And Tony, yes I would be really interested to know the source of that info, if you happen across it again. I’m always looking for solid references for these conversations. The idea of offering a stranger someone’s partner still sounds like ownership to me. You can’t offer something that doesn’t belong to you, so if I offered my partner up to visiting friends (as much as he might like the idea) that still implies that my partner’s body is mine to offer. Feel free to leave a comment over on my blog (which is linked if you click on my name above) if it seems irrelevant to the post here.

Can you tell me why you felt inspired to write that comment? I am well aware of the customs you have referenced… I just don’t see their relevance to this post. Can you explain?

Sorry to bring up Tom Brown again, but I believe it was in his book The Scout where he talked about making a friction fire by lashing a couple logs together, floating them on top of some water, and letting the waves do the work making friction between the logs and eventually creating a usable ember.

Now THAT would be somethin else if one could get it to work. Though I very much doubt it’d be very easy, and I imagine myself getting fairly pissed trying to figure it out. But if you attempted such an engineering feat, I’d love to hear about it. Unfortunately, I can’t do the same since all the water here is converted to a solid state.

I know a small patch of woods, laden with Hazelnut, that tell otherwise…

As for body temperature/pulse control, the key is breath…after one unlocks the gate of the ***COLD*** mental shock…your mind must be still as the water, grasshopper…the third key, unfortunately, looks something like a 90-year-old Apache shaman. ;}

Yeah, I’ve worked on a few roadkill projects; a coon skin cap and some brain-tanned buckskin shorts. The people here lived in cedar lodges. Hardly an undertaking for one person. The thatched hut they slept under during the summer sounds more like something to do, but I have no weaving skills. The kind of muscle-body control that Tom talks about takes years as far as I can tell, not to mention a 90 year old apache shaman. If it were as easy as he says it is in his classes and books, more people would have those abilities. I think it just comes down to slowly acclimating my body by going in and out.

Hey Deanna,
You know actually I picked up a book the other day that had some random thing about the queer types in a local tribe… The problem was that it was so vague and prejudice sounding that I thought it was bullshit so I forgot about it. I haven’t read much nor would I know where to start, on a more modern understanding looking back and older anthropology or current elders stories of their elders… etc. I highly doubt they ostracized them… but the NW coast had a unique social system that many have wrongfully labeled as a hierarchy (as far as a comparison to civilization’s hierarchy). If you know of any books send the titles my way… And yes, Penny and I have a “secret” sex tape that will coincidentally be leaked to the internet two weeks before our reality TV show airs on cable.

Wow, you’re not even kidding…
Have you got a web cam and some lingerie?

I think I have a brilliant plan to solve your cash flow problems.

And on an only slightly more serious note, have you looked into the culture of sex in the local native tribes? Did they have monogamous “marriages”? How did they incorporate differently-gendered folks (or did they ostracize them)? Was there *really* such a clear division of labor (men hunted, women gathered) as the white male ethnographers present? Were there “manly women” and “womanly men”? Winter seems like a good time for indoor research and sex. Why not combine the two?

Here are a couple new ideas that you may or may not have attempted already:

1. Study the local native culture (at least, from when they actually existed) and set out building a shelter in the manner that they would have during this time of year. If you can find enough info on it, try making a larger shelter than, say, a debris hut.

2. Brain tan the hide of any roadkill that’s fresh enough

3. Learn to regulate body temperature, it will definitely help you tolerate the cold. I’ve read about such voluntary biological control before, I remember most vividly in a Tom Brown Jr. book where Grandfather taught them how to stay warm in the winter, even while submerged in water or running around naked in the snow. That might all be pseudo-science, might be some bona-fide ancient Chinese secrets, might be both, but it’s worth a try, eh?