The campground is flat. It makes it much easier to
sleep through the night than it was during the first week. The bathroom feels
like having a luxury after a day of digging. It not only has electricity, but
also showers. Being able to get clean, at least cleaner, after a day of bug
bites, dust, and sweet is glorious. The kitchen Dusty hauls with us makes
nutritious and vital meals. I know we couldn’t get through all the labor
without it. We seem to get through our morning routines just as we are able to
leave. Driving to our site takes us through locked gates, cattle pastures, and
winding dirt roads. The scenery is beautiful. Rolling hills, mountain peaks,
blue skies dominate the horizon. All of the gear is waiting for us from
yesterday. Shovel Test Unit 12 still has rocks protruding out of each side wall
other than the eastern one. It is only 15 centimeters deep at its lowest point,
but that only leaves us five more to dig to finish the level. The soil has gone
from clumpy to hard. It is clay. I start on the level record. I make an amateur
mistake almost immediately. I start putting ecofacts into the artifact record
portion of the form. It isn’t the end of the world, but we have enough
historical artifacts to catalogue that it is an issue. There isn’t enough room
for good sketches of our artifacts. We have square nails, ceramics, wiring,
glass fragments, can fragments, plastic, and a chert fragment with at least one
scar removed. Our ecofacts make up less than ten percent of the volume of what
we are bagging. By weight, I’d guess they make up two percent. It is a few
vertebrae, one piece of shell, and that is pretty much it. After we finish the 0-20
centimeter level, I fill out the provenience information for the 20-40 level.
Our soil changes color for this new level. It is minor from 7.5yr black to dark
gray. It is frustrating to work with because the artifacts have a significant
decline with a simultaneous increase in hardness. It doesn’t really fragment on
the screens anymore, and our trowels seem to be the best way to break up the
chunks coming out of the shovel test unit. After just a few centimeters of work
I get to start digging. The pick makes a great start. I churn out dirt faster
than it can be screened, and it makes me feel powerful. Well that is until I
realize how slow the progress is. I think I have dug through ten centimeters of
soil after about three buckets of dirt, but really it is barely six at its
deepest point. My sidewalls are slanting rather than steep, and I have only really
been working away from the rocks in half of the unit, so I know I can’t keep
this up for long. The breaker bar makes short work of the side walls and gives
me the determination to keep up my pace. Then Dusty comes by and asks us, “Have
you been peeing?” I say no without a thought, and get reminded that it means I
am not drinking enough. I take out the loose clumps I have in the bottom of the
whole and then take a drink. It reminds me that my throat really is dry. I have
been working at peak capacity and slacking on water. I never would do that
under normal circumstances, but the digging is fun, exciting, and distracting.
I haven’t paced myself well, but the reality check is a huge favor. I make a
mental note to drink more and to finish at least my two little bottles in the
morning tomorrow. Then we break for lunch. I consume everything I brought
except a granola bar in ten minutes. I thought I had plenty of food with a bag
of chips an apple and four granola bars, but it turns out to be pretty much the
minimum I should have brought. I drink water for the rest of lunch and urinate.
It is some of the most yellow I can remember having. When we get back to work I
let someone else have a chance to dig. I get on one of the screens and sift
through even more aggravating soil, and it is probably the soil I just pulled
out. Bugs start biting me, and my back feels like I am baking, but none of it
dampers my spirit. We maintain great conversation through all of the oppressive
conditions and laugh. At one point a crew chief comes up to us and says if we
were on a professional dig with a CRM company we might get reminded that we are
here to work not have fun. The 40 centimeter level is down faster than I had
hoped. It has almost nothing in the last ten centimeters, and the first ten has
four artifacts, two pieces of brick and glass. Dusty gives us great news.  |
| A lesson in wet screening |
We
are going to wet screen. I think we are done with the hole entirely, but I am
wrong. We don’t back fill and Dusty says we may do a little more tomorrow while
we drive away from the site. We drive back to real roads before we finally get
to the wet screens. It takes half an hour for us to finish the demonstration on
proper wet screening, and at his point it is already after 4. Dusty leaves us
to work. I agitate the dirt and help transfer samples to drying screens. We
pretty much have to start putting away the equipment after our first sample is
on the drying racks. I move on to doing that. Then I have nothing to do. There
isn’t another hose, I feel like I’d just get soaked standing opposite someone
else, so I stand aside. I end up dripping anyway when Brittney sprays me. It
feels pretty good, almost like an extra shower, but I am wearing all of my
clothes, I know I am getting into a car in less than an hour, and it is getting
late in the day. It is worth it though. It gets everyone relaxed and we finish
before Dusty comes down with everyone else. We bag the wet screened samples,
put away what is left of the gear, and go. I am even surprisingly dry. It was a
good day in the field. Terry J. is ready for her lecture that, and dinner is
amazing barbecue. I couldn’t ask for a better day.
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