The Blue Moon Cafe is the only restaurant in Tenakee, and proprietor Rosie only cooks when she wants to. Rosie's actually happy to entertain visitors, it's just that her old cook stove takes a long time and a lot of effort to start up, so she usually just serves drinks in the off season, along with local legends and gossip.

Rosie talked of the times when bears have followed the hunters back home to town, even breaking in to porches. "One of the bears was not too big", she says holding her hand 4 feet off the ground, "and the other was old and thin with no teeth, but they shot them anyway."

Interested in the old stove, I asked about her appliances, and heard a little about daily life. Just a few of the newer Tenakee homes have clothes washer/dryers, and those people host others' washing. Rosie wonders why people need the machine and the expense, don't they know how to wash clothes? You "pack in water" (carry buckets from a stream), wash the clothes in the same tub after you wash yourself, and hang dry. Sunday is ironing day, but we both admitted to skipping ironing most of the time.