More Moose Photos!

The cow and baby in the photos after eating their fill from Greg's brush pile (they did not leave it in tidy order) bedded down in the snow next to the satellite dishes. Greg discovered them when he walked down to the end of the driveway to retrieve the paper this morning. Since the cow didn't seem to mind his presence once he noticed them he walked casually (?) back to the house.  Once they were ready to move on for the day he had great photo ops and the photos here are a snapshot of their progression around the house and into the back woods. Oh, and it was COLD today.

They're up from their nap.

Next to the garage doors. Taken from the office window.

Cows are always watchful. Now in the back yard. 

Moving off into the woods. 

Moose & floor projects on a rainy weekend

I hope you don't get tired of our moose photos. Repeat viewings have not lost their appeal for us. These moose photos were taken with my iPhone from the dining room table as they passed by. They're not the best, but you can tell they're moose.

Here the baby moose is dutifully following the cow.

The cow moose looking nervously toward the sound of barking dogs.

In preparation of the big hard wood floor project in the loft master bedroom Greg decided to practice this weekend on the walk-in closet. He says it was not as bad as expected. And it turned out really nice.

wall-to-wall carpet replaced by hard wood flooring

Deck Plants and Baby Moose

Not the best photo of me... but, this has become an annual tradition to show the deck planting. Oh well. And I noticed in last year's picture that I was wearing a layer, fleece, this year I was perfectly comfortable. Greg tells me it's 80℉ outside right now-unusually warm. 

This is where it gets exciting! Greg noticed a cow moose emerge from the woods with a set of twins. 

So gangly-legged. 

More Moose - Feb. 26, 2010

A cow moose wandered through our property. Greg was able to capture her emerging from under the deck. 

The moose is uncomfortable at Greg's close proximity exhibited by her ears laid back.

There was a calf some distance away, but she is still a mother with protective instincts.

She kind of looks like a horse in this picture. It's the ears. 

We had a dump of fresh snow last week and as usual it helps make everything look clean and bright. 

Moose are back....

With all the deep fresh snow moose have arrived to graze on underbrush in at lower elevations. We're always happy to see them.

Baby moose walking through the peace garden...

breakfast in the front yard...

mama moose finding tasty morsels up high.

Beginning of Garden Season

Memorial Day weekend is traditionally a big gardening time for Alaskans. It is said to be the first days and nights that are potentially frost free. We plant in our deck baskets on this weekend every year. This year we got to watch a moose browse past while we were planting. Bob the dog was soundly scolded by a squirrel and both Greg and I were investigated by curious chickadees. The video is a fun moment we shared with Bob. 

Deep Winter

In case you haven't heard we are suffering through our worst cold snap on record. Temperatures haven't risen above 0℉ degrees since 26 December. One of the great things about living in Alaska are the moose. It's the time of year moose frequent our property! We see them often, but they seldom linger in our front yard. This cow and baby did yesterday for about an hour. Greg and Bob the dog had to sneak up the driveway into the house after their walk to avoid provoking an attack by the protective cow. Greg photographed them from the safety of the deck. 

I know you can't tell, but there is a moose in the picture. This represents the true distance from the deck to the moose in the front yard.

The baby moose... 

and the mama moose. If you look closely you can see steam around her nose... yes, it's truly cold here.

Moose in yard...

Another sign of fall perhaps, the moose are hungry... and they're frequenting our yards. They will become a regular site in our neighborhood as the snow covers up available food in the mountains. By spring they will have nibbled down all available munch-able greenery, alders, undergrowth, unprotected expensive landscaped trees and shrubs (!). I keep thinking that's why my lilac (free, I did not pay for it) has not bloomed yet, it gets munched on every winter by the moose. Unless it is not the hybrid variety which does take 9 years to bloom... I think it's the moose! They munch off any new growth that the poor little shrub had managed to put on over the summer. I keep thinking we need to put up some type of barrier, oh well...

Pesky Squirrel Trapped

Well, he really resisted the trap. At one point we thought he was using Jedi powers of flotation or some such, because he was sitting on the trigger mechanism just happily eating sunflower seeds. We keep the seeds on the deck rail so we can attract the birds and had set the trap up there, with a rock in it to keep it in place. The day we came home 6/26/08 and found him in the trap (below) he not only had gnawed desperately on the deck rail, but had somehow knocked himself off the rail and was still trying to get out of the trap below the deck in the grass. Greg picked up the trap and took this picture. I can't decide if he looks scared or mad. Greg drove him down the road to a less residential area and set him free. As a follow-up we have since caught two more squirrels since then, they have not struggled, but have sat quietly in the trap still eating seeds as they wait for their fate. Interesting that animals can have such different personalities.

Squirrels - Pesky Rodents!

So some of you may know, we've been trapping and releasing squirrels a few miles from our home. We chose to remove them from our property for the usual reasons, but mainly because they were eating all the bird seed that we put out for the chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, common redpolls and dark-eyed juncos that frequent our deck. We have removed two so far. Well, the male squirrel (Greg saw his "dangly parts") that has shown up now has shown some very disturbing aggressive tendencies all in a spate of a couple days. Greg was outside in the yard and he saw the squirrel go from tree to tree and followed it with his eyes, next thing he sees, it's stalking, yes, stalking a baby robin. It started lunging at the baby bird about the time that the parents showed up and Greg started lobbing stones at the squirrel. The parent robins started dive bombing the squirrel and Greg is very certain that the squirrel was going to eat the baby bird. Very unfriendly behavior for such a little fluffy creature and I've decided that I'm wholeheartedly in agreement with the removal of these rodents! And now this morning the squirrel was up on the deck trying to eat through the plastic containers that we keep the bird seed in. This is the first squirrel to attempt this. He has got to go!!! Apparently, for the other side of the coin there is another blogger that does not take issue with these pesky creatures and I've attached the link here - Grey and Red - A Squirrel Journal. And for those brainiacs that would like to know what type of squirrel variety that we might have so far north, here's a great article that proves my story about their omnivorous tendencies and other interesting tidbits - AK Dept of Fish & Game Wildlife News 2005. 

Fall Pictures...

So, yes, it's been a while since I updated the blog... not too much exciting to report... until this evening. We had a cow and calf moose wander through the yard. We got a couple of pictures, not the best. It's still a fun thing to see them just wandering around. I guess they are technically deer and for those that live in deer infested areas they get old. Other pictures are just to show colors around the casa.

Robins have arrived...

Greg saw our first robin this morning. It's official, spring is here. To learn more about the beloved American Robin from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology - All About Birds, click here American Robin.

Another moose in the yard!

This picture was taken out of the office window.

Moose taking a nap in our yard...

Friday afternoon Greg was doing some work out on the deck and he heard Bob growl over by the bird feeder, it was the moose pictured. They came indoors. The moose decided to stay, she must have laid there chewing her cud for at least 3 hours. She did eventually move off and Greg was able to take Bob for his walk in the evening. Only in Alaska...

Bullwinkle came to visit me at work!

The whole building (19 floors) was abuzz the other day when this enormous moose decided to bed down outside the restaurant on the ground floor. Our intrepid clerk took these photos from a safe distance. Only in Alaska!