Wednesday February 4, 2009

Wow! We had a change in the weather this morning. It was 30 (very cold for Tallahassee) on the way into work and only 43 on the way home. They are expecting record lows tomorrow and Friday - everyone is walking around in parkas. We did some sorting this morning. We were looking at things that came from Gumbo Limbo Hammock in the Everglades and did a rough sort of the items: ceramics, shell, bones (mammal, bird, reptile), shark teeth, turtle shell, coral. It was fun to do that part of the job. After lunch, we went to the wet lab and washed more items from Gumbo Limbo. It was a bit tedious and each piece, no matter how small, has to be washed with a toothbrush to get the dirt off. We then put all of the washed pieces on big screen trays to dry for 2 days. Then we can sort them again. While we were outside dumping a batch of dirty water, we saw a weird squirrel - it was almost all white with a gray streak down its back. We will have to ask someone about it tomorrow - it was a new one to us. We are going out into the field next week. We will be working near Live Oak, FL along the Suwannee River. Will take some pix and let you know what kinds of things we find - if anything. We just finished out leftovers from our Cuban dinner and are ready to relax for the evening.