Elephant in the Bush

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This is the final volume of "Sleeping Moose Saga." by Atwood Cutting. Parts one and two followed two twentieth-century pioneers as they built their hand-hewn house and started a family. While living on their remote homestead they survived a couple of harsh winters, then took jobs in Fairbanks for two winters, returning each summer to continue working on their little farm at the end of the road.

Now the house is complete. Their beautiful home sits right where a moose once slept and the dirt track dead-ends at wilderness. Running water and a flushing toilet are in, and the family can revel in their private, wildflower world.

After a decade of fervent mountaintop toil, a handful of newcomers moves onto the road and begins to encroach upon the Peter’s privacy. Some people just don’t play well with others. The vivid dream of a “Camelot” world pales as tension developes over the shared road. Ill feelings increase until two feuding couples square off over how things should go. It looks like a road war might be comin.’

Then, when some of the old-timer neighbors from way up the other fork enter into the mix, a string of mysterious arsons (and worse) puts folks on edge. What does a rational woman do when her utopian-fellowship dream goes up in flames? Kate wants to high-tail it, but Tim isn’t ready to go. He points out that they’ve “licked almost all the problems of living up there.”

Almost all.