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Published: July 25th 2012
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I didn't have a blog yesterday. Was a cool, rainy day so most of us just rested. Carroll and Barbara and Larry and Becky went to Anchorage to the Air Force base. They were stationed here in the 70's. Carroll and Larry both retired from the Air Force. We had a potluck dinner at Jerry and Carolyn's rv as it was raining. We had a very good meal including moose brats. My first moose! Today was a beautiful sunny day - around 68. We drove north of Palmer on the Glenn Highway. Our first stop was the Musk Ox Farm. I am attaching a picture of a musk ox. Musk oxes lived in Alaska 600,000 years ago. They lived in the artic and subartic regions. By 1865 there were none remaining in Alaska. This was due to these two things - Harsh Winters and Whaling Ships that hired eskimo hunters to find them for meat. In 1930, the U.S. Congress spent $40,000 to purchase and transport musk oxen to the Territory of Alaska. 34 young musk oxen were captured in Greenland and traveled by ship to New York. From there they were shipped by rail to Seattle. They then traveled by
Barn at Musk Ox Farm
One of the original barns from the Matanuska Colony boat to Seward and by train to Fairbanks. All the animals survived this four months journey. The musk oxen stayed in Fairbanks 5 yrs., after which they were transported to Nunivak Island Alaska which had been established as a wildlife refuge. As the herd on Nunivak increased in size musk oxen were transplanted to other places in Alaska. There are an estimated 3,000 wild musk oxen in Alaska today. The Musk Ox Farm is a non-profit group dedicated to growing and domesticating the musk ox for the use of its wool which is called Qiviut. This qiviut is "combed" not sheared once a year, usually in April or May. Each musk ox usually provides 6 to 8 lbs of qiviut. The qiviut sells for around $170 an ounce. So, you can imagine how much a hat or scarf made out of this would cost. At the farm they have 73 musk ox and they have 65 that they can "comb". They have 15 babies that were born in the spring. The babies are weaned early and separated from their mothers early so they can become comfortable around humans. This helps when the time comes for the "combing". The females live
to about 22 yrs. and the males live about 16 or 17 years. They eat grass and are fed a pelleted supplement. The Alaskan native word for musk ox is Oomingmak, which means the "bearded one". The qiviut is shipped from the musk ox farm to the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producer's Co-Operative. The Co-op ships all the qiviut to a cashmere mill to have it cleaned, de-haired(removing the course hair and other debris, then spun into yarn. The yarn is returned to the Co-Op. The Co-Op is a completely for-profit business. It is owned by the approximate 200 Alaskan native members knitters. To join the co-op, a knitter knits a small sample for evaluation. Once accepted, the member is sent yarn and patterns which she knits into finished garments using her village pattern. When a member sends in a finished product, she is paid immediately. When a member asks the co-op for yarn, she is sent sufficient yarn for several garments. A member has the freedom to knit when it is convenient for her. She can choose to knit as many items as she wants in a year as long as she follows the patterns and designs assigned to her
village or area. The musk ox qiviut is one of the rarest fibers on earth. It is eight times warmer than sheep woool by weight and does not shrink in any temperature of water. It is so soft as well as warm, it has no barbs and therefore does not itch most people. They had samples there - so soft. They had hats and scarfs there - they were beautiful but I didn't see a price on them. Probably had to ask the price! Also, while we were there, I learned that the barn(which is in the attached picture) is one of the barns from the Matanuska Colony that I wrote about yesterday. Then we drove up the Matanuska Valley about 50 miles to the Matanuska Glacier.
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