2011 Day 1: Clearing and Laying in the Units

Well, the 2011 season has begun!  We are still in search of the elusive building foundations, but we believe that we will locate them this year.  Of course, since we've excavated everything else, the odds are with us.  Just like every other year, a few of us came out on Sunday to do any needed clearing and to plot in the new units.  This year, it took a little longer than usual since our datum (a standard position or level that measurements are taken from) was MIA for most of the morning.  Many of us spent most of the morning on our hands and knees poking around in the thick grass looking for something the size of a nail head.

Thankfully it turned up, just when we were ready to give up.  Using this datum and notes from previous years we determined where we will be digging this season.

Once we determined the unit locations we raked and trimmed back the brush.

Tomorrow the forecast looks pretty bleak.  They are calling for 100% chance of rain with an expectation of 1 to 2 inches.  More than likely, we won't be digging, but at least the site is ready to go for Tuesday.  Of course, we had to take a look at the John Howland homestead across the street near the large monument.  Our last season at that site was in 2004, and as you can see it didn't take long for nature to take over again.  One would never know there was a site there.

Everyone its itching to see what this season will uncover at the Joseph Howland site.  Hopefully, one of those things will be a distinct foundation so we can finally make a link from our excavation to the 1959 and 1969 excavations.

Keep your fingers crossed!

August 16: Prep Day

Today we grabbed all our equipment and headed out to the site to clear brush and lay out this year's excavation units. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but it will probably be one of the toughest days we will have. The temperature was close to 90 degrees and the brush was this rare specie of man-eating blackberry cane. Although the site caretaker did a fantastic job of maintaining the area over the past year, it always works out that we need to clear a little more. Thankfully, Jonathan brought his chainsaw and we had enough people to pitch in to hack and rake. Kudos to Michael and Jesse for single-handedly picking up the massive bush and moving it to the other side of the property! Nature lost today's battle, but I think we will be feeling a little stiff tomorrow.

Before

Let's Kill This!

Shooting in the Squares




We've narrowed the cellar location down to two possible places. So, we are opening one 10 by 15ft. and two 5 by 10ft. areas with the hope of locating it. Hopefully we will have our questions answered this year.


The disappointing discovery we made was the extent of the damage done by the looting (reported earlier this year). They dug down to our previous level in the large grid square from last year. We are not sure if they stopped at our final level or if they went past. Someone also removed our datum, which was extremely frustrating but quickly remedied.


By the end of the work day, we had the entire area cleared and our grid squares were laid in. Tomorrow the fun truly begins!





After!

Day 1

We began work today out at Rocky Nook. Today's activities mostly involved removing some pretty mean thistles that had taken over in the past year, clearing brush from new areas to excavate (Image 4), and setting up the grid (Image 1). So, there are not many exciting things to report yet. However, we uncovered the feature (Image 2) which we found last year, and it has remained in pretty good shape (Image 3). Kudos to everyone today for working hard and braving the thorns. Stay tuned, the real fun begins tomorrow!