October 13, 2014 Moose Meat

Moose leg waiting to be carved

Friday 10/10. After breakfast (a mocha) I split and stacked three wheelbarrow loads of wood, then took the dogs for their morning walk.  Back inside to do the laundry, wash dishes (including those that didn't get washed during my pity party yesterday), and eat brunch (a big doughnut twist bought especially for this occasion).  A good day.  Very hard to stay sad at Rose Camp.

By 2:30 pm I had another four loads of wood split and stacked.  This completed the last row in the wood shed, with half a load left over for the porch.  And I still haven't begun to split the wood from the big tree.

Our high for the day was 67.  The wind sprang up mid day and blew in a lot of clouds.

Saturday 10/11. This morning was 50, clear and breezy.  The dogs were barking a lot, but not going far from the house.  Probably a bear.

Breezy became windy, 22 mph bringing in clouds, by the time I left for Larry's and Elsie's at noon to help package the moose meat.  When I arrived they had a big leg on the table with three men attacking it with knives.  They had stayed up til 1:30 am Friday night cutting and packing the rib and neck meat.  Today we worked on the four legs.

Elsie had it all very organized.  Her daughter-in-law and I wrapped and labeled moose burger, stew meat, roasts and steaks, while she ground the burger.  This morning she had gone to a local store with a meat department and purchased several pounds of freshly trimmed beef fat.  She ground that all up on a course grind.  She put moose meat through the coarse grind, then the fine grind, adding a little of the ground fat to it.  I had to leave about 3:00 pm and she sent me home with several packages of meat.

While I was there, a big dark cloud arrived with pouring rain that lasted about an hour.  It stopped as I was driving home, but I arrived to two sopping dogs' beds on the porch that I had left out.

JB called to say that his day had been perfect.  The fog on San Francisco Bay lifted about 15 minutes before the ceremony began, revealing a warm sun.  After the commissioning, they had a tour of the ship and refreshments.  Our son's friend gave him the flag that had been flown from the mast.  JB was able to meet the Captain and give him a coin from the original USS America, which quite surprised and delighted him.  It was a very good day and Sandy took lots of pictures that I am anxious to see.

Sunday 10/12. This morning was 44 and clear, but by the time the dogs and I went on our morning walk, the sky was completely overcast.  Our high for the day was 55 and I put in both a morning and evening fire.

We have at least three little frogs under the house who are very chatty and make quite a variety of noises.  Still haven't figured out how they got in.

I cut up a bag of tomatoes that Elsie had given us and made tomato sauce.  Never have done this before and it turned out quite nicely.  Not enough to can, so I will freeze it in a couple bags.

After lunch I prepared the porch for the wood to be stacked on it, moving chairs off and laying 2X4's for it to sit on.  Then I split three loads of wood and stacked it on the south side.  I put in eye screws along the sides and attached tarps to the north and south sides.  A good day's work.

Tomorrow I will leave at about 2:30 pm to run some errands and pick up JB at the airport at 5:00 pm.

Monday 10/13.  It is 44 with a partial overcast this morning.  More rain is in the forecast for later this week.  As I sit here writing, I can see that Saturday's storm dropped the season's first snow on the mountains. 

Thought for the day: The more that is given, the less people with work for themselves, and the less they work, the more their poverty will increase.  Leo Tolstoy