A mama, baby and a bull...

We got a call at 10 am, from my end it sounded like someone hit three with their car! I panicked! I had to wait for my husband, @alaskatactical, to get off the phone before I could grill him for answers.

source Wanted to show a happy picture instead of what happened to them.

When he got off the phone I called the Alaska Moose Federation to pick it up for us. We can’t fit a moose in the Prius, LOL. Maybe quartered out, like we did when we salvaged a moose that was 1.5 miles in on a ski trail. That was interesting, we commandeered the kids sleds to haul the moose piece by piece.

Yes it was a call for three moose, they all got hit by the train. Not a car.
Remember how @alaskatactical posted about yet another snow storm. I’m tellin’ ya, the snow is heavy, thick, and very deep. So the moose are drawn to locations that have less snow, like the railroad tracks.
We were first on the list that was called, so we should get first pick.

John(@alaskatactical) got the location of drop off, almost down town Talkeetna. I guess you can’t leave a few moose at the train depot in downtown. LOL
So they took the moose to the rail road crossing. I am not sure how the railroad picks up the road kill.
I wonder if it’s one of those cool rail trucks. It has to be something strong, maybe a crane?
Moose weigh at least 1,000 lbs.

Well it normally takes only a half hour to get to down town Talkeetna, but since we got yet another storm on top of spring time break up it took an hour.
It took so long that when John did make it there he had to make a rest stop.
When he drove by the moose drop location, there was two. But when we got back from the rest stop, there was only one.

John said we got the bull, guts look intact. That’s a good thing.

So from the time of the call until the moose gets dropped off is prep time. Prep the kitchen counters, the house, the drop location. Rush rush rush, go go go!

By now it’s two hours past the time of the first call. The Alaska Moose Federation is based out of Palmer, they use to have state funding. Then the state said it was a waste of funds. Won’t get into the mess 👎
Anyways they where going to hire someone out this way, but I guess that fell through.
So we have to wait for him to drive all the way from Palmer.
Yes we paid for the service, no we don’t have a truck or trailer, yet.
It just sucks because of how long it takes.

2 hours into the moose call:
I did just get an ETA on the Alaska Moose Federation, they finally made it to the spur( a road junction ).
Just the storm John was talking about has hit and it’s dropping lots flakes, but the plows had just been through. When John first drove in the roads where bad, and not plowed. No surprise for Alaska as of late.

2.5 hours into the moose call:
It is finally on its way here.
We need to just get a truck and trailer. Kitchen is done and prepped, cutting boards and knifes ready.

3.5 hours in and it has landed.
Husband told me that the Alaska Moose Federation Offered him a job. My husband told them that he will talk to me and see if I was interested as well. I may take them up on it if I can bring my kids with.
After all I homeschool and can’t leave them. I called and ask if it will be an issue, nope I could do it.
It would be voluntary only until the state pays for it again. Last owners were shady and burned many bridges associated with the name “Alaska Moose Federation”. John and I would be covering 61 miles, have the company truck and company fuel.
Still need to thinknit over, and make sure we will have community support.

John and I working on the moose

We cheated and used the four wheeler to turn the moose over for us after we had two legs off. We normally turn it by hand

5 hours after the call:
All legs are off and chilling in clean snow.
The moose has some damage, blood shot the back straps, ruptured the abdominal cavity but not the guts. Not bile at all even with getting hit by a train.
We moved the carcass to a sled. As it was resting in the sled, gas escaped and the moose puked. Which made me dry heave 4-5 times. I puke when people puke, always have. Now I know I will puke when a moose pukes.

Now it’s lunch time, I have to eat. Before the moose puked my belly was screaming at me. Now I’m not that hungry, but will force myself to eat because the work is not done.
We will be turning most of this moose into burger.

7 hours after the call:
We needed caffeine. I did a run to the gas station for Monster and soda.
John was cutting and grinding when I left. But when I came back I find out he let one of the kids help grind. All I could think is “watch your fingers”. It’s just a small kitchen aid grinder, but still it’s good to make them aware.

8.5 hours in:
Everyone is welding knifes.
I have the kids helping cut meat and clean up and remove the sinew, ligament, and tendon. A very tedious and tiresome chore.
Some of the moose meat is VERY gamy, to the point we didn’t think it would be safe to eat or even taste good. Such a shame too. It seems the moose was hit from behind. 😣

The coolest hog ring pliers EVER! They work similar to a staple gun and auto feed.

10 hours into the call:
We have ground and processed 24 pounds of meat. Not much I know but most of the hind quarter was gamy and blood shot.
We have done one front leg and one back, still two more legs to go.

10.5 hours in:
We ordered pizza for dinner, do you blame us for not wanting to cook.

It is now 12 hours past the call:
We are on our last leg, sigh. So sore and stiff. My feet hurt from standing in snow boots.
We have about 100 lbs of burger and various cuts of meat.
John is going to try and harvest the hoofs for our dogs. He was talking about removing them and boiling them too.

The day seems to be nothing but a blur, almost a dream.
Sorry not as many photos this time, but I tried to give you a time line to follow along.
John is so tired, I am so tired.

Also if you don’t remember, or didn’t know, we did this about a month ago too. See here.

We listened to the audio book Heartless by Marissa Meyer while processing the moose.

I suggest Marissa Meyers “The Lunar Chronicles” series, I read the books too. Kid safe, suggestive body language only, and that’s very minimal. My kids loved listening to it.

Well good night ya all.

P.S. I don’t really know what to tag this under, advice please.