Animal sightings, wild and otherwise---highlights Part Deux

Our fox visited regularly--just checking things out. Freddy gave a good chase one day, but was lured back with Farmer's Market Bacon.

YIKES MOOOSE!!! You may want to review your Moose Safety Tips in an earlier post.BBBAAAAA. The sheepherder dog was lazing around in the high grass. The sheepherder must have been off doing carvings.

One of the first of many many nights during which those infernal elk spent ALL NIGHT LONG bugling, whistling, and even, when things got Super Fun, whinnying.  These guys know how to partayyy

Good Fries Here.

Bigfoot Sighting??

Highlights of the trip Out West

FOOD:

Biggest Baked potatoes at Pioneer SaloonREAL FriesBacon from the Farmer's MarketYep!!!And DRINK

Disappointment, and then Lexington, Nebraska

Well, the whole adoption record opening turned into a bust. I went to the archives, court order in hand, and they told me the file is "missing"; as in gone forever; nothing to do about it.

It's over.

I will not quit that easily... so I went to vital records to see if I could just get the original birth certificate, court order in hand. Nope, according to the Queen of the Bureaucrats. I need an entirely new court order which requires starting the whole procedure again.

So, I threw Fred in the car and drove to:

BEAUTIFUL LEXINGTON NEBRASKA!!!!!

Holiday Inn Express, Lexington, NE

TAKE ME HOME ALREADY!!!!

On the long road

After this, it was pea soup fog, can you see all the huge windmills ahead??

Loews Denver, in the middle of nowheresville, but the bellmen will walk your dog.

TOMORROW, I will try to open Red's adoption records.

Snowy in Rawlins, WY

Hampton Inn, Rawlins, WY; Windy, snowy, ice on  the ground

Beautiful Rawlins, from my window

Bye Bye Idaho

Freddy's nose knows

So, we are heading out on a fairly popular, close to home, easy hike., the Hippies use Backdoor hike:

 From the second we got on the trail, Freddy's nose was pointed ahead and to the left. I kept saying....."he smells something".....
Around a bend and topping a hill, I see:

MOOSE!!!!!!

FRED SEES MOOSE!  He is normally the biggest chicken in the world, but he is not scared????

Needless to say, we skedaddled.
In case you are interested, here are moose safety tips:

Moose Safety Tips NEVER feed a moose. It is dangerous, and as of July 1, 1993 it is illegal to feed moose in Alaska, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year in jail. NEVER get between a cow and a calf. Don't walk toward a moose if you can avoid it; try to remain at least 50 feet away. NEVER throw anything including snowballs at a moose. ALWAYS keep dogs under control or leave them at home (A dog may chase after a moose and suddenly find the moose chasing it. Naturally the dog runs back to its owner, bringing the moose along with it. AVOID moose that are in a fenced area or between houses; they may feel cornered. TRY to get behind a tree if a moose charges. You can run around the tree better than it can. IF A MOOSE ATTACKS you, get down on the ground, cover your head as well as you can, and stay very still. Don't wave your arms after you are on the ground. IF A MOOSE CHARGES, another option is to raise your hands over your head and spread out your fingers. Hold your arms still, don't wave them. Sometimes the moose will think that you are another animal bigger than he is. REMEMBER-- if you see its ears laid back and/or the hair on its "hump" stand up, it's angry or afraid and may charge. IF YOU SEE SOMEONE ABOUT TO BE CHARGED by a moose, making a loud noise or honking a might distract the animal long enough for the victim to take evasive action. Don't run up to the moose. REMEMBER MOOSE KICK with their front feet as well as their hind feet Source: Moose Safety Tips, Alaska Fish and Wildlife Protection

Sheepherders Tree Carvings: Talking Aspens

Whilst cavorting through the wilds of Idaho, we have been running across these tree carvings.. also called arborglyphs:

These are pictures of sheep

Some signed their namesThis one was done in 1951!

It says Jesus and a cross  is carved below...

With the Gold Rush in the 1850's came thousands of young Basque men.  When the Gold ran out, many of these men moved on to sheepherding across the West.   There were thousands of sheep for every one man and isolation and loneliness was par for the course.  Some became crazed by the isolation and suffered from a condition called "Struck By Sagebrush".
These men used a thin,sharp knife to inscribe the Aspens along their way: either political slogans, drawings of animals or women (some explicit!), or just, "Jose was here".  The inscription grows along with the tree when done skillfully.  Aspens don't have a very long life span, usually up to 100 years, so these drawings are rapidly disappearing

The Basques inhabit the Pyrenees between Spain and France. Their origin remains a mystery, and are considered to be some of the oldest inhabitants of Europe, possibly pre- Celtic.
Euskera, the unique Basque language, is unrelated to any other known language, and the only remaining language in southwestern Europe which was spoken before the Roman conquest. They also have the highest proportion of RH negative blood type, and virtually no B blood type , a genetically isolated population...

 ESKERRIK ASKO!

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