A Very Alaskan Day

Well, to be technical, it spanned two days.  But it was in much less than 12 hours time.

Wednesday night as I took Tali out to make sure she went to the bathroom before heading to bed, I looked up in the sky.  For the first time since Diana arrived, we experienced the intersection of "clear skies" and "aurora activity", and the sky was full of a green aurora.  Despite being pretty cold (it's all relative... after spending a few days at 20, -10 feels much chillier than it does as you're warming up), I knocked on the window and pointed to the sky.  Diana threw on a jacket and some shoes and let out audible amazement at the lights. With our little Alaskan Husky, we took a family picture (except Smelly, who wouldn't dare get near to something that cold) under the green curtains.

Looking toward the east.  Roughly.  I don't have a very good concept of accurate direction from our house.

Enjoying the Aurora with Tali.

After about 30 minutes of being outside, we were cold and ready to head to bed, excited about the great view.  Next thing we know, morning rolls around (since Tali sleeps straight through the night and doesn't wake us up until morning).  Diana bounces out of bed, jaunts out the door to let Tali relieve herself from a night's worth of build-up, and what does she do?! Rush in and tell me that there is a moose just on the other side of the fence! So we hop out onto the porch and let Tali go to the bathroom ... she couldn't hold it much longer... and grab the camera to get shots of her eating away at twigs and branches.

The moose was probably 20-30 ft away and showed no sign of being upset or aggression.

Then I moved my position a little big and realized that there is another one hanging out too! Often there is a moose hanging out in the roadway about a half-mile away from our house.  But the day prior, I had slowed down for one moose, let her get off the road, and thought I was home-free.  But no! I go another 50 feet and there's another one! Slightly smaller and lighter.  It was the same pair eating on the vegetation next to our house.  I think it's a mother-daughter pair, but I can't imagine they will be together much longer because that daughter looks awfully full grown to me.

Older, darker one on the left and the smaller, lighter one on the right.

By the time I had packed up and headed to school, they had already made their way other to the typical spot in the road.  At least one had.  I imagine that they are usually both there, but one is just in the brush enough that you can't see her. For being so huge, they can be difficult to see.  On the day that I flew home for winter break, one jumped out right in front of us on my road.  Luckily we were going less than 20 mph, because we didn't see her until she had barged into the road.


And, for your viewing pleasure, more pictures of Tali.

Down at the pond

It's rare that she is both awake and staying still enough to get a good picture.

She jumped up into a snow path that Diana was following, originally created by a moose. She got the tiniest bit stuck at first, but made her way through the deep snow.

And, this is how Smelly feels about Tali.

Get away from me.