We won’t go hungry! Moose, Thanksgiving, and a new window.

If you are sensitive to hunting and meat processing, you better look away!

We’ve got a freezer and a half full of Jeff’s moose. And it is delicious!

Here’s a bit of a catch-up for how we got here.

Here are the 4 quarters of the moose after they have hung in the cool garage for 10 days and Jeff has removed the crust that forms on the outside of the meat as it hangs.

The face of my skilled hunter who doesn’t like being told to smile for a picture.

The next morning the butcher, Paul, came by to do up the roasts for us. He cut 27 roasts! TWENTY SEVEN!!

What a neat process. With his years of experience, we can chat away while he’s carving out the roasts with his sharp knives, and wrapping them with string, before passing them to Jeff to wrap and me to write what type of roast they are on the outside.

Watching an expert do their job is always fascinating to me. He’s done this thousands of times, I’m sure, and is so quick and efficient.

All the scraps went into a couple of new, clean rubbermaid bins. Jeff took 250 pounds of this remaining meat to a sausage maker in Mayo.

Another pic of the happy hunter:

And a few days later we had sausages! Jeff got a bunch of summer sausage made:

Two bins of Italian sausage:

Some Bratwursts:

And some Smokies:

That’s a lot of meat for the freezer! Filled it actually! And we still had a hundred pounds to grind ourselves!

Jeff ground up what was left, adding a bit of pork fat (moose is very lean), and we bundled them into one pound bundles, just about a hundred of them, and filled up half of our other freezer. We’ll use this ground moose for tacos, spaghetti sauce, etc.

This is enough for meat for … a couple of years, maybe three? Maybe more? Steaks, roasts, sausages, and ground. We are set!!

And the best part is, this moose is really really tasty. Not nearly as strong tasting as his last moose. The butcher said it was really nice and tender. Likely just a young male – 2 or 3 years?

After the moose was all processed, we’ve turned to other fall chores. I cleaned up all my outdoor flower pots and raised beds. It’s always sad to end the flower season. It is so short up here! I’m planning to get my grow light set up somewhere in this small house for the winter so I can keep some plants going, and get some flower seeds planted early for next spring to plant outside.

The window Jeff ordered for the bathroom arrived last week, and since it was a couple degrees above zero, so it wasn’t too late to replace! Our bathroom window is newer than the rest of the house, and vinyl, but the lock didn’t work anymore, and it wouldn’t stay open, or even tightly shut, which isn’t ideal in winter, as you can imagine. So it had to go.

Here’s what our wall looks like. There is a layer of styrofoam board between the two layers of outdoor wood siding. And if this wall is like the kitchen, it is insulated on the inside section with sawdust.

The window was slightly different dimensions than the one that was removed, but still fit in the hole. We wrapped the opening with some water proof rubber peel and stick membrane we had left from under the hot tub, just for extra waterproof and weatherproof-ness. Jeff had to adjust the trim size, inside and out, and did a fabulous job.

After it was all installed, the blind didn’t fit either, which is a wooden slat blind, and somehow Jeff managed to trim every board of it and it looks as good as new, and fits! I gave him a 1% chance of pulling it off, thinking it would just end up a tangled, mangled mess of string and wood slats, but he did it! (Sorry for my doubt Jeff).

Add a bit of minimally expanding spray foam, and it is all done! Hmm, I should have taken a photo of the blind and trim installed. Oh well, you can imagine it, I’m sure.

Jeff also replaced a portion of our back door frame, and replaced all the weather stripping. It looks great!

Now what else is new these days….

Well here’s Hank. Hank’s being such a nice and calm 4 year old dog lately. And Sally the cat is 13 now! She is noticeably louder these days. She demands we get up to feed her breakfast, demands treats at night, and comes for cuddles sometimes! Not bad for a feral kitten I caught, eh?

We were invited to our neighbours, Brian and Rose, for a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, along with a student neighbour and her visiting mom, and Rose’s daughter and boyfriend. It was a fun time! And we had a great dinner. We were in charge of the mashed potatoes.

Yesterday, Monday, we cooked our own Thanksgiving dinner too, so we could have left overs for days.

I made two pumpkin pies, nice and tall and overflowing, and a couple dozen buns.

Jeff made enough dressing I could have a separate bundle to myself (so I could add raisins! I love raisins in my dressing).

We had Yukon grown potatoes, Yukon grown carrots, and Yukon grown cranberries that we picked last year. Mmmmmmmm delicious.

Happy Thanksgiving, from our house to yours!