FUR RONDY

In the beginning Fur Rondy was a gathering to sell and trade furs and other goods. It was a time of celebration when the different tribes gathered in Anchorage. Furs are still auctioned and sold during the time. The furs shown here from left to right are ermine, blue fox and several wolves.

The gentlemen had many others including some cow hides from the lower 48. The following pictures show some of the crafts that natives from all over Alaska bring to Anchorage to show and sell during Fur Rondy.

Native Drum

Native drums are used to keep the beat for the dancers. The singing is usually a story telling of some event. The old drums were covered with hides. The lady told us this one is covered with aircraft fabric. They like the sound and it wears much better.

Dance Head Dress

Native celebrations always include dancing. They wear very ornate costumes including this head dress. Also they normally cover their hands.

Grease Dish

The wooden carving was of a duck diving into a pond. It was painted red with a black border and was used to hold grease for dipping food during the meal.

Bone and tusk carvings

This gentlemen had some very interesting carvings many were made from very old bones that are being dug up from burial piles from 5000 to 10000 years old. The darker the color the older they were.

Antique Berry Picker

This wooden handle/bowl with nails is used for picking blue berries. By passing the nails through the bushes the berries are removed and fall into the cup. The pan was used for separating the small, undeveloped berries. This was the ladies grandmother's picker but they were selling new ones made of cottonwood, spruce and cedars and were prices from $65 to $150.

Native Dress

Parkas have changed from a pullover design to one with a front zippered closing, Women's parkas have dropped the front and back u-shaped flap in favor of a short ruffled skirt attached to the bottom, fur lined parkas now are covered with a cloth shell (usually a bright flowered print or cotton velvet), and a cloth version of the old pullover parka (with a two handed pocket), the Kuspuk (also spelled Quaspeq), has become the accepted dress for traditional dancing.

Small Grass Baskets

These baskets from Hooper Bay, AK were beautiful and expensive.

Baskets

Baskets of every size and decoration.

Bead work

Many beautiful pieces of beadwork including clothing, bags, jewelry, etc.

Chickadee

Much of the ground is covered with ice or snow (in the fields) so the birds really enjoy our bird feeders. We enjoy watching all the birds that visit them.

Bad walking

Watch that first step off the deck. The ice around the Nature Center has been with us over a week. At the present time there is no snow in the forecast just continued cold. Most major roads are clear but the parking lots look a lot like our backyard. To walk requires careful steps and ice cleats that attach to your shoes.

FUR RONDY . . . . The Winner

Shark Bait is the work of the Three Dudes from Anchorage. Again the attention to detail was great. . . . the diver is caught in a turn over the shark and huge sea turtle.

Fur Rondy has been an annual event in Anchorage for many years. In addition to the snow sculpting competition there are sled dog races, snow shoe baseball, multi Tribal gathering and sale of many of their fine crafts, outhouse races, carnival and many other events. This year the new event was running of the raindeer.

Decision re: Chicken and Egg

Which did come first the chicken or the egg. These four judges are trying to decide. The team did an excellent job with the faces (picture does not do justice to the work).

FUR RONDY, Anchorage, AK 2008

One of the events in the Rondy is snow sculpting. From blocks of snow 8' x8' x8' the teams do their things. There is no theme and anything is acceptable unless it is offensive to the public. This one was the work of a Christain group.

Idle snow machines

On the morning of Feb. 18 we woke to icy conditions (low last night was 15 degrees). No need for these snow machines. We use them for grooming trails and hauling firewood out to the yurts and cabin we rent for overnight camping. The parking lot was an ice rink so it was get out the ice cleats to go for the newspaper.

Fourth Breakup this Winter

Last night it started snowing before the Astronomy Fundraiser Dinner and continued through the night. On Feb 17 as we were driving back from Church it was still snowing (total 4.5 inches) and everything was beautiful. Paul groomed the trails last night and people were out skiing. About 1 pm Paul was out on this deck removing snow and said he heard the winds start up very high out of Prince William Sound. About 3 PM we had gust to 44 mph. With the shinook winds the temperatures rose to a high of 43 and the snow was melting fast.

Birdfeeder

We keep the oiled sunflower seeds in two of these feeders. There are a number of birds that like the one located at the edge of our deck including the Redpoll, Pine Grosbeak, Bohemiam Waxwing, Chickadee and the Black-billed Magpie (which is a much larger scavanger bird and will keep the other birds away when he comes around). The second feeder is nearer the Center but there are a couple large trees near it and a resident squirrel that thinks this feeder is his. He keeps so many birds away that we only have to fill this one about every third time.

Pine Grosbeak (male)

This beautiful red bird is a male pine grosbeak and frequent the birdfeeders around the center.

Beautiful Snow Covering

Feb. 15 With a high of 19, low of -1 and 4.3 inches of new snow everything was covered with fresh light snow. We had a few visitors that enjoyed the warmer temperatures for a day's outing.

Woodpecker

Feb. 13. With the ground covered in snow and temperatures in the low teens, many birds come to our feeders. The hairy and the downy (smaller of the 2) are frequent visitors. This is a female downy.

New Snow (11+ inches)

At approx. 3 am on Feb. 11 snow began to fall and it continued all day. By noon Feb. 12 we have approx 11.5 inches of new snow and everything is white and beautiful. Of course that means get out the snow blower and groomer to get trails ready. With the warmer, more normal temperature (in the high teens and 20's) we will see more folkes on the trails. Since Jan. 30 our maximum temperature has been single digit with three days on the minus side. Our lowest temperature during this time was minus 18 degrees. Of course the temperature in the interior has been much lower . . . Tok, Alaska recorded a minus 70 last week.

Alaska's Entry in the US Snow Carving Competition

Last year Paul (our winter trail volunteer), Sarah and Patrick won the Alaska competition in snow carving held at the Fur Rondy. This year they traveled to Wisconsin representing Alaska and their entry "You have to Meditate to Levitate" took second place (missing first by only 3 points) with fifteen teams entering. We are very proud of our local artist. We will travel to Fairbanks the first week in March to see his efforts when carving in ice.

Snow Elephant

Another view of the second place carving in the US Competition at Lake Geneva, WI .

Note the mouse sitting on the elephant trunk.

Winter Camping

Camper headed out to Rapids Camp to spend a couple days in a tent.

The lows at night were between minus 10 and 20 so lots of the proper

gear is needed. He had a large pack and is pulling a sled.

Hind quarter of a Moose

Last week Francis helped Craig work on putting his airplane back together after a rebuild. On Tuesday the owner of the hanger at Willow, AK got a call from his daughter that a moose was in the yard and she was afraid the moose was going to stomp the dogs. He told her to scare if off. The next call was to say they could not get the moose to leave so he called the state trooper. Shortly there after the trooper called to say that the moose had charged him and he shot it. Eddy said he had a freezer full of meat but Craig said he would take it. So to make a long story short Craig and Francis left the hanger to dress a 1200 lb. moose and bring the meat home. The weather was hovering at 0 so they hung it in the garage until there was time to be cut it up. Here is Craig bringing one quarter into his basement so they could work at 60 degrees instead of 35.