"On September 12,1998, Lena and I decided to go to Muddy Lakes to get wood and hunt birds. After the girls and Joseph were off to Saturday school, Lena and I got the boys ready to go, and we were finally off by 1:00 p.m.

There were a lot of birds, geese, ducks and swans flying back and forth at Muddy Lakes, and I shot at some, but none fell. When the boys woke up from a nap we decided to have a snack. Just as we were done eating, Fabian had a hard fall on his head, and it was bleeding. Lena almost started to panic and told me that we had to go home, now! So I gathered up the food and put it away, while Lena wet a tissue and pressed it hard on Fabian's head. Then we headed home. A little later the bleeding had stopped, and Lena told me he'd be okay. So I slowed down, and we started looking for dry wood.

While coming out of Takchak Slough, on the right bank we saw a bull moose. It was up against a high bank, so it had nowhere to run. When I shot at it, it started to swim across the slough. Lena held Fabian up to see it, but he covered his eyes with his hands. He'd peek at it through his fingers, but he didn't want to see the whole thing. Vassily Jr. just sat frozen in place. He didn't move or make a sound, he was so frightened.

The moose ran up the other side, and I started shooting as it galloped away. One shot! Two! Three! Finally, on the fourth shot, it fell. Both boys were still speechless. As we moved closer to it, we heard another bull running away in the trees. We knew it was another bull by the sounds the antlers were making as they hit the trees.

As we approached the moose he was still kicking and trying to get up, so I shot it in the head. It twitched for awhile, then finally it lay still. Lena brought the boys over to see it up close. But they immediately wanted to go back and wait in the boat.

It was about 3:00 that afternoon when I caught the moose. Lena called home on the VHF to let Palassa Owletuck know we'd be back in just a little while. She kept saying, "Already! already, you guys just left! Holy cow, man so fast!"

A couple of boats stopped by to give us a hand. I was very thankful that Vernon Evan and his daughter Grace stopped by to help us. We shared some meat with them.

I gave the meat to my mom and dad because they still hadn't gotten a moose. Besides, Joseph had already gotten one for us. It turned out to be a very exciting wood gathering trip."

By: Vassily Sergie

As told to: Tatiana Sergie