Arctic Diary: April 5, 2009 6:45 am
Ok, this is a first, and I am still shaking, so I will do my best to make sense.
A little back story first.
As most everyone knows my darling husband has gone back to work for the construction season and is on Prince of Wales Island (a whole story in its self).
It is never a fun task getting Bob off to work for several reasons (again a whole different story) so my week did not start off as what I would call great and has gone somewhat downhill from there.
One of the traditions that we have around here for some reason is that right after Bob leaves it never fails something breaks down. Well the first thing I broke is the key for the ignition of my snow machine. It snapped of in the ignition and with some rigging I am able to start the machine now.
Then I have been having some trouble with our generator and charging system for the battery bank which supplies my electricity. None of these are major problems just annoyances, and it is only made worse by the fact that I am having a breakout of psoriasis and along with that psoriatic arthritis which affects my hand feet and neck. I have started back on the meds that usually help, but will take some time to take effect. Unfortunately one of the side effects is nausea but I guzzle ginger ale and get through the bouts.
I have been feeling somewhat sorry for myself all alone up here in the arctic.
So a couple of my dear friends decided I needed to get the heck out of the house. And invited me down for a girls day.
So getting ready to leave my house for what I assumed would be 2 or 3 hours, I snacked the sled dogs and plugged in the heater on the generator,
I drove the (semi repaired) snow machine (snogo) over to Cindy’s house where Missy met us and talked about what we would do for the day.
We decided to drive down to the Tanana River landing and look at the frozen river.
Soon the road down to the landing will be well traveled as we wait for the river to break up. The way the weather has been it seems we still have several weeks to wait.
The landing is a nice place to hang out with benches and great view.
It was nice and sunny but chilly at about 20 degrees with a breeze so we only stayed about an hour.
We went back to Cindy’s and just had a great time chatting away. To be honest I was not feeling to good and my neck hurt pretty bad. Cindy had some nice ice packs so I sat with Ice on my neck and enjoyed the company.
After a while Cindy declared “I am hungry” why don’t you girls have dinner with me.
Well anyone around here will tell you that if Cindy offers to feed you, you jump on it she is a wonderful cook.
Cindy made Italian sausage and Penne pasta with homemade pesto and fresh grated parmesan cheese. It was magnificent.
We sat around the table yakking away when Cindy’s husband pulled up on his snogo. He had just traveled from the village of Tanana about a 90 mile trip.
That is when we realized that it was almost 10pm.
We have lots of sunlight now and are gaining light at about 7 minutes a day so it doesn’t get dark until about 11 pm and is light again by about 5 am.
After I convinced Greg that I wasn’t leaving on his account I headed home. I had had a very nice day with my friends and headed home in a great mood though not physically well.
Well as I explained earlier I had plugged in the generator heater before I left so when I got home the meter and the batteries charge indicator told me I had nearly drained the batteries and I would have to run the generator for a while.
I was pretty tired and in some pain and just wanted to go to bed, but decided that I would watch a little TV and put a heating pad on my neck.
So I fed the sled dogs, started the generator and laid down on the couch to watch some SNL.
I can tell you that Seth Rogen was the host on SNL last night but that’s about it. Out cold I went.
Soooo the next thing I know my inside dogs are having some kind of fit about something and I am levitating off the couch somewhat befuddled.
“SHIT” I say, I as I see the TV on and the satellite power saver logo flashing across the screen. (The satellite receiver will shut its self off when it thinks no one is watching.) So the TV is on with no sound.
I listen to hear if the generator had run out of gas and run over to look at the battery meter. The meter reads 88% not the 100% I expected to see, not good I think to myself, not only had I wasted a bunch of gas sleeping while the generator was running but had I run it out of gas and run down the battery bank.
But wait I say, don’t I hear the hum of the generator? I hear the ceiling fan so I hit the switch and listen and still hear the low hum of the generator.
Soooo here I am befuddled and now concerned because the batteries are not charged I am wasting gas at $4.30 a gallon and that’s bad.
I have dogs begging me to go out and I have to pee something force.
Out the door I head go the generator shed to shut it down and hit the outhouse, ok now here is where things get tricky.
Anyone who has been here knows that Bob and I picked a really cool spot to builds our house. Now cool is something young people say.
Older people will say well that’s just not smart it may be cool but well…….
Our house is built on what I like to call a finger that comes of a big hill or maybe I should say small mountain called Bean Ridge.
The house sits in the middle of this finger and on 15 feet on either side of the house it is straight down.
We have this intricate steep curvy driveway (best sledding hill in town) and a small parking area in front of the house and then a long back yard.
On the east side of the house the hill is steep but somewhat more sloped and on the west side it is more like a cliff.
The trail or path to the outhouse is along the cliffs edge about 100 feet from the back door and the generator shed is another 15 feet past that on the same trail.
The snow is about 2 feet deep so you are on shoveled paths.
I pop in the generator shed and now this is important, I can only hear the generator and don’t pay much attention to the racket the dogs are making.
I see that there’s still about an 8th of a tank of gas and figure I wasted 4 gallons , but know I have to figure out why the batteries were only at 88%.
We installed a new inverter this winter and it is much more technical than the old one and Bob has been doing the power all winter so I figure I have to learn a few things to find out why it stopped charging.
Well now I notice the dogs at this point are making a racket and I figure they are barking at Ravens I had noticed one when I had gone out the door.
Now at this point I have to pee pretty badly and my little brain is focused on getting to the outhouse.
I walk out of the generator shed take 3 steps and standing right there on the path I just walked down 25 seconds ago is a moose.
Ok so this is a big creature 5 feet away from me and were both panicked.
Now we get back to the dogs.
We have 2 very old sled dogs and one of them we don’t even tie up any more he mostly just hangs around his dog house or within 25 feet or so of it.
Then I have what I call the inside dogs I have the 2 wind up ones the Shizu about 4 pounds of dog and the toy poodle that is bigger at 13 ponds, Then there is the Australian Shepherd and my beautiful black Chow.
Well let me tell you, there I am face to face with this moose and all kinds of racket going on, and as soon as my brain started working again I retreated to the generator shed.
Now there I am trying to get my heart to start beating again and the circuits in my brain to work while there is a God awful racket going on around me and I really have to pee.
The first thing that comes to my brain is the little dogs will be trampled.
The outhouse and all kinds of other junk and a moose in the path, block my view of what is going on the other side of the back yard. So in order to see where the dogs are I have to go out the shed in a different direction to see where the dogs are.
I get the few steps over while watching the moose by the outhouse that is frozen in his tracks.
Off to my left I see Orbit (the loose sled dog) running over to Freddy the tied up sled dog and both are standing behind Freddy’s house. Ok… my circuits are buzzing now and I see that at least these two dogs have some sense and are staying away from the moose. Then I looked to the right.
Ok now I am 49 years old I have to pee and at this point I can’t even really fathom what I see. It takes a few seconds for my brain to grasp that there are two more moose who are trapped by sled dogs on one side, a generator shed, outhouse all kinds of junk on another side. A house, snogo’s , , fire wood stack, clothes lines and various other arctic living junk .
Now when I first walked out of the generator shed to see the moose by the outhouse It was big but my brain did not go much farther than that, Until I saw the other 2.
What I had trapped in my yard was a very pregnant giant, huge, massive, cow moose with 2 one year old, well I guess you could call them calves because the probably only weigh 1000 pounds compared to mom who looked to me like she weighed 2000 pounds, most likely an exaggeration but remember I had to pee.
Ok now my mind is taking all the little details in and is finally firing on circuits. As I take in the picture, the first thing I realize is, I am trapped, and so are the moose. Now there is the house and satellite dish keeping them from going one way. Sled dogs and dog house and 2 old snogo’s blocking the easiest retreat for the moose. The outhouse and generator shed one way and in between 2 snogo,s near the house and 4 wheeler and all kinds of sleds and various wood piles and all kinds of junk making it pretty tricky. Then of course we have the pigeon Hilton. (Pigeon coup and yes a whole different story).
The moose are seriously being harassed by 4 dogs and the littlest one being the most vicious.
There I am not breathing, no heart beat, really having to pee watching a 2000 pound moose with a 4 pound shizu yapping at its feet. The poodle is having a stroke and hiding under the 4 wheeler, and the chow and shepherd are doing a bark and retreat thing each on a moose.
Now as I said 15 feet on either side of the yard which is about 50 feet wide it is basically straight down and I don’t blame the poor moose for not wanting to go that way through the deep snow and the dead fall trees and other things that make that way out dangerous.
I am waiting for momma moose to have had enough of this, and kick the stupid little creature that is trying to bite it’s back leg and running under it and yapping in some weird vicious growl.
I know I have to do something but not sure what.
So here I am I have 3 moose in my yard 5 loose dogs and one tied up, a pigeon coup that won’t hold up to getting hit by a moose, it is 14 degrees out I am in my night gown and believe it or not still have to pee.
I figure there is enough stuff between me and the guy on the outhouse path that I can turn my back on that one and try to figure out how to get the stupid little dog who is not responding in any way to my calls. The pigeons I figure are on their own. Motley (shepherd) and Ebony (chow) seem to know what the hell they are doing as they try to get the moose herded out of the yard.
The poodle at this point has decided to join in with the racket but seems to be smart enough to keep his distance and is now using one of the snogos as a shield.
So as the moose are getting pushed away by the dogs. I make a run for it down the path and snagged the little stupid thing that has decided she really wanted to kill that big thing in the back yard. It was like trying to hold on to a wolverine. At that point Momma Moose turns her head and looks me right in the eyes, but my dearest darling chow is between her and me so break for it and run for the house.
I did not even turn around and look until I was on the porch, I can barley open the door with the pissed off wolverine in my hands called to Owlbait (poodle) who took one look at me and the moose between me and him and gave me a look that said (well in doggy look ) what I would say was a F___ Y__.
After throwing the wolverine into the door, I turn around and again call the poodle one more time, which thankful is a pretty smart little shit. He makes a zig zag run around the snogo and moose to get to me. Pretty smart little thing he is, remember there is 2 feet of snow out there and if you get off the beaten, now hard packed paths, you are in deep snow. Well it only comes to the knees of the moose but over the poodle’s head, and pretty deep for the big dogs too. So OB gets an A+ today for his maneuvers.
OK so now I am safe, the little dogs who are now in full battle mode with the screen door are safe. I watch as the poor moose on the outhouse path is still frozen in place and the loose sled dog is still smartly standing watching the whole fracas from the safety of the tied up dogs area. The chow and shepherd have the 2 other moose heading down the steep hill on the other side. Now here is the thing, Momma moose has these damn funny looking wolves doing some kind of tag team maneuver on her and one of her calves, who is staying close to mamma, but watching over her shoulder to her other baby who is getting farther away and none too damn happy about it.
So the dogs have two moose heading down the hill and I am hoping my dogs are not going to get them damn selves trampled, I have another moose who is frozen on the path to the outhouse and blocked by cliff on one side and house and dogs on the other and I HAVE TO PEE! I can no longer put it off and hope the dogs can fend for themselves for a minute and head for the honey bucket.
OK I take care of that, and I can breathe again. I head for the door to see what the hell’s going on.
I hit the porch and see that Momma Moose has now hit the part of the hill that runs into the drive way and now that she is on a packed trail is having none of these funny looking wolves that are keep her from the other calf. The dogs are on the driveway out of the deep snow and everybody is on firmer ground, not really a good thing.
I give the best DOGS COME in that authority voice I can use now that I don’t have to pee and I’ll be damned if both the dogs didn’t take one look at me and come running.
OK so in the house they go and I take my first breath in like 5 minutes my heart starts to beat again but I still have two moose heading up the driveway towards the front of the house and one guy still on the path to the outhouse a loose dog that has enough sense to stay the hell out of the way and one dog that is tied on a run. Now this is the guy who is screwed cuz there is no way for him to escape if the moose on the path figures out all he has to do is get around the generator shed and he can flee easily.
Momma and calf one, are in the front yard now, right out the bay window, and I think to myself I gotta get pictures. So I run back into the barking house and grab the camera and get a pic of Momma and calf one who is trying to see around the house to calf 2. I run to the back door and get a picture of calf 2’s butt on the outhouse trail and run back to the window and try to get some more pic’s but the flash is on and the windows are reflecting it and well…
So as I am running back and forth from front window to back door and trying to snap pictures Momma Moose has had enough of this shit and starts heading down the hill to the valley on the west side of the house, calf one follows and when she gets to the bottom of the hill calf 2 sees her and moves for the first time down the steepest part of the hill to get to mom.
HOLY CRAP.. I think to myself and without a doubt need a cup of coffee, I put the kettle to boil and stand watching the moose out the window down in the valley and know they are safe, I am safe and all my stupid dogs are safe (for now). I get my coffee made and spy the bottle of whiskey and think to myself hmmmmmm. But it is early so I just went for the Baileys!
So now I am sitting here, I think my heart beat is almost normal again I am on my second Baileys and coffee and the shaking has settled down some. I have recorded this in my diary and I wonder what will happen with the rest of the day.
Life in the Arctic.
