Mountains, Lakes and Flowers...

..and moose. Somewhere in the picture there are moose too. And now hunters too. Hunting season in our area opened yesterday. Hunting season is bittersweet to me. Meat is needed but to shoot animals is sad for me. I find this to be more troubling as I get older! I even find myself sad to think of the meat at the grocery stores and how they got there. I may end up being vegetarian at this rate.

But! Meat being cooked is irresistible! Moose meat is good. Some people don't like it because they say that it has a strong wild taste. Doug says some hunters might chase the moose and when it is caught the exercise makes the meat taste strong. We don't trophy hunt. Maybe the big, old moose taste different? We always had young bulls, the old bulls are way off somewhere.

I never used to go hunting with Doug when the kids were young, but then when they began to grow up and it was not so critical that Mom be there all the time I would go with him. The first time I went we brought our young sons with us and we rode ourATV's way into the mountains, set up camp, then took a look around. I find myself singing "How Great Thou Art" whenever I am up in the mountains looking down into the valleys.

That first hunting trip for me Doug woke up early and got dressed. I asked, "Where are you going?" He said, "Hunting." "Why are you leaving camp?" "Because that is the way I always do." "But we are way up here in the mountains where the moose live." "Yep." "Why do you have to leave?" "Gotta hunt for moose." "Why don't you just sit here and wait for them to walk past?" "I don't know."

Anyway, he stayed in camp for the evening hunt and guess what? A legal bull walked right up the hill, and stopped. He said that was the easiest hunting experience he ever had. I was there then and another time a moose walked right into camp.

The State cut down the hunting season this year. Last winter we saw the most moose ever here, I think at one time we had 17 moose in our yard. The amount of moose getting hit on the highway and on the railway is heavy. 200 + hit just on the ride to Anchorage. (One can sign up to be called out to clean up moose hit on the highway.)So, when I heard the hunting season was shortened it made no sense to me. There seems to be a lot of moose lately.

Doug is away to Houston, Texas right now so he is missing the first of the season which is the best time to hunt. After the first week they go deeper into the mountains and we never see them again until the day after moose season. They are smart animals! My daughters and their husbands will be hunting for meat.

Something is goofy with Blogger today.