Moose & Milestones

Before we moved here, we had only seen one moose in person and it had been a young one near a road in upstate New Hampshire on one of our summer excursions. Even on our Alaskan honeymoon, we had not spotted a single moose. Lots of grizzlies and caribou, but not a single moose.

I have figured out why this is. It goes back to the 1965 song by the Byrds… Turn Turn Turn. Okay, it goes back a little further because that song was adapted from some verses from Ecclesiastes. Here, I’ll sing a few bars… “To every thing… turn turn turn… There is a season… turn turn turn… And a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to see moose, a time to search in vain…” You get the idea. This song was used a lot in the movie Forrest Gump.

Okay, I digress. My point is, while moose are like phantoms in the summer around here, they’re EVERYWHERE in the winter. It all has to do with grub. The snows come and cover up their grub source so they go places where humans have conveniently stockpiled moose grub in the form of ornamental yard trees, shrubs, and other plants. So basically, they arrive in the neighborhood right about now. And lest you think they’re in a good mood because hey, they found your grub… think again. They’re hungry and mad. So we do our best to stay out of the way.

We saw a couple moose (possibly a mom and her teenage youth) munching on trees in a couple of our neighbors’ yards last Sunday on our way to church. We’re getting better at being Alaskans because we only slowed down briefly to admire their bulk. Earlier in our residency, we’d have been sorely tempted to do a quick U-ey and get the camera from the house.

I’ve been at a Training Workshop for the past 2 days on the UAA campus. On the first afternoon, a huge female moose ambled past the wall of windows. Her ears were flat back and she was very angry. I guess 3 years ago, an older gentleman was stomped to death by a moose on that campus. So while they are really cool to watch and admire, it’s best to keep things in perspective.

In other news, little miss Alicia May pee-d in the potty for the first time ever two days ago! She was duly rewarded with her little sack of gummies. Which, as you know, are her favorite. She’s started to be hesitant to want to sit on the potty at all these days, so this was a big breakthrough.

I’m off from work today because we have no childcare available. I’ve scheduled Alicia’s 2 year old doctor’s appointment for this afternoon. Other than that, I have a long list of things I want to try to accomplish today. But don’t worry… lots of it is birthday related (cake, gift wrapping), and then there’s the “Play with Alicia” task… :o)