Elk

James went hunting on Friday with Joseph but didn't have any luck. Saturday was a different story, though. He shot an elk fairly early in the morning, but it was a ways from the road. That meant leaving the kids at the car for a while, so he drove them back to the house, then went back to Devin and the elk, almost a 2 hour drive each way. They gutted it, quartered it, and got it back to the car. By the time they got back, it was dinner time. I hadn't been feeling amazing thanks to the stupid cold I got over Thanksgiving, but Joseph and Kenny were great at keeping track of all the kids while I got some rest. James and I went out for dinner since I was feeling a little better.

The butchering started on Monday, and James finished one quarter. Tuesday, Devin came over to help butcher more, and they got 2 quarters done. Wednesday, I chopped up the meat for hamburger and made sure it was clean. I ground all the hamburger we have so far, 17 pounds. The plan is to finish butchering the last quarter and grind all of Devin's by Saturday night. I calculated that I can cut, grind, and package 6 pounds of meat in 1 hour when working alone. I'll have help when we do Devin's, but I don't know how much we'll be grinding yet either. I think Saturday night is still reasonable.

Mom is coming to visit today! She gets in this afternoon. It'll be fun to go to the ward party with her.

So far, we have more than enough elk (and still some deer) so that we won't have to buy beef for a year. I'm really grateful, even though it's been a ton of work. We will have spent probably 12 hours each after getting the animal home. That's not counting the stuff we'll process for Devin.

I still can't believe how busy I've been since the kids went back to school. Things were just about to slow down when we got this elk. Hopefully after we're done with it, I can start sorting through my in-laws' old pictures to scan. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of James from ages 10-18 because I never really have.