Caribou in the freezer

Alaska is the last frontier.

Hunting is essential for survival.

Some images are disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

In Alaska you can give someone else your hunting license and tag, and they can harvest an animal for you.  That's how we ended up with caribou in the freezer.

multiple caribou hanging in Jeff's co-worker's garage

Jeff got a call on a Saturday morning in early October that his coworker had gotten his caribou and we could come over and pick it up...

head/rack with the "cape" (the hide removed from the body)

It was so much work and neither Jeff nor I had ever broken down an animal.  Luckily we ran into a co-worker of mine and she ended up coming over (spending many hours) teaching us about how to take the meat off of the carcass.

it was cut in half.
front half and back half.
Yep, it was a boy...

It was very interesting, but in the end, all I could smell was raw caribou meat.  Unfortunately, that smell is ever present when trying to cook it, even after it's cooked.  I think if we had received the caribou processed, I probably wouldn't have such an aversion.  Now if we could just get us some more moose...

It was funny because when the hunter saw me get out of the truck, he said,
"it's not for the faint of heart..."
to which I replied
"I went on a field trip to the butcher shop when I was in grade school - I'm good."
Who was he trying to scare?

That Tupperware was quite helpful...

2 pounds per bag - over sixty pounds of ground 'bou in the freezer....