A Break In Routine.

The morning sun was blazing and the day was turning hot even though it was only about eight o’clock in the morning. I knew the time because I never let my wind up watch run down all the way. Plus, I had my homemade sundial on the beach. It was far enough from the water so it didn’t get washed away. I had just finished my morning swim to cool down after foraging for my breakfast. I had let my reserves run too low and I really don’t relish fish for breakfast. Shellfish is never on the menu, no matter the time of day, thanks to my shellfish allergy.
I normally just swim to have a cool down from the early morning heat and for exercise after having had a lazy start to the day. I had become more one with nature over time and got up with the sun and went to sleep soon after sundown. This morning, however, I woke to find my larder had one coconut and no plantains, mushrooms, or anything else I often had for breakfast. So instead of a nice and leisurely start, I had to make do with a quick snack of coconut meat and water. I snacked on berries, nuts, herbs…all the things I gathered to fill my storage holes in my hut I snacked on until full. Once my belly stopped complaining I slowed down and enjoyed myself as I trekked through the jungle growth, watching for predators but also watching all the beautiful birds and insects that I came across.
Once my thatch baskets were full I went back to my hut near the beach and stoked the fire to keep it from going out. It’s a real bitch to re-light so I didn’t let it go out unless the weather bested me. Those rainstorms rarely beat me and put out the fire but there’s only so much you can do against a strong tropical storm or hurricane. With the fire stoked it was time to do some hut repairs and keep the roof waterproof and mostly bug proof. I’d long ago come to terms with sharing my home with some insects but I can’t allow holes or rodents. I have nothing against rodents but they wreak havoc on the roof and try to get in my larders if I don’t keep things in check. The nesting birds I leave alone. They do no damage, help with pest control, and I find them to be pleasant housemates. They live mostly outside anyway.
With that job done it was truly a scorcher of a day and I was not only hot and sweaty but dusty too. It was time for another swim before lunch. This time I took my pole and spear to the beach as well. I normally spearfish since I have a difficult time making twine for the fishing line so I use the pole sparingly and really only to get baitfish to use in my traps as lures. Since crashing on this island years ago I stopped eating meat unless it’s fish. There are no large animals here anyway, not large enough to try to eat. The snakes don’t count. They are too big and dangerous to tangle with. So I set my line and hook and took a nice, cooling swim. Then I did some spearfishing and checked my traps for any fish big enough to bother eating. The really small ones are able to escape and get away from the larger fish the trap catches but sometimes there’s one too big to get out on its own yet still not large enough to worry with for food. Those I let go to grow larger for later. The traps didn’t have anything for me this morning so I only had the one fish I was able to spear. Luckily it was a nice size and I’d be able to not only eat it for lunch but dinner, too. Fish steamed between large palm leaves had become a favorite of mine. I had finally figured out a while back how to capture seawater and evaporate it to gather salt. Once I had that learned I was able to keep leftover fish from going bad and have it later. I still haven’t perfected salting fish for preserving so I never could keep it much later and still be able to eat it but for dinner was no problem.
I was quite pleased with myself. I had refilled my storage-hole larders in my hut, repaired my roof, caught lunch, and had leftovers for dinner. I had enough food to be able to go back to my regular routine of daily food searching without worry of coming home and being hungry. I don’t always find food each day and what I have stored keeps me from really bad situations if I come home empty-handed. I had earned myself a well-deserved nap and afternoon bird watching. Crisis averted.