For those of you whom we haven't been in contact with for a while who are asking "Iowa? Didn't they just move to Alaska?" Short answer, yes. After leaving a comfortable life in Montana with good jobs, good friends, and a new house...we moved to the last frontier for an adventure, with much prodding from me to go. We moved to a small community based around agriculture, the pipeline, the nearby missile base, and we were close to Amanda's sister and her family in Fairbanks. The first summer was fun with lots of recreating, and the first long winter was...novel, I guess, but the second summer was just cold and wet and with the second winter impending with a newborn, we jumped ship. We made some good friends up there, so good luck to the folks up there...stay warm. The pros up there just don't outweigh the cons for us. Plus, for me, working for the federal government wasn't the best. The USDA bureaucracy and the fierce sense of entitlement don't make for a good work environment. Amanda was enjoying her job up there, but when the Education/PR Coordinator job for the DMCCB opened in Burlington (her home town) we jumped on the opportunity. So there's the last 2 years in a small nutshell, there's pictures on my Facebook page but if you want to see more, just ask.
One of the "deal makers" for the move to Burlington was the fact that we had access to free housing. Amanda's work site is an old farmstead just north of town. It is now called The Starr's Cave Park and Preserve, owned by the State, managed by the County. The area was homesteaded by the Starr family and there is a famous cave nearby in the limestone cliffs overlooking the area, hence "Starr's Cave".The barn was converted first to a restaurant in the 1970's, and than later the DMCCB Starr's Cave Nature Center. The farm house was built in the 1850's, and is now our new residence. Its got lots of character, you can see all the 
improvements through several of the decades, but its pretty drafty and we've had mice in the pantry, hopefully the cat will track them down. All in all, you can't complain with free and this is a pretty unique area to live.