Wednesday February 11, 2009

We were on the road again at 7 this morning. I found out that the closest "town" to where we are working is Ellaville. We spent the morning finished up this parcel of land and then we had to go back and dig on either side of all of our positive shovel tests (where we found artifacts). Thadra took the Trimble which is a portable GPS mapping unit (fits in a backpack with a large antenna) and got readings on all of our shovel sites - until the batteries ran out. Jeff and I worked together today and Carla and Dave made up the other team. Dave was the winner today as he found 2 arrow flakes on the morning site and another one on the afternoon site. We stopped for lunch after we finished with the first parcel and then moved over to the second parcel which was not too far away. Before we moved the van, we stopped and took a photo of the no trespassing sign which we will post tomorrow. The new parcel is very large and we just made a dent in it today, but will not be able to finish tomorrow. Jeff and I pair up again as did Dave and Carla. Thadra sighted the line for us using a compass as our side goes through the woods. It was very helpful for us to go a shovel test that had already been flagged. Dave and Carla had the advantage of having a fence line to follow on their side. Jeff was on a tear this afternoon and we dug 11 shovel tests this afternoon. Dave and Carla only dug 8, but they had to map out their own sites and they also had to slow down when they found the flake. They also found an armadillo skeleton which they bagged to bring back to the lab - that is one of the things that they don't have in the lab for comparison. I am major league bushed - I could hardly raise my arms to wash my hair in the shower! We all met back at the car at 5 - dirty, scratched and blistered, but feeling good that we had made a dent in this parcel. We will continue tomorrow, but will quit earlier as we will have to drive back to Tallahassee. Dave and I walked next door and had breakfast for dinner at Huddle House. The waitress was cute - a freshman at the local community college who is also in the National Guard. We will watch a bit of TV tonight to relax and then will read and sleep.

Tuesday February 10, 2009

Oh, what a beautiful day! It was certainly in the upper 70's today. We met at the government car at 7 AM and went back to our site. This time we could all fit into the same car as we left the bulk of our tools in the woods yesterday. Today we started out with Dave and Jeff continuing on the east boundary and we girls continuing of the north. When we met at lunch we discovered that Dave and Jeff had started turning south along the Suwannee River (see picture) and were beginning to find some things of interest: pottery and an arrow point and a flake. We decided that since we were getting close to the "gun-toting" property owner that we would all work on the south line and leapfrog each other. Since this is the line that will actually be the Florida trail, we have to dig every 20 m instead of every 30 m. It was so nice to be on the bluff over the river - the weather was perfect and finally the girls found something: another arrow flake! Jeff thought the flakes were probably about 1000 years old. It was cool to see our names go on the collection bag! We worked until 4:30 and drove back to the motel for a much needed shower. We are all on our own for dinner for the rest of the stay. Dave and I are really beat - sore and blistered - so we opted for McDonald's which I brought back to the room. We will relax tonight and nurse our sore muscles.

Monday February 9, 2009

We didn't get to blog last night so am actually writing this on Tuesday - the internet at our hotel was down. Back to Monday: we got up early and finished our car packing. We got to the lab earlier than expected as there was not as much traffic on the road so we had to wait for 20 minutes for the others to show up. We got the last minute tools and materials into the work van and we added the others, luggage to our car. We finally got off and drove for about an hour and a half before getting off I-10. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere and it got worse from there. After traveling on dirt roads for about 45 minutes, we found our first site. I wish we could add music to this blog because I would put the soundtrack to Deliverance on. We were on a very desolate spot - while we were looking for our first test site, we passed a sign which said trespassers would be shot and I think they meant it! We will try to take a picture of the sign before we leave this area. Our team consists of Jeff, Carla, Thadra, Dave and I. Jeff and Carla went east from our first shovel test and Dave, Thadra and I went north. The shovel tests have to be dug every 30 meters apart and 100 cm deep. We are testing the boundaries of the plot of land that was bought by the Florida trail system. We stopped for lunch at noon - very hungry, tired and dirty. I feel a bit wimpy as I am not doing any of the digging, but I am doing the screening. Every shovelful of dirt has to be screened to check for artifacts. We continued after lunch until 4PM and found very few things of interest - a few pieces of glass (will have to be checked to determine the age) and some old rusty nails (not modern, but of undetermined age). Every hole has to be flagged and documented. The picture above shows Thadra checking the soil type at each level and I am recording the data on a page particular to that hole. When we were done for the day, we drove on to Lee, FL to our motel. We all showered and then went down to road to a place called The Brown Lantern - very local - for dinner. Carla invited her father-in-law to join us. He was about 70 and a very funny guy. He told us that he was bitten by a rattlesnake last year and had to be flown to Gainesville to get treatment. He says he can see better now than before he was bitten! We all had shrimp for dinner - very good! Came back to the motel and tried to get on the web but no luck so went to bed.

Sunday February 8, 2009

What a gorgeous day! It was sunny and got up into the 70's - it felt like May in February! We got all of our errands done this morning: laundry, grocery shopping, packing for our field trip and paying bills. We then drove about a half hour south of Tallahassee to Wakulla Springs State Park. The spring is one of the world's largest and deepest - the water is a constant 70 degrees. We took a boat ride down the river and then back to the spring. We saw so many birds, ducks, and reptiles: alligators, Suwannee cooters (turtles) - both pictured above, widgeons, mergansers, wood ducks, moorhens with their bright red bills, coots, anhingas, cormorants, vultures, a red-tailed hawk, great blue, green and yellow-crowned night herons, American and snowy egrets, and ibis. Up until last week, there were manatees in the river, but the cold weather chased them out. We then got a bite to eat at the 1937 lodge. We then drove down the road to St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge. We went done to the lighthouse that sits on the Gulf of Mexico - lots of pelicans and gulls down by the shore. We came back to town and will have a small dinner - soup and sandwich which we picked up at the grocery store. Then we will have to pack our food for the field trip to the Suwannee River. We have to meet everyone at the lab before 7 AM so I guess we will skip our walk tomorrow - but Dave pointed out that we will be walking all day tomorrow as we do our test digs along the proposed trail. By the way, we went to see Gran Torino last night - excellent movie! Clint Eastwood should certainly get an Oscar for his performance.

Saturday February 7, 2009

Well, it is certainly warmer today. The temp was about 40 this morning and is about mid 60's now - really quite lovely. We went downtown to the Museum of Florida History this morning. It was quite a nice small museum - it began in prehistory and then moved to paleo-indians, Spanish shipwrecks, Seminole wars, the Civil war, forestry, agriculture, early transportation (including a tin can camper built on a Model T truck body) and then finished in World War II. Their special exhibit was on Florida blues personalities and music, but we were unfamiliar with most of the highlighted personalities. The pic on the bottom (not Dave) is a mammoth found just a few miles south of Tallahassee in the 1930's. We ate lunch at the museum's Fat Sandwich Shoppe - very good and we will add the leftovers to tonight's dinner. We then drove out to the Tallahassee Automobile Museum where they featured early and classic cars as well as some other related objects. In the pic on the top, Dave is standing next to a 1931 Duesenberg which he declared was his favorite. It was quite a large museum with 2 full floors of cars, motorcycles. Dan and Alex would certainly have loved the Batmobile collection. Maybe we can include a picture or two to tomorrow's blog. We are doing a load of laundry now (will have to do another tomorrow) and then may walk over to the movie theatre after dinner.

Friday February 6, 2009

It's starting to get warmer - only 30 this morning, but a lovely 62 this afternoon. We spent all day labeling artifacts. I became the pottery expert: Glades plain/Glades decorated, punctated, pinched or rolled lips, incised rims, etc. It was really quite interesting, but there were so many pieces to sort and evaluate! I also got pretty good at distinguishing between soft shelled and hard shelled turtle shells. Dave took on all of the bones and shells. Most of the bones were from fish, turtle, or small mammals. He also identified a number of different shark teeth. It was a full day. Next week we will be in the field and will try to take some pics so you can see what we are doing. We went to a lovely restaurant tonight and had steak and shrimp which we will be having again tomorrow night - plenty of leftovers. After dinner, we went back towards the center of the city to a place called Railroad Square. They have an open house once a month called First Friday. It is a large group of artist workshops - paintings, sculpture, woodworking, yarn goods, photography, jewelry. The best part was watching all the people - many artsy college types. We had a good time walking around and checking out everything. This will be our first free weekend in Tallahassee so we will check out some of the local sites.