Spent the day skinning marten. I must say the trapping part is alot more enjoyable. But, the first ones are the tough ones getting a system down. Must take me at least an hour to skin, flesh, and board each one. I realized I got mostly large, male marten, and perhaps I was trapping ground that hasn’t been trapped in awhile. Seemed like much more to flesh than the ones I helped my brother in law with on Prince of Wales Island. Maybe because we are further north the marten have more fat, or maybe mine are larger on average and that’s why. Anyway, I just turned the four I skinned today, and they look pretty good. I also noticed it takes a long time to thaw out marten that have been frozen whole, so another lesson learned.

Tracked down an old friend, too. A Lebanese coffee and diamond trader from Koidu town in Sierra Leone who is now in the Congo. He made his home a rest house for us when we were in the Peace Corps there – fed us, too. So good to hear from him, and I passed on his information with many others he helped like me, and they, too, were happy to hear from him.
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Mark Stopha
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
www.GoodSalmon.com