My little (cross that) HUGE MOOSE!!!

Today was the coveted day of the cow moose tag hunt. Doug has put in for it 11 years and this is the first year he drew it. He has been ecstatic and anxious to say the least. So today after he was done with school, we reserved the afternoon and all day tomorrow to moose hunt. However, that much time was totally unnecessary. We drove up Blacksmith Fork to the property Doug's family has up there and only minutes after crossing the gate to the property, I (yes, me) spotted moose far up on a hill northwest of us. Doug leaped from the car and confirmed that it was moose with his binoculars, and we headed towards them in the truck. It took us a few minutes to verify that it was indeed a cow (and not a bull), but she was unaware really of our presence so Doug was able to take his time and hike a little closer while we watched from the truck. He took 3 shots, and she was down. Start to finish, I think our hunt lasted only about 30 minutes. Easiest hunt so far!! THEN... the work began. Our neighbor, Doug, and Jichan went to work cutting the nearly THOUSAND pound moose into quarters(more like sixths) to be hauled out. Each haul weighed over a hundred pounds! We left about 200 pounds alone of guts on the mountain. The butchering and hauling took about 3 hours... much longer than spotting and shooting!! And much more work! But we anticipate having 200-300 pounds of tender moose meat(that we have no idea at this point, where we are going to store)!! Dakota was the greatest jr. hunter ever... once again she slept until we shot the moose and woke up in time for the party! She's such a good sport. After the butchering began, Dakota and I hung out in the truck for several hours and made up fun games to keep us entertained. The boys were able to finish hauling out the moose just in time for the snow storm that had rolled in and just as the sun went down. What a hunt!! Congratulations babe!!!