Filling the Freezer

With Matt still hobbling around (sans crutches now though) on his broken foot, I didn't hold out much hope of us filling our freezer with meat this year on our own.  But luckily, there is now over 200lbs of boneless meat all cut up and taking up space in our humungous freezers.

There is an outfitting company (MacMillian River Adventures) that operates near Faro.  Most of the hunters don't take the meat and it is all donated to those who want it in Faro.  We have never taken meat from them before as we have always shot our own, but numerous people in Faro sign up to receive meat each year.

Saturday we got a call to head down to the float plane dock to pick it up.  We got a large haul of both moose and caribou.  I had to butcher it the very next day since we are getting some summer-like weather right now.  After a couple phone calls, I had enlisted a couple of friends to help me out for the day and I got to work.  I started at 8:30am and finished up just after 5pm.  Without help, I would have been there until after midnight for sure!

When done this is what I put into the freezer:
Caribou: 7 packs of steak, 4 roasts, backstraps, and 20 packages of burger
Moose: 34 packs of burger, 8 roasts, 14 packs of steaks and 45lbs of ground meat for sausage

Hurray!  My freezers aren't bare anymore!  We will be in town later this month and I will pick up the supplies I need for making sausages.

Here are the pictures from the day:

My butcher shop (complete with tunes from the computer) is all set up!

The pile of meat I had to work with.

Busy!

Our friend Erica helped out.  Three years ago she moved to the Yukon and looked horrified when she walked in on me butchering a moose.  She has progressed from writing on the packages, to operating the grinder, to this year wielding a knife and cutting up the meat!  Go Erica!

Of course the boys are always alongside to help!

Heavy piece of moose!

My other very willing assistant!

And just a comparison shot.  There I am on the left last year in September butchering moose meat.  On the right 112lbs smaller!

 

My Job

Most days I really love my job.

Yep, being a stay-at-home mama is definitely a job!

Today was one of those days that reaffirmed my love of being home.

This morning?  The usual routine of making sure the boys get dressed, eat breakfast, brush their teeth, and get their backpacks loaded (Cavan loads his with his snacks for the day so he feels like a big kid even though he isn't in school yet).  Then it is the 1.5km round trip walk to and from the school.  After that it was coffee with a friend and then playgroup at the rec centre until noon.  Normal, lovely morning.

The afternoon was fun....

We dug 25lbs of potatoes out of the garden.

We baked three peach loaves.

We could smell delicious chicken adobo in the slow cooker.

We picked the last of the carrots out the garden.

We stacked another row of firewood.  Well, Hunter and I did while Cavan directed.

We all giggled at our boy carrot!

We invited another mama and her brood over to craft with us.  We took a walk in the woods to pick leaves.

And then came back to my home to make these wax paper and crayon fall creations.

Squeezed in between was our regular book reading and housework.  Days really don't get much better than that!  Fun with family, friends and the outdoors.  What a perfect job.

And tonight?  Me time with my hobby and a bit of tv viewing.  Going to finish these up and start on a new pair:

I am very thankful that we live in a place that allows us the financial freedom of being a one income family.  This is the best job I have ever and will ever have.

Custom Orders Done!

It has been a busy week and a half of filling custom orders.  Now I can move on to increasing my inventory for craft show time!  I will be in BC visiting family this year during the craft show I usually attend- the Spruce Bog in Whitehorse.  So this year I am aiming to do the 12 Days of Christmas craft show.  Since it actually lasts twelve days, I am going to need lots of items made up ahead of time in hopes my stuff sells as easily there as it does at Spruce Bog.

Here are pictures of some of the items I have finished over the last ten days:

His and hers matching moose hide and beaver trim mittens.  These are heading down to the States!

An order for an RCMP member that needed an auction gift for a family reunion.

Three fleece ponchos with matching wolf fur puff headbands heading to Ontario.  These make me really wish I had a girl!

A Sad Day For My Scale

It was a sad day for my scale.

The scale that has been my enemy and my friend.

The scale that has seen me through 112 pounds.

The scale that just could not survive the great child-induced tub tsunami of September 2012.

Dear Scale:

While I appreciate your status of Lo in regards to my weight, an exact number would be appreciated.

Love Kara

Boys and Guns

My parents taught both my brother and I how to shoot at a young age.  We were taught the parts to the guns, safety and maintenance.  And then we took off into the bush like the Lost Boys off of "Peter Pan" to terrorize the local squirrel and grouse populations.  It was a pretty awesome childhood.  We started with bb guns at age 6, but very quickly moved on to the .22's by age 8 or 9.

Matt started off later in life around age 10 using a bb gun and then a 410 shotgun.

And now it is time to share one of our favorite past-times with our boys!

My father bought them a Chipmunk .22 back when I was still pregnant with Hunter!  He was just a wee bit excited to become a grandpa.  We finally brought it out of the box tonight and headed out to the range.

The boys loved every minute of our excursion!

We were shooting at a paint can and Hunter was so proud when he hit it!

My wee gun slinger!

My little helper

Thanks little helper Cavan for feeding the fish for me.

Canning and Baking and Gardening! Oh My!

Two-thirds of the way through this long weekend and we have been busy bees!

This is what we have been up to:

One hour bread in the back, canned beets in the middle, and cranberry syrup in the front.  It was supposed to be cranberry jelly, but I used expired certo and it didn't set.  But cranberry syrup on pancakes sounds good to me!

Cavan and I picked 10 cups of raspberries and turned some of them into cakes for us and another family.  The rest went into the freezer for baking with later.

I had a backlog of free Superstore turkeys in my freezer.  I cooked one up on Sunday morning and canned in Sunday evening.  12 pints of delicious turkey all ready for soups, stews and casseroles this winter.

Garden vermin!  Something has been chewing up my carrots and it is not my boys!

I spent hours this weekend moving dirt into all of the new planter boxes on the top and second level.  Now I just have to haul and add some compost to them and wait 10 more months!

Just carrots and potatoes left to harvest.  I have pulled nearly six pounds of potatoes so far with many more still in the ground!

In between all of that we went for walks, bike rides, visited with friends, had friends over for tea, helped a friend move, watched cartoons, drove a load out to the dump, snuck into the sewing room to sew, read more of my zombie novel, played squash, drove quads, and just had a heck of a lot of fun.

Doing all of the jobs that Matt would normally do has had me run off my feet this last week.  But I have gotten an awful lot accomplished!  The house is clean, laundry is done, the yard is ready for winter, and my garden was a huge success.

I need a cape!