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 😊
