Moose Viewing Routes, Rules, and Regulations

I had always heard Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont were loaded with moose.  I felt sure we were bound to see a few zillion while we were here - especially once I found this map.  Not only did it show us the roadways most likely to give moose-sightings a chance, but it gave us moose tips, too.

For instance:

#1.  Apply brakes
#2.  Let up just before impact
#3.  Aim for hind end
#4.  DUCK!


Unfortunately, after days of driving these stupid moose routes the only moose we saw was at an outlet shopping mall!

Manchester, New Hampshire

Manchester is the capitol of New Hampshire, and it is the largest New England city north of Boston - with a population of about 110,000.  Add in the surrounding 'burbs and you have a population of about 410,000 - or 1/3rd of the population of the entire state of New Hampshire. 

I found us a little place in the rural 'burbs:

Now, don't get all wowser on me.  We just had the apartment on the left - see our van?  The rest of the place is a home.  Jean works at the Manchester hospital Granpa is contracted to, and that's how we got onto this place.  Sure beats an Extended Stay!

The driveway was a bit tricky once the snows came.  It wasn't just long, it was downhill if we were leaving - and there were curves!  Brett would clean it with his snowplow tractor attachment, but not always before I took Granpa to work.  One time I tried three times to get up the driveway before Brett plowed, and finally just parked the car at the road and walked up the driveway!

Other Things While We Were Home

There was a Princess style show:

A puppet show:

Halloween:

And the inevitable phone call taking us away from all of this... to New Hampshire!

The Turkey Shoot

Every Fall in Tyler the local Kiwanis Club holds a Turkey Shoot.  For you non-Westerners, that does not mean we all get together and go hunt turkeys for the Thanksgiving table.  It means that, to support the Kiwanis, we pay a couple of dollars, use their single-shot .22 rifles, and, if we hit the target, we get a free frozen turkey - which we can then use for Thanksgiving dinner.  They also dangle a golf ball from a string and if you hit it you get a free ham!

This isn't nearly as easy as it sounds.  In days gone by you could use your own firearm.  You were used to it.  If it was a good gun, it was properly sighted in; if it wasn't a good 'un you at least knew that it pulled to the left or right.  No, nowadays you have to use their rifle- which may or may not have been cleaned in the last ten years, may or may not have been sighted in, has been fired that morning a hundred times or more...  Not to mention the wind seems to always be howling, blowing your bullet God knows where.  And that golf ball on a string?  It's definitely dancing in the wind - at 50 yards!

No, this is for real shooters.  Like us! And we have a winner!  (Of course.)

 Now it's time for Momma to go for the ham...

And, bam!  Just like that there's a ham to go with the turkey!  Never mess with Texas women 'cause she didn't hit the golf ball - she sliced that string in two with one bullet!  The judges figured that was a fair shot! (We did, too.)  Not unexpected for someone who went to college on a Rifle Team scholarship and qualified "Expert" on National Guard rifle range every year!  That's where she met our son - and he qualified Expert not only with a rifle but pistol and machine gun, too.  (She wasn't required to qualify on anything but the rifle.  But she could always out-shoot our son...)

Chores Around The Farm

For awhile now we've needed to rebuild our little bridge over the "creek."











Actually, it's a drainage ditch between the house and driveway,

but Granpa has dressed it up to look like a creek.

He had some pretty good helpers, too.




















Came out looking pretty good.  In no time at all those wolmanized 2x4's will be equally weathered, and it will look even better.  That and finishing the handrails....

Then it was off to repairing a shed torn up by a wind storm.  Mordachai our burro always, always keeps an eye on things!  On a farm you have to use whatever comes to hand, and as you never throw anything away when you're living on a farm, you never know what you'll be using.





It was a big stain, er, strain on the the grandkids to help put on a protective coat of paint.

Then it was on to moving, repairing or outright building new fences.  This is what's known as a "fence slammer."  Our Houston son made it for us.  You just put it over the top of a metal t-post and slam it down to bury that post into the ground.

Leaving Kingman

Going back through these photos certainly makes me homesick for Kingman and all of our friends there!  This time we were in Kingman for a full year.  We acquired so many thing, though, that we had to bring in Granpa's pickup and rent a U-Haul to get home!

Isn't Arizona beautiful?  The skies are endless and the air is so clear, dry as a bone and there is still gorgeous greenery.

But with everything - and everyone - all packed up and good-bye kisses taken care of, we're on our way.

Once we got home and had some going-away gifts put in place ...

...we were ready to get on with the farm chores!

The Blood Moon Prophecy?

 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth,

blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

 The sun will be turned to darkness, 

and the moon into blood ,

before the great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord

shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be a deliverance,

as the Lord hath said, 

and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

-- Joel 2:30-32

Joel is one of the twelve "Minor" Prophets that God spoke through and the Prophet recorded.
There were only five "Major" Prophets.  Those Prophet books of the Bible are tough to read through because of the prophetic language and seemingly constant warnings and condemnations.  The book of Daniel is really, really hard.  Entire seminary courses are taught on that one! But those books of the Old Testament are important because they tell the future.  (People are still going to palm readers to learn the future.  It's already written in the Bible.  Just go there.) Isaiah and Micah told of Christ's birth - and it came to pass EXACTLY as the said it would.  Not impressed?  Isaiah wrote about it seven hundred years before it happened!  Isaiah also tells of Christ's death on the Cross.  Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah told of Christ's return.  Now, if his birth was foretold in precise detail, and his death was foretold in precise detail, why would you doubt that Christ's return won't happen exactly as they said?  You might want to read about that so that you'll know what's going on when it happens!

But, back to the Super Blood Moon...

In 2013, John Hagee published, Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change, and the term "Blood Moon" became a part of the world's standard lexicon.  In his book he lays out why he believes that this series of blood moons, the tetra, heralds the coming of the end times as prophesied by Ezekiel, Daiel and Zechariah.

What Hagee doesn't say is that God/Joel perhaps meant a simultaneous solar and lunar eclipse.  The astronomers say that that doesn't happen.  Even more, they say it can't happen, EVER, on the same day. 

I say, unless, of course, you're GOD!  I mean, after all he hung the sun and the moon!  He can arrange them whatever way He wants whenever he wants!

September 27-28, 2015 - The Blood Moon

The origin of the term, "Blood Moons," is religious, at least according to Christian pastor John Hagee, who wrote a 2013 book about Blood Moons.  The media picked up the term then and have run with it ever since. What astronomers call it is a lunar tetrad (meaning group of four.) It’s four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six lunar months (six full moons).

The big deal this year of 2015 has to do with Biblical Prophecy of what Christians call "the End Times."  This tetrad began on the night of April 15-15, 2014.  The second one was October 7-8, 2014, and the third April 4th, 2015.  The third eclipse was the shortest lasting one for the entire 21st century.  The fourth, on September 27-28 was  the coolest of all because it was a Super Moon!

Granpa and I drove up into the Hualapai Mountains.  Looking back on the town of Kingman was a treat.

We did the best we could with the cameras we had.  They were good enough to create some great memories.