Our Neighbors

So what could draw a crowd like this is in our little town to the sidewalks on a balmy mid- March afternoon?    
Just about anything I guess, our town is ready for spring and the St. Paddy's day parade from Baileys Furniture Store to the Y Chevron proves it. The parade started at 1:00 sharp and was done at 1:18. No kidding.

One of our towns favorite people, Herb Stettler lead off the parade with the VFW float. Even the truck was a veteran and I couldn't believe it, but maybe that's just me. Instead of borrowing a spanking new F-150 ol Herb found a 1976 Power Wagon, that would be a 37 year old truck. I know that for sure because I waited 2 years to buy my 78 Power Wagon. Nope, you don't see that too often in a parade.

After the usual Judo Club and Mayor candidates went by I noticed two trucks from the Alaska Moose Federation. This group was formed to promote more Moose for all the hunters in our part of Alaska. It seems that through the years the moose browse has declined and with predation up from Bears and Wolves and of course pick-up trucks we just don't have the Moose we used to have. One thing I know about Alaska is clear here.... if throwing money at it would solve a problem we wouldn't have ANY problems at all.

I'm not really sure what we're doing to grow more moose and how a pick-up truck can do that but it must be working because we've got them everywhere. These 4 Moose had just spent the morning on the corner of  MaryDale when the parade passed them by. Just like magic.

So when we got home at 1:23 after the parade we decided to ski downriver and check out our neighborhood. It was really great skiing conditions, apparently while we were gone it snowed and thawed some making the snow nice and hard and we skied effortlessly on top of it. And wouldn't you know, what do we run into on the way home, yup another one of those darn moose.

He was smack dab in the middle of the river crossing from our side to the k-beach side. Us and Jet-dog both have enough experience in this situation to know what to do...nothing. Just stop and wait for him to get where he's going. In the past we've made the mistake of allowing their curiosity to get up and they will come right to you thinking you're another moose, or two. One year we were walking up the frozen river under the stars and from way upriver a shadow turned into a big ol moose that  trotted up dangerously  close to us.

Heres a pic of Fall-in-Hole. Its pretty darn amazing to think that in only 7 or 8 weeks I'll have a boat out there, somewhere.

And here's a pic of us in our natural element....On the Kenai River, in Alaska, with each other...home.