Martin Harbor, Atka Island, Aleutians June 17, 2012 23:10 52N12 174W17

They’re reindeer not caribou, according to the Aleut who cruised by this morning on a father’s day hunting and fishing outing. He cruised back this afternoon to drop off a haunch, Happy Father’s Day! All I had to offer was coffee cake, still warm though (so was the haunch). He instructed us to hang it for a day, skin it, and wait a week to eat it. Or was that skin it, then hang it? And the week of waiting should that be in the fridge? Or is the outdoor temp of 45-55 good enough if the sun doesn’t come out? For now it’s hanging with its fur (maybe enough for one bootie – if I could find some instructions for tanning it…). Obviously we’ve lots to learn here. It’s a strange contrast to the regimes of bananas we’re used to hanging from our radar arch. The adjacent hills are covered with eagles, Frank’s now worried they’ll take a liking to our new piece of carcass. The kids have offered to defend it with their wrist rockets, but I think that may be against the law. Hopefully our national birds will all be too busy with the rest of the bones in the next bay over.

I’m forever humbled by the generosity of Pacific Islanders, although I don’t think the Aleuts qualify as Pacific Islanders, since only half of each island here faces the Pacific. Still they’re easily as generous as the Polynesian’s we met. Guess I better start baking, I need to build a supply of something to say thanks for these generous gifts – and guess who ate all the Snickers. In fact all our snackables are going fast, the already rapid teenage snack consumption rate is on the rise. It may be a double growth spurt, but I think it’s more likely the cold, we’re burning more calories just sleeping, we’ll eat anything and everything to keep warm. We’ve still had no luck catching salmon or halibut, but Frank and Logan each caught a cod today (Logan’s was bigger, the nerve, on father’s day even). Even if we don’t get better at fishing these waters, with the generosity of the locals, we’ll be able to avoid starvation – and keep one foot warm.

xoxomo