Da Barge, da barge!

Today the big barge came to Homer with school supplies (yay!) and propane for the village for the winter.  I may be showing my land locked roots, but I think it's pretty awesome they can load up 3 large trucks on a boat and drive them off onto the beach.  The crew was super nice to us and took the pallets of school supplies up to the school building so we wouldn't have to break down the pallets and load them onto the trucks only to unload them again to take into the building.  The barge itself is pretty interesting without her cargo and current duties.  She was originally a minesweeper during World War II and received 3 Battle Stars during that war as well as accumulating 10 Battle Stars during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.  There's something special about anything that's been around that long and done that much that is still in operation today, carrying out its daily duties.

 

Before

On a culinary note, I decided it was time to be adventurous and try some of the mussels we've seen in the inlet.  We've seen some members in the village gathering them and one was nice enough to give us some tips on how to prepare them.  So after prying the little critters off the rocks they are apparently quite fond of, we scrubbed them clean and threw them into a pot to steam.  I must confess to feeling a bit of remorse that they must be cooked alive, it seems so cruel.  However, after a little garlic, butter, and parsley they were quite tasty on toasted french bread so I suppose it's worth the suffering.  They never said they were not willing to take one for the team, so we'll assume they are.

After