Reprieve after a busy week

24 May 2007

Well, I’m back after a bit of a blogging lull. I have had a whirlwind week. After excavating and sieving last week, Jeremy and I flew down to San Diego Saturday morning for my friend Debbie’s wedding this past weekend. It was great to see all of my college roommates and see Debbie marry her wonderful husband Mark. On Sunday, I went back up to Shasta with two great volunteers- Lily and Dan (pictured sieving). We spent three days in the field and got a lot accomplished. I’m now back at Stanford for the next week. It’s nice to have a bit of a break. I have managed to strain a muscle in my back and the week off will help it heal, plus I can regroup and get some paperwork stuff done. Plus, there is a fire that started 7 miles northwest of my field site and the Forest Service is using the area in and around my cabin as a staging area for fire crew! Overall, it’s a good time to be out of the field!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

13 May 2007

I am taking a day of rest…well, physical rest at least. I am sitting in my cabin, typing away at a grant proposal, and listening to the birds chirp and crickets click outside my door. It’s a beautiful day up here! I also got a chance to review some of my photos. Here’s a great photo of a theoretical population geneticist doing field work! It’s not every day that this happens, and I was fortunate to capture an image of this rare event. Thanks to both Emily and Jeremy for coming up to help and keep me company! Well, my computer battery is about to die, so I think I’ll sit on the porch and sort matrix. One of the unexpected benefits of living in a cabin without electricity is not being a slave to my computer. (An ironic thought for someone writing a blog!)

Larger bones!

10 May 2007

The excavation is going really well. We have started to find some larger teeth, not all of which I can identify! But, it looks like there are some deer teeth, possibly an artiodactyl canine, some squirrel teeth, a carnivore canine, and a claw. These recent finds have added several species to our overall list, so we probably have over 20 species in the deposit. As of yesterday, the deposit is about 1/2 meter deep and it's getting difficult to excavate. Our next step is to start opening up the deposit so we can continue to go deeper. We'll need to start excavating down along one of the walls to make the pit wider. I'm not sure how all of this will work in such a tight space, but Paula is coming up next week to join me again and we'll come up with a plan!

Paula's in the cave!

3 May 2007.

Paula was up in the field with me during the early part of the week, which was wonderful. She left on Tuesday, but will be back in a few weeks. Here's a great photo of her in the cave. She is pointing to one of the corners of the pit. You can see that the pit goes through an archway. Luckily, you can squeeze into the back of the archway to excavate the other side of the pit, which is where I am taking the photo from. Paula is also holding the main tool we use- a trowel- and you can see part of a dustpan in the bottom of the photo. Generally, we slowly remove layers of dirt into the dustpan, then empty it into a bucket to be hauled outside and up to the car. It's very physical work, and definitely helpful to have someone else in the cave with me!

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!