Nacho the Moose, left, and her daughter, Salsa, right.
Bemidji, Minnesota has Babe the Blue Ox. Wall Street has The Bull. Washington State has the Wild Horse Monument.
Hatfield Township has Nacho the Wooden Moose and – debuting last weekend -- her baby, Salsa.
For about 15 years, the plywood moose has greeted drivers along East Orvilla Road at Maple Avenue in the front yard of Lou and Cathy Farrell’s 1855-era Pennsylvania-German farmhouse. As of last weekend, her new offspring, Salsa, joined the spectacle.
It seems Nacho was busy during the quarantine.
“It’s kind of wacky,” said Lou. “Nacho started as a birthday present for my wife. What do you get somebody that has everything? Certainly, a plywood moose is the answer.”
Lou said the inspiration came from the numerous family trips to Canada, which has its fair share of moose.
“She likes moose because they are quiet, placid animals,” Lou said of his wife. “There wasn’t a lot of thought behind it. Cathy got her moose, and now Hatfield has it.”
Nacho started her life as a design in the mind of the Farrell’s daughter, Maggie Weber. She would also go on to design Salsa, Lou said. After a home improvement trip and some elbow grease, Nacho first called the Farrell backyard as home.
“The kids were giving us trouble with how lame our Christmas lights where, so I moved her to the front yard and wrapped 20 strings around her,” he said. “Once the holiday was over, I put the moose back. Then, we started getting letters: ‘Where is the moose?’ People were stopping and asking, ‘What’s the deal?’ So, I put her back out front, and she’s been there for 15 years.”
Nacho, he said, has wide-ranging fame. People send Nacho fan mail to the Farrells. One Christmas, someone gifted them a handmade Nacho ornament. Then there was the Easter morning when the Farrells found Easter eggs and chocolate scattered around Nacho in the front yard.
“There’s no sense to it,” he laughed. “It was a goofy idea, and it got some wind behind it. We just roll with it.”
During the pandemic, Nacho was sure to practice proper COVID rules, so she was masked up for months on the Farrell front yard.
“Now we have a granddaughter, so Nacho, of course, needs a baby moose,” Lou said. “So, we got Salsa. The name just seemed to work. We’re working on getting her house-trained – a moose makes a mess – so she has a diaper on right now.”
Nacho’s biggest fan, Lou said, is township Manager Aaron Bibro, who shared Nacho’s new bundle of joy on the Hatfield Township Facebook page last week.
“He thinks it’s great fun. He put something up on the township Facebook page and there were tons of comments within the hour,” Lou said. “It makes people happy.”
Case in point: The past winter was rough on Nacho, so she needed some TLC. With no moose outside for a month or so, the Farrells started receiving letters and pictures.
“The moose gets more mail than I do,” Lou said. “When we put Salsa out, we immediately heard there was a Facebook splash.
Families are the biggest fans of the moose. A young girl in Souderton, Lou said, named Nacho in a letter she wrote to the Farrells.
“She mailed us some pics she drew and wrote, ‘I’d like to call him Nacho. I hope you will too.’”
Every day, the Farrells witness horns honking and people yelling out windows. Lou enjoys working in the front yard and hearing the yelling and seeing the waving of children from vans and buses excited about Nacho and Salsa.
“Last weekend, when we put the baby moose out, people were stopping to take pics. We’ve had wedding parties come by and take pictures with the moose. People are blocking traffic in the road.”
Even the big, burly, rough-looking types have a soft spot for Nacho and Salsa.
“One day, this guy pulls up on a big, big motorcycle – this nasty, hairy biker guy – and here I thought I was in trouble. He said (imitating a deep voice) ‘I love your moose, man’ and he drove off,” Lou said. “We get a lot of wacky interactions.”
A plumber who made a recent trip to the Farrell farm – which was the farmstead for the farmland that went all the way to School Road – had “Moose House” on the top of the bill instead of the address.
“It’s become a kind of landmark in town,” Lou said. “We’ve had a rough year. Folks smiling is a good thing.”
The Hatfield Township Facebook post of Salsa’s birth announcement garnered tons of responses from adoring fans and new recruits to the Nacho fever. Even businesses like Royal Billiard & Recreation shared congratulations.
“I will be looking for them as I drive by,” wrote Robin Harris. “Would love to have large moose in my yard,” wrote Sally Kinney. “Can’t wait to see the new little moose!!! So awesome,” wrote Toni Honey. “Lots of laughs this year during the pandemic and so glad to see her enjoying some sunshine,” commented Tanya Finley. “I can die right now,” wrote Mandy Lou. “Welcome to the Hatfield family, little one,” wrote Andi Lesher. “We love you, Salsa. Am I alone in thinking Nacho was a male?” asked Kate Vogel.
Lou, who has been in his home 21 years and operates the charitable food program Bread Drop out of his garage, said he was very happy to live in Hatfield and thanked his neighbors for being respectable to Nacho and Salsa.
“We’ve got good folks in Hatfield, and they have sense of humor. They see it as something that brightens up place,” he said. “We love this place, we really do.”
Every six or seven years, Lou makes a trip to Home Depot, gets some plywood, makes a new Nacho, and stakes her back in the ground. Occasionally, Nacho acts as a big sail and blows over in heavy winds.
“It can only be so bad – it’s a plywood moose,” Lou said.
To date, no one has offered to buy Nacho, and Lou is glad there have been no vandals to Nacho or Salsa.
“I would think, that if we ever sell our house, we would put something in the contract that the moose has to stay,” he said. “I think the township would be troubled if that didn’t happen.”
There are no plans yet to add anymore moose to the family.
“But, I talked to someone this morning who told me she drove by the place at 3:30 a.m., and there were three deer outside with the moose. Maybe we’re not going to expand,” Lou said, “But Salsa and Nacho have friends.”
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