Meat Fest

Last night I participated in Meat Fest.

After dinner Eric, the new roomate Len and I went out into the garage to morsel up the meat that the local game butchers had donated to Eric for his dogs of Revelstoke Dogsled Adventures. We spent two hours in the cold listening to an old wedding tape over and over cutting and sawing apart deer and moose. The boys smoked and drank as we cut the remaining carcass, muscle and fat apart for our dogs. I really felt like I was living a country life.

I liked the work and understand how it could be a much more challenging job in the peak of hunting season when the weather is still 10 degrees instead of minus 3 degrees. The meat yesterday evening was not overly bloody nor were there flies anywhere to be seen.

The entire time Eric, the dog owner, exclaimed how meat fest means so much to him not because he is able to get out and be productive, not because he is saving some money in feed, not because of the tunes, drinks, smokes or even the company, but because he is able to feed his dogs such good meat. He knows that the fat, protein and bones he is preparing for them keep their primal instincts alive and makes them better sled dogs.

The chopping up of the meat may seem like a courtesy, back in the day Eric used to actually grind the meat for his dogs, but the hassle became too much given the dogs don't care how their meat is serve, but it is also a screening process to make sure we get any small bones or bullets our of the feed before it goes to the dogs. Unfortunately sometimes some pieces are missed, and a dog has been known to poop out a bullet before.

Once the meat is chopped we bag it into 4 lbs bags to freeze. Handling cold moist meat freezes your fingers quickly, but we ended up bagging about 50 bags of moose and deer, which is about 200 lbs! And then we had the bones on top of that. When I told the boys that I was going to put dog food bagger on my resume, they said I should put moose bagger, because some of the meat was were handling was definitely human food grade. Lucky dogs.

Today my wrist hurts. Apparently after two and a half hours of cutting meat and fat with a moderately-sharp knife in the cold has its repurcussions. (I may have also been trying to fill my bucket faster and fuller than Eric, so it was an intense cutting session.) Either way, I would gladly participate in another Meat Fest.

And that's how I spend my Friday nights :)