The weeks news. 2 moose, some work around the cabin, and Ukraine

It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain. My little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

Spring showed up for a time, then today it started snowing, a typical March in the northwest. It’s supposed to warm up and turn to rain, but I’m not counting on it, at least not up here. Last spring, one of the moose that hangs around here gave birth not far from the cabin. She is one of twins that have come around here a lot over the last few years. Then, this week, a young moose started coming around. We spooked it as we were coming home; it had been in our driveway, and ran out as we approached. Later on, another moose showed up, this one pregnant and very likely the same one who had given birth near us last spring. Calves normally stay with their mother for up to two years, unless mamma gets pregnant again, then mamma will run the calf off. I believe that is what happened, since the young moose seems familiar with our place, and even knows were the mineral lick was. There has been a moose or two down where we put the lick in the fall, digging up the snow looking for it. The lovely wife and I picked up a new one last time we went to town and set it where the old one had been. We dropped a few carrots near it as well. Hopefully, the moose will return soon looking for it again.

While my son was here, he was given quite a bit of white cedar that had been polyurethaned and had intended to use it in his cabin. He moved before he got around to it. Since our weather was nice, I set up my table and chop saws on the deck, and the lovely wife and I spent two days cutting and nailing it up on the last two walls in the bedroom. I had wanted to rent a planer and take off the old finish first, but after closer inspection with a wet rag, found all of it to be in really good shape as it was. Now the only thing left to do in the bedroom is the ceiling, a job I don’t know if I really want to tackle.

I had the misfortune to look in our cistern a few days ago, and discovered about two inches of sediment on the bottom from the snow we have been putting into it. It’s that time of year when the snow is very dirty. This time of the season, we end up hauling in water jugs to keep the cistern full, a job that keeps the lovely wife very busy, since she’s normally the one in town. We emptied the remaining water in the cistern, then took it to town to the self-serve car wash for a good cleaning. Now, we have fresh water, sans sediment.

I normally shy away from world events here, but I cannot live in a vacuum. I cannot not be heartbroken by people on the other side of the world losing everything to a foolish war. I am deeply saddened by the events unfolding in Ukraine, and can only hope Ukraine, and its people, remain strong, survive, and that those souls who are currently displaced by the war can return home once again to pick up their shattered lives. I know nothing will be the same for the people there, and that saddens me the most. “War is an ugly beast, a nasty thing, and no one comes away unscathed. The closer you were, the deeper the scars,” a quote from my first book. May their scars be not so deep that they cut clean through, severing any hope of recovery.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.