Fur Rondy

Fur Rondy (short for Fur Rendezvous) is a 10 day Winter festival in Anchorage - it's like a state fair on ice. It started in 1935 as a way to encourage activities around the expected rendezvous of trappers from around the state who would leave their trap lines each Winter to bring their furs to market. Over the 83 years of the annual celebration, other staple events have been added, such as the kids' sled dog race down 4th Avenue and the "Running of the Reindeer", as well as a carnival that is just as well-attended as any Summer-Fall carnival around the country.  In the picture above you can see the carnival rides at work entertaining riders amidst the snowy Anchorage landscape.


Downtown Anchorage, with the carnival rides in the foreground, the Chugach Mountains in the background, all surrounded by the typical Anchorage traffic on our snow-packed streets.


Plenty of riders waiting for their turn at the carnival rides in the snow.


One of the neatest additions to Fur Rondy over the years is the competition of snow or ice carvings. This year it was snow carvings, and they were magnificent. They start as a block of compacted snow Friday night, and are judged Sunday as works of art.


This snow angel was the eventual winner.


Here the artist is working away Saturday night.


Wolf in a hollow tree.


Snow castle.


Bigfoot's butt???


Eskimo.


Ah, there's his face, looking the wrong direction.


Winter carnival rides.


The Rondy Fur Auction is still the centerpiece of the festival. There are usually some very unique fur pelts up for bid. Many of them now days are pelts confiscated by State Troopers from poachers, and the proceeds of those pelts goes to buy equipment for law enforcement.


Grayson checking out some of the sled dogs after the race.


This year they held a fat tire bike downtown.


Also one of the favorites, the blanket toss. Alaskan Native traditional game, with people holding the perimeter of the blanket and tossing the participant up in the air to see how high you can get them. Here the blanket is being swept clean of snow between tosses.


Now that's a hat. At Fur Rondy, the goal is to have everyone wear your favorite fur piece. This man stopped to let us take a picture of his wolf hat (an entire wolf skull and pelt).


Back home, last week, Grayson spent the day sledding while Dino and Heidi played in the snow.


This week, our snow piles have grown significantly, with another foot and a half falling over the week.


A spooky pic of the moon overlooking our snow piles out front.


Our potatoes sprouted in the bags.


We've only ate through 1 bag of our four collected from the garden, and evidently the crawl space where I kept them is too warm, so they sprouted right through the bags! Moved them into the garage where it is cooler, but also need to give some away since it is now clear that four bags were too many for us to consume over one Winter. If you want some Yukon Gold potatoes, come on by. Next year I'll plant only half what I did last year.


Another day at the sushi place, eating their 'boat load' of sushi.


I spent last week with the Alaska National Guard, to help with an exercise for a natural disaster type response. They stood up a Joint Task Force to respond to a number of events where uniformed military (both Guard and Active) were needed to respond, and I spent the week as the Joint Task Force Deputy Commander for Title 10 forces. Very similar to what I did with Florida and Puerto Rico last Fall for the Hurricanes, but this scenario was more Alaska-focused. I enjoyed it, and we accomplished quite a bit. This picture is of the totem and Guardsman statue outside the National Guard Armory in Anchorage where we established our headquarters.


This bear stood right outside my office during the exercise. Luckily they're all asleep this time of year.


We saw Little Shop of Horrors as a play on Saturday, the performance was good.


Grayson, feeding the plants.


The boys enjoyed it.


I think it might be time to invest in a ski rack for the SUV.


Jolene received her certificate from the National Board this week. Over two years of work to achieve the National Board Certification. She was the only teacher in the district, and one of only five in the state, to achieve the certification this year. Now she's trying to decide how to spend that stipend (the boys vote for a trip to Europe this Summer - - me too).