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.

Back at Work

Day 7 of the rest of my life.

Kate's wake-memorial went well, large turn out of friends and family.

Starting yesterday my brother is car pooling with me now and walking at lunch. It helps, gives me a little something to anticipate.

My posts may be sparse again for a while. I don't want to broadcast my feelings. I'll post if and when I have thoughts, observations and or images not related to my emptiness.

Cookie

I am still numb. Everything happened so fast that the whole thing seems unreal and dream-like, (an awful dream.) Personally, I don't know when it's going to hit me that she's really gone.
In my mind I am still composing my next conversation with her, then I realize I am not going to call her on the phone. I am not going to pick her up in the morning to go to work. We are not going to meet for lunch. When I go to her house only her sons will be there.

Her little dog, Cookie, met me at the door to her house yesterday. She rushed me barking, jumping up on me and nipping at my hands. It was far and away the most enthusiastic greeting she's ever given me. I picked her up and cuddled her for a few minutes. When I put her down she when to the other side of the room, sat down and looked at me. When I called to her she would not come.

My Kate

Katherine June Hale 2/28/1955 - 9/16/2008

RV Renovations Completed, Nearly.

The RV is ready to roll. Today I'm going to put propane in the tank and test for leaks and operation of the propane appliances. Monday I'll pickup the new spare tire rack for the back bumper, and locate a spare tire. Everything else is done. I'm going to eventually make built in cabinets with a flat screen TV in the cabover.

Click Here For More Pictures

Fishless Trip To Chitina

Glen, Daniel and I made a trip to Chitina to dip net the famous Copper River Sockeye Salmon. It was a lovely 4 hour drive, this morning, during which we saw a cow moose with twin babies, a young bull moose with his anters in velvet, numerous Snowshoe hares and squirrels. We had the choice of trailering a Honda 4-wheeler or two up to Chitina and riding back to our old fishing hole on what is now an officially closed road, or having the charter boat run us in. We choose to do the charter this time. However the charter operator told us when we arrived that he'd run us it, but we'd be wasting our money. No one was catching fish today. Since they charge $100 dollars a piece we took his advice, saved our money, and drove 4 hours home. On the trip home within sight of the junction at Glennallen a young Grizzly bear ran across the road in front of us.

Pictures of the trip: no animal pictures though, they were too quick for me...

Dining Room

I forgot to post pictures of my dining room with the "Gathering" Table. I really like the look but I'm not sure of the comfort. Since I'm an old bachelor I eat most of my meals over the sink so for now comfort doesn't matter much.

More Pictures...

My Father's Bear

I took my father's bear painting into the frame shop and had it matted and framed to match the Jon Van Zyle Iditarod print that Kate bought me. I think it turned out great.

More Motorhome and Radio Signals

James continues to work on the engine. He's got the exhaust manifolds off and managed to drill out one or two of the broken off studs. Today he decided that he simply can't drill out the other ones with the heads on the the engine block and crammed into the RV. So tomorrow he's going to remove the heads. What a trooper! He volunteered to fix one cracked exhaust manifold and he just keeps working it as the problem gets bigger and more difficult.



Meanwhile my small contribution is repairing some water damaged walls, removing windows and resealing them with silicon. Oh yeah, and I replaced the potable water port and hammered the edge ding back into position and siliconed it.



On another note, the radio in my Subaru quit working about a year ago. I was waiting for a pilot car to guide me and several of my neighbors through the construction zone on Friday, (they were reblacktopping Wasilla Fishook road.) I got to fiddling aimlessly with the radio and turned it on. It suddenly has decided to work after silence for a year. I believe it was more results of splashed coffee like my turn indicators(see January blog entry.)

Back to the Motorhome

Using extreme care I did get all my studded tires off without further injuring myself. Although my back doesn't seem to be getting better. I have a feeling that I am experiencing a disc issue, not a muscle issue this time. The only time I'm comfortable is in a supportive office type chair or sleeping on my side. Standing and walking are actually getting worse. For now I'll try to get by with Advil and hope the situation doesn't require a visit to my doctor or my parent's back surgeon.

We were going to do our shake down cruise in the Motorhome this coming Memorial Day weekend. However, James started to work on the leaking exhaust manifold last evening. He discovered it was not just one leaking manifold but both and that someone had twisted off 3 studs apparently in an aborted repair attempt. Both manifolds will have to come off and the broken studs drilled and replaced. He also discovered the reason they twisted them off. Several of the studs and nuts he worked on were so tight he couldn't turn them. At least one he's pretty sure is so frozen that it's going to twist off when he comes back this evening with bigger wrenches. We've canceled the trip. I don't want to put any time pressure on my favorite volunteer master mechanic. He is still recovering from back surgery himself.

Studs

Because of the surprise late spring snow storm, on April 24th, the State of Alaska extended the May 1st deadline to remove studded snow tire to May 15th. So last night I changed the tires on the old, 252,000 mile Subaru. I've been putting it off because of my injured back. The back is healing slowly so I figured I could manage it, without reinjuring it, if I worked slowly and carefully. It turned out ok.

Next, however is the 3/4 ton Dodge. The tires and wheels on that one weight 60 to 70 pounds each. I'll carefully start this evening. It might take 2 sessions because I'm determined not to reinjure myself.

Green House

The past couple weeks I've had a nagging lower back strain. Nothing major, just an irritating soreness in the muscles on the lower right side of my back. I realized mid week that it had resolved itself and my back no longer hurt. If you've ever had a back strain you know what a relief that is.
Yesterday, I helped four of my friends dismantle a large green house and load it on a trailer to move it from Anchorage to Wasilla. The bottom half of the walls were standard 2X4 stud covered in 1/2 inch plywood on the inside and out with the outside plywood covered in log siding.
The side walls were 12' by 4 ' and heavy enough to take 4 strong men to move them. You guessed it, I reinjured my back. It's at least 4 times as bad as it was before.
This morning I had trouble tying my shoes. Now I'm sitting in my office, the pain dulled by Advil, but still there. I'm moving like an old man or like someone with a sore back. It's hell to get old.