The Artifact Junkie

New Year, new posts

2010-01-03T20:04:00.003-06:00

We hope.

Besides its part of my list of resolutions (of which I'm also blogging about, separately) that I will blog again, if only to keep my mind active and the chance to peruse things outside my of workplace. It will be about heritage of course.

Change of life.

2009-08-09T15:45:00.002-05:00

Well, since my last post I've gone on welfare, found a contract job, gotten off welfare, eked out a living, interviewed for a few jobs and got a year long contract. Go me!

The new job required a move to a new city which I was more than happy to do. Toronto can be lovely to live in but its not the be all and end all of cities or living well. Besides my new job is quite frankly, a dream job!

So what am I doing? I am a heritage planner for a municipal government. I shepherd heritage permits through the approvals process, I review technical circulations and look for possible (and avoidable) heritage impacts and I'm going to be working on the archaeological master plan.

And stuck in a dark corner lies the unfinished paper. More work's been done on it, but it is still unfinished and I still have difficulty talking about it.

Testing, testing....

2009-02-24T06:03:00.002-06:00

Will the sky actually fall if I really, truly, seriously commit to posting again? And follow through this time?

When dreams turn to reality...

2008-07-21T16:28:00.002-05:00

This is just a quick little post really. But over the weekend my boyfriend commented on what happens when the opposite of finding one stone flake in a square metre happens.

Him: "You know that dream? The one where you find tons of artifacts? In fact you wind up having more artifacts than soil?"

Me: (Sighs.) "Yeah."

Him: "Well it finally happened. One square metre, 44 centimetres in depth and tons of artifacts."

Me: "Cool. What else did you do?"

Him: "Nothing. I had a square meter full of artifacts that needed to be dug, sorted by material and bagged. There was nothing else I could do. I spent 10 hours on that damn square surrounded by people getting through 5-6 squares the same day."

Me: "Still, that 's interesting isn't it? At least you had a lot to show for it."

Him: "Yeah. Five buckets. The big kind. Filled with pottery."

Me: "And this is why you're lying on my couch?"

Him: "My back hurts from the pottery....."

But all is now well, and he is getting squares which sensibly have only 40-60 artifacts in them. He's a happy boy.

I miss fieldwork.

Something to talk about...

2008-07-18T15:13:00.002-05:00

finally.

Yesterday, I began my internship with a Municipal Heritage Department. Not the city I live in but one nearby. I will be doing research on heritage plans and having fun with some of the archaeology side of things. I think its a good fit.

The only drawback is that this Municipality does not, in fact, have a Municipal Archaeological Master Plan, which is unfortunate because that's what I'm studying. But it has a fine record in heritage conservation and I think it will be valuable to experience how planning is done on a day to day level. When it comes time to look closer at my chosen problem I'm hoping to do a little research via interviews and job shadowing at other municipalities nearby.

So why did I pick this city? Well, initially it was a second choice (because of the lack of the mamp) but I was delightfully surprised at their attitude towards my email and phone calls. They were also intrigued by MY research and thought that I could contribute to their office team and do some meaningful work. Their attitude goes a long way to my understanding why I have such respect for the more public examples of this departments work.

Other offices I contacted showed some interest too, and my first choice did turn me down. That was a disappointment, to be sure, but at least I'm reasonable certain that it was a reluctant choice on their side too. From their rejection I'm to understand that they loved my project, loved my resume and that they did not have either the room for me or someone to work with. Very disappointing.

But once I had talked to the people at this Municipality I was pretty certain that that was were I wanted to spend my summer.

And my first day seems to have rewarded my choice. I walked in and there was my desk with a new computer (still no login yet though), a working phone and in a rather sweet gesture - stationary supplies. The section head had made sure that I had a notepad, a legal pad, post its and a pen. An incredibly thoughtful gesture.

And then he gave me excerpts of the municipal plan, a binder of heritage policy discussion memos and correspondence and a copy of the Heritage Act. I spent the day reading and taking notes.

Heaven.

Project AMP - initial ramblings

2008-06-12T13:53:00.003-05:00

In Ontario, where I live, there are several municipalities who have commissioned Archaeological Master Plans of their municipality. The idea is to readily identify areas of high archaeological potential, so that when a parcel of land is under consideration for development, a municipality can ensure that an archaeological assessment takes place. It's a planning tool that has grown in frequency over the last three decades, particularly as pieces of legislation such as The Planning Act, and the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act(OEAA) increasingly regulate how developments must be regulated.

In both Acts, human heritage is something that is recognized as being valuable and worthy of consideration when a new development is being assessed. And its the Ontario Heritage Act that identifies what is considered heritage in Ontario - archaeology, built heritage and landscapes- and therefore worthy of protection.

Of course project and developments don't often happen on a solely provincial level. In fact most developments must go through the municipal planning offices for approval. It is the municipality that can insist on an archaeological assessment prior to project approval, as well as agree to waive that requirement. A municipal archaeological master plan, helps them to make that decision.

The odd thing is (in my view), is that no one appears to have looked how these archaeological master plans have worked or how they are used. Even though Ontario is the world "leader" in commissioning them for future planning.

And I'd like to know. I'd like to have a look at one and see what information it provides and how often it is used and what it is used for.

To do this, I've taken courses in land use law, policy analysis, resource management, impact assessment, heritage planning - on top of my undergraduate degree in archaeology. I've read policy, legislative drafts, and technical reports. Not to mention lots of journal articles on how other countries do it, how in Ontario we can address the issue of First Nation ownership (even as we ignore the truth that the province does not claim ownership and doesn't take responsibility for artifacts), and angst about the lot of the private consultants who do most of the archaeological work in the province, yet claim to be powerless.

The one perspective I don't have is how a municipal planning office approaches the thorny question of archaeological resource management in their land use policy. And I'd like to know.

Back with a whine

2008-02-20T13:02:00.001-06:00

Yes, it has been a while since I blogged.

In brief - I've been out of the province, out of the country, sick and once again figuring out finances and the administrative riddles of my department. And so I got out of the habit of writing about anything beyond what was needed to get through class and homework assignments.

But I have been thinking about archaeology and how it is practiced in Ontario. It's what I'm trying to study after all and I had to think really hard when I was writing two particular essays last semester. Both papers related to the ramifications of how half-baked policy affects the daily practice of how archaeology is actually done in the province.

Don't yawn. I know its policy and that policy is not nearly as "cool" as digging, but it's in the provincial legislation and policies that the daily practice of archaeology is organized. These decisions mount up day after day, month after month and year after year, until say... we have boxes of artifacts in dubious storage for 15 years and the notes are starting to fade.

This is a problem, this is an example of a policy that needs to be revisited pronto, and does it seem boring now, when hundreds, thousands of artifacts are at risk? No.

Is it being discussed at a level where this will actually be addressed? Not at the moment. But knowing when it was last discussed, who was involved, who wasn't and what was decided would help anybody trying to make sense of what is going on now and what needs to be done. And knowing that the discussion of artifact storage is tied into a larger policy argument that is indefinitely on ice is VERY important.

But back to my essays - one was on how archaeological sites are managed in Ontario from a resource perspective, and another was an examination of heritage and archaeological management from an intergovernmental perspective - i.e. the Province sets the rules, and the municipalities are required to shoulder a great many of the responsibilities with few decision making powers - especially regarding archaeological materials.

So yeah, in the next couple of blogs I wanna talk about my papers and how when you don't pay attention to policy, it can screw up the best intentions.

Coming soon...

2007-12-11T22:52:00.000-06:00

Wow. Look at that yawning gap of entries - nothing since last May.

Well, for my New Year's resolution I will blog here twice a week. Even if nobody else reads it.

2007-05-07T13:12:00.000-05:00

I want this book....

http://thevanitypress.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

But first I'll get through the pile of books beside my bed. Five down, fifteen to go... I'll be writing about a few of them here.

Born Free!!!

2007-04-30T12:21:00.000-05:00

As free as the wind!
Or at least as free as being done all schoolwork, registration work, and Plan of Study work, tax return work can make me.

Now I can go back to the important things: finding a job that preferable involves old bits of trash. Or how to protect those old bits of trash a.k.a artifacts.

There is a plan that is now in progress and will be followed and followed up on for at least a week before I get desperate. I'll let you know how it goes.

Panger

2007-04-24T15:13:00.000-05:00

A new word I've made up that's been dominating my thoughts lately. I was freaking out at my lovely assistant (aka The Boyfriend) about how between finishing my term paper assignments, writing and rewriting my "Plan of Study", wondering how I'm going to afford next month's bills, and how I'm going to find a job for the summer.

All perfectly normal reasons for freaking out and all very normal in the life of a graduate student. That's what everyone assures me and it is nice to know that I'm not alone... but that warm fuzzy only lasts for a few minutes and then my general feelings of panger start once more.

So what're my papers about? I'll tell you.

Tuesday morning Class - For this class, I decided to do a paper on the state of relations between aboriginals and archaeologists in Ontario. I was pretty conflicted with this paper and it ate into everything I did. It's a large topic and it wasn't helped by worrying that my prof wouldn't think it was nearly critical enough.

Thursday morning Class - Sounded good when I proposed it, but the execution of it proved more boring than I could ever imagine. It's not a good idea when you're falling asleep during the writing is it? Problems included - a lack of focus that resulted in the project being outlined no less than 6 times, sentences that are so wooden that I can practically smell the pine, and a conclusion that whimpers.

Law Class - The EXAM. It came, it went and that was nice.

The Monday night Class - (aka Why I had to miss Heroes) - a series of projects that I apparently did well in and am completly done with.

Plan of Study - Change this, add this, I don't like your format, you need a sentence here that encapsulates your entire project and shows your passion, your squares aren't the right width... and oh, just shove it!

And money? Heh. Yeah, its called none.

Wow. And not in a good way...

2007-03-09T08:20:00.000-06:00

From Heo Cwaeth - Unfreaking believable is about right...
http://heocwaeth.blogspot.com/search/label/Unbe-freakin-lievable

Not much to say today...

2007-03-06T12:31:00.000-06:00

and I've been singularly unable to write an interesting blog entry all week. Partly due to the several small assignments due around now and perhaps I've blown all my "short but sweet" writing skills on those.

So what did I have to do?

2 Book reviews - sadly on books I was pretty "meh" about. Both were difficult to write about for that reason. Possibly the hardest was concerning a book that I didn't think much of, but so many other people often comment along the lines of "This is the most profound book evah!"

The other book should have been interesting, and certainly had all the elements to be interesting(an archaeologist working with paleolithic cultures in Ontario), but the execution of the whole thing was.... dull. Maybe because it read more like a diary? "Dear Diary, today I found the best site - it has this kinds of soil, and artifacts in different positions and I got to have pizza for lunch!". How do I recap that kind of writing?

3 Class Presentations -

Presentation 1 - A group presentation on Heritage Tourism. One in which I nearly came to blows with another classmate and graduate student, who took it on herself to be the arbitraitor of what was relevent to the discussion and what was not. She used this attitude quite well on the little undergraduates and they heeled quite nicely.
However I did not. When I first suggested that we should include a section on managing cultural resources, she didn't understand what I meant. When I went on to say that perhaps we should talk about how site managers protect and conserve the resources everyone is coming to see so that it's around longer, she said, "I don't really think that relevent."

It heritage tourism - its Stonehenge, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, its about preserving that little designated house(1840) down the street, its about making sure people don't carve their own initials into the stone next to the petroglyphs etc.

She shrugged and said,"Yeah, but I really don't think that's important to our presentation. But. You can do it if you really want to." And you all know what kind of a voice she'd have to use for that.
Me? I said, "Yeah, I think its important, since you don't have a tourist site without the resource. And since this is a planning and management class for heritage, I think there are going to be several people in the class who might be interested."

I was right.
Can I say that again? I was right!
And, I had the pleasure of hearing the prof compliment us on our presentation, "...especially for including resource management. That's an overlooked component most of the time."
Hah!
Of course, it helped that I had pictures of Stonehenge, Lascaux, Petroglyph Park and Spadina House to help me along.

Presentation 2 - was for my Environmental Recreation and Tourism class where I presented on Wanuskewin. Since this site is one of my favorite places in the world, my big difficulty was making sure I stayed on topic (no "I remember..." stories) and on time. Which I did. Plus, the Saskatoon Berry Jam was a big hit.

Presentation 3 - Law. I sweated big on this one and all for nought. It was postponed until our makeup class on an upcoming Saturday. It's on the Meewasin Valley in Saskatoon. And I'm nervous about it, because I'm not sure if its all legal and analysed the way its supposed to be. I wish it were behind me, but on the bright side I now have some time to read and edit it again.

You know how I said I had nothing much to say? I may have been mistaken. Whether my rehashing is interesting to you is another matter...

Later!

one of the stories

2007-03-02T16:19:00.000-06:00

http://thevanitypress.blogspot.com/2007/03/george-will-wrong-again.html#links

The only part missing is the repetitive, drone mentality of much of these so called jobs.
Retail? Call centre? Who grows up to say I wanna be a telemarketer...

Yesterday's house...

2007-03-02T14:02:00.000-06:00

In yesterday's post I showed you this picture. This was the structure I chose to feature for my architectural assignment. My mission was to pick out an example of Second Empire and talk about it.

Second Empire is named after the "Second French Empire" of Napoleon Bonaparte the Third. This empire did not last very long (about 18 years) and wasn't known for much except for really cool art and design. It is responsible for popularizing the Mansard roof, a style actually deveoloped back in the 17th century by Francois Mansart. However, it became extremly popular first in France around the 1850's and then spread out as a style to the rest of the world.

It's a very formal style when its all done up, but the addition of a Mansard roof makes it possible to use the attic story more efficiently. For this reason you'll also see it in much humbler styles, such as row houses, because it allowed more use of small spaces. I've seen it done "Pioneer" style too, out in Saskatoon. But the style mostly died out around the 1890's.

So one day in January, me and my lovely Assistant Jim went hunting for Second Empire houses in Toronto. And found out there was a lot of them around, some of which I may one day post here. This was one of the first ones we took and it got Assistant Jim so excited he insisted on taking several more - both on his cell phone and real camera. In fact even though I knew I'd be using this one - because I'm practically in love with it - Assistant Jim dragged me through several more hours of searching. It was not unlike shopping with my mother.

But since I love both my mother and my Assistant Jim I will not say any more about either of these activities.

But this house, this house I love. It was built in the 1870's as a duplex, so even though its built up in a very grand and formal design, it was meant for the use of two families and their servants.

See, here are the front doors- you can see how fancy the brickwork is by our standards, you've got a little bit of a look at the roof shape, and check out the windows. I think they look a little like eyes.

You'll also notice a small round plaque beside the left door. That tells you that this duplex is the childhood home of former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (b.1874). Note that this is a heritage plaque. Because this house is listed, not designated. That means that its not safe from destruction.

Next, I'll show you my favorite bit of the house-

Isn't that neat? There's one on either side of the duplex so each household can have one. It's very likely the original kitchen, built so that the family would not have to endure cooking smells (because that was not considered part of a polite dining experience back then) nor would the family have to deal with heat of the kitchens in the summer.

And I'm BACK!!!

2007-03-01T14:45:00.000-06:00

Really. Don't all rush in at once there....

I don't think I've blogged since, ah, January. And I think it was same equivelant of a sign that says "Back in 5!" on some shop door and despite knowing that its going to be more than five minutes you wait anyways. And then the person never comes back...

So. What have I been up to? The usual grad student life - scrounging for money, doing piles of reading and attending classes.

I have to say, I'm especially pleased about the combination of class that I have this term. They are, if not about archaeology, about a lot of the issues that surround archaeological practices and heritage resource management in today's world. Land Use Law, Native & Non-Native Relations in Canada, Resource Management in Recreation and Tourism, and a University of Waterloo class that tackes Heritage Planning.

This is a big change from last semester where, being new and overwhelmed and not sure of how to pick out my path, I took stuff that was not as related to topics near and dear to my heart as I would like.

The down side of this was a lot of stress as I learned a huge pile of information about stuff I'd never really studied before and that a lot of the time, I just felt overwhelmed.

The upside was that most of what I learned gave me an environmental framework to use as I continue to put together my next plan of study draft. I learned how to relate my interests (archaeology) to other disciplines. That can only be good.

This semester is almost a relief, because I recognize so much more of the content. I'm also having some of those cool experiences where one class feeds into another.

But I fear I'm catching "gradschool mouth" that horrible condition where once you start on a topic, you keep going on and on... instead I'll just post a picture of one of my assignments. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

I will be back...

2007-01-11T22:24:00.000-06:00

Soon, really... and with pictures.
Besides I owe the Leo info on Google Earth.

What am I supposed to be doing now?

2006-12-18T19:42:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit at loose ends. I should be bustling around my apartment, basking in the joy of a semester completed, treasuring my newfound chestnuts of knowledge and making my apartment pretty for Christmas.

Instead....
I am making lists of all the things I must accomplish (including celebrating Christmas in an honest to God church somewhere) in the next two weeks.

So. School Related
- finish every teeny little bit of registration. Dot all my "i"s and cross my "t"s because that is how they get you so you wind up panicking about the right class

- Bring all documentation possible to the Student Loan office and do the same process all over again. This will be important for things later on like... living.

- check out Go Train/Bus schedule for an upcoming class and figure out budget

Christmas
-buy gifts. For everyone apparently, but for everyone out west first, since my brother is being kind enough to provide a courier service
-decorate the damn apartment with Christmas ornaments - if I'm going decorate the fig
tree, decorate, if I can find a little shrub cool - but do it
-wrap gifts
-visit aforementioned brother and give him the gift bag -
-make cookies - good for gifts to friends, boyfriend's parents & possible bribes for boyfriend
-celebrate the freaking joy of the season

New Year's
- I will/may be having people over to my place for New Year's
- therefore I must put together menu (get boyfriend's imput on this) for a casual elegant New Year's Menu
- figure out group stuff to do that does not involve hanging around overcrowded, loud, expensive bars - Nathan Phillips Square w/fire works is good & I think there will be ice skating

HOusekeeping
- pay bills 'cause they don't go away
- remove mouse poison, keep traps for now
- keep house clean, as it will mean less stress with visitors

And I haven't even begun to work on my New Year's Resolutions... but I suspect balance and organizational items will be key...

What I have accomplished
- a semester of grad studies
- made new friends at school
- stayed in touch with old ones.

This was especially true last weekend, when I went to two seasonal parties. Both had very different groups of people, and both were great. Highlights include:learning to spin a dreidle upside down at the Chanukah party & having latkes for the very first time, trying to find where Baby Jesus had gone hiding after he apparently up and left his creche and shopping for Christmas presents with the boyfriend, whilst giving him BIG hints as to what would be appropriate for moi.

Kisses!

Ugh...

2006-12-14T15:52:00.000-06:00

Almost done...
Mind will recover... someday...
By the way, I need some present ideas for people... send me in a list of what you want....

What I did today...

2006-11-19T21:24:00.000-06:00

It was a cold, fall day here, 1C, so obviously it was ideal weather for a tramp around the Minesing Swamp and Fort Willow. We (my able assistant and I) started out here:

Hmmm, can't see? Here's a closer look:

That right, Minesing Swamp - one of the largest wetland areas in Ontario. This area and this site, Fort Willow

are all part of a project that I am researching for class. For the most part I'm restricting myself to the cultural landscape... because if I tried to do all of the natural heritage of Minesing Swamp as well, it would be impossible. Here's an idea of how big the swamp (ahem, wetland complex) is:

Isn't that big? I'm concentrating on Fort Willow and maybe a little ghost town (if I can ever find it, since the road to it was wiped out this weekend) and the ideas of how people respond to landscapes.

But before I go here's a picture of me, late in the day. Please excuse the blocky look as have three layers on underneath that coat.

And here's a picture of my lovely assistant!

Must go, the pictures have finally uploaded so I can go to bed!

Um, no, I'm not ignoring you guys....

2006-11-13T19:35:00.000-06:00

And yes, I finally realized that it's been almost a month since my last blog. It's been a heady mixture of ups, downs, and stress generated almost entirely by my classes and my organizational skills. I hear that it gets better.

I did learn that I was making it much harder on myself than I had to. My prof told me this as I was freaking out about keeping up my reading journal. Apparently, she does not want mini-essays on the 100+ pages of readings each weeks. She wants bullet points and summations. One page or so. This made things easier.

My Plan of Study for my degree is also under review by a number of individuals. In my plan of study, I try to nail down what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it within the next 2 years between classes and research projects.

Google Earth turned out to be responsible as for why my computer was possessed and kept turning itself into an expensive paperweight. Good bye Google Earth, I shall miss you.

Other assignments were lost during this period & I've had to carve them out of my computer's memory. They're done now. And of course I'm convinced that they suck.

I went to the Ontario Archaeological Conference at the end of October. It was a mild party (compared to other years) and super quick on the papers. A lot of people were mumbling about what the point of a one day conference is. I concur. On the other hand, there were great papers and I learned a lot. But the schmooze factor was way down and that kind of bonding is just as important as the papers.

Newsflash from the OAS - corn (or maize) might have been grown in Ontario much earlier than thought. Like 3 centuries earlier. Kinda kewl.

I did nothing for Halloween. Sad. Wait, that's wrong, I did eat a chocolate eyeball. Still sad.

Got the student loan payment, getting on top of another one. Still not enough money to see me to January AND go see my family. Sucks like the ultimate suckitude.

My skin is doing weird things. I frightened the skin care lady today at Shoppers with my excema that is erupting all over my arms and face. And got free samples. Okay, that was cool.

Especially since she was just seeing my hands. Actually the face was last week and after I stopped using the cheap face creme and took some anti-histamines, you'd hardly know it this week except my eyes are a little red.

The mice are trying to invade. Two mouseholes, into which I stuffed steel wool and duct taped. Still haven't heard from the super though, so I will have to contact the landlord again.

Really craving brownies right now. And really, that's it.

I'm off to review stuff for tomorrow. And then watch Heroes. Because honestly, my brain's not fit tonight for much more.

Kiss.

The more you know...

2006-10-18T10:35:00.000-05:00

Berkeley Apartments circa World War 1 or slightly after.

One reason of many as to why the Regent Park plan seemed like a good idea at the time. Places like these because of the Depression and the second World War were still around. In droves. And so we have...

And yeah, Regent Park was not actually successful. But the mistakes made there help shaped the renewal of Cabbagetown as we now know it and made sure that other public housing efforts worked better.

I'm just saying.

A picture

2006-10-17T07:26:00.000-05:00

of my street - from 1933. For those of you who know what to look for, my building is on the left hand side.

Yeah, I had fun browsing the Toronto online archives. Quite the addictive little tool...

I didn't order this!

2006-10-11T21:05:00.000-05:00

This cold.... This nose-dripping, eye-watering, sore throat, gagging, energy sapping, low grade feverish, rash sprouting cold - is distinctly NOT what I ordered. If I'm not mistaken - I didn't do anything wrong, and goodness knows I wash my hands enough that all I can think of is - why now?

And sure, that's what we'll go with as to why we haven't written. I could mention that I was going to do a big Thanksgiving blog last weekend, but I was really wiped (hmm.... wonder what was going there?) afterwards and on Sunday. Sunday night I barfed and Monday I lay around the house like some doll, pathetically reading.

I could also mention that I've been busy with school, but that doesn't exactly take me offline if you know what I mean.

So, belatedly, here are 10 things I am thankful for (in no particular order):
- My health (hey, it was on the list before hand, and this is just a lousy cold. Do I have cancer? No. Do I have degenerative disease? No. I think I've made my point)

- That I'm in grad school -

- That I have the determination to keep hacking away at student loans, bursaries and various beaurocracies - persistance pays off

- That I have my cool boyfriend, who cooks and is getting better at cleaning up afterwards and is loaning my his digital camera for an assignment.

- That I have cool friends, who are doing all these cool things

- That I have a wild, loving family who always makes sure I don't forget them or neglect them too badly (Miss M... still waiting for B-day requests!)

- That I'm always curious about learning new things whether it be knitting or social planning (Quote from class: "Planning is the organization and implementation of hope." - Sums up all the stuff I'm trying to do quite nicely)

- That I have a cool bachelor apartment in a good part of town - next to restaurants, shops and a few lovely parks.

- That I know how to cook. That was a long time coming...

And the most recent thing that I'm currently thankful for?

The mouse is apparently long gone from my apartment and I may not have even needed to put out the poison for it. Mom's probably thankful for that too...

It's not a waste of time if its for education, right?

2006-09-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Playing with computers, I mean. York is a seriously hooked up campus. I can check my lecture notes, access journals, readings etc. All great resources, but a fairly passive use of the internet age.

Except for my landscape ecology in planning course & hooo boy! Our class has a web page and a blog that we all have to contribute to. Eventually, we will all be posting our final project on the page - a prospect that makes me a little nervous. I mean, what if its not as cool as the other kids in my class?

But the coolest tool of all is downloading Google Earth. I've gone as far as I can go for free, but someday, somehow, I'll charge the $20 to get the Pro Update. 'Til then I'm "practicing" finding places, by addresses, by geography etc. I've visited BC, Alberta (okay, that was an accident, I was aiming for the Okanagan and my hand slipped), Saskatchewan, Northern & Southern Ontario, Toronto and Newfoundland. I checked it ALL out. I wish one of my family members would put something outside to say to say hi. So what if it takes another few weeks to update? Its for scientific discovery people! Maybe Dad can put something bright on the balcony. And if I see an updated picture of something bright yellow streaking through the back yard - I'll know who it is....

Speaking of family, Miss Muffet, have you asked le petit prince et princesse what they want? Does our leo seem interested in world travel possibilities? And do you think Mom should guest blog? I think so... or maybe the Big Al? I know they're not exactly about school or archaeology but hey, my readers have diverse interests, no?

I wonder what else I can make Google do?

.....

The coolness of Fort Willow

2006-09-26T19:56:00.000-05:00

I need a digital camera. Because only with a digital camera, can I truly show you how cool our time was at Fort Willow (near Barrie, ON) this past weekend.

Here's a little picture that might help:

I wonder how that will come out. Hmmm...

Anyways, in brief, Fort Willow was a supply depot for military and trade goods and is located on the Nottawasaga River. It also seems likely that it was in an earlier incarnation (pre-1796) a trading post for the North West Fur Trading Company - Hudsons Bay's biggest trading rival! But Fort Willow proper, was run by the British and was inhabited until at least the 1850's. Which makes sense, since the Nottawasaga River was actually a pretty important transportation route from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario.

In the fifties and sixties there were a series of excavations to determine the boundries of the fort and the buildings in between. It's been restored, somewhat, but not extensively so. There are outlines of the buildings that were there and some interesting paths you can take around the Fort that talk about other possible sites and buildings and settlements.

I get the impression that for many years Fort Willow was kind of left to moulder - unjustifiably so, because it was located so far "north" (or what Torontonian consider north - Barrie), is not located near a major highway, and is cared for by a mild mannered conservation authority who have a small budget that has to spread far.

But about 10 years ago, a volunteer group formed(with the blessing of the conservation authority) called "Friends of Willow Creek" decided to pool their efforts and interests into building up a better awareness and appreciation of Willow Creek.

Now I first heard of them earlier this year, visiting up in New Lowell again and reading about this archaeological excavation in the newspaper. Done for credit by high school students, it was supervised by an archaeologist. We were a little mystified as to who this archaeologist could be - our contacts hadn't mentioned anything. And we were a little pinched by the fact that these students got to work on such a cool site. I think that might've been a week where we were field testing an area with not an artifact to be found.

We could've been feeling a little bitter is what I'm saying.

Well we found out this weekend when we went to Fort Willow's Open House (so to speak) that the licenced archaeologist was a high school history teacher. He'd held on to his licence and basically started an archaeology club. Cool. That rocks, and I wish I could've had a club like that at my high school.

But Fort Willow had lots more to look at this weekend - it was the big focal point of the Nine Mile Portage Heritage Festival. First the place was filled with re-enactors - good ones. Get this, they'd all come the night before and set up canvas tents, much like the ones we see in painting and old, old photographs, then they set up their demonstrations the next morning. There was nothing significant or noticable of the 21st century on them.

So, I chatted with the candlemaker, the surgeon, , the traders, the cooper - which is a barrelmaker (interesting family note, our paternal great grandfather Vineham was a cooper!), a blacksmith who offers lessons.... maybe, someday, boatmakers(Dayle is thinkind of joining them because they may build a schooner), a fur trade fort, a travelling doctor show, costumers who made everything from scratch - it was all wonderful.

There were also military re-enacters, specifically the Historic Military Establishment of Upper Canada. Their area of focus is from 175o's to 1880's. However, their main historical portrayal is that of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (RNR). They seemed to be in charge of the whole event and demonstrated drills, muskets, cannon operations. At one point, they were getting about 15 children to march in line. Fun for the children, but a little eerie to watch. And there were children there - some were part of the re-enactments with the families, some were clearly there with the families but not involved themselves, and there were hordes more, streaming around the fort and the paths surrounding it.

Dayle and I stayed there for about four hours and were some of the last ones to leave. That was because every conversation we got involved was with a person who was witty, knowledgable and a great enthusiast of whatever part they were playing.

A great Satuday.

I am a happy person. Except....(long post. And probably boring to many of you)

2006-09-25T23:02:00.000-05:00

late at night it seems, when I should be in bed already and I'm worried about everything. My money... my school program.... my future in an industry that's getting the stuffing kicked out of it.

First example? Here's some news from the Conservative Federal Government via the Canadian Museum Association:

CMA Shocked With Surprise Cuts to MAP

Ottawa, September 25, 2006 - Late this afternoon, the Minister of
Canadian Heritage, Hon Bev Oda, announced a series of cuts to her
department. In particular we are alarmed that the Museums Assistance
Programs has been selected for a $4.6 million cut. MAP is the one
program that is dedicated solely to museums.
"We are shocked, puzzled and feel betrayed by these cuts" said John
McAvity, CMA Executive Director. No other programs in the museums
sector
were cut according to the Minister's staff who kindly called CMA to
explain this news.

For the past several years we have been working constructively with all
political parties including the Conservative Party for a new Museums
Policy and a new investment. In fact we obtained a complete commitment
in writing from the Conservative Party to bring in a new policy and a
new investment during the election campaign, and just last week the
Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage tabled its recommendation for a
new policy "as soon as possible". The cuts announced today are totally
contradictory actions.

These cuts are part of a $1 billion exercise throughout government
aimed at programs "that are no longer effective". A most troubling message to
all our members.

And further cuts to culture in general, in a followup statement from the CMA list-serv:
WOW!!
Not only was there a $4.6million cut to MAPS, but the Status of Women
Canada was cut by $5 million, and a further $1.1 million for operating.
There was 500K clawed back from the Cultural Investment Fund Loan loss
reserve, $2.9 million from Parks Canada's Commercial Heritage Property
Incentive, $9.7 million from the elimination of the Cdn Volunteerism
Initiative, $13.8 million for HRDC skills development, $6.5 million in
funding for the Centre for Research, plus others.

All totaled $44 million! That doesn't include money taken from
tourism, Intellectual Property, the youth internship program, and many more
that will affect heritage.
This is a betrayal indeed!

I feel... kinda worried. And then I read my first draft of my Area of Concentration - which is part of what will go into my grand "Plan of Study". Here's a posting of it for your perusal:
Currently, there is little written in Canadian and Ontario archaeological journals about archaeological planning and resource management. Nor does there appear to be any post-secondary course in Ontario university archaeology departments that focuses on this necessary knowledge - at either the undergraduate or graduate level.

There are however, a few published papers from the last five years that state and re-state an evergrowing concern for archaeology and its future in the province. It is also a topic that is discussed freely at any archaeological gathering. The emotional content of the talk and the papers ranges from thoughtful concern to outright frustration and anger, and often have the same repeating themes.

- The perception of the lack of an orderly, regulated, standards based level market place that places archaeology on same level as drywallers and untrained workers income wise.
- The lack of professional literature, shared database or an effective self policing professional organization
- The lack of regulatory muscle to enforce current standards in an effective manner.
- Ongoing concerns about effectively communicating archaeological mandates and methods to planners/developers/engineers, who are perceived to simply value the "letter of clearence" that the archaeological consultant can provide.

In the United States, there are similar concerns raised in any discussion of current archaeological projects and the future of archaeology. However, there are positive indications that these concerns can be addressed in a positive way. For instance, there are journals that focus on heritage resource management, there are courses in cultural resource management archaeology, and there are even states that require archaeological surveys and excavations to be done far earlier in the planning process and to make arrangements for their ongoing conservation as necessary.

Although looking at other countries and other provinces' practices will be an important part of my research, it will comprimise only a part of it. More urgent, I think, will be an investigation into current connections between land use law, planning and policy and practice. Most important will be identifying existing gaps between the intent and the practice, and hopefully, find a way to address it in a meaningful way.

Upon re-reading this, I began to be worried about my goals a little. Am I aiming to high? Did I take the series premiere of "Heroes" on NBC a little too seriously? And if I am setting myself up as a Heritage Superhero in training, protecting archaeological sites from danger - should I have a cape?

Hmmm... perhaps not. I saw The Incredibles, I know what a death trap those capes can be.... hmmm.... perhaps I should simply dress in primary colours and wear a special helmut?
Well, whattdya know. I am sleepy after all!
A much more fun post tomorrow, I promise.

2006-09-20T19:44:00.000-05:00

Announcements:

First - I am now allowed to apply for a student loan. I guess this means they can still deny me though huh?

Secondly - I have decided on my new class - Landscape Ecology - Which I didn't mention last week because I posted on first on the Thursday before I took it and then I was obsessed with Archaeology Day.

It was neck and neck between Landscape Ecology and Environmental Economics, but today I reached a decision. It was because of an email and some idiots. The idiots were in my economics class and I was stuck between them. They kept talking and whispering - not too each other mind you, but simply commenting on the lecture.

Plus there were several people who kept getting upset about how unfair the market system is. That's not the point of the class, the point is to understand the theory and dynamics a little better, so that we can go out there and make the market place reflect a better reality. Complaining that giving away surplus food should be a mandatory part of the economic picture was, well, missing the point of the lecture. So - loved the prof, thought many of my classmates were idiots. Plus, its a really large class (28), not what you want in your grad studies.

That's not very nice of me, is it? I'm going to read the textbook though, if I can get it. I'd like to get some kind of a handle on the topic anyways.

The Landscape Ecology class was the one I picked. It features a class of 7 people (including me) and although there's a lot of stuff about restoration, there's a lot of stuff about human influences on the landscape. Plus the professor likes archaeology and has a history of working with historic preservation in urban settings (it was Rome, Italy but still...). And then she emailed me back to assure me that I did not have to have a background in computer science, physics and GIS to do get by. Which was nice of her.

Thirdly - I have nearly decided completely on getting my planning certificate, with the proviso that I also develop an archaeological project/ thesis. That way, I can also be eligible for a professional license. Several archaeologists, and city heritage people really encouraged me on this during Archaeology Day. One person actually said, "yeah, you could be our person on the 'Inside!' "

Fourthly, I'm leaning away from applying to law school. Why? Because its 3x more expensive, I'd be in school nearly two years more, and then I'd have to spend another year articling before I could take the bar. Then the law advisor I spoke to said he's not sure if very many classes could tackle exactly what I was thinking. And that there may not be an exact field for me when I graduate, that I might have to spend a few years carving that out. You know what? I've done that or tried too, and I'm not 25 anymore. But the law advisor did feed me pizza during our meeting and told me where to do some more research, just to make sure.

On personal notes - I'm apparently molting and I'm craving carbs - big time! The carb craving I can understand, because I'm pretty sure it ties into my sleep patterns, because I'm not getting good sleep. Which is due to the stresses of starting school and not yet getting my exercise routine in place to burn off all my nervous energy. So I walk up in the middle of the night a few times and end up tired and dreaming of cookies, donuts, bread rolls, cupcakes. My body wants quick energy and it wants it now!

The molting is more mysterious and slightly embarrassing. I'm drinking the water, I'm using moisturizer - but my face is so dry and tight it almost burns and its shedding flakes. Even the area around my eyes is all flaky and red and puffy. Yes Mom, I am keeping my apartment tidy and clean. No, I'm not currently hanging out with cats. Any ideas people?

I'm off to make myself tea.
Oh, and believe it or not, I am actually in a fairly good mood. I'm just a little tired and trying to cover all the highlights.
Kisses to all!

2006-09-17T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sigh. Well. That's one more Archaeology Day behind me.

When I moved to Toronto a few years ago, it was strongly recommended that I join the Ontario Archaeological Society (OAS). It is mostly an avocational organization, but there are a lot of people who work in the industry who keep their membership paid up, mostly I suspect, for the newsletters, listserv and journal. There are various chapters around the province that are active at different levels.

Joining this organization has led to having growing contacts in the industry, a helpful way to hear about jobs and opportunities. I've gotten at least two jobs because of the list-serv. And volunteering at the OAS has helped too.

For the first year I just came and moved tables, looked around and did what I could here and there. I don't organize the activities or promote the event or anything like that. For the last two I've been involved in recruting volunteers for the day's events and organizing them.

On Archaeology Day there are presentations of all descriptions - flintknapping, simulated digs, pottery, etc. I also have volunteers of all ages involved in setting up dozens of tables, book sales, etc. I end up being charge of directing about 20-30 people all through the day. I'm there from 8:30 to 5:30 the day of, and I spend it walking in circles trying to make sure that everything is flowing along properly. Because you know that if something goes awry, you have to fix it to be better than the original idea and if it goes wrong, everyone will remember for weeks after.

A little like what teachers go through actually. Except that teachers don't go out for beer after (or maybe some do?). I liked that part.

Other parts I liked
- having the volunteers show up about 10 minutes before their shifts ready to report for their assigned duty!
- people knew how to set up the sun shades and tents this year
- no one tried to do physical labour beyond their abilities and no one shied off of it
- everyone got the chance to eat, drink water & take bathroom breaks
- everyone did what I asked. Let me repeat that.....
- Everyone did what I asked.
- And that was almost my favorite part except that I received a lovely pot of purple chrysanthomums half ways through the afternoon from the president of the OAS! They are now on my windowsill and they look lovely!

Now, today, it is back a more restful schedule. I'm running errands, tidying my apartment and doing homework. I have two assignments due this week and I must say that its odd to being doing school work again. But I'm also energized from the the encouragement I received from various people at Archaeology Day, who were genuinly interested in what I was doing and encouraged me to go for it and gave me some advice about future options.

Sometimes its good to be part of a community. There are a lot of people who have helped me along and I know that I wouldn't be going anywhere without having met them.

2006-09-13T12:38:00.000-05:00

If you've talked to me lately, you'll know that I've finally begun my classes this week. I'm starting graduate studies at York, in Environmental Studies. Somehow at the end of this I will produce a project linking archaeology and environment. Right now, I'm busy trying to figure out how I will get out of this semester alive.

Take my classes. There are three I am definitly signed into taking and they have to do with methodology of my studies and planning. Fair enough. What I also have to do is find a fourth class for the semester, as my original choice was cancelled.

So, I'm shopping around. Yesterday there were two classes I attended - another planning course and a course in environmental education that touches on using past lifeways and neither was what I expected from the course description and syllabus offered. Which makes you wonder about the purpose of these little blurbs on the net - are they like advertising copy to lure you in?

The planning course came across as rather dry and ideological, if such things can co-exist. I liked the professor okay, but I didn't care for the volunteer demands of the class nor the chosen focus of our professor on downtown development. Although, yes, I could probably turn it to my interest by way of built heritage. I left the class feeling that professor - good, topic -.... kinda interesting, I guess and method of class participation - yawn.

Then I had the environmental education class. And that's when you learn that there are some ways of thought that just rub you the wrong way. The professor came across with the following statements -
a) that Western Civilization probably lost a lot of its humanity with the invention of the Gutenberg (sp?) press
b) that the best way of learning about the environment is to learn as hunters and gatherers (his favorite mode of human living, I think) did - by listening to stories from their elders.
c) that most members of the class were environmentally estranged and were sliding down a slippery slope of Big Brother & Brave New World - he used reality shows (ok, point there maybe) and the development of a birth control pill whereby a woman can reduce her periods to 2 or 3 a year (actually to 1 or none). He's concerned that it may cut her off from her ties to the water and the moon. My thought? It also cuts a lot of women's ties to bloating and cramps. Also seeing as several women in past lifeways did not have periods due to pregnancy, nursing or malnutrition, I don't see how this is will alienate women from their gender roles.

Okay, so that last point was a long one. My point is this is a man that has made a living from some of the more fearmongering p.o.v. s that are out there. Even the connection to using Black Creek Pioneer Village (which intrigued me) is being considered in a negative light - i.e. - how we begun on the slippery slope of destroying our environment as soon as we landed on the shores of North America nearly 600 years ago.
That's his number by the way - 600 years. I can't figure out how he got it - to me Europeans have been here a little over 500, unless you include Viking incursions that stretch it back around a 1000 years ago. The only exception I can think of between that are fisherman that started coming to the Banks of Newfoundland earlier in the 1400's, but something tells me he's not.

And this guy is supposedly not stupid. I mean, a degree from Harvard would indicate some level of critical thinking, no? I almost want to have a look at his earlier publications, because there's something to his style of lecturing that screams "conversion" to me.

Oh, and I also didn't like the potshots he took of Harris and Bush. Not that I'm a fan, but sniping at these figures is rather pointless and a little too easy. And it sorta shows your hand politically right off the bat. I'd much rather have heard an interesting jibe about McGuinty, since he's the one in educational hot water these days.

But I think I should reject taking the above class for my elective. My mother made the very valid point that sometimes we learn more about something when we are discovering what we're disagreeing with, than when we're in full sympatico with a lecturer. And I see her point, I really do. But I am also worried that I'd be in almost constant conflict with the lecturer, which may also not be the most productive course of action either.

Today, I sampled another class, mostly out of curiosity. I liked the way the professor had spoken to the group at orientation last week, so I checked out a class I would never have considered otherwise - Environmental Economics.

And WOW! was it ever cool! Kinda hard and a lot of new concepts, but it was exciting to listen to the prof and how he engaged the class. Its a graduate level class, but designed for people of very different backgrounds, including those who've never taken an economics class before. And there will only be a little math. Even in the one class I sat in on, I felt I learned a lot. Its a long way from my "area of concentration", but I've gotten to thinking that having that grounding could go a long way to giving me perspective on my project of injecting archaeology and heritage into the planning process.

Anyways, I must sign off now. I have Environmental Planning next and then tomorrow morning I have Intro to Planning, and another "shopping" class tomorrow - Landscape Ecology in the Environment.

Oh, and I've also heard through the grapevine that there are others in the faculty with an interest in heritage. I must find them....

2006-09-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

Oh, fuzzle duzzle my brain hurts.

First, before anything else. Mom - I didn't get your first message about records until I checked on Wednesday morning. And I wasn't in last night until around 10:30. I was at an OAS planning meeting for archaeology day. So I will be quite put out if you've pre-maturely hoisted my stuff from the house.

Next - Grad School. Let me repeat how happy I am to be accepted. It's great. It's an adventure and a new opportunity.

It's also sucking my brain and my classes haven't even started. It's all about orientation this week and enrollment. It looks like I will be in 4 classes and they are:
1) Approaches to Environmental Studies (everybody has to take it)
2) Introduction to Planning
3) Recreation and Tourism: Management and Planning
4) Environmental Planning

at least two of these classes will go towards getting a planning certificate, should I want one. I'm thinking about it, because having that certification can give you a lot of credit.
But this schedule may not be final. First the guy who teaches the Rec & Tourism class & co-incidentally is supposed to be my advisor, is out sick. And the office won't know until tomorrow afternoon whether he'll be available at all this semester. Isn't that precious?

So, I have a few "runner up classes" that I'm supposed to sit in on just in case I need to replace one of my classes due to cancellation. Busy 1st week of classes.

next I'm still untangling the fun of student loans. Guess what? I need to get more letters. Letters that nobody mentioned to me the first 3 times I called. And that's not including the documentation that I need to include on my student loan file. All that paperwork is hurting my brain but the way I look at is, if I can get it together to get into a Master's program, I can handle this too. I just need to stay on top of it.

There is a bright-ish spot financially, which is, I may get E.I. approval for the course. That would be cool.

I have to go back to calling people now. Take care everyone.

Katrina

2006-09-05T21:55:00.000-05:00

The Broken Quill: Geek Link: Archeology

Yes, its a bit old, it's still cool news and I think I've finally figured out how to work this function.

2006-09-04T19:27:00.000-05:00

I know its been a long time since I posted. And I tell you, this last week came close to wearing me down! A family reunion (sadly, not mine), an outdoor BBQ & bush party - where I was finally lured into the karoke circle-

... and that feeling that you get when its your last week of work and you're totally not caring. Of course that was compounded by the long days (home at night by 8pm), the possibility that my workboots were turning against me (I finally got blisters), and having the kind of workday where we always seemed to be short of water. By Wednesday, I was covered in blisters, bruises and oddly chafed skin.

Not that Dayle and me let that get in the way of actually doing our job. We surveyed those 100 acres of land like you wouldn't believe. I walked over every field and dug through bogs and bush. Dayle mapped in every dry creekbed on the Mobile mapper (there were several) and every spot of signifigance so that the office would later get a very clear view of the property.

And we found one historic site - a midden. I think that was kinda cool.

But it did make my last day all the sweeter... because we got to go back to the "fun" site. The one with sandy soil and hundreds of artifacts a square and no thick bush anywhere and is so, so lovely. And for my last day, I found some really cute pottery, beautiful red chert, a celt (a kind of axe, not a person of gaelic descent) and in one of my last screens a complete projectile point!

And then we all went for a beer after work! Yay! Pretty sweet last day at work, hmmm???

Since then, I've been pretty much hiding in my apartment to clean and to sleep and to organize my stuff for my first day at grad studies at York. I crept out on Friday to run errands at York and we did creep outside yesterday to go to the Exhibition. We saw the Air Show (guess who's idea it was to watch an airplane show...), visited Toronto's oldest surviving log cabin, ate junk food, ran into friends, saw some agricultural stuff, some military stuff, tried to coax Dayle onto the rides (failed at this), and generally spent the time looking through all the displays like the garden competition. Hey this is me we're talking about.

The display we liked the most was in the "Remember When" exhibit, because it was a complete story of the development of the land the CNE is built on. It started from its earliest beginnings and included archaeological displays, early waterpaintings and early photographs. I think we spent nearly an hour and a half going through all the panels and reading everything.

Of course Dayle and me loved it. We're geeks about that kind of thing.

Anyways, must go and continue to tidy and organize.

Love to all,
K.

2006-08-25T13:40:00.001-05:00

Well, who knows if this will post? All I know is that Blogger is acting very weird.

Not much new with me these days. I'm back from a week of test pitting in forests, thick brush, and tall weeds that were taller than me! A sure sign of fertile earth? When the goldenrod effectively isolates you from the rest of the world and your co-worker can't find you until you hold up your shovel.

It's very physical work and it was kinda depressing as we didn't find any site per se. We did find a wicked stone boulder fence in the middle of a now forest. The boulders were piled up to sometimes three stones high and some portions of the wall went above the 6 ft mark. The wall was in two surviving portions- one was about a 100m long and the other a little less than 50m.

And yes, I am aware that I just mixed two different measurement systems in the same paragraph. I'm of a flexible generation...

This day in town is proving to be a bit frustrating. I am waiting for a letter of clearence from the collection people that I paid years ago. Without this letter, I cannot apply for funding for school. They insist that this week they really will send it. To be honest the whole thing is freaking me out, and I want to yell at the guy who keeps saying its taken care of. Listen "Steve" its not taken care of because I don't have it yet. You keep saying that the letter is sent (I never received it), that you can fax it to me (he hasn't) and you never pick up your extension when I call (I finally got through by way of being transferred through a few people). Then today you say that it should go through because you gave the number to your "girl" to send. Dude, wasn't that same person in charge of mailing the letter to me?

Anyways must go off to have pho(soup). Must power up for my last week of work and Dayle's family reunion up at the farm tomorrow.

2006-08-25T13:40:00.000-05:00

2006-08-22T20:03:00.000-05:00

One of the things that is often a trial for me in my non-archaeology life is my weight. Since starting a field position this summer, a number of people have asked me if I've lost weight from archaeology.

Sadly, no.

However, I did hear that somebody was worried about how my weight loss program was going, due to me being away from the gym and all. I must be getting fat.

Thankfully, no.

But a day in the field can let you know about muscles you'd forgotten you had. It takes stamina and strength to shovel litres of soil all day, and a full screen of dirt is a mighty heavy object. And that's just on the days I get to work on a full, 1 by 1 metre square pit.

Then there's field testing. Walking through kilometres of plowed dirt, dragging a shovel and screen through forests and bush so that I can test pit every 5 metres, complete with my back pack full of water, flags and maps...

It's not a job for the sedentary inclined.

But since I will be going back to school this fall (yay me!) I will have to think about ways to keep fit. Washing artifacts is simply not as calorie burning.

In real news, all is going well. We're a little further north this week, doing some test pitting. And have we found anything?

No.

So blah.

2006-08-17T18:32:00.000-05:00

So, when a cool artifact is found in the movies, the scene often goes something like this:

In a dim but somehow golden light (even if its in a cave) hands are carefully sweeping away dirt with a small broom. The earth/dust falls swiftly away to reveal a gorgeous ceramic pot. Soon the pot is free and gently pulled out to an admiring array of excavators....

How a cool artifact is often really found.

Take your shovel and sweep 4 or 5 good shovelfulls into your screen. So far its the third screening from your square and you really haven't found anything. Some sherds of pottery, some flakes, your plastic baggy has enough that it won't blow away in the wind, so its resting open beside you on the backdirt pile from the last square.

Shake your screen back and forth about ten times. Sort out cobblestones. Shake some more, then look into the screen and begin picking out stuff.

Rock. Rock. Pottery.Pottery.Pottery.Pottery. Oops, no, that was a rock. That one there, that's definitely a sherd and decorated too. Rock. Flake. Flake. Pottery.

Bone. Oh, that's nice.
A long thin strip of bone. You pause because there are marks on the bone. Cut marks, no incised marks. In a pattern, a sort of squiggly line in between two straight lines. Just for decoration.

Time for Show & Tell!

"Hey everyone, I think I have something here." You hand over the thin, rather delicate artifact to a collegue in the pit beside you.

"Holy..... Wow." He passes it over to the next person.
"Oh, cool!"
And so on. I officially have the coolest artifact of the day. In fact, when the owner comes by to drop some stuff off, he is shown the artifact and says,
"Now, this, this is really neat. P. (guy who showed him a bone bead a moment earlier), you suck. You K., you rule!"

I found other pretty stuff today, but nothing quite as neat as my sliver of bone, that was probably someone's comb.

This is such a cool job sometimes.

Love to everyone.

2006-08-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

So, this is going to be a short post. Two long days in a row. It's late and my hosts will be wanting this computer room to be darkened and abondoned. And I still haven't eaten supper yet.

Finding cool, cool stuff.

more tomorrow maybe. Or Thursday.

In the meantime, if I don't get through tomorrow...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!

2006-08-11T14:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back but only for a night.

Last time I posted, I was on my way to a wedding in Oakville. That was about a week ago. And I don't think I've even talked to my family since Monday night.

The wedding was great and was held on Sunday, so as to take advantage of the holiday Monday. Several of Dayle's friends from university were there and a few people he knew from other contexts as well. The reception was held in a heritage barn, and filled with twinkly lights, an effect that I rather liked.

All the archaeology/historian people (& their consorts) were seated together. Except for one lone historian guy who was supposed to be seated at the "singles" table but came over to party with us later on. And our table *did* dance and party through the night and later at the hotel. I went to bed relatively early at 2am. Blah.

On Monday of course I was tired, but there is no rest for the wicked and off Dayle and I went to New Lowell, so we could pick up all the crew equipment we'd left behind, so we could ferry people to the wedding.

Tuesday morning we were off bright and early to Welland and I had my first official "away" experience as we stayed through the week in a motel room. I'd love to talk about what I saw in Welland but well, there just wasn't time or energy. We get up at 6:30 am, stumble around getting dressed, getting breakfast, getting coffee and driving the 20 minutes to the site. Work 10 hours. At 6pm, we stumble back to the car, and debate what we need to do (pick up groceries, pick up supplies, pick up supper?) and do we need to shower before we are fit to be seen in public? 10 pm comes very quickly on workdays...

So, no time for sightseeing.

The site itself is proving to be an enjoyable experience. It's in a shaded glen (mosquitos!) and just a few centimetres below the surface is an Archaic (5000-3000 BC) site. It's mostly a lithic site, which means that it is a site where people sat around and made stone tools. There's no sign of living there (i.e. a hearth, a trash midden etc.) but there are 40-90 artifact coming out of every square. Mostly its the flakes that come from the tool making process, but we've run into a few tools and an imcomplete point as well.

I don't know where I'm going to be this upcoming week. I might be back in Welland, I might be up around Barrie again. I won't know until Sunday night. And I'll be up in New Lowell for most of the weekend, so I really have to pack well. We're up in New Lowell, to entertain a family guest from France and apparently take him to Algonquin Park.

This is really awful of me, but there's a part of me that would rather curl up in my apartment and rest for a few days, but them's the brakes.

Hopefully I'll blog again soon. Probably on Sunday, when I know what's going on!

2006-08-03T20:24:00.000-05:00

First of all, to my sister. Yes, there will be message sent to our beloved matriarch regarding the Leo's package.

It is Thursday and it is the beginning of four days off although I have such a chaotic weekend that I may post in the middle of it (we've got an out of town wedding to attend).

I spent yesterday at home, missing work because of heat exhaustion. Can you believe it? I felt fine on Tuesday until around 11pm and then.... WHAMMO! I guess my body was having trouble recuperating from the day. And I found out that I wasn't the only one, another member of our team, a guy who's been with the company for years, also succumbed. So I spent yesterday drinking, drinking, drinking all kinds of fluids and moving very little. I found out early on in the day that every time I tried to push myself, I got all woozy. But by the early evening I was feeling better - just in time to enjoy the HUGE thunderstorms that ripped through the area last night.

I have to say, thunderstorms are much more interesting to watch in the country than in the city. You can see everything rolling around out there and its quite scary at times. Dayle and I sat in with his parents and just watched everything go by. We had potato chips too.

Today, I was raring to go and I'm really glad I let my self recuperate yesterday because we ended up having a 12 1/2 hour day, and we just crawled in recently. I'm still looking forward to dinner and a shower.

The cause for this were the three test pitting projects we had on our plate today. Test pitting is what you do in an area after the preliminary research about a property has been done. An archaeology crew is armed with shovels and dirt screens and we walk rows up and down the site, about 5 metres apart. Every 5 metres we dig a pit (about the size of our shovel) down to the stones or sub-soil. Some test pits I've experienced have been as deep as my leg. Most of the ones we dug were 3-12 inches deep.

Today's challenge was the evil bushes that occured on every single site. There was bush, brush and every thing else that could tackle a person even with out equipment.

We found one site.

More later,
K.

2006-08-01T19:04:00.000-05:00

118 artifacts in one square metre! Yeah! That's like a personal record. My square was full on Woodland pottery, flakes and a nice bone or two. It was an awesome feeling watching that stuff come out of the dirt.

You know how archaeologists are always going on in interviews about how archaeology is all about the analysis and its all in the information gathering. Yeah, well, they're lying.

Okay, analyzing artifacts is interesting and you learn about the artifacts by washing and cataloging and then by mapping everything out you can find quite a bit of stuff out. And that has its own special thrill.

But really? We're in it for the cool stuff we get to find.

So, if you read yesterday, you would have noticed that I said we were going surveying. But plans changed and we found out at the office that we were to hit this pre-contact midden site.

And yes, the day was hot. Gah. Very hot.
And my square did get nominated for the hell hole of the day, due to the tree trunk in the middle of it.

Oh, but it was sweet!

2006-07-31T21:08:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the late posting, technical difficulties abounded!

I was lucky to stay this past weekend in my own apartment. I love the TTC, I love hamburgers and I love having a beer after a long,dry week. Friday night was spent being the only girl in a table full of men. That's always an odd situation as they are trying to be nice to you and talk about nice general topics like politics, gossip, and jobs. And then the next thing I know, I"m trapped into a conversation about cars or the Jay's prospects or what do women really want?

Saturday was spent in Hamilton. A friend of mine was naturally celebrating her twins' birthday. It was quite the occaision and there were about 8 0r 9 other babies and their parents there. It was like the toddler equivelent of kegger! And all the parents were nice. We even got goodie bags filled with cookies (& Meghan, I want the peanut butter and chocolate recipe!). Best of all? It was air conditioned.

But you're all here tofind out about the site today. The neverending site, where the layers just keep going. And going.
Today, we hit water in the hole. And there are artifacts beneath the water. Lots of mudd on a hot, hot day.

So tomorrow we're not going there. We're going to a new location to test pit in very hot temperatures, and we're already prepping for extra water.

Must go, techinical problems are returing and this computer is slowing down every world. More next time.

Love,
K

2006-07-27T19:17:00.000-05:00

So tired.

And not the muscles at the moment. It's because its day 4 and after working 10 hours each day, I had hoped to have my weekend beginning tomorrow.

No such luck.

Instead Dayle & I are returning to the site tomorrow. This is because when we were done everything else that had to be done, the last feature proved to be more interesting than the first 10 cm indicated. We're still digging. The deepest corner we've uncovered so far comes up to my hips and there's still more to uncover. The feature is 10ft wide.

It's going to be a long day tomorrow and a short weekend.

At least our site area is pretty. It's perched on a bit of an up hill, so we can look out at undulating hills and trees. There are meadows all around us and several visiting birds. There is a bit of a waterhole where the land was cleared and it hasn't drained yet. It is now populated by frogs, and dragonflies, and the occaisional heron who doesn't like to approach when we're there.

Well, I'm off to drink lots of water and prep for tomorrow. I may post over the weekend, but I'll try and give you a call Mom & Dad.

2006-07-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

So. Second day. And I am tired. My wrists hurt, my butt is feeling strangely sore, and I'm glad to be showered, fed and watered.

On the first day it was pretty slim pickings for fun as one site was covered with water and the one behind the abandoned house (late Victorian I'd guess) needed to be shovel shined. You don't actually shovel, when you do this, you just use a heavy, heavy shove to skim a few centimetres off the surface to get a good view of the features.

Since we had what's called a clay soil, that meant that all day yesterday we were shaving sun baked clay soil off of bricks etc with the shovel. We all hurt.

Today was a bit better and I spent most of it troweling out the brick base of a small building - in between the bricks I found animals bones and pottery.

The big excitement really was the discussions among the crew as to whether Firefly the series should return to the small screen and did we know if Superman ever had any babies in any version of the comics?

Much love,
Me

2006-07-23T16:52:00.000-05:00

So its the day before my first day on my new job and hey, I'm feeling a little nervous. Like, what if I've suddenly lost the ability to shovel? What if I make a horrible impression on my new boss?

Good thing I don't have to worry about my supervisor, since I've worked with him before....

Actually Dayle & I went shopping today to pick up a few needed items. Leather work gloves, another water bottle and a hat.

The hat was important. Finding good hats for me is hard, because frankly I have a huge head & women's hats are often a one size deal that's modelled on some tiny petite skull that perches on the top of my head like a crown.

But not today! We found some extra large canvas "bucket" hats. They fit and they looked cute. Hey, just because you're in the field doesn't mean you can't look pretty. We also stocked up on lunch food.

And all that sounds boring perhaps but I was pretty excited because it all means that I'm going back to work and I'm going back to work in archaeology.

We will be working on a 19th century house remains and midden, which for those of you not familiar with archaeology means that we will be going through the family's garbage dump from well over a hundred years ago. Because except for when you're digging a gravesite (rare these days) or stumble on a treasure cache (even rarer in Southern Ontario) archaeology is basically going through other people's garbage or abandoned houses. And its oddly what I want to keep on doing...

2006-07-21T13:20:00.000-05:00

Initially, this blog was going to have a slightly different focus. I would sit back and declare my views on all things heritage.
I crave, I need and do everything I can to work around heritage. I have dug at archaeological sites, conserved gravestones, washed and catalogued artifacts in three different provinces and drooled over archives (even though you really, really shouldn't).

Then I realized that well, a lot of my opinions come from newspaper clippings and gossip sessions from people in the industry. Stuff that you can't actually say without revealing who said what. It's not like my favorite gossip sites where anonymous "sources" can throw out all kinds of things.

No Mom, of course I don't spend all my time reading gossip. Not in the daytime anyways.

So. Instead, since I have a new job and I'm not likely to be available by my home phone any time soon, I thought I'd use this little web niche to chat about my day while I'm away at work.

So, if you're friends and family - here's what I'm doing. And if you stumble across this little site... welcome! I'm not sure what interest my life has for you but it takes all kinds, right?