The wind has finally died down here but the temps are not rising any. Once again I think our house had about a 10 degree span of minus 4 to +4 over the last 24 hours. Sunny all day today which lasted 7 hours and 14 minutes. We left work about 4:15pm and the sun was setting. It was a pretty sunset as there is enough gravel dust in the air right now that it turned everything pink.
A lot of interesting things happen when it finally starts to turn cooler and the threat of snow is serious. Christmas lights are hung, there is a mad rush to the snow tire stores, the outfitter sales with all of the snow gear, etc. but the most popular by far is the placing of wire cages.
Back home, we used to put wire cages around little tree trunks to protect them from deer and maybe if one was really energetic, a net over a fruit tree to keep out the birds. Here, they have wire cages on steroids. One of our neighbors has a long tube type cage that goes from one end of the side yard to the other, covering a row of bushes. Others in the neighborhood have 8 foot poles (they appear to be that tall anyway) driven in the ground and wire cages around the bushy part of the trees. Ok - the trees were bushy when we got here - now they are just sticks. Regardless, it finally dawned on me these are moose cages.
I am sure "moose cage" is not the correct term for these as they are there to keep the moose out but you get the drift. I was amazed at how high these people all over town have placed their moose cages. I'm thinking - what a waste until one morning I watched a moose in action. (Moose come down from the altitudes to the city in the winter because of the buffet of well cared for plants as there is a smaller and smaller selection in the mountains.)
Up and about before the sun one day (before the first snowfall), I looked out our windows and across the street was a moose. Just walking along - nibbling here and there. Oh man - I gotta go outdoors to watch this. I took Squirt to our front porch to watch her and Squirt would look at her and then at me and just stay quiet. He must think those are really big dogs. She stopped in a couple of yards, even walked up to a porch and helped herself to a flower in a flower pot on the second story. So many cars drove right by her and never realized she was there. They are smart. When she would hear one coming she went into stealth mode and didn't twitch.
As I said, it was before sunrise and Squirt and I are out on the porch looking across the street at other houses. The moose helping herself to the flowers when a lady came running out on the porch yelling "shoo shoo". Believe it or not it worked. She shoo'd it right over to our house. It walked up to our side yard, stepped over our fence and promptly started eating our trees. The lowest branches are about 7-8 feet off of the ground and she had no problem. Of course, I was inside trying to get Robert to come out with me by this time. Not knowing she was in the front yard, we went out the back door, walked around the side of the house to the front on the deck, rounded the corner and there was a big moose butt. Robert shoo'd and then we came back inside (via the back door) and the moose went to the next house for a snack. (BTW - they aren't quiet eaters - lots of snapping of twigs and chomping.) Unfortunately we didn't get pictures.
Continuing on the moose story front....if you read a previous post, I mentioned we went hiking a couple of days after a bear had taken a moose. We recently found out a fellow co-worker's wife was out the same day and pulled the jaw off of the moose. "She did what?" She stumbled across the carcass - well - probably didn't stumble as I am pretty sure it was big - but she pulled the jaw off and took it home and started to boil it on the stove (which is where our co-worker found it). Don't worry - it wasn't for dinner. It was for art.
Can you imagine what Robert would have said if he had come home and found a jaw cooking on the stove especially if I had been out hiking and pulled it off of a bear kill? Trust me - I wouldn't have had to blog for you to hear about it.
I LOVE living here! Where else would you hear something like that??
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