Nature adventures in Cheddahville!

Well, as you know I cannot write small being a novelist and all... And I will not disappoint you! I decided to write today about the wonderful adventures that we have experienced here in Cheddaville concerning the extreme nature.

As you know Maine has moose and lots of them. I had seen many of them driving through on the way to Canada when we lived in Norton, Mass near Jackman and was waiting patiently for an experience here in our own back yard since we moved up here. Well we did have to wait longer than expected for this to occur. We had been living here almost a whole year when I finally had my first local sighting! Apparently, since we live way out in the middle of nowhere the moose have plenty of places to play and have made less and less appearances to the natives. The neighbors made sure to tell me that they were everywhere and I was feeling upset since they seemed to be hiding from me. I had walked out in my monstrous backyard and have seen the droppings left behind in complete mockery of us-screaming out that they had only just been there but were not ready to reveal themselves yet. Then the day finally arrived. I live on a huge hill called Zion Hill-as if stating the obvious. Anyways, I was traveling up one part of it on my way into town (not the center of Cheddaville-naturally, but Farmington-where they had actual shopping-if you call Wal-Mart the place....). Anyways, I was driving up the hill thinking of what I needed at the store when low and behold there appeared a large animal jauntily skipping out of the side from the woods. At first sight, I mistakenly thought that it was a gigantic horse that had escaped from one of the many local farms. However... it was not. I had seen my first moose! It was a female. Like most Flatlanders-I had simply thought that all moose looked like Bullwinkle-complete with antlers. Well, this one did not, though huge it was and it was crossing the road in my path. It did not even stop to look-understandable knowing that it had the right of way by lethal size alone! I was ecstatic and had called everyone that I knew as soon as I got home later on that day!

It was years later when one finally decided to make its appearance in my own yard. This was during the Spring of 2005. I state Spring very loosely here in Maine-since in March (which was when this occurred) we still had several feet of snow on the ground! That day I had sent out my middle daughter, Jacqui to bring in the dogs. In the Spring we let then run out back for a spell after being cooped up in the house all winter. Well she ran out to get them after watching them run out into the woods jumping in joy. She ran back into the house and told me that Bart (our little sheep dog) was barking frantically and she that she saw something huge near the old farm pond at the bottom of our hill. She ran out and then back in again and was screaming to me that it was a moose! I ran out after her and told her to get inside. No sooner had I yelled this, when out of the woods ran a huge moose with tiny little Bart trailing out after it barking frantically! I was mortified, yet seriously spellbound at the spectacle that I was witnessing! Our little sheep dog was frantically trying and by the looks of it succeeding in herding a huge moose-this one did not have antlers though was way larger than the one I saw crossing the road! It looked like a full grown male-thousands of pounds large. Anyways, the moose had run into my backyard and around the house through several feet of snow and was traveling at breakneck speed along the fence line and the into the front yard. I had followed the scene spellbound and finally grabbed the dog when I gained my wits afraid that it would cause the moose into a suicide dash and hurt itself. I had Jacqui bring Bart into the house. I then followed it with my eyes as it ran into the sheep fields-jumping the fences like it was made of Lincoln Logs with its sheer size. He ran into the back yard and then went out into the field on the other side of my house. In the meantime I had my littlest daughter Tiffany by my side and had yelled to Jacqui to watch the moose, while I ran fast into the house to grab my camera. I know now that it was a typical Flatlander moment, not realizing that I had exposed my own children to a frantic moose (he was way over in the side field, however). I arrived on the side yard with camera in hand and pushed my children behind me-as if I could protect them-had the moose decided to charge us! Anyways, I got the picture! I am still looking for it though and will add it when found. I do have it though (a serous distance shot)!

There is one last story about moose that I will add, simply because it involved my oldest daughter Alex. I felt sad that she was not a witness to the other events mentioned-though am finally glad to add hers finally to our family life in Maine. She told me of a day when she and two of her friends were out in the Maine woods north of Wilton-near one of the no-named towns. there are a lot of areas just north of here that are too sparsely populated to be named towns and are still uncharted. Well, she and her friends were in one of those areas not far from here one day way out in the middle of the woods. I had been afraid to ask what they were doing there-perhaps that it was reason why she never mentioned this! (I was a teenager once too-how they forget!) Anyways, they were out there to enjoy nature (yea right!) and her friend (I think it was Ashley-probably wrong on this)-her friend motioned for all of them to look to where she was pointing-all of them looked. She had stated to their amazed ears, "I wonder why there is a horse way out here in the the middle of the woods! (she must be a Flatlander too!)" They all laughed and then walked out slowly when they realized that it was a huge moose-again without antlers. I was told (not sure if this is true or not) that in the winter, male moose shed their antlers. Anyways, they all slowly walked out of the woods.

Alex told me of another time when she and her friends-again wandering out in the woods -had been hiding-apparently they were playing manhunt and it was nearing dusk-great time for nature out here in the Great White North! She had wandered away from the rest and was hiding when she heard a growl. She looked up to see a large ferret like animal growling at her. She stated that it was the size of our smaller dog and had stood up on its hind legs baring large pointy teeth and sharp claws and that it was long like a ferret-though much larger. It was rearing for attack! She screamed in pure fear and ran. She ran and had climbed a wall and had escaped whatever it was. She was terrified. I found out later from my description that it was a Fisher cat that she had encountered. They are large ferret-like animals that have been known to attack unprovoked and could have done serious damage to her! I have heard that if your family cats are missing-a Fisher is in the area! They are probably what had attacked and left carcasses of chickens in my yard. I had a chicken coop once until I got sick of finding dead chickens scattered all around my yard-I gave the survivors away to someone who had a much safer coop.

There was also the time when I first moved in around 2004 in late summer when I decided to cross my huge side field. At the time, my divorce had been final and I was dating my neighbor's son, Tom. He lived across the field. We had worn a path traveling back and forth on visits and one evening, I decided to visit him to watch a movie. It was near dusk and I had ventured out alone for this. No sooner had I reached the halfway point of my huge field separating the properties when I heard a growl. It was then followed by a howl and then several more joined in. It sounded like a horror movie and that I was literally being packed in by wild wolves. I stood rooted on the spot when my Tom had heard the commotion and went out to investigate. He and his brother Jacob motioned for me to not go any further and he headed out toward me while Jacob ran back into the house and came out with a space flashlight that could light up any mall parking lot to perfection from LL Bean and shown it on the field. This way, I was finally able to cross over the field before I was attacked by wild wolves, or Coyote, or Coy dogs or whatever it was . I'm sure they saw that light all of the way over at Wal-Mart!

Later on that very year I was was to learn about the horrible mutated field spiders! They grow to long scary space aged lengths and are yellow and black and look like they would rip off a dog's head. These I did not even notice while I crossed over that late at night. We later had fun mowing them down a week later. There are also the huge ginormous barn spiders-well, that is another story! They are so huge, being brown and fat-unlike the stream-lined field spiders, you could have them as pets, were you not afraid they would eat your children! Anyways, thankfully none of the spiders or snakes are poisonous at all-so all the Mainers claim anyways!

There are the mosquitoes, which should be outlawed and then there is the much dreaded and now known about-black flies! These are fine-provided you are well armed and swimming in Deet-and behind screened porches. I was so organic and against Deet-until I moved to Maine and then threw that stupid notion out the window (before fast slamming back the screens in place in protection)!

There is one last nature adventure I will mention. I chose these particular adventures due to the time of year. There have been many more and I will mentioned them accordingly. This one happened just last year. Almost a year ago in fact. There was still a lot of snow from the winter and it probably read Spring on any other calendar, though not here. On this day I had kept Jacqui home for an appointment. I was getting ready inside when I casually asked her to bring in the dogs. Only in the Spring do we let them run out in the huge back yard without their leashes to get the winter out of their systems. The snow is still high, though they love to run through it down the hill and back up several times. This was what they were doing. I sent Jacqui outside to get them. I looked at the clock and noticed that ten minutes had passed by then and promptly went outside to tell her to hurry up. After no response- then I yelled. Both my dogs Bart and Loki arrived at the door and no Jacqui. This was highly unusual. I waited for Jacqui. Then I put the dogs in the house and cautiously went outside. Scary frightened Mom thoughts went through my mind and I pushed them away and went out the the top of my hill in the back yard to get a good look for her. I saw no sign at all of her blue jacket and calmly told myself not to panic. I yelled out to her and after several times waited for some type of response. Finally I heard it. It was the howling of several dogs. My heart raced recalling my own experience years ago in crossing the field that was to my left. I feared the worst. What if she had fallen down through ice and some wild dogs or wolves were surrounding her! What if she had injured herself and the animals had picked up the scent of her blood. My mind panicked in horror and of the thought of my unprotected child alone in the woods! I called out and still-I heard the dogs howling in response. I frantically ran inside and called 911. After telling the operator who had answered the phone the story and my fears I knew she was trying to calm me though feared the same as I after I called and held the phone up to the howls-she heard too and affirmed it! She was contacting people on the other line to gather people for a search party. She had told me to stay where I was so that I would not ruin any trail and mentioned that they could get some dogs to search for her. It took all of my mom strength not to run out to try to find her. I struggled but knew the reality of her pleas in doing so. I get helplessly discombobulated in the woods and have gotten lost in my own backyard on many occasions!-I saw the sense in them not having to send out a search party for two people. This had gone on for about a half and hour and the search party was almost organized by this point when I kept vigil on the top of the hill waiting for any sign of my daughter. Finally I saw it-I saw a form coming out of the tree-line. I called out and it was her. I wept with joy at this and told the operator and had begged the operator to still send out a sheriff to the house anyways to explain to my Flatlander child the real dangers of the Maine woods! Jacqui called up to me as if nothing was wrong and wondered whey I was so worried! I ran down to her and hugged her. When the sheriff arrived I had him tell her of the dangers of the woods out there. He did and also mentioned that he grew up here and that when he was young they had free reign of the woods and were called in to the house by the sound of the car horn. I naturally never thought of this and thought it was a brilliant idea. I grew up to having to be inside by the street lights coming on at night! Naturally, I was at a loss of how to call my children in since the three street lights in the whole town were nowhere near here! I realized how futile even before that day of just yelling out to them. In summers past my children love to yell from the swing set and hear each other's echoes as they bounce around the local mountains. They have called out to the neighbors down the hill a half a mile down and can hear them loud and clear in response on a clear summer day. sound bounces all around up here and I felt helpless. The sheriff's idea was wonderful and I promptly had a discussion with the girls after he left and Tiffany came home from school.


I had asked Jacqui to tell me her story of what happened. As she told me this I realized that sound does not travel down the back hill at all. She heard me perfectly, though was a little lost herself initially. She had told me that she had gone out to get the dogs and had heard what she thought were ours and pursued the barking dogs. It turned out to be the hunting dogs of a hunter who had somehow wandered onto our property. He was rabbit hunting. I cringed and told her that she could have been shot by a stray bullet. She shrugged and told me that the hunter was nice and let her use his cell phone for her to call home. He must have been from out of state because the local service from Unicell only had very rare available spots in our yard and house. I have found available patches near the front door of the house (very cold in winter) and by the side of the barn (extra cold in winter). I figured that he must have Verizon since they were able to reach the house from way out in the woods. However, due to my older daughter running up the phone service-I no longer carried call-waiting and it gave them a continuous busy signal (I was on the phone to 911 the whole time-organizing the search party!) She had then proceeded back up the hill to find me calling to her. I could not hear her at all when she heard me the whole time. That was why she was trying to call me on the hunter's cell phone. I thank you kind hunter for not shoting my precious daughter and for trying to call her home with her on the cell. Thank you!!! Soon after that I cancelled that appintment whatever it was for and drove straight to Wal-Mart to purchase "Walkie-Talkies!" This has proved wonderful in just reaching her upstairs in our farmhouse for her to do the chores (She tries as any teenager to bury herself in the world of television). That is until one day when it was interrupted by a trucker traveling by. He informed me that he was on the nearby road and that his name was "Trouble". I thanked him and requested that he continue on and that we had enough "Trouble" here without inviting any more!

Ayuh, life in Maine.