Moose

UPDATE - July 14
Just found moose tracks going through one of the flower beds by the sidewalk to the house. Couldn't tell if it was one or two animals, but they're still around.

Early one morning about a week ago, Sue was outside hanging sheets on the clothes line when she heard our neighbor's dog bark. Unusual because this neighbor's dogs are exceptionally well behaved. Then she heard a crashing in the woods. A few minutes later, the same sequence of sounds. So, curious, she went around to the front porch to see if she could figure out what was happening.

That's when she saw a large bull moose and his mate casually walking through the woods in the front part of our property. While exciting, it's happened before--we've seen moose several times before and have seen tracks at other times. I think there's even a picture of a moose in an earlier posting on this blog.

Sue watched as the moose went toward the road, hoping they wouldn't try to cross when cars were coming. One car went by with no problem--she thinks they might have seen the moose. But the second car was not so lucky. Although Sue didn't actually see the collision, she heard it. She immediately started running down the driveway because we know how much damage is done when a car hits a moose!

When Sue got to the car, the moose was gone, but the car was very badly damaged. And the driver--a young woman from New Ipswich--although unhurt, was understandably quite shaken. The driver of another car called 911, then he and Sue waited until the Police arrived. Once all the formalities were taken care of, Sue helped the driver get her car to a repair shop and then took her to the elementary school in Hancock, where she works.

Yesterday, Sue found a lovely flower arrangement near our mailbox--a thank you message from the driver of the car that hit the moose. Along with a thank you card, the woman included a poem she had written just a few days earlier. It's a very poignant remembrance of what had to be a traumatic event. Here is the poem:

The moment that it was over, I prayed for you
Watched you hit the pavement, roll, get up and look back at me
We collided
We collided
In this perfect moment of physics
Your brazen world stepped out into my brazen world
And now, I won't ever be the same again.

Storage Shed for the Cabin

A one-room log cabin doesn't provide a lot of space for storing things. By default, most of the tools and bulky supplies have ended up in the old ice fishing shanty that's down by the dock. That's certainly not convenient and, besides, it's an ugly structure that I've always thought was an eyesore. So, this year, I bought all the materials and had the students at school build a storage shed that could be put near the parking area near the cabin. Much better location!

The challenge, of course, was getting the finished shed from Peterborough to the cabin--a 200 mile trip. I purposefully designed the shed to fit in the bed of the truck. The real fun, though, was getting the shed into (and out of) the truck.

The students provided plenty of help getting the shed loaded. But, at the cabin, it was just Sue and me. It looked a bit precarious, but the unloading process went pretty smoothly. Once we got it out of the truck, we used a winch to rotate it into place.

We took the doors off and we left the shed unshingled to make it lighter for moving. There is also an addition to the right side of the shed that we will use for firewood. All that stuff got added once we had the shed in place. Looks pretty good!