Life in the Sticks: Moose Tongues

My husband & I were very blessed to find a beautiful 30 acre piece of land just 10 mins outside the town we live in- 30 acres! In urban areas our little piece of land would be home to at least 120 families! That blows my mind! Living here has its downsides; the road can be a bit sketchy sometimes getting back here, a "quick trip" to town requires a minimum of an hour & people sometimes have a hard time finding us (just ask the pizza delivery gal who took 45 mins to go 2 miles). The upsides though, oh man, they are worth all the negative; room for my kids to explore, silence that is almost deafening at times, only one neighbor within site of our house (barely) & so much beauty!

One of my favorite parts about living here is the wildlife, particularly moose. I love moose, they are my favorite Alaskan animal, hands down. If you have never seen one in real life you are missing out, sure they are a little awkward looking but they move so gracefully & just have soft eyes. Ok, I may sound a little crazy but it's true. The moose we have around our property are not so shy, they don't seem to mind that we have invaded "their" turf & go about their business as if we aren't here. Our moose have taken a real liking to our vehicles, or "licking" to if I want to throw in a bad pun lol. What do I mean, you ask. Well for many months now my husband & my trucks have been covered in tongue prints, yes I said tongue prints. You see, moose (like all herbivores) need salt & apparently the grime on our vehicles is an excellent source of it. I have been hoping to catch them in the act all winter & last night we finally got lucky.

As we were putting our kiddos to bed my husband happened to look out the window & see one of our visitors wandering past my truck, just feet from our front door. We watched for a minute &, sure enough, the yearling ventured over to my husband's truck & began licking. Boy was I excited! I immediately found my camera & went outside. Now, let me warn you, moose may look goofy but they can be deadly, especially in cases of calves & their mommies. Cow moose are VERY protective of their young & you never wander out attempting to get close to a calf or it's mommy. I stayed a safe distance, sheltered by my truck, from this yearling. I could hear it's mom munching on some brush about 100 feet away & at all times during my picture snapping was aware of both animals. Still, I got some decent pics & am excited to share. Keep in mind it was very dark so they are grainy but you can see our little friend pretty clearly going to town on the truck. I did some noise making & even managed to get him/her, couldn't tell which, to look at me.

BUSTED! Below is the evidence they were working on my own truck after we went to sleep. My truck is seriously 10 feet from our front door, they have no fear!

Pretty great, right? Just one thing I love about Alaska & living in "the sticks". Stay tuned, summer's coming & the eagles will be out again!