Moose Turd Art Takes Off

Mary Wichenbach’s moose turd art is flowing faster than… well, faster then moose poop. The headline for Deidre Fleming’s article in the Kennebec Journal grabbed my attention: Moose turd artist pooped.

Winchenbach lives in Somerville and her moose turd business has taken off since a video of her at the Common Ground Fair went viral, viewed by more than 3.3 million people, and resulting in more than 2000 orders for the moose turd art from her business, Tirdy Works.

According to Fleming, moose turd art is also sold in Alaska, although I don’t remember seeing any during my three visits to Alaska. I did see lots of moose.

Winchenbach began making moose turd items in 2005. “I had way too much time on my hands and one day when I was in the woods, I found a pile of turds and jokingly thought, ‘How funny would it be to put eyeballs on it and call it a head?’ So I did.”

They dehydrate the turds and shellac each twice with polyurethane, so the turds are safe to handle and clean enough to hang on your wall or even your earlobes. They collect moose turd on their own property and from a nearby bog.

The most popular moose turd product is their poo-poo clock which has turds placed between the numbers to indicate one-turdy, two-turdy, etc.  They’ve just created a new character, Forrest Gump, which they are calling Forrest Dump.

I have to thank my friend Deidre for alerting us to this poopy business!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.