Sieving

28 April 2007

I learned how to sieve today! We found a great spot next to McCloud Bridge and spent the day sieving the material from yesterday. My dad made me a wonderful set of sieves and a great stand with adjustable legs. Everything worked really well and sieving is pretty fun because you can see the bones emerge as you are running water through the sieves. Based on the material from one day of excavation, we already have a species list that includes 16 species! We found mammals, birds, salamanders, snakes, frogs, and fish. It will be interesting to see what the lower levels reveal!

First excavation day

27 April 2007

My first day of excavation! We had a great day. Paula (my labmate), Liz (my advisor), and Gail (a Stanford art professor) are up here to help me get started. Gail and Liz are collaborating on a project that combines art and science, so Gail is video and audio-taping small vignettes associated with the excavation. It will be great to see the results of that project. One thing I will do is take a picture each day of the excavation pit from the same location, so at the end we can make a time-lapse video of the excavation.

Today, we set the datum for the excavation, staked out the corners and started excavating. The datum is a fixed point on the rocks from which we can measure the height and distance of any point in the pit. Once we had the datum set, we staked out the four corners of the pit, and then started excavating! We took off the top layer of the pit (~3 cm) and then started excavating in 10cm depths. We got down through part of the second layer and then quit for the day. We are all really sore this evening and we’ll see where our bruises pop up!

Arrival...

25 April 2007

Well, I finally made it up here! I am staying in a Forest Service cabin on Hirz Bay that is great. There are three bedrooms, a nice kitchen, a large deck, and hot water! It is really quite an ideal field set-up. I’ve been told the main problem I may encounter is bears sniffing around for food, but it hasn’t been too much of a problem at the cabin in the past. And as long as the bears stay outside and away from my truck, I’m ok with them!

This evening, I walked down to the lake (about 5 minutes away) and sat on a dock to soak my feet in the lake. The evening temperatures are very pleasant here and it’s nice to sit outside and enjoy the sun (though the mosquitos detract from the ambience a bit). Amazingly, I also get cell phone reception at the cabin. The open expanse of water must act as a corridor for cell signals because I don’t get service anywhere else around here unless I am in the I5 corridor. All in all, a great start to my field season!

Delays...

Well, as with most field work I've done, everything takes a bit longer to get started than you think! After setting a "firm" date of Saturday, April 14th for leaving and running around like mad trying to make some last minute purchases, my plans were upended just a day later. So, now I am heading to the field on April 25th. There are some advantages to waiting 10 more days. First, it's supposed to rain this weekend! Plus, my advisor (Liz Hadly) will have a bit more time to spend in the field with me initially, one of my labmates (Dr. Paula Spaeth!) will be able to come up, and it gives me a bit more time to spend with my friends in Palo Alto. On the minus side, the pile of stuff continues to pile up in the corner of our living room (see photo)! So, no posts from the field yet...but soon.

Opening post...

Well, I am trying to enter the new world of technology with this blog. Hopefully I'll be able to find an internet connection consistently enough to post...

Hopefully, this blog will allow me to share some photos and thoughts with those of you who can't get up to my field site to visit. My goal is to post about once a week throughout the field season. We'll see if this experiment works!