North Woods Buck

You know it's a pretty big deal when he takes a selfie. Wish I had been there with my camera!
 

 

 

Evan is tagged out for the season! I am very jealous, but happy for him. That's what I get for leaving Davy Crockett up in the woods all by himself. He shot him near the St. John River. This buck is his biggest yet, weighing in at 206 pounds all dressed out with an 8 point rack. He had no hunting season at all last year because he was at school so he's making up for lost time. :)

 

It's very weird to see at least 4 moose a day but never see any deer! I have yet to set my eyes on any, doe or buck in the North Woods. But here's proof that they are around! I'm hoping that I might get a shot at one the last couple of days of the season!

 

 

 

My First Limit

When you're a stay at home mom with two boys under the age of 4, it's often quite necessary to get some kind of break!!! Jackson is at the perfect age of three for me to send him with his Dad to do some trapping. He's completely obsessed with anything and everything that his Daddy does. Even if it's for a couple of hours...that's plenty of time for me to feel refreshed and find some sense of self!

 

It's hard though because a lot of the time I want to get out too! This area and all it's creatures are gorgeous but you're never going to soak that up while sitting at home! It's refreshing to get out in the crisp November air and soak up the simple beauty. The boys and myself had been closed up in the house for too long because they both brought colds back into the North Woods with them. I'm so relieved to say that they both recovered with no sore throats or ear infections and no doctors visits!

 

My parents were coming to stay with us and I had every intention of cleaning the house while the boys were out but I changed my mind and hopped in the car with them. We spent the day trapping and hunting. Quality time spent on dirt roads and in the woods. This won't last forever...when in Rome....:)

Two limits in two hours. Not bad!

 

 

 

Getting ready to run!



Tough bird

And dinner is served!!! Roasted potatoes, parsnips, onions, and garlic and crispy cornflake partridge!

My first limit. :)

From Forest to Table

There were so many things that fell into place when we were getting ready to move to Clayton Lake. When Evan's name was drawn for the 2013 Maine Moose Lottery, we were ecstatic. When we checked the zone and saw that he would be hunting out of Clayton Lake, it was almost laughable. Call it luck? He has ridiculous luck. A little story about his luck....our first week here in Clayton Lake we went fishing at Bissonnette bridge. His line ended up breaking and he lost his good lure. A week later we went back...and he CAUGHT the line he had lost and saved the lure. Only Evan. 

Exciting moment for our little family! He was 712 lb 42 1/4 inch spread



I hope both of my boys will  get lucky enough to have the opportunity to shoot their own someday!

Evan and his brother Michael. He came in to help call in the moose.

 

 Now is the part where I come in. I have been cooking Evan's wild game for years. He is a natural born killer. Seriously, through and through. Before he became a game warden...his fall seasons were spent AWAY. So it was a pretty easy transition into warden life, he is still going to be gone all fall seasons. He'll just be getting paid now!

 

 

 

That basically says it all. I grew up in a hunting friendly family. But nothing could prepare me for this man's obsession. I always had a major crush on Davy Crockett so really, it all worked out perfectly!!!

 

This might sound so so silly...but there is nothing I love more than seeing the look on my husband's face when I have taken an animal that he has killed and turned it into an awesome meal. There's something so awesome about knowing that the meat you're about to eat came from a gorgeous animal who lived just down the road. The animal lived a natural life, living off the land with no human intervention. When it was killed, it was in it's own habitat. It felt no fear or panic while walking up a ramp at a slaughterhouse awaiting the stun gun. Evan met the butcher face to face. The meat was put in one freezer before it was put in ours. It wasn't transported to a store and put on a shelf. It is the purest way to consume an animal. The only thing shameful about the situation was how the bull looked on the back of the truck riding out to meet the butchers. He should've had a glorious ride fit for a king on his drive out the Reality road. But instead.....he got this.



We didn't have a trailer so things got a little crammed. Baha

We never ate a lot of wild game in my house growing up. I still have a lot of learning left to do, but I've been able to figure out what I can do with it to mask whatever game flavor is left. Some people may enjoy that wild flavor, but I do not. This is the first moose we have ever had and in my opinon, it certainly has the most mild game flavor when compared with bear and deer. Very exciting. :)

 

For our first meal with the moose meat, I decided to make a stir fry. I got the recipe for the marinade and the sauce here:

http://www.bakeatmidnite.com/2013/08/beef-broccoli.html

 

I asked Evan to take some meat out of the freezer for stir fry. He grabbed the tenderloin that the butcher cut off for him the day after he killed the moose....and he wrapped it up in saran wrap himself. Aaaaaand I came out to the kitchen to a bloody countertop. So lovely.



Snow peas, onions, peppers, carrots, broccoli, water chesnuts, fresno pepper, and grated ginger. Helpful tip that I learned last year....FREEZE YOUR GINGER!!! When you're ready to use it...you can just take it out, peel it, and grate it!!! It's SO much easier than having to deal with all the veiny stringy parts when it isn't frozen.



Finished product!!! It was delish.

 

Now, Evan is a complete and total leftover snob. He simply will not eat them. It's so annoying. I've had to learn how to be so careful here in the woods, to figure out how to not waste anything. We don't have the option to go to the store to buy an extra ingredient that has been forgotten...we really have to use everything. So the day after I made the stir fry...I made egg rolls out of the mixture.

 

I chopped everything up from the stir fry and added green cabbage, raw shredded carrot, rice noodles and a little extra ginger. Warmed it all up in a frying pan and filled the egg roll wrappers. Then it was on to the dutch oven to fry! They passed the Evan taste test, and I was able to freeze them so he can take them out and heat at 300 whenever he wants a snack. He might be spoiled rotten. 

 

 



Love this guy!