Argh! Frickin’-frackin’ damned MOOSE!
posted in Alaska, Garden, Wildlife |Yesterday evening, we thinned out the spinach and pak choi and hong tsin choi and Swiss chard and beets, and had a whole mess of baby greens. This, of course, cooked down into a small mess of baby greens. They were awesome to eat, tender and tasty and lovely.
So today I was going to wax rhapsodic about our veggie garden. There was a planned chortle about how nice and big our broccoli plants were getting. A close-up or two of our tender tiny carrot plants.
Earlier this morning, the neighborhood dogs were going nuts, howling and barking and generally being noisy. I couldn’t see what had set them off, so marked it off as a puzzle.
Then, later, I was sitting in my office, reading my blogs, and OmegaDad wandered in to tell me, “Keep an eye out for any moose; I saw one up the hill at the neighbor’s house.” Aye, aye, sir, I responded. He headed off to take a shower, and I popped out the kitchen door for a smoke.
Then…Then my eyes alighted on our veggie garden.
Things looked…different.
I thought to myself “Moose? Garden? Time to check things out,” and headed down the back stairs towards the garden.
As I got closer, I could see evidence of the massacree.
Moose tracks and shorn plants:
A discarded plant:
A row of cabbage plants with the tasty tops munched off (they were not yet “heading”):
Cropped and dumped brussels sprout plants:
Now, I’m aware that it could have been worse. We still have lots of tiny spinach, beets, chard, lettuce, etc. Our peas, in the back, were undisturbed. There were some plants that had been pulled up, roots and all, so they have been replanted. And most of the plants that were eaten can regrow.
But I was just damned angry. If a hapless moose had been anywhere in sight at that moment, I might have done something stupid, like charged it in a red haze.
Damn moose.
While I was out taking inventory of the damage, I heard loud, angry shouts and stomping and thumping from the neighbor across the street, so I am assuming that the moose made the rounds and visited other yummy plant buffets.
