a moose in the yard and other random bits of weekend news

Posted on April 28th, 2014 by mountain girl  |  6 Comments »

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Caleb was working at his computer Friday and glanced up to see this big bull moose amble by his window.  Unlike the other moose we’ve spotted around here, he was beefy and muscular, and seemed quite well fed.  He is probably seasoned in surviving winters–see those white patches on his belly?  He’s no spring chicken.

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His new antlers are just about the size of handlebars.  But that would be one wild ride. 🙂

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He parked himself below the playhouse for quite a while to strip branches from the aspens.  We watched from the deck, and he didn’t seem to care at all.

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And now, on to other things.  Zia is entering the Science Fair in May with her class, and she decided to do the “Naked Egg” experiment.

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After soaking an egg in vinegar for two 24-hour sessions, the egg lost its shell and doubled in size.

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Zia painstakingly recorded the information.  Reading, writing, and spelling haven’t been her favorite subjects, but she is gamely tackling them and growing by leaps and bounds.  She is starting to read whole easy-reader books now.

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The egg was rubbery and translucent, and its short naked life was ended when (at Zia’s request) Caleb popped it with a toothpick.  Cash still reenacts the scene for me, added explosion sounds to make it more exciting.

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This website shows you how to do the experiment.  It also shows cool things you can do with naked eggs, like adding color and how to grow them even larger.

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Saturday we stopped by the Children’s Peace Garden in Boulder for “Bee Earth Day”.  We got there toward the end of the event, and by that time there was no sign of the honeybees, goats, or free compost promised.  It was a lot of fun anyway, and so good just to be outside.

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Cash rolled in the mulch and Zia got her face painted.

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Just before the weekend, I did a nice fresh mudpack of henna on my hair.  I do it about every 6 weeks to squelch those pesky grays, and of course it’s always lots of fun.  Here I am, stylin’ in my King Soopers grocery bag do-rag.

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So chic, right?

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I won’t bore you with the “after” pics, since it looks the same as always.  One of these days I’ll do something drastic and shock everybody, like dye it black so I can feign puzzlement about my children’s red hair.

It was supposed to snow this weekend, but we got tree-uprooting cold winds instead, and only a few flurries that didn’t even stick.  At this point, we’ll take winds over snow, for sure.  COME ON, SPRING!!!

6 Responses to “a moose in the yard and other random bits of weekend news”

  1. appleshoe says on :

    eek! An amazing site to be sure, but be careful during mating season. Moose can be pretty aggressive and territorial. I’ve never heard of the naked egg before. It looks fun. And one of these days I will have to try henna. I use madder root right now. Be well.

  2. mountain girl says on :

    David was trailed by a moose once while hunting. I would have been so scared, but he seemed to take it right in stride. It was nice to be viewing this one from up above! 🙂

  3. Mimi says on :

    Glad you were all safe from the moose…..liked all the pics ….nice egg experiment! You all look happy, busy and glad to be out!

  4. Wendy McDonagh-Valentine says on :

    How cool is it that a moose casually strolls by your window??!!!?? That is so awesome!!! I love the egg experiment. We’ll have to try that. I hope you’re only kidding about coloring your hair black!! I’ve been coloring my hair red since I was a junior in high school. A LOOOONG time ago!!! When my middle son was born with the same shade of red that I had been coloring my hair for years I almost fell on the floor!!! LOL!!!! It came from his Dad’s side but I couldn’t have planned it any better!!! : )

  5. mountain girl says on :

    Wendy,
    That is so funny about your son. Maybe if I dye my hair black I will have a black haired child? 🙂 And I am only half kidding about dying it–I’ve always secretly wondered what I would look like with black hair. 🙂

  6. Poco Mountain Girl » Blog Archive » moose on the loose says on :

    […] little area is kind of a moose hangout–it’s the same place we saw the other bull, which I think was a different one.  It’s hard to tell, since that was in the spring.  He […]