Right after I wrote yesterday, Chip shot a moose. Number 17 in the Haines hunt. (They changed the board after checking us in.) The total will be 25, and that could be reached pretty soon. It happened while I was typing in a quiet house, while my son-in-law and his friend Paul, who flew up from Juneau with the blue skies the day before for a short stay, were sleeping. Chip brewed coffee had tip-toed out and drove to the end of our road to look around for moose for a few hours before work. We three were cooking breakfast when he came home around 8:15 and said we better have saved him some eggs, because he was hungry and there is work to do. “I got a moose,” he said, smiling. “No way!” we all said in unison. “Yes, really. A spike fork, right near the cabin.” So there you have it. (Spike fork, for those who don’t know, is what it sounds like, one antler is a single spiked horn, the other is forked, like a sling shot. In other words, nothing like Bullwinkle’s antlers, but a very legal Haines antler configuration.) Of course he told the story– a friend was up there hunting too– and there were several moose thrashing around, and both hunters were looking for them, and the legal guy walked in front of Chip first. We will have to have the other guy for a moose steak dinner.
Needless to say, Chip is happy.
And I have a bit more time to prepare for tonight’s candidates forum hosted by KHNS News at the Chilkat Center at 6:00. (You can email questions to them, just go to the KHNS site.) I’m looking forward to it, and realize after the last one on Friday (this picture was taken at it by KHNS News), that I need to speak louder ( so the back of the room can hear, my friend Teresa said), and maybe use my hands a little less?