Moose.. . . . .

Isn't she pretty?  This moose cow came across the road from the green belt area behind our cabin and up the damn to the south side of Apache Lake. . . . I only caught her on film because someone had stopped by in front of the cabin where I was relaxing to let me know there was a bear in the area and it was coming this way.  I was so excited about the chance to finally see a bear in real life that I made the dogs go inside, grabbed my camera and looked around to see if I could any sign of a bear.  You see, in the 40 years I have spent time up at the cabin, counting 9 months straight in 1999-2000, I have never seen a bear in the area.  We have seen evidence of them here and even had one mark our brand new trash can while we slept inside so they are here.  I just have never seen one.

So with camera in hand I head to where all the people are congregating on the top of the damn thinking maybe the bear is fishing in the lake.  I get up there and look around only to see this moose cow coming up on the south side.  Then someone points out to me there is a young bull moose across the lake who was just recently swimming in the lake.  Great - missed that cool experience as well.  So I watch and photograph the cow working her way over to the young bull.  She did not swim, must have not had her waders with her or something. 

I never did see a bear but thanks to 10x zoom I did get some great pictures of the moose around the lake, even with the sun filtering into my picture making it look like there was a fog or mist shrouding the moose from a clear view.

I wonder what fun things I will get to see today. . . . I have on my schedule to read, relax, flip some burgers at the annual BBQ over at the Koch cabin, and make myself a root beer float pie for tomorrow's celebration of my life!  So I will spend my last day of being 45 listening to the wind blow through the trees, hang out on the deck and eat some great food with people I only get to see up here at the cabin.  Then, after Sunday, it is back to the normal life on the farm. . . where I hope to see some signs of veggies forming in the garden and flowers blooming around the house.