being really sweet to Jack.  He handed him something he needed and when Jack said thank you, Logan said, "Don't mention it." It was so cute!

I am hoping we are turning over a new leaf.  

That the boys understand we are here to stay and start to relax into our days here.

For now, I am off to finish my Cunningham Family Reunion post,

along with a whole slew of other posts that are long overdue.