Moose On The Loose

Thursday, May 20. Several ancestors of the original homestead families from the 20’s live here. This town has some street names that honor those pioneers. We are building on Parker Drive. Wilson Road and Rink Creek Road also reach back 90 years to some who homesteaded there. Then there are the other street names I like; Grandpa’s Farm Road, Glenn’s Ditch Road, and Same Old Road. It is all part of the mystique of Gustavus.

We have been living in the front 16 feet of the toy hauler for four weeks now. We dance a delicate dance to get past each other. I was tempted to remove the building supplies from the back to obtain more room but don’t want double handling of those items and have no way to transport the 16 foot roof panels except with this rig. If all goes well we will have the 5th wheel on our property in about a week to ten days. Then again perhaps that is optimistic. I am at the mercy of the excavator to get the stumps out. I have turned my attention to getting water (drilling or driving a well?), getting electricity, and implementing some sort of septic system. We made a LOT of progress in ten days; not one down day due to weather. I am pleased.

This morning I chanced to see a cow moose and her calf in the river. When they saw us they stared a while and then backtracked out of sight. Something in me said to be cautious so I had Paulette pack up her stuff and move toward the truck while I made two trips to the vehicle with chainsaws and tools. About ten minutes later Mrs. Moose was eye to eye with me on our property at about 60 feet. I didn’t take time to look for the calf. Instead I immediately ducked behind a slash pile where I was out of sight, saw Paulette coming back to me from the truck, and we both retreated with one eye on our back-trail. Just being careful! The moose didn’t show themselves again and neither did we. When I returned with the well digger three hours later there were tracks right where I had seen her. The tracks wandered up the “Avenue.”