Flora Lani Zuluaga-Jillson was born to Matt Jillson and Cindy Zuluaga Jimenez at 8:28 a.m. Jan. 27 at Bartlett Regional Hospital, Juneau. She weighed 6 lbs., 14 oz. and measured 19 1/4” long. She is expected home next week on the Kennicott.
Lynette Campbell is in the process of rescuing five hens from Juneau after their owner died. As she was working out the details of a plan to get them to town, she joked that perhaps the Alaska Marine Highway System had an unaccompanied chicken policy, similar to its unaccompanied vehicle procedure. The wayward hens are a variety of colored egg-layers, she said, including a Buff Orpington, Speckled Sussex, Ameraucana and Bielefelder. They will join Campbell’s flock of 12, which includes a chick, Feral Fawcett, who was born somewhere in the woods during the rainy, cold September 2024. Fawcett was one of a group of newborn chicks of a hen that escaped the Campbells’ coop. The five chicks came marching out of a bush as Lynette and husband George Campbell were preparing to leave for a long road trip. They had no way to deal with the newborns, so she put them in a cardboard box with a little door in the coop and hoped for the best. They thrived and the couple called them the “Feral Five.” She assumed they’d get two, possibly three hens out of the unplanned pregnancy but, alas, there were four roosters, which had to be rehomed.
On Jan. 17, friends and family gathered at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle to celebrate Nora Krake’s 90th birthday. Daughters Bonnie Zelter and Margie Clayton and son Richard Clayton planned the event, which was emceed by granddaughter Emily Zelter. Guests enjoyed a four-course dinner and visiting with relatives and friends. Krake’s actual 90th birthday is Jan. 30. Friends will celebrate Jan. 29 with a meal and birthday cake at the senior center.
TJ Jobbins has been alive 65 years, lived in Haines for 16 years and worked at Olerud’s for 15 years. He retires this week! Jobbins said he got his first job when he was 15 years old in Pentwater, Mich., digging ditches. Now that he will have more free time he says he will focus more on artistic woodburning and woodworking projects.
The Chilkat Center and Haines Friends of Recycling hosted Diz’s Heavenly Birthday Dance Party, and over 60 people showed up to shake their booties. Diz Kistler, who died Dec. 14, was a devoted recycler and community volunteer. His dance party served as a fundraiser for the Friends of Recycling, with an accompanying silent auction. The items up for auction were Kistler’s unique possessions, honoring his long-held belief in reusing items. The HFR capital fund received $4,231 from the dance party, with $1,100 from the silent auction. Aimee Creelman was the planner and organizer and Maggie Balise created the scene in the Chilkat Center with heavenly clouds and lighting. Greg Podsiki contributed a hand-drawn caricature banner of Kistler.
Kathy Benner from the American Bald Eagle Foundation assisted Barb Nettleton with the rescue of an injured bald eagle found on Lutak Road. Nettleton spotted the bird on the road and was unable to get over or around the guardrail. After an exam, Benner confirmed the large female eagle had no broken bones, however her pupils were dilated and she had a sour smell coming from her crop – a type of pouch located at the base of the eagle’s neck where it stores food. Benner said that the smell, which she described as being similar to rotten fish, could be an indication of the eagle consuming something toxic.
The next day, Nettelton spotted an eagle carcass about 200 yards from where the large injured female eagle was rescued. She described the dead eagle as “missing the body cavity.” She received permission from Benner to “bag it up.” With a black garbage bag and latex gloves, Nettelton went down the embankment in the dark. She managed to wrestle the bird carcass, with an approximately 8-foot wing span, into the bag. She stored it in her outbuilding until her next trip to town, when she put on the trusty latex gloves and handed the eagle remains off to the American Bald Eagle Foundation.