Photo time!

[beboots]

 Hello everyone! Remember how a month or so ago I posted a few photographs of myself in one of my fort costumes? It occurs to me that you guys never saw the second one! And then, I was sent a few photographs by an awesome retired couple from Saskatchewan. 

You see, I was doing a train tour... wait, I should explain this better. Here is an explanatory map. You get on the train at the front end, and take this fully-functioning locomotive all the way BACK IN TIME to 1846. There, I meet you at the train platform and give you a short walking tour up the fort, telling you everything you need to know: no, this is not a military fort, BEAVER is popular, we get along really well with the natives, Cree & Blackfoot (to put it lightly) don't get alone, but we like to trade with everyone, check out our FUNCTIONING YORK BOAT!, and P.S., the railway doesn't arrive in Edmonton for another fifty or so years so ignore what you just did. 

I also explain about the fort itself - when it was built, when it was torn down, when it was reconstructed (and why we didn't use the original wood). Also, why we portray the year 1846 and not a lovely round multiple of five like all the other streets. HINT: it involves warmongering in the United States, terrified British citizens, spies and other interesting things! And you thought Canadian history was boring. 

Anyway, I speak about the fifth and final location of Fort Edmonton: the one that was in use for the longest, and the one we represent at the park. It used to be across the river from where it sits today, right on the Alberta Legislature grounds. Here is a shot of the fort in it's later years (after the walls were torn down), right before it's demolition, but after the legislature was completed. I tell people about how the fort had been abandoned for over forty years by the time the legislature, with it's dome and shining white marble, was completed in 1912. And then there's this THING (I gesture emphatically at the fort we walk past) sitting next to it: rotting, listing to the side, full of vermin and so on. So they tore it down. It was ruining all of the photographs of your lovely new legislature, what can you say?

And then I make this joke (which I stole from my fort husband, Will) and gesture: they put the rot and the vermin in the new legislature building. Ha ha ha... (and I make this really ironic laugh, to indicate to people that I'm not serious. I'm just waiting for the day when the Premier of Alberta or one of the MPs is in my audience... >_> )

About a month ago, that married couple from Saskatchewan took a few photographs of me during the tour, and they got THIS just as I made the joke! I look like a hula dancer, but I'm actually gesturing, indicating a "putting the vermin and rot in the legislature" motion. 



They showed it to me on their camera afterwards and I was like MUST HAVE COPY. They agreed, and also took this other photograph of me in the courtyard of the fort, with Rowand House on the background to the right. (Yes, that is the PERSONAL RESIDENCE of the Chief Factor, and his family of four. That's it. One house.)



I should also mention that I'm wearing my "cold weather" version of this outfit, with the blanket. All native and Métis women living in the fort would be wearing a blanket like this and almost all times. It was an essential part of your outfit... but they're made of wool, and so we can get away with not wearing them when it's plus thirty degrees out. But towards autumn... You need it. 

Also, you can see the fur press in the background, pointing towards my left shoulder! It's not a catapult, a sideways gallows, see-saw or a barbeque (we have gotten all of these answers and many others). You use it to make bales of fur. Like hay bales. But fur. :)

Comments

[avocado-love.livejournal.com]

That officially sounds like the best job ever. Your hair and outfit are really cute, too. *Wishes my hair was long enough to do that*

[beboots.livejournal.com]

It is definitely the best job ever! I really also want to work at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia (on the east coast and therefore exact opposite end of the country in which I now live). See here: http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/louisbourg/index.aspx

Apparently they hire costumed historical interpreters JUST TO WALK THE STREETS to make the place look busy. They're crazy big. Of course, they represent a completely different era of Canada's history, but they do it so well-! Apparently, because the fort changed between French and English hands so many times, every other summer the fort has someone different in control. Like, one year it'll be the English, the next year "Anybody wearing a red coat will be shot on sight!" ;) That sounds SO AMAZING. (Uh, the epicness of the park, not shooting visitors. ;)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Oh and hey, look at this! I only wish we could do more things like this at Fort Edmonton... http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/louisbourg/activ/activ7.aspx

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Okay, a lot of me is too busy going "it's wool! Wool is touching your skin! Badevilwrong Owwwwwwwwwwwwie!" to come up with an opinion (can you tell I'm allergic to the stuff? Clearly I was not made for cold weather before the invention of artificial fleece) But there are awesome. And the fur baler cracks me up.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

See, I'm the opposite. I LOVE wool blankets! Maybe it's because I'm exposed to Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) blankets all the time at work, but I think that they're gorgeous.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MINT-HUDSON-BAY-4-POINT-TRAPPER-TRADE-WOOL-BLANKET_W0QQitemZ230495326222QQcategoryZ13945QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D10%26pmod%3D250694945236%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D5452595017908464506#ht_514wt_1137

Wool is amazing because, well... comparatively (like, compared to furs like, say, the stereotypical american buffalo skin robe) they're light, warm (and stay warm when wet, so can save you from hypothermia in the event of a sudden rainstorm!), and easy to work with. By "easy to work with", I mean as a material. Have you ever tried to sew leather? Especially tanned skins with fur still on them? NOT FUN. You need special glover's needles, nice and thick. Instead, you can just cut up the blanket and sew it into warm coats called "capotes"... like THIS:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/HUDSON-BAY-Classic-Point-Wool-BLANKET-COAT-Jacket-MENS-/400135749781?pt=US_CSA_MC_Outerwear&hash=item5d29f30095#ht_11460wt_1137

Only more fur-trader-y. And epic. And of course, you're wearing more layers than just the blanket or capote, so the wool isn't directly on your skin... but I think it's also an immunity thing. If you're exposed to a lot of wool from a young age, your body is like "yay, this helps keep me warm (and is just a bit itchy but who cares" instead of being like "AASDoiejfaloigjH! ITCHY! ALLERGIC REACTION!" ;)

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I have a violent immune disease that also comes with severe allergies. Allergies actually work the other way around. If someone is exposed to something over and over again, they're more likely to develop an allergy to it. People have genetic predispositions to developing certain allergies, and some people are born with a genetic predisposition to developing allergies to everything. I have a pet theory that people have avoided culturally the sorts of materials that they're predisposed towards becoming allergic to, thus people whose families have lived in cold places for a long time would be the people whose families didn't carry the predisposition to wool allergies. Which doesn't explain little northern European descended me, but I have the immune disease. All bets are off. Wool for me packs a twofold punch, nasty rashes, and asthma attacks. I actually have sewn leather, on several occasions, and one of these days, I'm going to show off the seriously ugly and utterly awesomecomfy rabbit fur slippers I made.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

All of my experience sewing with leather comes from Fort Edmonton; I repaired moccassins a few times, and that beaded belt that I'm wearing? You tie it around your waist, and the ends are leather ties about 30cm long (uh... 12-ish inches? The length of a small ruler?), and so I've sewn a beaded belt onto leather before as well. In comparison, I made repairs on our canvas tipi (ironically, it has painted designs that are more typical of the enemy Blackfoot of the region and not the Cree using it in the camp - they're traditional enemies - so we just claim that they took it in a raid if anybody calls us on it... but ANYWAY), and that was FAR easier to work with than leather, because the needle just slides right through... I was also using sinew, and I suppose I looked pretty picturesque while doing the repairs because EVERYBODY seemed to want to take photos with me. Especially Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian tourists. ;) So, uh... what was the question again? ;)

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

When I sew leather, I'm not anywhere near picturesque. I swear like a sailor.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I think the costume helps. ;) And I was lying on the canvas itself in the sunlight, or sitting cross-legged in the "indian" pose because that's what was convenient... D: