Ok, let's get it out of the way....
Yes, there really is a North Pole
Yes we have days in December when we only get a few minutes of usable light but no it's not dark here for 6 months out of the year. Also, yes, we go several months in the summer when it doesn't get dark
Yes, Santa Claus's house is right down the road. it's near the St Nicholas Catholic church and across the street from the Elf's Den bar.
Yes, we do see Santa occationally at the store and sometimes we ride our Harleys together.
No, we don't live in igloos nor do we drive dogsleds to work. However we've been known to ride a sno go to the store or a 4wheeler to work just for fun.
And finally, Yes, It can get cold up here. Our thermometer has two 60's on it (we use them both) and our thermometer's needle is bent from pressing too hard against the -60 degree stop pin. But it also gets hot, I've seen 100 degrees in the summer then turned around and rode thru a snowstorm on the 4th of July.
Now that that's out of the way, a little about us.....
I am farm kid, born in Montana and raised in Iowa and a retired Infantry soldier having served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, as well as with the 7th division (Light) in California and the 6th Division (Light) here in Alaska. My wife, who's from Memphis, and I have both been here in Alaska for about 25 years and currently have no plans on leaving. (you have too many people down there in "the world") We have a small acreage on the outskirts of North Pole with turkeys, chickens, sometime ducks and always at least one goose the keep everyone in line. We also keep a sheep and goat for mowing and wool. We don't keep birds year around due to the temps (seen -60 last for weeks) rather we either buy birds that someone else has wintered thru or order spring chicks as early as possible then butcher in the late fall / early winter. We use a mobile coop after the birds are out of the brooder so we can give them growing room and roll them outside on warm days to help them acclimatize. As soon as the birds have a good layer of feathers and break up has cleared part of the yard, they go out to the coop and are allowed to run a fenced and skirted 1/2 acre yard or one of the 50' square side lots. We do have our share of predators from ermine to grizzleys but since shooting out the local fox and letting the dog run the yard, we only really have to worry about ravens, owls, hawks and eagles. We're currently considering wintering our Leghorn rooster, Mongo, since he's a battle scarred vet after sucessfully fighting off a raven so the young birds next year have a protector, besides he's too tough to eat anyway! I did toy with getting a Saipan rooster for the ravens but don't believe they could take the cold weather well but it sure would have been funny to see the look on the raven's face when a 3' tall rooster came racing into the fight!
Yes, there really is a North Pole
Yes we have days in December when we only get a few minutes of usable light but no it's not dark here for 6 months out of the year. Also, yes, we go several months in the summer when it doesn't get dark
Yes, Santa Claus's house is right down the road. it's near the St Nicholas Catholic church and across the street from the Elf's Den bar.
Yes, we do see Santa occationally at the store and sometimes we ride our Harleys together.
No, we don't live in igloos nor do we drive dogsleds to work. However we've been known to ride a sno go to the store or a 4wheeler to work just for fun.
And finally, Yes, It can get cold up here. Our thermometer has two 60's on it (we use them both) and our thermometer's needle is bent from pressing too hard against the -60 degree stop pin. But it also gets hot, I've seen 100 degrees in the summer then turned around and rode thru a snowstorm on the 4th of July.
Now that that's out of the way, a little about us.....
I am farm kid, born in Montana and raised in Iowa and a retired Infantry soldier having served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, as well as with the 7th division (Light) in California and the 6th Division (Light) here in Alaska. My wife, who's from Memphis, and I have both been here in Alaska for about 25 years and currently have no plans on leaving. (you have too many people down there in "the world") We have a small acreage on the outskirts of North Pole with turkeys, chickens, sometime ducks and always at least one goose the keep everyone in line. We also keep a sheep and goat for mowing and wool. We don't keep birds year around due to the temps (seen -60 last for weeks) rather we either buy birds that someone else has wintered thru or order spring chicks as early as possible then butcher in the late fall / early winter. We use a mobile coop after the birds are out of the brooder so we can give them growing room and roll them outside on warm days to help them acclimatize. As soon as the birds have a good layer of feathers and break up has cleared part of the yard, they go out to the coop and are allowed to run a fenced and skirted 1/2 acre yard or one of the 50' square side lots. We do have our share of predators from ermine to grizzleys but since shooting out the local fox and letting the dog run the yard, we only really have to worry about ravens, owls, hawks and eagles. We're currently considering wintering our Leghorn rooster, Mongo, since he's a battle scarred vet after sucessfully fighting off a raven so the young birds next year have a protector, besides he's too tough to eat anyway! I did toy with getting a Saipan rooster for the ravens but don't believe they could take the cold weather well but it sure would have been funny to see the look on the raven's face when a 3' tall rooster came racing into the fight!