KILLED A MOOSE!!!

KILLED A MOOOOOOOOOOOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How exciting is this? Shooting and killing  a moose and filling your freezer and friend's freezer FULL of meat!! Word of warning first...there are a bunch of pictures...so get a snack and sit down and scroll through these and see just how its done yall!

We went out this time with a man from the village named Bummer. He is a true native and makes his living by fishing, hunting, and trapping. Bummer constantly has a smile on his face and made us feel welcome and confident immediately when we got on his boat. His little brother also came along with us.
We drove about an hour and a half from Alakanuk down a slough(not sure what the name of the slough was though). Once you get to the slough then the one who will be doing the shooting walks up to the front of the boat and kind of perches there while the boat driver drives at a relatively slow pace down the slough until you see a moose....then once you see one, you shoot!
Of course, I have the best husband in the world, and I kept telling him he could get up front if he wanted to and he kept telling me that he wanted me to kill one. What a guy. Who knows of any other man on the planet that wouldn't pounce on the opportunity to sit up front? But anyway, Greg kept insisting that I stay up there and it paid off! We were headed back down the slough and Bummer and Greg spotted a moose in the trees. I looked and it through my scope and it appeared to look like a cow with no antlers. Bummer picked up his binoculars and yelled "Its a bull!!!" So, I turned and scoped the bull out with my gun again. It was starting to walk behind some trees. I aimed at what I thought was the back hip and shot. I saw the moose staggering. We all got out of the boat and ran after it. Then saw him starting to wade into the river. We all then ran back to the boat and got in and chased him down. He didn't want to get out of the water so we waited and tried to "push" him with the boat and with paddles and yell loudly to scare him onto the bank. Nothing worked. So, I ended up shooting him in the water and we drug him up and Bummer and Greg cut him up right there.

It probably took about 30-45 minutes to cut up the entire moose. We spared nothing!!! The only thing we did not take was part of the hide and the bull's balls!!!


Now, onto the fun part...cutting and grinding up the meat to eat!! It took 6 of us about 4-5 hours to cut it up. Altogether, we had approximately 100-120lbs of ground up meat...got about 20 good size steaks. 6 roasts, a couple of tenderloins, 10lbs of stew meat....and that's not including all the meat we gave away!! That's just what WE have in OUR freezer. Here's pics from cutting it up...

 This is in the middle of the teacher housing area. There is a table always out in the middle for cases just like this. Cutting up moose, geese, salmon, rabbit...anything that we can catch and eat!!

 This is Clark, he and his family are from Yellville, AR.

 That huge pile of meat you see at the bottom of the picture is the scraps!! We cut off a lot of the tendons and fat because moose fat is not very tasty!

 This is Nathan. His wife is Holly and is usually the one taking the pictures. They are from Lebanon, MO.

Hopefully we will have round 2 of this when Greg kills one! Stay tuned!!

Birthday, boat ride, and a swing and a miss moose hunt

Greg's birthday was this past Friday. We celebrated by ordering out pizza!!! It was so much fun to order pizza! 25 bucks a pop! But we also celebrated with Nathan, whose birthday was Thursday, and his wife Holly, Clark, Becca, Emma, Paul, Melanie, River, and Story. It was fun to have everyone there and relax a little while eating pizza we didn't have to make! 

Nathan and Greg's birthday cake. 

Nathan and Greg

This was us opening dads birthday presents Friday morning 

Tucker got dad a camo duck dynasty shirt, Buck Commander DVD, and Uncle Si's tea cups! I'd say that was a good birthday! 

 

Greg ad I went moose hunting this past Saturday. A teachers aide, Jimmy, and his sons Mason and Kobe, took us out to hunt. They were great guides! They knew every nook and cranny of the Yukon River and every slough and field along the way. We saw 5 moose. I shot at one, but missed. Sadly. And we saw a couple of cows(female moose, male are called bulls) but couldn't shoot them because we are non-residents. 

Although we didn't kill a moose, I killed a duck and Greg killed a beaver. 

Greg shooting at the beaver 

Pulling it in the boat...

Final product. Also, meet Kobe. He is in 4th grade at Alakanuk. He is quite the character. 

Also, Tucker went on her first boat ride today! We got a ride to Emmonak with a family from Alakanuk and went to the big store there to do a little grocery shopping. 

Tucker in her life jacket and snow clothes because it is COLD on the boat! 

Tucker and her friend, Andrew. Can you tell which one is from Arkansas? 

Tucker found some friends at the store.