Arguing Moose Disrupt Nice Alaskan Neighborhood

A couple of moose duke it out in
a pleasant Anchorage, Alaska neighborhood.  

There's a pleasant neighborhood around Anchorage, Alaska, with nice houses, nice lawns, and trees with fall foliage still clinging to them despite a rapidly onrushing winter.

This neighborhood was disrupted the other day, though, by a nasty fight. No, not between two homeowners arguing over the placement of a fence.

No, this is Alaska. This fight was between two moose who were determining which one was supreme, and which one would get the lady moose.

Pretty dramatic, if you ask me.

Watch:

Moose Rescued From Avalanche Seems To Be OK

Rob Uphus and Marty Mobley recently rescued a moose
trapped in an Alaska avalanche. The guy who took this
photo, Avery Vucinich, was also one of the rescuers.  

Three guys snowmobiling northeast of Anchorage, Alaska recently encountered an avalanche victim.

Hurray! Our victim will survive after all.

The rescue was made a bit more challenging, though, because buried in the snow was not some other guy, but a moose.

According to NPR and the Alaska Dispatch News, the three men saw part of the moose's snout and ears poking out of the snow.

The guys set to work digging. Two actually dug at the snow, while the third watched the steep mountain overhead, ready to warn if another avalanche started.

"It didn't even fight us," said Marty Mobley said. "It was like, 'Help me. Help me.' It was totally docile and let us touch it. It just (lay) there," Mobley said.

Eventually, the guys shoveled out the moose and one of them poked at the moose.

It looked like the abomnable snowman, since it was covered in packed snow. But it shook the snow, and the trauma of getting stuck in the avalanche off, and took off down the mountain "at full steam," said the guys who rescued the moose.

"I am an animal lover, and I couldn't leave it there," Mobley said. "Besides we deal with a lot of avalanches and a lot of snow. That kind of karma is something we don't pass up."

Congratulations to the three guys for doing this kind deed. Happy snowmobile trails to you!

Why I Don't Live in Nome

Here in Vermont, we have a reputation for nasty winter weather.

It's not quite winter yet, but often by now, it's cold and gray and rainy and snowy and icy. So it was nice this week as Indian Summer weather settled in, with temperatures in the 60s. I was actually doing late autumn yard work in shorts and a t-shirt. Yeah, it was dark and I had to use a head lamp, but at least it was warm.

Today's weather in Vermont made me doubly glad I don't live in Nome, Alaska. I pick on Nome because the video below shows what the weather was like there last night. That area of Alaska is having its worst storm since at least 1974.

 I got cold just watching and listening to the wind howl through town:  Vermont will look like this soon enough, unfortunately