Klondike Days
Feb. 19th, 2005 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessFor all those who only know me from the Flist, you’ll probably not know that I’m pretty much all about the festivals. I don’t care what kind. I drive all over for them. I haven’t had time/money for them since joining LJ. Well today I did go to Eagle River Klondike Days which is billed the best winter festival in the country. So I head off to Eagle River which is only 10 miles from Three Lakes, ten dollars in hand figuring I’ll be out of there quickly because I’m not sure about that ‘best in the country’ promise.
I rarely go to Eagle River since, while closer than Rhinelander, it’s in the opposite direction of pretty much everything I need to do (though I may rethink that if all I need to do is grocery shop). I had no idea there was a Camp Luthor on the way out there. Being the geek I am I’m looking for Lex because hey, I’d like to roll around in the snow with him. I get there and it’s a bright day and it’s warmed up to 25 degrees (-5 for all my out of country friends). I had to go through Three Lakes and our own Ice Fishing Derby which had the roads all clogged up with traffic.
I get to see speed tree climbing in the lumberjack competition, which is an event where they have to axe cut foot holds and shove in wooden platforms to get up a tree and saw off the top. To give you an idea how big this festival is, half the competitors are from Sweden, Norway and Canada, this is actually a world competition lumberjack event. (Sweden won) I got to see a local two man two hand saw team (the one where they have that band saw and are on either end of the log sawing back and forth between them) end up only .02 sec off the world record in white pine at 3.9 secs. Got to see the men and women axe throws (no back drops no nothing, we’re tough up here).
I got to see the single horse weight pulls and watched a lot of Belgians dragging along enormous amounts of weight. It was interesting but the horses just didn’t have the personality of the dogs in the dog weight pulls. I got to see part of the 620 pound pull and the 1040 pound pull. Basically it’s a sled full of bil-jac dog food , bag after bag until weight is achieved. Highlights of the dog pull included Dixie the 78 pound bulldog who pulled 1040, think on that for a moment. Then there was Cody a Boxer who after being harnessed on the 620 pound pull whipped around and tore into the Bil-Jac and started munching much to his teenaged handler’s dismay. Cody finished off by eating snow and not pulling until after time blew. And then there was Beemer a Malamute who on the 1040 pound pull bayed mournfully, dug a hole to China and laid down in it. The scary thing was watching the bigger dogs (who make up most of the 1040 pp class) pull that sled like there was nothing behind them.
There was some pow wow stuff going on and NA drumming which was fun as always. And then the arts and crafts show. They had those cinnamon nuts. I don’t give a damn that they’re 20$/pound, give me warm cinnamon encrusted pecans and I’ll woof down a quarter pound like you can’t believe. Got a few little crafty gifts for friends and some wheat bread mixes for me. There was one lady there who wove shawls that were artwork. She had one I would have killed for. It was in greys and roses and blues, depicted three mournful leafless trees, very Victorian mourning shawl in style. Covet, covet. (SJ, K and CAGD, she also crocheted that funky yarn we saw at that store in Mt Dora, the one with the silk squares in it, into cool scarves but I already have a half dozen scarves I never wear) I ended up killing 4 hours.
The one weird thing was the hats. Now, we’re a talking this is a national forest area, lots of um rustic people. I expected fur hats, you know just the circle of fur, pretty in its own way and warm as hell. I’m out there in my own lambskin fleece and quilted jacket because damn it it’s that cold and its warmer than man-made fabrics. There’s a reason fur was such a vital part of life. That said, I was totally creeped out by the hats that were in vogue at the festival. No circles of fur here, no not only did they have the fox head on the front which was bad enough (yeah nothing like dead eyes starting at you off someone’s head gear) but the back of the hats were the ENTIRE skinned animal so you had back legs and tails dangling off the back of your head. It was so popular there was at least FOUR separate vendors selling this stuff and the reactions were split between horror (me and many others, mostly women) and I can’t wait to buy one.
I rarely go to Eagle River since, while closer than Rhinelander, it’s in the opposite direction of pretty much everything I need to do (though I may rethink that if all I need to do is grocery shop). I had no idea there was a Camp Luthor on the way out there. Being the geek I am I’m looking for Lex because hey, I’d like to roll around in the snow with him. I get there and it’s a bright day and it’s warmed up to 25 degrees (-5 for all my out of country friends). I had to go through Three Lakes and our own Ice Fishing Derby which had the roads all clogged up with traffic.
I get to see speed tree climbing in the lumberjack competition, which is an event where they have to axe cut foot holds and shove in wooden platforms to get up a tree and saw off the top. To give you an idea how big this festival is, half the competitors are from Sweden, Norway and Canada, this is actually a world competition lumberjack event. (Sweden won) I got to see a local two man two hand saw team (the one where they have that band saw and are on either end of the log sawing back and forth between them) end up only .02 sec off the world record in white pine at 3.9 secs. Got to see the men and women axe throws (no back drops no nothing, we’re tough up here).
I got to see the single horse weight pulls and watched a lot of Belgians dragging along enormous amounts of weight. It was interesting but the horses just didn’t have the personality of the dogs in the dog weight pulls. I got to see part of the 620 pound pull and the 1040 pound pull. Basically it’s a sled full of bil-jac dog food , bag after bag until weight is achieved. Highlights of the dog pull included Dixie the 78 pound bulldog who pulled 1040, think on that for a moment. Then there was Cody a Boxer who after being harnessed on the 620 pound pull whipped around and tore into the Bil-Jac and started munching much to his teenaged handler’s dismay. Cody finished off by eating snow and not pulling until after time blew. And then there was Beemer a Malamute who on the 1040 pound pull bayed mournfully, dug a hole to China and laid down in it. The scary thing was watching the bigger dogs (who make up most of the 1040 pp class) pull that sled like there was nothing behind them.
There was some pow wow stuff going on and NA drumming which was fun as always. And then the arts and crafts show. They had those cinnamon nuts. I don’t give a damn that they’re 20$/pound, give me warm cinnamon encrusted pecans and I’ll woof down a quarter pound like you can’t believe. Got a few little crafty gifts for friends and some wheat bread mixes for me. There was one lady there who wove shawls that were artwork. She had one I would have killed for. It was in greys and roses and blues, depicted three mournful leafless trees, very Victorian mourning shawl in style. Covet, covet. (SJ, K and CAGD, she also crocheted that funky yarn we saw at that store in Mt Dora, the one with the silk squares in it, into cool scarves but I already have a half dozen scarves I never wear) I ended up killing 4 hours.
The one weird thing was the hats. Now, we’re a talking this is a national forest area, lots of um rustic people. I expected fur hats, you know just the circle of fur, pretty in its own way and warm as hell. I’m out there in my own lambskin fleece and quilted jacket because damn it it’s that cold and its warmer than man-made fabrics. There’s a reason fur was such a vital part of life. That said, I was totally creeped out by the hats that were in vogue at the festival. No circles of fur here, no not only did they have the fox head on the front which was bad enough (yeah nothing like dead eyes starting at you off someone’s head gear) but the back of the hats were the ENTIRE skinned animal so you had back legs and tails dangling off the back of your head. It was so popular there was at least FOUR separate vendors selling this stuff and the reactions were split between horror (me and many others, mostly women) and I can’t wait to buy one.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 01:01 am (UTC)Fishing is THE big thing were. We have some international fishing tournaments throughout the year.