Camouflauge

"Follow the white rabbit."

It was a balmy 29 degrees this morning when I took the dogs for a walk. Sticking out like a sore thumb about 30 feet from my driveway was a Snowshoe hare all huddled down secure in the belief that his natural camouflage would protect him from being seen by me and the dogs. The dogs couldn't see him over the driveway berm and the undergrowth. Since we have no snow yet, his white winter coat wasn't doing a very good job of concealing him.

The Day of The Moose

Here a Moose, There a Moose...

S-I-L and I were talking in the living room this morning when he noticed a young moose in the front yard. It turned out to be a young bull, most likely the same one that I posted pictures of the day after Christmas. He's been hanging out with the cow and calf in the immediate neighborhood since then. Today, however he is without his antlers, apparently they finally shed in the last couple of weeks. While we were admiring him my sister called on the telephonic communication device. Her husband and son had returned from a successful winter moose hunt and they invited us to come by and help butcher and process the large frozen moose in their garage. S-I-L had a previous engagement helping a friend to get ready to slaughter a couple hogs tomorrow. I was getting ready to go when I heard dogs barking in the area. A medium sized black and brown dog was in my front yard herding the young bull moose into the woods. He wasn't one of the barking dogs however. I stepped out on the back porch because Shadow was in his pen barking, the neighbor dog off through the woods in the back was barking and two other dogs were barking in the area. I recognized one of the dogs by the bark. He had a frantic high pitched bark and I had run him off several months ago when he was harassing moose in about the same area. Sure enough it was him and his yellow lab partner yapping at a large cow moose just outside of my back fence. I shouted in my best command voice, "Hey, get the Hell out of here!" They both quit barking and took off at a fast run off to the west. The cow watched them go and then trotted off to the east disappearing into the woods.
I spent the afternoon helping family cut up a moose. It was a large old moose so they ground it all into moose burger.

Three Little Moose

A Little Bull...

We have had a moose cow and a yearling calf hanging out on Trippingovermoose ranch most of the winter. On Wednesday this little bull showed up and has been hanging out with them. I suspect he's the cow's calf from 2 years ago.

Responding to an Old Friend

Pictures of the Huskies

An old friend from my childhood in Juneau asked to see more picture of my dogs, so here you go...

This is Kiska. She was supposed to be a Samoyed but turned out to be a mix. I suspect her father was a golden retriever. But she does have the crazy blue eyes. She's almost 14 years old now and spends most of her time sleeping on an oversized dog pillow next to my recliner.

The Malemute is Shadow. He's 12 years old and still very active. Shadow has earned his name over the years. If I'm home he's always in the same room as me, watching my every move. If I sit down he comes over and sits or lays as close to me as possible. Lately, perhaps sensing my sadness, he's trying to be a lap dog. It's difficult to read a magazine or watch TV with an 75 pound malemute in your lap pressing his face into your face. The last goofy picture isn't actually Shadow but a photo of a look alike lifted from some website years ago.

Bears in the Woods

Neighborhood Gossip
I heard the other day, from my brother, that a bear had killed a moose in the woods behind my house. I thought, "That explains the smell of rotting moose that I smelled coming from the woods behind my garage."
Yesterday, at the mailbox, I was talking to my next door neighbor (east side). He heard that my neighbor, two lots to the west, had actually seen the bear take down the moose in his yard. That would be around 600-900 feet to the west of my house. He also heard that the moose remains were buried deep with a backhoe to discourage the bear.

So I wasn't smelling that dead moose two days ago. There must be another dead moose behind my garage. I don't think I'll check it just now.

Two years ago I had a dead moose back there. It didn't appear to be a bear kill however, as it was whole and was slowly scavanged by smaller animals.

The neighbor at the mailbox also told me that early last winter he found that someone had poached a cow and calf moose in his *yard. He called the Alaska Fish and Game and they told him they already knew about it. In fact they had caught the poacher. He was one of our other neighbors and he moved the moose meat by sled leaving a trail from the dead moose to his back door. Criminals are so smart.

*For those unfamiliar with the "yards" in my area. I have a 9 acre yard. The neighbor to the east has a 15 acre yard. The neighbor where the bear killed the moose has a 5 acre yard.

Signs of Spring

Ok, I think we've broken the back of winter in the Great Frozen North. The temperatures in Wasilla were into the high 50s and low 60s this last week. The forecast is for some overcast and rain possibly mixed with a little snow for the weekend. No accumulation expected.
I am officially calling it spring because of all the signs of spring I saw and smashed into on my way to work this morning. It started off with the cow moose with last year's calf in the yard this morning. Next, just after the Subaru had achieved cruising speed on Wasilla Fishhook Road, a grouse jumped into the air from the side of the road and zigged when he should have zagged. The chicken sized grouse makes a real loud thump when they impact your windshield at 50 miles an hour. Fortunately they don't have as much mass as say, a moose butt, so the windshield didn't suffer any damage. I assume the grouse did.
Just as we dropped off the ridge to cross the Knik/Matanuska flats, a flight of Sandhill Cranes flew overhead, a couple hundred feet above my windshield, fortunately. Across the flats the air was full of flocks of Canadian Geese returning from wintering in Mexico or where ever they go to escape Alaska in the winter. Along side the northern branch of the Matanuska River, a quarter mile from the road, was a small herd or "gang" of 5 moose munching away on delicious bushes.
As we arrived in Los Anchorage, we spied another moose walking along the anti-moose fence that parallels the Glen Highway. She was just north of Merril Field Airport and of course on the wrong side of the fence trying to find away out. I made a comment about there seemed to be moose everywhere this morning. Five minutes later we were sitting at a stop light at 5th and Cordova when a yearling moose stepped into the street just ahead of as and ambled across to the other side, ignoring all crosswalks and traffic signals.

Feels like spring to me!

Hunting Picture Time

Just because I have nothing new to add, it's back into the way back machine...

This is the largest caribou I have shot. It was Fall, 1998. Kate and I were just slowly driving, through the freezing rain, along a trail above the Susitna River about 2 miles from camp when I spotted him. He was moving through the brush less than a hundred yards away. As soon as he trotted behind a small hill I jumped off the Honda and sprinted to the top of the hill, (I could still sprint in 1998.) We had him packed up and hung in camp before breakfast.

Ravens

On our daily lunchtime walk, Kate and I walk down an alley between parking lots in downtown Anchorage. Today as we approached the parking lot at the Architecture firm where my former daughter-in-law used to work, (whew,) we saw a silver pickup filled with ravens. Ok, there were 8 ravens on the roof and in the bed of the pickup. I said, "I'm betting on dogfood." Sure enough when I walked up to the truck the ravens, complaining loudly, decamped to the edge of the nearest roof. When I looked into the back of the truck I saw a previously unopened 40 pound bag of Pedigree dogfood. Unopened until the ravens spotted it. They had pecked open a large hole and were happily gorging themselves until we interrrupted. As soon as we walked away they swooped back down to lunch. On the walk back to the office 4 or 5 more ravens passed overhead flying down the alley to the gathering. I know the owner of the dogfood won't be happy but I've always liked the smart feathered thieves.

Hunting Pictures and Stories

Dana asked if there were going to be hunting stories on my blog. Of course there are. I thought I'd start with the biggest moose I have killed. He is also the last moose I shot, four years ago. Our preferred method of moose hunting is "spot and stalk." Sometimes we spend days, one year 8 days in a row, just sitting looking through spotting scopes from sunup to sundown, trying to find a legal bull. Where we hunt a legal bull must have a rack 50" wide, or three brow tines on one side or have a simple spike or fork on one side. The moose tend to get up and feed at day break, midday and evening. The best time to catch them is at midday because then you have all afternoon to stalk them. I spotted my moose when he stood up at lunchtime and walked from behind one hummock to lay down behind another 50 feet away. He was only in the open for a short minute but I just happened to be looking his way. I was pretty sure he was at least 50". He was way above timberline, across the river and at least a mile away. Two and a half hours later we slowly closed in on where we had last seen him. My hunting partner and I were standing on a small rise looking into the shallow gully where we had seen him disappear. No moose. After a few moments I did a bull moose grunt. Instantly he climbed to his feet about 75 yards away at the far end of the gully. He was staring straight at me, standing in the open. A quick glance through the scope made me sure he was legal and I dropped him in his tracks with one shot from my 300 Win Mag.

The Eagle Has Landed

While checking the front yard for moose I noticed a couple of birds in a tree across the driveway. The one in profile was a raven but the one with his back to me was slightly smaller and had a different body shape. Before I could grab the camera the raven took off and what turned out to be a hawk jumped after him. The hawk made one harassing pass at the ravens head and then they flew off into the woods. But at the far end of the property I noticed an eagle sitting high in a tree watching the other birds. He stayed long enough for me to snap a couple of quick pictures. Today is just as gloomy and the light is flat as it's been all week so the picture is not very good.

Winter Wonderland II

I didn't take any pictures of the stupid snow. First because I had a long tiring week and slept in until 9 a.m instead of my work day 4:30 am. Then I lazed around the house until noon when I finally got out and fired up the snow thrower. Three and a half hours and a sore back later I was in no mood to take pictures of the frakkin snow. Besides in was a gloomy overcast day with no shadows so the pictures would have been damn near monochromatic anyway. Today I went to Anchorage with my girlfriend Kate and her brother to work on a property problem. That was a nightmare but I'll spare you the details. The trip home was similar to my October 24th post. It was snowing - freezing raining all day turning the highway into a skating rink. Predictably there were cars upside down in the ditch and bouncing off each other and the guard rails all the way home. It was another 3 plus hour ride home. It's Alaska! You'd think people would know how to drive in these conditions.

I finally dropped off Kate and her brother and headed home down the twisty country road that leads to TrippingOverMoose Ranch. About a mile from home I watched a Mini-van approach from a side road a couple hundred yards ahead of me. He caught my eye because he was going too fast to stop at the intersection he was headed for. I was right. When he touched his brakes the mini-van turned into a sled did a 200 degree rotation across in front of me and slid backwards off into the ditch across the road coming to rest with the drivers door firmly jammed into a tree. I carefully slowed and pulled into the next driveway about 35 yards beyond the street he had come from. I made my way back to the accident scene on foot to lend assistance. I arrived at the scene no more than 1 minute after the car impacted the tree. There was already another car stopped on the road right at the scene already. That car must have successfully pulled out from the same side road just after I went by. A woman was standing between the 2 cars directing a large group of small children as they climbed out of the car in the ditch and into the car on the road. The ditch diving driver, a man, was still in the drivers seat. I asked, " Is everyone alright?"
The woman, with a Russian accent answered, "Yes, Yes, " and then said something to the driver in Russian.
I said, " I just wanted to make sure everyone was OK!"
She said "Yes, Yes," spoke to the driver motioning to a bag on the front passenger seat. He clambered up and over the passenger seat grabbing the bag and getting into the backseat of the upright car with all of the children. She then got into the front passenger seat, slammed the door and they all drove away, leaving the car, headlights still on, leaning rejectedly into the tree and me standing on the side of the road in the falling snow. I figured they were late for a potluck or he had no drivers license, insurance nor english and damn well did not want to be there when an Alaskan State Trooper Arrived.

I finished my ride home, fixed something for dinner and fell asleep on the couch for awhile. When I woke I stood up and glanced out the front window just in time to see something move in the darkness just to the left of the porch. I quickly killed the interior lights and moved to the kitchen window in time to see a big healthy moose calf stop at the corner of my shed just on the thin edge of the light from the porch light. As I watched her twin stepped out from behind the shed and the two touched noses. Then their mama followed the first one out of the light and the three of them slowly walked down my driveway into the dark.

It's still snowing. Tomorrow more snow removal.

Ok, I lied about the dog photos...

Moose calf from this past June