212 Sepia Saturday Snow shoes and snow, yes!

Serendipity thrives betwixt  me and Sepia. Last weekend I had my first experience whilst spending this winter here in the Minnesota arctic north, I snow shoed.  I  have been curious about snow shoes ever since we moved here and well what better time than now to try it our while we are in the midst of polar clippers, non stop frigidity and  some sunshine on diamonds in the snow. Fresh powder snow doesn’t just look beautiful, it also swallows noise, making everything impossibly silent. But walking through deep snow is so strenuous that it’s nearly impossible to enjoy this simple pleasure — unless you strap on a pair of snowshoes.  Now  for the Sepianness, I found lots of information about snow shoes, that I never knew.  For example, did you know they were likely invented in northern Asia perhaps 6,000 years ago and then brought across what was at the time the Bering land bridge between Siberia and Alaska by the native Inuits and Native Americans when they migrated.  Because the materials don't last that long, there is no archaeological evidence. An interesting website is:  http://kaufmann-mercantile.com/wooden-snowshoes/  

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While these are not  Sepian photos by age but are current, taken right here in La Crescent, MN on January 18 and 19,  2014, this is me on my first snow shoe attempts.  I learned that it is easier on top of icy or packed snow, which provides a base for he shoes to glide, so it was far easier in the woods behind our home.  I shared more photos of my expedition on Facebook.  Here I am  strolling along the side of our home, as I came up the hill.  This year I believe I am wearing out my parka it has been arctic frigid and we have not been able to snowbird south as weather is not giving a break now. 

Me in the front of the house atop the mounds and hills of snow

On our visit to the Anchorage Alaska museum in August where we spent merely half a day and could have spent much more time  had massive  exhibits of the old wooden snow shoes used by the Natives. When I read that the Inuit and Athabascans, Algonquin, Attikamek, Cree, Naskapi, Labrador and Iroquois mastered the development of snowshoe making using various wooden weaving, I reflected on today's  snowshoes of different materials.   

Wooden and woven Native American snowshoe

Although snowshoes were also used in Europe, mainly in the Alps and Scandinavia, their development was not as sophisticated as of those across the Atlantic. In Europe there was a stronger focus on the development of skis to facilitate walking and traveling through deep snow. The snowshoe, in its advanced form, was introduced in Europe only when the first settlers brought them back from North America around 1600.  

My  snow shoes which I rented for the weekend were made of sturdy but very light weight aluminum with web fasteners and grippers  on the bottom. 

Sideways shot of my foot in the snowshoe

 It is almost easier, I believe,  to cross country ski to glide quickly so I can understand why skis were used in Europe and other parts of the world. Snow shoes require a lifitng of the feet and perhaps it is a bit more tiring.   Yet snow shoes played an integral part of the settling of the United States and were extensively used by the trappers and fur traders in these northern states.   Settlers usually bought their snowshoes from the Native Americans. Ironically, that a Native American invention helped European settlers spread across this continent.

Uncle Carl and horse drawn sleigh

To keep the Sepia theme, I share photos from the late 1930's in Pennsylvania and while not of snowshoes, they reflect winter and the one horse open sleigh.  These are of my late Uncle Carl and an unidentified man who were sleighing to get around and it looks as though they had at least one stop for adjustment to the horse or harness.   

Something needed fixed and it looks like
the horse stood for the repair

 

Was it really such fun to ride in a one horse open sleigh?

This  is my contribution to this week's theme.  To see what others in the international realm have contributed, go to the site at this link  http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2014/01/sepia-saturday-212-25-january-2014.html

2012 exits tonight



"My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near"

If I had to choose just one poet as my favorite it would be Robert Frost.  While scanning and sorting more photos I  found these photos of Uncle Carl with horse and primitive sleigh.   No identification of dates or place but I am thinking this is the late 30's or very early 1940's before World War II looking at Carl as a young guy here.  Where in Pennsylvania  who knows.  When I saw the horse drawn sleigh I thought of, no not Jingle Bells, but Frost's  "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" a poem I have used through my life for different events. I have put quotes from that poem with these photos, it seems to suit them, don't you agree?  One of my projects for the coming year  is to create my own greeting cards using thoughts, sayings, poems, reflections. 

What is that tied up into the tree behind the horse in the first photo?  A box?  For what?  A marker for the hunt, but I see nothing to confirm that and this looks like a wide open field,  new  snow or the last of it ?  So many questions and thoughts generate from just a couple photos. 

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.

 

"Promises to keep" the refrain that ends the poem was the theme I used for my Business and Professional Women's presidency year back in the 70's in California.  It's an appropriate refrain for life, much to do and press on, "...we have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep."  The political leaders of this country would do well to read and understand that refrain. 

Now  in moving to the New Year which will happen  quietly here for the two of us, we have no desire  to be out and about on this of all nights.  Jerry laughs, "It's the worst of nights, too many amateur drunks out there."  The warm comfort of our home suits us just fine.  There is much to be said about contentment.  Truly I do not think I have seen a  midnight hour since I don't know when, my eyelids will not stay open that long, so tonight will be no different.  Tomorrow is the Rose Parade and bowl games, we here on the Wisconsin border will be rooting for Wisconsin in the Bowl and watching with interest,  Monty Ball, Wisconsin Badger go to guy and whom I say is my cousin.  Based on the DNA research that Ancestry.com has done for me I have 7th and 8th cousins all over, so who knows.  Somewhere in the Ball genealogy are many secrets.....This New Year's poem by Edgar Guest is a great way to close the old and welcome the new year.   Happy New Year to all of you..