Inktrails from Alaska

More Moose

Norwegian Elkhounds are dogs used to hunt moose in Norway, Sweden and Finland. My dog, Ole, does a great job of alerting for most moose near the house. And the great thing is that he does a couple BIG ARFS and then shuts up. Sofia doesn't say anything at all unless she can really get a good look at the moose and then she yodels. There have been plenty of moose that have been by when Ole hasn't alerted, or we haven't been home. The yard is like one giant Moose Highway.

This year my yard has been filled tracks, and yet I'd seen no moose. I began to suspect they were all wearing white ninja suits. I think I saw two moose all winter and those not in my yard. So I'm glad they finally took off their ninja suits and have come to visit. Plus it's nice to have brush cut for free.

Ms. Moose was back again today, or her sister. It's hard to tell them apart.These are pictures from yesterday, since I didn't have time to post them until today.

Click on these images to get the full sized picture!

 

Please excuse my dirty window, it's not exactly window washing temperature outside. And the finger in the lens, I was trying to get situated.

See that gate? That's the gate to the dog yard. Now you can see why I desperately need a back door, so I don't have to walk down that path, in deep snow just to take the dogs out.

A Short Walk in the Snow

After a week of tremendous snowfall, the dogs and I decided it was time to go play in the snow. Unfortunately my iPhone crashed and I lost all the nice videos of them playing in 2—3 feet of fresh snow. But yesterday I managed to shoot video of us walking from the dog yard back to the house, just to give you a little scenery and see into my daily routine.

It's been Moose Central here for a while. Yesterday I came home from work and saw so many moose tracks you could hardly see all the dog and human footprints! You'd think they were having some kind of convention. I don't mind as long as we aren't in the yard at the same time the moose are.

In this video on the left you can see some of the places the moose have walked through the deep snow. Sofia checks out some of those tracks on the way up the hill.

I'm obviously not going to be driving the Toyota any time soon. I was scraping her off fairly often just in case I needed her, but clearly I got behind!

There will be more pictures...I just need to find time to get them posted!

 

Ole and His Beard, And a Mysterious Log

My son Ole has had a beard before. He's tried the King Tut thing all the young men were sporting a while back. I think we were all glad when he shaved it off.

Ole the Norwegian Elkhound, however, doesn't need to shave his off because it will go away as soon as he goes inside.

Since I was paying him so much attention, he decided to tell me what was really on his mind.

What was that? Is there a problem?

 
Over there? There's a problem over there?

Is it a log or a dog? It is covered in snow. Hmmmm.

Aha! Sofie has the moose antler and she's chewing on YOUR spot! I see!

Well duh, Mom. An' also, I gots dese big radar ears. I bet I cud get us dat dog show on cable! And we don't gots cable!

Do YOU Know Where Your Moose Is?

It's at my house, that's where your moose is. At least this week. Let's see...it all started out like this....

 

Which was a little startling, at least the part where I was pressed up against the window, shooting video of the Mama moose when suddenly another moose (probably her calf) appears about two inches from me just on the other side of the glass! When I moved the camera to try to refocus, that's when he took off across the yard.

Notice how they totally vanish into a stand of trees. In Alaska moose attack dogs because to a moose, dog=wolf and wolves are one of their main predators. A moose, especially a cow moose, will pre-emptively attack and try to kill any dog. And my dogs are especially wolfy-looking, too. Sofie and I have been chased twice, once by a cow and once by a bull and I'll tell you, it's one of those ultra-adrenaline experiences!

My home is surrounded by trees. Those moose, those 2,000 lb moose and their calves the size of horses can be completely invisible just a few feet from the house! The dogs generally will let me know, once we get outside and sometimes from inside, too. Sometimes even I can smell them, the way the dogs do.

Just yesterday I was driving to work and now the moose about a block away and in the road.

 

After passing the mama moose, and knowing that I was now between her and her calf, plus with Sofie in full husky/coyote dog yodel (and Ole, getting a few Norwegian Elkhound ARPS in for himself) I was wondering if the cow would run up and whack us from behind. I'm very glad she didn't! Like I said in the video, I was only going about 15mph. I was ready and able to stop if necessary and I knew the calf would run in front of us.

However I didn't expect that when I came home from a long day of teaching, that Mama moose would be standing in my driveway munching away! Once again I slowed down, but it didn't help much. She was kind of sick of me. I bet she was thinking, "Are you following me around in that stupid car?" Her hackles went up and she started stepping toward me, so off we went down the road a bit to avoid making her mad enough to attack us. I was wondering where her calf was, for one thing. I bet that once again, I was between her and her calf. Sofie and her moose yodel weren't helping calm things, either!

Luckily, my neighbor and I share a U-driveway, so I sneaked around the back way and backed in as close to my house as I could get. I just sat there with the engine running, watching her eat willow. I honked the horn and she startled, but then ignored me. Sofie and Ole settled down and quieted down and for about 20 minutes we just idled in front of the house, waiting for it to be safe to get out of the car. Encumbered with two dogs, a backpack and a violin, and the fact that it was about -25°F, I had to plan our escape.

The good thing was that her calf wasn't in our yard. First I eased out of the car, got the front door open and put my pack inside. Then I ferried my violin inside the house and came back for the dogs. Next I grabbed the dog leashes and told the dogs to be vewwy, vewwy quiet, because we were NOT hunting wabbits or moosies or anything else! (I could still see the moose at the end of the driveway!) And miracle of miracles, they were completely silent and cooperative and ran right to the house and we all went inside. I closed the door with a sigh of relief.

Then I made myself a hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. Ahhhhhh.

Of course the moose are still around. I'm going out and scouting as much as I can before I take the dogs out to their yard, or we stand in front, with them on long leashes and I pray no moose suddenly materialize. The moose will move on in a week or so, but seriously, you never know when and where you'll see one next! That's Alaska!

Unexpected Accessory

What?

Did you want to tell me something?

Happy New Year from Alaska

A Non-Typical Alaskan Winter Day

I am still waiting for winter. Disregard the fact that I have about a foot of snow and more at my place. Other than that, this does not feel like Alaskan winter. I think we've imported Michigan winter. Granted, it might not be winter in Michigan yet, but the winters of my Michigan youth seem to be appearing here, in present-day Interior Alaska.

It's been above zero most of the "winter." This, in itself, is creepy. When you are used to temperatures of -20°F in November, or at least -10°F, you begin to prepare yourself in August, when Alaska has its Fall. Often we get a Test Snowfall mid-September, where a foot or more of snow might suddenly dump on us, and we all sort of freak out, because winter is a long endurance test, and we don't want to endure it more than usual. However that snow invariably melts away and we all give a collective sigh of relief, but go back into our homes and unpack our winter gear and mentally prepare ourselves for the long, dark cold.

A few years ago I was standing around at a friend's outdoor birthday barbeque in full winter gear and three feet of snow on April 10. That was the year we thought winter would never end.

This year, however, it seems as if winter will never start. I think we've had about five days, total, and not all in a row, where the temperatures dropped below zero. I have had to plug my freezer back in while at the same time having to plug in my car so it will be warm enough to start. This is just plain wrong! Not to mention that most of the time I don't even have to plug my car in at all.

My freezer is in my shed, where all good Alaskan freezers are. I unplug it in the winter because why waste good electricity when it's -10 outside? I only plug the freezer in when it gets to be around 30°above. So far I've had to plug it in and then unplug it a bunch of times.

Yesterday it was supposed to be 32° and I am extremely happy to report that my freezer is still unplugged and it never got above 21° yesterdays.

This warm weather is making everyone nervous now. However I have had a nice day outside, anyway. Chores accomplished incude:

1. Burned all the paper trash in the burn barrel.

2. Took the dogs out for deep snow vole hunting, and basic snow frolicking. (I know you all want pictures but it is impossible for me to hold a camera and two leashes while navigating deep snow. I need a headlight cam!)

3. Finally got the box of meat I bought from our local butcher (Home Grown Market) and put it in the freezer. At least it's been below freezing so that it was safe riding around in my trunk for two weeks. How many of you can say you can put off putting meat away like that! Ha!

4. Hung up two suet feeders on trees so that the woodpeckers will go for those, instead of peckering away at my house. Actually, it might not stop them, because they are hiding sunflower seeds in my siding. And no, there aren't any bugs in my walls.

All in all I was outside on and off for a couple of hours and wore only one layer and a coat, hat and gloves, and took the gloves off a lot, in the interest of not setting myself on fire when I lit the matches for the burn barrel.

Despite having fun today, I remain nervous about this weather. They guy who fills up my water tank called me, and told me that it was raining at his house. This is NOT good. Plus he only lives a few miles away. We normally don't have to deal with freezing rain after Freeze Up.

Wait. I don't think we've finished with Freeze Up yet! Bizarre, truly bizarre. The dogs can still dig holes i the back yard. I was digging the gate out with a shovel just this morning!

If it doesn't get cold enough to kill the main population of hibernating mosquitoes and hornets, we will be in for an unbearable and frighening summer.

If it doesn't get cold enough the bears will wake up and be hungry. Not a good thing, either.

This entire ecosystem is adapted for intense, deep cold. The winters have been warming now for a while. The pioneers who are still alive tell me that it used to be -40 most of the winter. Now we only get that a few weeks of most winters.

The advance of the bark beetles and leaf miners has everything to do with global warming and they are destroying and injuring millions of acres of trees. Whole forests are dead.

If you are a woman you might understand how I feel about this winter. It is like when you miss a period, and you know you aren't pregnant. It might be because you are ill, or stressed. You think you ought to be happy to be spared the agony of cramps and all that just for once, but there is this nagging, weird feeling of being out of balance, that something is wrong, not right, of kilter... and you can't really enjoy the respite.

It will be interesting to see how winter finally comes in this year...if it does....

I'm Either The Best Dog Mom In The World, Or The Worst...

...depending on who you ask. If you ask Sofie and Ole, they think I'm the most considerate mom EVER.

It was about five thirty and Ole was starting his grumbling and snorting campaign, even though his dinner was two hours away.

I got him to settle down for about fifteen minutes and then said, "Let's go for ride in the car!" We all jumped up, I put on the leashes, took them out for a potty break and we got in the car and drove down the road.It's gorgeous outside these days. The aspens and birches are golden, it's been between 60 and 70+ outside and blue skies. Just a wonderful Fall.

I've had some disappointments with people this week, so I felt I deserved a dinner out. I pulled up to the local small diner and went in and had a nice meal. I parked the dogs right next to my table, and I could see them out my window, though there was a screenshade up. All looked fine.

We got home and it was just doggie dinner time. I got out the dog dishes. Earlier in the day I'd been to the feed store and got Taste of the Wild for Sofie, and since they didn't have any small bags of Eagle Pack, they'd given me every single one of their Eagle Pack samples! (I am trying him out on this to see if he does better.)

I put food in the bowls. I turned around. The dogs were drinking, drinking, drinking. I said, "Hey, it's foo-foo time!" They sat down and looked at me. I told Sofia to sit down. (They have to sit and wait while I put the dishes down.) She looked at me like I was nuts and walked away.

Ole just looked confused. He didn't want any food? OLE??

I thought, frantically, what they could possibly have gotten into and was it poisonous?

.....think think think think.....OH CRAP!

I'd left the Taste of the Wild 30 lb bag in the back seat of the car!

Ole had gnawed a very small hole in one corner (these are extremely tough bags--but not too tough for Ole Ginsu Mouth) and probably, over the hour I was eating, they managed to nibble out over two lbs of food or more. (I weighed the bag.)

Now I know why they kept politely switching places, one in front playing lookout (!) and the other lying down in the back teasing kibble out of the hole.
Now I know why they were so THIRSTY when we got home!

No one is bloating. I'm keeping an eye on it. Ole is probably still lubricated from the Bag Balm. But I have to say, the farts are hoooorrrrrriiiibbbbllllleeeee.

My $65 Tin of Bag Balm

Yesterday I was working on the computer, which is located downstairs. Generally, the dogs hang out with me and often so closely I dare not move my chair for fear of pinching an ear or paw. Ole often lays by the front door, as well. He's an elkhound, he gets too hot and likes to be in the coolest spot.

Absorbed in my work, I noticed Ole wasn't nearby. I hollered, as all moms do. "OLE! GET DOWN HERE!" I figured he was upstairs trying to scrounge every molecule of organic birdie bread my parrot dropped. It is his obsession and joy, and it gives him bad breath. After hollering a couple of times and not hearing any suspicious noises, I continued on with my work, because once I get distracted, who knows when I'd get back to it?

Several hours later I went upstairs to change clothes. And I found the reason for Ole's sneaky quietness when he was out of site: he had eaten an entire tin of Bag Balm! Sneaked it off a shelf, and taken the top off all by himself. Why did he think it was yummy? I have no idea. His breath was the same as ever, so I knew he'd done it when I was hollering for him to come downstairs. I was sad to miss the bag balm breath!

Bag balm is used on the udders of milk cows to keep them from chapping. It's also great for the feet of dogs who have to walk outside in sub-zero temps, and does wonders for cracked, dry winter skin. I use it on my feet. So I know it is non-toxic. But a whole tin? I read the ingredients: 8-HYDROXY QUINOLINE SULFATE 0.3% IN A PETROLATUM, LANOLIN BASE.

Petrolatum=Vaseline. Lanolin is non-toxic and great for your skin. But what the heck is 8-HYDROXY QUINOLINE SULFATE? That's a long word, and those are generally not good in quantity.

I called the vet office hoping for a quick answer. The teenager who answered the phone said all the vets were with patients right now and that I should just bring the dog in. Well, considering that it cost $65 to do that as an emergency, and the fact that Ole was fine at the moment, I rang off, rather disgusted with the girl. She wouldn't even take a message to have the vet call me!

Who me? I didn't eat anything, Mom, honest?

Only one other choice was left....call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Hotline. My gut level feeling was that he was going have greasy poop, and possibly barf, but I did adopt him with the help of many, and I love him, and I'd really, really hate to be wrong.

ASPCA Animal Poison Control hotline costs money. Guess how much? Yep, $65, just like the vet. (By the way, if you ever need it here's the number: 888-426-4435.)

They were very good, and I was right. Ole is fine, and the inevitable has already happened, thank doG! And luckily it didn't happen in the car, which was the next episode I was expecting. Sometimes I'm so glad these things don't have sequels! I was expecting him to poop out several socks or something, you know, with all that help. With him you never know.

I took him out last night and he uncharacteristically went to the farthest corner, hid behind the last stand of fireweed, squatted and went thrrrrrrrrpppp! I did manage to see the startled look on his face.

All's well that ends well!

Ole Doesn't Stay

But it's not his fault. His mom is walking backwards while holding some really interesting shiny silver thing. It might have cookies in it!

He actually stays beautifully, except when I'm pointing exciting objects at him and walking backwards and tripping over stumps and bushes.