Well after a already long and tiresome day of running errands and finishing the goat house. We got a call 15 minutes before midnight for a road kill Moose, on 11th of September 2018
The day was starting to wind down, I was taken a shower from the day’s work in the goat house. When my husband comes in while the shower was running and says “Moose”. That’s it, I look at him dumb foundly. He says “Moose road kill”, oh 💡the gears start to spin and mesh together on a plan of action. He then asks me if I want the moose, duh! I say “if we don’t take it they will move us to the bottom of the list”. The dispatch officer then says that the Moose is “in great shape”, that “it’s a yearling”, and right down the road. The hubby just looks at me after he relayed all that, I said yes! So the hubby tells the dispatcher we will take it, who will pick it up and what car to look for. The hubby called the Alaska Moose Federation for the pick up.
Well I quickly finished my shower, got dressed and grabbed the kids. We all piled into the van and headed to the location.
The pickup
All I had to go on for location is mile markers, so I am watching the mile markers on a jet back night. I hate to drive at night just for the fact I could hit a behemoth Moose, actually any moose. I have never hit one and don’t intend on hitting one anytime soon. My husband has hit two if I remember correctly. One destroyed his windshield and ripped off his side mirror. Another got grazed.
Well I am getting close to where this moose was suppose to be when I see flashy lights. So I am getting excited, I have never been to a road kill with the troopers still present. Ever! So I’m thinking he is stopped next to the moose, so I drove towards the light, lol. Well I drove by a big black lump on the road, the moose! I quickly back up and put my hazards on. I get out my drivers license and head linght. Got out of my car and start to approach the moose to look at it. The trooper was about 200 ft away. Well the trooper noticed and decided to fling his car around and blind me with his light bar and flashers. I took a few steps back in shock, they are expecting me. This isn’t how they treat the road kill people is it? I gain my barrings and hold my left hand up to shield the light and my right with my ID. Once he was closer and seen the little white square he turned the light bar off and asked if I was on the road kill list. I said “yeah”. I showed him my ID to verify I am who I say I am. He said “I though you where going to scalp the moose, a snatch and grab.” I said “in that case thanks for stopping me.” We both laughed. He said the moose looks to be in great shape, I said great! We did our partings. The trooper went back to the spot he was originally. Come to find out that’s where the car stopped, 200 feet away from the moose.
Photo taken at 0001 or 12:01 am, to give a time line reference
We waited in the car for the Moose Federation, I put a movie on for the kids to watch. I dinked around on my phone. After about an hour the Moose Federation showed up.
Time line : 0053 or 12:53 am
They seen the flashers on my car and pulled right over. Got out dropped the ramp, looped the cable around the moose’s head and dropped it up onto the truck. Once everything was loaded and put away and got the thumbs up we headed to my house for the drop off.
The drop off
Once we got to the house I had them drop the moose in that spot I fixed in the drive way. You know the one I fixed with 25 bags of dirt, well anyways. They backed in to that spot and dropped the moose right there.
Adjusted the legs for me too. Then I got grilled. “So where’s your hubby?” “Sleeping” I say. The man then says “so your going to leave this till tomorrow?” I said “no, I’m going to process it”. He was in shock and dumb founded for a second, then said “self sustaining?” I said “yep”.
He then grabbed the normal paperwork for me to fill out and sign. I headed to the house to roust the hubby, I needed help droping the guts.
Processing the moose, a two person job
Timeline : 0120 or 1:20 am
So after rousting the hubby, he came out to see the moose.
He decided that it would be easiest to roll it onto its back to drop the guts.
While the moose was getting gutted I noticed something interesting.
Moose have four nipples!
This is awesome! I love Alaskan Zoology and never learned this in my HS class. So I was very stoked!
I had the reign myself back and focus, lol.
While gutting we noticed that the moose didn’t have much fat, they are normally lean as is. But winter is coming, so you would think they would have some on them.
My husband then skinned the belly and started to meticulously and very slowly open the stomach cavity.
While he was pulling the guts for me, he was mumbiling about stomach and another stomach. But they where on different sides. So I asked, “how many stomached do they have?” He said “they have a four chamber stomach.” I said “just like a cow!?” He said “yeah kinda”.
He did tear one stomach, so we placed a garbage bag over it so if we drop the meat it won’t get tainted.
Then the hubby went back in and went to bed.
Who wants to help?!
Two kids run for the door and say “ME!”🙋♂️🙋♀️
I choose my daughter, and told my boy to clean the counter so we can cut the meat.
So we got to business.
It took her and I about an hour to skin and quarter the moose, felt shorter though. Not bad if I do say so myself, considering it was my first time dressing a moose. Hahaha dressing a moose, I pictures a moose in a dress. 🤪 Sorry in a goofy mood.
Then we cut it off the bone and hauled it inside for processing.
Timeline: 0401 or 4:01am
We packaged it up into a meat tub and stuck it in the extra fridge we have. The kids and I were exhausted!
Later that day, around noon/one on the 12th of September 2018, we attempted to get ziplock baggies. Well on the way to town I broke my van.
I thought it was on FIRE! Smoke was rolling out from under the hood!
Come to find out I had a crack in the heater hose and it was spraying antifreeze everywhere. It was an easy-ish fix. Tow truck took forever to get to us, we waited two hours on a very hot day.
We ended up just fixing my van that day and getting no meat processed any further.
So now it brings us to today, the 13th of September 2018.
We are making moose jerky, and will be making breakfast sausage.
It’s cooking for 5 hours at 160°F, it’s a small batch. Just a test batch.
Proof 😊
I read part of it and got my full upvote woman. I'll come back to it later and read the whole thing and comment properly. It's freaking 2:30 AM I'm going to bed :D This is something on my bookmark for future reference...
💗 rest well
Haha another epic @alaskahippie post! Perfect pictures for while I ate my breakfast this morning.
I don't know what was so funny about your last selfie pic but it made me laugh.
Maybe cause you look like a deer in the headlights... or a moose... while holding moose parts lol
Hahaha! I try my best to be epic. LOL
Yum! Builds a stronger gut, I talk of such things while people eat too. Thanks just me. 😁
Maybe it was the fact I am hauling body parts around in a wagon.
Hell if I didn’t have proof photos would you believe the bullshit I do. Shit until Steemit I didn’t realize all the shit I do, for real it’s just life to me.
Speaking of moose in headlights, the eyes of a moose doesn’t shine like a deer. It has to be just right in order to shine. But by the time you see the shine it’s to late...
There has been a ton of moose getting hit. I saw one yesterday looked like a ground up moose burger. Glad your family got that meat!
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Aww man really! That sucks! If is was that bad, I hope
The person is alright because DAMN! That must have been a hard hit.
The day after we got the moose one of my husbands co workers hit one too 😔
It’s sucks major, but I am glad we have programs that give the meat to people.
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the detailed lead in story too. You described everything so well, yet again, it's like I was there. Thanks for all the details. Very educational and I appreciate you sharing so much with us. Moose jerky , oh yeah!!! You folks now have some meat squirreled away for winter. Less trips for supplies in the winter = less accidents and issues. I like grilling in the backyard in the winter myself. Well......back when I had a yard. Alot of work but so worth it and so good for the kids. Much love to you and your family.
Thanks ☺️
Oh yeah the meat is very tender, it hasn’t taken on the normal dark color of moose meat. I am going to me doing more processing again today.
Yeah I don’t like having to drive an hour for a grocery store, that’s BS. Especially in the winter.
We have a grill, you know the kind a husband fusses to have but never fucking uses. Yeah that kind. LOL!
❤️
Dang! I know how much work goes into that kind of work even though I've only done it on little whitetails. Good for you for taking it on and not letting all that meat go to waste.
Thanks, yeah it was all fine and good until we actually started to cut the meat off the bone. Then my back started to burn. Man that sucks!
I understand that. When the workspace is set up right it is easy, otherwise it is a drag. A friend and I butchered a lamb one time. The weather was cold and we had good company, so it was pretty pleasant. The same task alone, on a summer night getting eaten by mosquitoes is a whole different experience!
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Yeah I had good company, but the mosquitoes ate my face. I have five bites on my face.
Road-Kill-List? That's a great system! Looks like a good size moose for free too. You are right, it does look a bit lean. That meat will probably be a great addition to the freezer too.
Bad luck on the truck, but at least it was a simple fix i suppose....
Yep the road kill list, we love it too. In my opinion is better then hunting. The moose come to us, we get something that would have gone to waste too.
Yeah I was very worried it was something way worse.
We have a cold room (and a butchershop), and could hang road kill deer. We let it be known we'd take a not too badly damaged one, but so far, none....
That was quite the job, getting the moose cut up so quickly. We'll be doing a steer this year, probably in November.
Yeah I hear in the states the road kill deer gets destroyed. 💔😢 Such waste.
I hear land owners can take like six deer though. But white tails are so small, and have a lot of fat.
I also hear they are a major pest.
Your lucky you have a room to do it all in. We have the great outdoors, lol!
Yeah I think the reason it went so quickly is the way I butcher. I cut with the meat and sinew, between the natural sections of meat.
The very few deer we've had have not had a lot of fat.
When my husband does the cutting, he cuts the standard things: steaks, roasts, hams, chops, brisket that we eat and the rest goes to stew beef and hamburger/ground pork. We have a Biro meat saw, so that makes it a LOT easier. He did them with a meat saw the first year, but his arthritic shoulders would not take doing it again.
We can do a pig in one day cut and packaged. But a cow takes 2 days for us.