Off to the City

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I'm off to Anchorage again for a few days. I will be there until Thursday for some training for work and of course Christmas and grocery shopping. I'll try to check in while I am down there if I have the chance.

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Lion's Club Christmas Bazaar

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Today was the annual Kotzebue Lion's Club Christmas Bazaar. There are usually two or three big bazaars during the holiday season. People sell all sorts of things at the bazaars, handmade items, baked goods, Mary Kay stuff, gift sets, used items, photography, anything. It is also a good time to be visit with people.



There are always plenty of handmade items. On this table there were atikluqs (kuspuks), yarn socks, knitted hats and a hand made men's hunting parka.




This table had these beautiful hair clips. There were these with the circular design...




...and these butterflies.




I bought the purple one for myself. I couldn't resist. It is about 4.5 inches long and 2 inches wide and the tassels hang down about three inches.




This is my table where I was selling some of my photos. Some of them were framed.




I only had a few frames left so mostly I was selling matted photos. I am going to pick up some more frames in Anchorage this week.




There was artwork made with walrus ivory, mammoth ivory and baleen.




These were interesting little fellas.




And beautiful earrings.




Seth Kantner was there selling prints also.




He was also selling copies of his books, Ordinary Wolves and Shopping for Porcupine. You can check out some of Seth's other writing at Dispatches From the Edge in Orion Magazine online.




Maija was selling sourdough starter, homemade BBQ sauce, and jarred cookie mix.




She was also selling knives that her husband, Dean, makes.




Beautiful handmade mukluks. The pair on the left are made with black and white calfskin, purple suede leather at the bottoms and tops and black beaver trim. The smaller pair is also black and white calfskin and it has black suede and brown beaver. They each have beaded accents on them. Very cute.




Here are some nice hats. The one with the moose on it has sheared beaver which is sooooo soft.




Here is Uyaana and his best buddy, Max. Max is Maija's stepson. He and his twin sister Maddie come up for Kotzebue for school breaks and summer vacations. When he is here he and Uyaana are always together. They both speak fluent Pokemon.




This baby was so cute I had to take her photo.

Next weekend is the Catholic Church Holiday Bazaar which runs for two days.

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The Day After Thanksgiving

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The day after dawned much better for me. I am pretty much recovered from my stomach flu, except that I still feel like someone kicked me in the ribs. As bad as it was it was mercifully short.


It was a nice day today, not too cold.




The sun was out low on the horizon.




Things are still frosty looking.




I took the dogs out for a run. Poor things have been cooped up for a while and were ready to go.




Kaija has a new collar on. This is the second one in a week that I have had to buy for her. Rush has decided that is is great fun to chew them off her while they are outside in their pen. She lets him.




I thought about getting her a metal choke collar. He can't chew that up. But they always stain the pretty white fur on her kneck and pulls at the hair and makes her look raggedy.




So I guess I'll just have to take her collar off when I put her in the pen.











































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Happy Thanksgiving!

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I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Me? I spent most of the night in the bathroom with the worst case of stomach flu I've had in years. I recovered enough to cook this afternoon and then took a three hour nap. I never did eat turkey and all the fixings...I had apple juice and some ice cream instead.

This too shall pass. I have much to be thankful for in my life for I am truly blessed. Have a great weekend everyone!

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Playin' Around

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Aana's Hands

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I have a warm fox hat that I have had for a few years. The fur was starting to rip but the rest of it was still good so I asked Uyaana's Aana (grandmother) Lena to help me replace the fur.




Aana had me rip the seams to take off the old fur. I can sew skins but I'm not so good at using patterns. I have made a few pairs of mukluks, but never a hat.




Then she cut pieces out of a new fox skin and started the sewing for me. Once she had it in place she let me stitch the rest. If I had more time I would have had her let me do it all myself so I could learn how but we were leaving that day and we needed to finish it quickly.




Aana has been sewing since she was a little girl. We were talking tonight, wondering how many mukluks she has made over the years? How many parkies? Her hands show years of hard work living off the land in the arctic. Working on seal and beluga, cutting fish and meat, drying and scraping skins. Washing clothes and scrubbing socks by hand. Sewing skins, knitting socks. 76 years of hard work in those hands.

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Frosty Day

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The days are getting shorter and shorter. I go to work in the dark, I go home in the dark. Pretty soon I will be eating lunch in the dark and picking up Uyaana from school in the dark. This also means there will not be much picture taking in the dark. Most of my free time will be in the dark. So enters the photographic lean season.

I figured I would take some photos while I was running work errands today. Gotta take photos while the sun shines, right? It was a cold and frosty day with a bit of ice fog. In the first photo you can see how low on the horizon the sun was at it's highest point today.















The ice fog in the air settles on anything that is still long enough. This is the fence across the street from my office.



Even the ravens are frosty.



Ice fog caused by vehicle exhaust.

















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