The weeks news. All Hallows Eve, moose, moose and more moose. and possible surgery.
It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven in the great northwest.
It’s Halloween today, and children all over the country will be out in costume, looking for candy. Their parents will be eating most of it later. This day started as the pagan celebration of Samhain. People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off spirits. It was believed that this night, the veil between the world of the living and the dead was thin, and ghosts could cross over to harass the living. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1st as All Saints Day, in an attempt to consolidate the Christian calendar’s plethora of saint remembrance days, and in the ninth century, the Church designated November 2nd as All Soul’s Day. All Souls Day had many of the activities we now associate with Halloween. Over time, the day before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows Eve, which in turn, became what we call Halloween today.
The Jack-O-Lantern we know today as a pumpkin, started out as a turnip and a guy named Jack. Jack tried to cheat the devil, so because of this, he was denied entry into heaven, and was condemned to walk the earth forever. He asked the devil for some light, and was given a burning coal which he set into a turnip he had carved out. Pumpkins are already hard enough to carve, as anyone who has can attest to. I wouldn’t want to try a turnip.
It’s been raining almost every day this past week, which we need. Now, it’s sunny with temperatures near 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, then the temperatures dip down around freezing at night. Our winter snows aren’t far behind.
I have talked about tearing my rotator cuff earlier in the year, and after talking to the surgeon , I decided to let it heal on it’s own because the tear wasn’t that bad. Well, the other night I was going after some broccoli in the crisper drawer of the fridge. Some asparagus jammed the drawer, preventing me from getting it open. I reached in with my left arm, the one that’s already torn, and felt it tear again. I called the VA the next morning, and was told by them to go to the ER for an MRI. After a day spent there, we found out that I now had two tears. I have another appointment with the VA surgeon, and this time, I will most likely have to have surgery. This is going to put me out of action for most of our winter, leaving the lovely wife to pick up the slack; as if she doesn’t have enough to do now. I will be confined to the couch after surgery for six weeks at least, unless I can figure out how to handle a snowmobile without the use of my left arm. This isn’t going to be a fun winter at all.
Mamma moose came by the other morning, and her calf is getting big, though not as big as I think it should be by now. She ambled down to the mineral lick at the lower lot, and after that I don’t know where she went. I haven’t seen her twin sister lately, and I’m hoping she’s OK. This week, we’re buying a 25 lb bag of carrots, and dumping them down by the lick. A little more nourishment before winter snows set in, and they’re only able to find tree bark and small branches from the brush for food.
As the lovely wife was cooking supper this evening, I happened to glance out at the yard and saw a young moose with no mamma in sight. I went out on the porch and talked to it a bit until it ambled off toward the lower lot. During a break in cooking, the lovely wife went outside and found that mamma and baby were just the other side of the road on the lower lot. I went out and talked to them for a short time before letting them get on with their dinner. Then, after supper, I looked out the front of the cabin and saw what appeared to be mamma, baby, and twin sister eating from the bushes down just below us. I realized, after I really had a good look, that it was in fact a mamma moose with twins! All the more reason to get that extra food down there.
Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.
