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!

 

Canada Lynx

 

This post doesn't really need anything other than the pictures. They are enough. What an absolutely beautiful animal. I am insanely jealous that Evan was able to snap a couple of pictures of this mystical creature. He was able to get the lynx's attention by making squeaking sounds. He stopped, turned around, and sat. What I would give to be able to take some pictures with my camera. These pictures were taken with his work camera pressed up against his binoculars. They still came out gorgeous. For now I will cross my fingers and hope that I'll get my turn someday.

A Time to "Rember"

 

 

 This camp has been in my family since 1960, and before this one was constructed, there was another one a couple miles down the road that was built in 1947. The area has served it's purpose for decades. Lots of memories. I remember one Halloween my great grandmother decorated the road with torn up ghost sheets. As you can see by the pictures, it does have a little bit of a spooky feel.

Hunting camp in my family is mostly used by the men. It's understood that women don't go to stay to interrupt the man time. Every fall we lose them for days at a time to their playground, and they return refreshed with a new batch of memories. Some are said out loud and others are only whispered and giggled about. Sunday is a safe day to pack up the kids and a lunch to take in to the menfolk to enjoy a nice family afternoon! But come two o'clock we're usually "heading er' for home".

 

 

Awesome day spent with my Dad, Mom, brother, and the boys. <3


The lunch we brought for Dad. Um...yum. Homemade meatball subs. Awesome camp lunch.

 





Views from the top of Washington Bald Mountain. The lake in the top left is 3rd Machias.

When we found out we were moving to Clayton lake, news spread in our small town and the peppering of questions began. I wish I had a few reactions on tape. They were priceless. People seemed to be quite concerned, and I found myself feeling a need to defend myself....to justify our decision to move there or to explain why I thought I was going to be ok. I always came back to this place in my defense. I would explain that I knew what it was like to spend the night in a real hunting camp with no running water, no indoor toilet, no electricity, miles from the nearest paved road or store, no cell phone service, and a guaranteed sign of mice inside the camp. Really, I think I was trying to convince myself just as much as I was them that I was going to be fine. Was I positive that I would be? Not really. I had no idea how I was going to feel about it. I told Evan almost everyday that

I wanted for nothing more than to love it...the alternative would be just be an inconvenience!

 

I am so happy to say that I'm loving it. A couple of weeks ago, Jason Aldean's song "Fast" came on Pandora and there's a line in it, "Goodbye gravel road, thanks for the ride" and I started crying!! Evan looked at me and said, "What is wrong???" I think after the last year of spending SO much time apart because of police training and warden training....Clayton lake is the first place in a long time that we've had the chance to be together. I know that when we leave the North Woods, it will be the end of an era for our little family. I don't like to think about it. Funny how my concerns have completely changed from 6 months ago. Now, to survive winter!  

 



Family <3