Friday, March 2, 2012

old photo's, native crafts and my daily walk

this is one of my favorite old photo's from the family bunch. i'm sure there are still tons of photo's in boxes somewhere as yet unopened. not sure that all the stuff my mom had in storage has been gone through. my mother and i spent quite a bit of time looking at these old photo's. they were not stored or kept very safely in my family home. i know i set aside favorites for fear they would be lost or destroyed. it's just possible many of those are. i was just always fascinated by the old photo's. my mom would tell me what she knew and bemoan the fact that she didn't have time to write some sort of explanation on the backs. luckily, due to my constant need of attention several did get notations on them. i scanned a few and plan to scan more. great that everyone can now easily get copies of the pictures. some have just faded over time. above is my great grandmother harriet binch hunter. not sure who the kid is in front of her, but behind her is my mom and her two brothers. she looks like she is alot of fun. she is also the one i fear my nose came from. i was away with the dogs much of the day and ms breezy chatterbug was thrilled to see her bcff (best canine friend forever). not sure blossom is as enthralled with the cat, but this cat adores blossom. i had my big camera out with the macro to take pictures of my purchases today. the native craft fair at the dimond mall is probably my favorite event of the fur rondy. i love native artwork and at this fair you can visit with the actual artists. people come in from villages all over alaska and sit at tables. they meet up with family and friends they haven't seen and in general are more chatty than usual. they are proud of thier art, as they should be, and ever so happy to tell you about what they are doing. what i also love is that many of them sit at thier tables actually making things. great to see the whole process. they are also often willing to barter a bit. i purchased this scrimshawed tusk i believe from a mother/son. the mom was actually the one who did the scrimshaw on this. i loved the puffins. so cute. it shows the puffin on the water to full flight. very cool. there was loads of stuff i could have loved to have purchased over there, but it can be spendy. payday though so i gave myself a budge and this was one of my gifts to me!i also love the art of southeast alaska. since i lived in ketchikan for 6 years it is great to have art from southeast alaska in my home. it's very distinctive the art. you can figure out what part of alaska the artist lives in. the necklace was fairly inexpensive and i liked it so i bought one for me and one for a gift. this is the table where i purchased my scrimshawed walrus tusk. thier stuff was laid out on a seal hide. the walrus skull with tusks is pretty amazing. they are asking $5000.00 or best offer for it. it was pretty, but a bit steep for me. various tables and artists. thought this baleen looked cook laid out on the table. too long for my car. i have a smallish baleen that was scrimshawed with a dog sled team. unfortunately, while i was almost crashing in an airplane, it fell off the wall and the dog chewed it up a bit. these are just left natural at this time. the baleen is used often in art and of course, my favorite, the baleen baskets. in case you don't know what baleen is. this is what filter feeder whales use to filter out krill and such, it's thier baleen. various carved soapstone, ivory and the long thing is an oosik. that is the os penis of a walrus. also some eskimo yo-yo's in front made from seal.this sweet older lady was telling me about these dolls that she and her daughter had made. her mother has passed away but was the one who taught her. she was saying the netting used is from her mothers supplies. must be hard to part with. i just love chatting with all the artists.basket making. there are many types of baskets which can distinquish again where in alaska a person is from. this is probably more coastalwhere as i believe these delicate baskets are more from aleutians. not sure. you can see the beginings of the next basket. looks like a brittle star. these are tiny baskets with big purchase prices . they were amazing. again. at $350-750 a bit steep for this girl. i tried on this seal and otter hat. can't justify this purchase either. with natives though they use all parts of the animal they kill, so i can respect that. even the walrus whiskers were made into cute little earrings i saw this time. i was tempted, but i knew the dogs were in the car and probably ready for walking. these look like soapstone and whalebone to me. before i hit the mall i took the dogs on a loop in baxter bog. there were a few moose, but they were pretty far off. after the mall we went to petsmart and then to look for owls and walk on the coastal trail. there were small patches of blue sky here and there but mostly it was cloudy and snow flakes fell at times.we parked at point worzonof after driving the road to look for owls and then we walked from point worzonoff 2 miles towards kincaid park. you have to pass the water treatment plant, which smells of sewage, but otherwise it was a nice stretch. so total walk with dogs today was 5 1/3 miles. not bad. rio is wiped out.this is good as tomorrow may be a minimal walk day for the dogs. i have to get downtown early if i want to see any of the ceremonial start stuff. parking will be hell. just figure i should go downtown for all that once. it starts at 10am. the running of the reindeer isn't until 4pm so i doubt i'll hang for that. i'll probably head home and walk the pups. there were a few folks out there, all friendly. this girl was impressive to me. she was skate skiing with one arm in a cast or sling. so one arm skate skiing. i can't hardly do 20 feet with both arms. was thinking of trying to hit a movie tonight or meet up with a friend for dinner, in the end i was tired and just came home and chilled with the critters at home. hermiting is always good. not much of a view from the coastal trail. no owls, no moose, no eagles. blossom and rio didn't seem to mind. i thought it would be good to just walk them on a leash. blossom seems quite happy that i'm carrying some treats around again. she's cool with being on a leash, it's not seen as a punishment. she just likes to be out. she got to chase her frisbee on the bog walk. the netflix movie is called, "the big year". i had wanted to see it when it came out so hopefully it's fun. great cast. not sure how they will make the yukon territory look like the aleutians, but we shall see. tried to get rio to pose with blossom. this is as good as it got. the planes take off from the airport and fly pretty low right over this spot. from point worzonof. the kids in this are my mom, being held, and her brothers lloyd and richard. the five men are my grandpa ej hunter and his 4 brothers. in order left to right, carl, walt, ej, bob and earl. there was supposedly a younger sister at one time. from what i recall my mother telling me, she was killed by fire accidently. i think they brothers may have been with her at the time. from the story my mom told me several times, thier mom, harriet was off at yet another church meeting and they were left alone. my mother claims several of the brothers forever blamed the church for this unfortunate accident and stopped attending. not sure i've ever seen any photo's of this sibling.this is my mother in laguna beach. i'm guessing it's before she had 7 kids.below is my great grandma, harriet binch hunter. this is the one who i always fear has given me her nose. i believe she lived from 1880- 1945. she had passed before i was born as had all other great grandparents and my paternal grandparents. my maternal grandmother passed when i was 3-4 i believe. i have no memory of her though i have heard stories that feel like memories at this point. my mom used to tell be that at her funeral i looked in the casket and exclaimed that we weren't going to be having ice cream with grandma anymore. obviously a child prodigy! i have a vague memory of sitting in the car with several siblings while my mom was in a hospital visiting her mother. below is my mother milking a cow. my brother jeff gave some story about a cow we owned at some point before i was born, but i believe his tale is hooey and i have no idea why my mother was milking a cow on this occasion. jeff is often telling stories that are humorous, but not necessary exact replica's of the truth. below is my great grandfather on my mothers side, frederick baker (boger). i believe this is taken soon after they had arrived from Ireland. with him is my grandma, dorothy (dot), and her siblings, marie and john. below are pictures of my great grandfather. would be my mom's dad's dad, ellis hunter senior. that would mean he married harriet. in the first he is a child, 1878. and as an adult. don't recall hearing any tales of he or harriet,i only have pictures to go by. not sure why he is surrounded by chickens. this is another favorite. my gramps and grandma courting way back when. so cute. i have sent my grandfathers diary on to my brother tom to have him type it out...that was several years ago and he hasn't gotten to that yet. it was pretty funny though. he obviously liked this girl dot and dot's dad wasn't as keen on him. he played the saxaphone in a band and was seen as a questionable match for her. they did okay though as far as i could see. they looked pretty happy in this picture.here is the object of my grandfathers affections. dorothy baker...and later hunter.lastly is another picture of my gramps with his siblings. the date on the back said, 1928 and listed them as carl, bob, ellis, walt and earl.will scan more pictures perhaps as i watch the movie. it is fun to have the ability to share them more readily with family. better get this movie started, tomorrow will be an early day. hopefully, i get my butt up and moving.

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed looking at your old photographs and seeing the items from Alaska. sandie

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