4 Days of Moose

Friday night I had visitors in the form of teachers from the school coming over for game night. One brought a bowl of cooked moose meat for me to have. I ate some starting Friday night and have eaten moose everyday since. But that’s just the beginning of the 4 days of moose. Saturday I had left over moose. Sunday I had more leftovers. Monday I didn’t have leftovers. Instead I was invited by a very nice kindergarten teacher to stop by her house after school to see her cut up a moose her husband killed and brought home Sunday night. Sounded like fun. I’ll get back to this topic later. On Sunday night I was contacted and asked if I wanted some moose ribs. I replied that I had already eaten but thanks for asking. It turned out that the offer wasn’t for cooked ribs it was for ribs and part of a quarter of a moose that needed to be cut up and frozen. I took the meat and spent the rest of Sunday night working on storing it. Then Monday comes. I was invited to stop by a teacher’s house on the way home to see her cut up a moose. I thought I’ll learn something after working Sunday night. I get there and the head is on the back porch. Her husband comes to the door and shows me all of the meat laying out inside the inclosed area. It was a lot. The teacher comes to the door and invited me in to eat with them. I declined citing the leftover moose at home I still have to finish. She was insistent on me seeing the inside of their home. It was very nice, especially after what I was accustomed to seeing around the village. She also insisted that I try some of her food. She handed me a bowl and put aguduk in it. This is a desert that is made from berries, blueberries in this case, sugar and crisco. Then she had me try moose stomach. I had my doubts but wanted to make a good impression so I tried it. I was chewing away and commented that it was very chewy. She explained to her husband what I was saying and then said to me, “Oh, you should try the other part of the stomach, it’s more crispy. How do you like raw moose stomach?” I never missed a beat. I said it was good and just kept smiling and chewing. Then she told me her secret to making raw moose stomach was soaking it in seal oil. And then she handed me the crispy piece. Which I also ate. She then had me eat some moose heart soup. I had eaten moose heart from the muscle recently and it was very good. The soup isn’t made from the muscle. It’s made from the major arteries. I realized this when I asked if she had put mushrooms in it because it looked like mushrooms were In it and she said no, no mushrooms. That was different. She wanted me to eat more but I did something that I have never done before. It was my mother-in-law’s birthday and she passed away 6 years ago. I knew Wanda was down today and I used that situation like a trump card. I told her I had promised my wife I would call before she went to bed and had to get home to fulfill that promise. I fully admitted to Wanda what I had done. I found out that when you’re faced with eating raw stomach you’ll do almost anything. I can say this, I learned how to get along and do things to fit into different cultures when I was in the army. That training served me well today. My SWCS instructors would have been proud. And this ends the 4 days of moose. I’ll probably just eat a microwaved hotdog tonight.