Answers in the Night Sky

                      As winter takes a stronghold on the Alaskan landscape I find myself questioning our decision of 5 yrs ago to move the family to the last frontier, especially this year with an early extended deep freeze a lack of snow & a week with strong winds out of the north. Don't get me wrong I love AK and it would be hard to ever leave.
                       The summers are unbelievable the mountains turn emerald green,the rivers are full with the returning salmon the hundreds of valley lakes are flush with trout and pike,the moose frolic in the marshes belly's full from the new growth of spring. We breath in the fresh air, spending all day outside in the never setting sun rarely getting to bed on time ,you can easily loose track of a day when the sun is always high in the sky. Wow that paragraph warmed my bones just a little,....but now back to reality.
                        Alaska always seems to answer my questions just in the nick of time.Yesterday after spending most of the day inside refusing to venture any further than my front porch, in silent protest to the wind of the prior day's,(which had since subsided) but I was still feeling a little grumpy about it.Wind has that affect on me. Later in the afternoon we had some friends arrive for dinner,we chatted,  watched an odd version of Alice in Wonderland and listened to a little Bob Marley. I guess it was around 11 PM when they left for home. Aspen & I headed downstairs for our family room camp out. As soon as we settled in my phone rang,it was a text from our guests who had just left it read "Lights are On". I quickly grabbed Aspen from her sleeping bag and headed for the front door with her and Laura. As we hit the bitter cold of a December night I looked to the northern sky and there they were in all there magical swirling color the Northern Lights,brighter than I had ever seen them this far south. Normally we get the greens with a little yellow around the edges but last night the reds and oranges were unbelievable stretching from the Western horizon of the Talkeetna Range all the way to the Chugach in the east. As I stood there with my family,a large moose not 30 feet behind us munching on the low limbs of the poplar and birch I thought this is why we're here.......this is why we are here.....