Busy busy busy!

Boy has this been a busy week! Not only did school begin last Monday , but Ashley and I launched our new online shop. That's us. Feeling glamorous.

Anyway, we've been making little bags and purses and aprons and jewelry. We try to make things that are cool and not stuffy or too crafty, you know? It's been really fun so far. We called our shop ALKaline because A.shley, L.izzie, and K.acy were all participating. It's at http://www.alkaline.etsy.com/ .

These are the kinds of things we're selling:

Wish us luck!

Where have I been? Here, I'll show you.

R. and I took off for a long long trip two weeks ago. There were two main goals. 1. Go to Ohio to join up with GeoJourney to travel with them for a week or so and teach students about bison use on the Plains and 2. Go to Sam and Kelly's wedding in Ann Arbor. On the first day, we flew from Tucson to Las Vegas to Atlanta to Toledo, a very long day of flying.

We spent the first day in Bowling Green packing and getting ready for the trip. It was a lot of hard work that ended in a trip to Jed's (can't find a link) to eat the BG delicacy "fireballs" which are basically teeny tiny boneless chicken wings. In the morning, we met the students and then took off for our first big drive. That night we camped in Wisconsin in a place that I imagined might look like the big woods.

That night we had a huge huge HUGE storm that sent the students running to the vans. I was running around trying to help people save their tents until trees started falling in camp (three of them!). So there I was. In my underwear. in front of 25 students. all wet. very cold.

The next day, we drove across Minnesota and South Dakota to the badlands. Along the way we went to the Corn Palace!! Bad. Ass.

Here are a selection of Prairie shots plus a big storm that was building up in the south:

Then we went to the Badlands where we watched the meteor shower and tried to let all of our gear dry out:

Then, we drove through Wounded Knee, Custer State Park, and visited a mammoth site.

Then, we climbed the highest point in South Dakota, Harney Peak. It was a gorgeous hike.

Then, we drove to Belle Fourche, Spearfish, and Camp Crook in South Dakota. There we met Mike the Buffalo rancher. We bought a 2 year old bull from Mike. In the morning, we butchered the buffalo using stone tools and traditional techniques. The students were wonderful, and they worked really hard. I will spare you the pictures of Buffalo day. The next morning, we drove to Ranch A in Wyoming. I love Ranch A so much and I wish I could spend the whole summer there.

After that, it was time for Rob and I to head east as quickly as we could to get to Sam and Kelly's wedding.

On the way, Rob was so sweet and agreed to drive two hours out of the way to go see DeSmet, South Dakota, the real Little Town on the Prairie. We were in a huge hurry and it was getting dark, so we didn't spend much time there. I consider this a preliminary visit to scope the place out before we come back with Katie. I wished I had had Laura Ingalls' maps when I was there because I wasn't able to find all of the places I wanted to see. We did see the homestead site:

And some local farmland:
And the house that Pa built on Third Street:

Then we raced as fast as we could to Michigan for the wedding. There are no pictures of us that do not show how tired we were and how much wine we'd had, so here's a picture of Kelly in the car on the way to the wedding:

It was beautiful and we wish them well.

Whew! So that's it. Now we're back. We have mountains of laundry and lots of housecleaning to do, but we're glad to be sleeping in our own bed.

Lodges

I am a sucker for any place that calls itself a "lodge". I think some people feel the same way about "shoppes" and "inns." If you're willing to call your place a lodge, it's probably the kind of place I'd like to stay. Most of my favorites are in National Parks. The best one by far is Yellowstone Lodge:

Who wouldn't want to stay there? I've had drinks at the bar, but I've never stayed. Actually, to be perfectly fair, it's called Old Faithful Inn and isn't actually a lodge, but it still defines the category in my book. El Tovar at the Grand Canyon also is a "hotel" but should be called a lodge. Again, plenty of drinks there, but no actual overnight stays. Zion Lodge is a for real lodge. They even have rocking chairs on the lawn. Rob and I played in the snow there, but we never stayed over. See a pattern? Well, I want to break the pattern and go to this lodge and actually stay the night. Have you ever seen such a beautiful hotel? Me neither. First of all, it's in Oregon. Second, it looks like a Hobbit lives there. Plus, did you see the waterfall? Wow. Someday I'm going to stay in a lodge and maybe it'll be this one.

Bathroom

I painted two walls in my bathroom yesterday. It's a dark khaki green called "G.I. green". I really like the color, but something's not quite right. Somehow the pictures and the mirror don't look the way I thought they would. Does anybody have suggestions on how to make it flow better? Should I hang things up in a different arrangement or ditch the pictures all together?

Whoa.

I feel like I've been away for weeks and weeks. Harry Potter finally came out on Saturday (in case you've been in a long-term coma or something). R and I were so anxious. We got up really early and tried to pretend we weren't waiting for the book, but every time a truck drove down the street we would both panic and look to see if it was for us. The darn FedEx man (though normally FedEx people are awesome) stopped at the mailbox next door. The nerve! A little while later the UPS truck came rolling down the street and R and I shoved each other out of the way to get the the mailbox first. He said "Here's your book! I hope you like it!" I imagined that his truck was filled to the brim with Harry Potter books and nothing else that day. We ran inside, gazed at the package for a minute and then dug in.

24 hours later and we're both done (note neutral tone of voice).

It was perfect Harry Potter weather. You know, kind of dark and gloomy and dementor-ish.

The monsoons have been kind of intense lately. Today was especially crazy. Our front yard was kind of flowing and there were waves on the street. You can hardly see where the street ends and the yard begins. Wow!

seriously. waves.

This is a picture from the other day.

Isn't that pretty? My mom would say it was a picture of Grace.

p.s.

p.s. saw this at work today. Did not scream.

Field Work

Welcome to my office. I've been in the field for the past few days. On Monday I did a survey. That means that I walked with another archaeologist back and forth across a piece of land to see if there are any sites there. You walk 20m apart and look from side to side to find artifacts or structures or anything else prehistoric. This is what the view looked like all day:

We didn't find very much, but I did spot this cool thing. It's called a bedrock mortar and it is a place where the Hohokam, who used to live in southern Arizona, ground corn or mesquite or some other dry food right on the surface of the rock. They did it so much, that a little hole formed from all the grinding. There was no village nearby, it was probably used by people out on hunting trips. Sure makes cooking on the old Coleman stove seem a lot easier, huh?

Tuesday and today I've been working in Avra Valley on a much older site. We already know where the site is and are busy excavating it so that the county can use the land for a water project. The site is from the Archaic and Early Agricultural period. That means it's somewhere between 2000-3500 years old. The people that lived there were just beginning to invent farming, and they still moved around for most of the year. They didn't even have pottery yet. This picture is of half of a storage pit that I excavated yesterday. They might have stored food in the pit. It was filled with ash and charcoal and had small pieces of bone in it.

So, it's been a busy, fun week so far. I'll be in the field tomorrow and next week, and then it's back to boring lab work for me. I'll miss being outside. Today I saw two roadrunners and a jack rabbit before 6am! There was also a big bad guest at the site, but we won't talk about him.