Back in the saddle

After my opening day failure to harvest a deer, it was reassuring and very satisfying to succeed this past weekend. However, I will add that the title of the post refers to what it felt like to carry over a 100 pounds of deer for over 4 hours with over a thousand feet of climbing. I felt like the deer was riding me like a horse!

Gregg and I camped out Saturday night and found our deer at dawn Sunday. We got back late in the afternoon - needless to say we were whooped.

Photos: Gregg silhouetted a by the sunrise at dawn as we set out to hunt. Two little guys check us out while we look for bigger deer. Gregg and I with our deer. Finally the long trek home. Patrick

Our Buskin Beach 'Staycation'

Last night Patrick and I took the kids on a Kodiak 'staycation'--a vacation right here in Kodiak at the Buskin River campsites.

[sidenote From Wickipedia: A staycation is a neologism for a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes at home or takes day trips from their home to area attractions. Common activities of a staycation include use of the backyard pool, visits to local parks and museums, and attendance at local festivals. Some staycationers also like to follow a set of rules, such as setting a start and end date, planning ahead, and avoiding routine, with the goal of creating the feel of a traditional vacation.]

For several weeks I've been talking about wanting to take the kids camping and we had tossed around the idea of trying to boat to an island for a camping trip, but it just became too complicated.
I asked myself, "What do I desire from a camping trip?". I wanted to see how the kids would do with camping, as this was to be their first time. Also, I just wanted a good technology getaway and something different--something fun.

Last night we packed up the car VERY quickly after Patrick came home from work and off we went to the Buskin River campsites. I was born and raised in Kodiak and have to admit that I had never seen these great campsites before! They are SO WELL maintained--benches painted, lawns mowed, great firepits...just perfect accomodations!! Nora kept saying, "mom, this is so nice here. Nice benches, bears won't get us, its really bright, tent is good....". She was just so thrilled to be there!

Her enthusiasm was contagious!! From the moment we pulled up, I felt like we were worlds away from our "regular life" as we put up the tent and started the fire.

The only food we brought was hotdogs, marshmellows and a box of white wine. Pretty simple. Patrick remembered the condiments...ketchup, mustard and relish-but somehow we managed to forget papertowels or napkins of any sort! Oh well. I'm sure we won't forget those next time.

When it came time to wash dishes, a quick trip to the river did the trick. There were lots of people in the campground and it was fun to see all the different types of camper and tent accomodations people had.

Sleep time came and I must have slept because I dreamt for a few minutes, but that is the only way I know I went to sleep. I was cold. Patrick says I"m just not used to sleeping outside. All night I stared at the sleeping bag tag that said in big bold letters, "Good to 0 degrees Farenheit". Right. I don't think it got lower than 40 last night and I was freezing. Oh well.

The morning came and we quickly packed up and headed to Kings Diner for breakfast--also part of our staycation. This is something we NEVER do as a family-go out to breakfast. So it was a treat.

I can't wait for our next staycation!!!

Zoya

Staycation photos

Top Photo: Kings Diner breakfast--this was something Patrick and I have never done together with the kids and it was quite fun! Breakfast on our way home. Even though Nora and Stuey had a plate of strawberry french toast to eat, Stuey insisted on only eating his dry toast. Hmm. Go figure. I can never tell what he is going to like and not like!

Middle Photo: The family watching the fire as the evening winds down...

Bottom Photo: Nora is sporting a yawn as the kiddos ready for bed. All evening at the campsite, Nora would say, "its getting darker, mamma. Time for bed now." She was so excited to sleep in the tent! Zoya

No Surprises

Yesterday Karen found a cool harpoon and we moved a whole lot of dirt, but we really did not learn anything new. On the other hand, everything we found fit with what we already knew and there were no nasty surprises. It was business as usual.

There is a lot to be said for 'business as usual' and 'no surprises'. It means we are getting to understand the site. Too often in the early days of an excavation your interpretations of what is going on change on a daily basis. Sometimes it's nice to have a straight forward day when you move a lot of dirt.

Photos: Mark on the screen and Karen's harpoon. The harpoon came from the very bottom of the midden and is probably a couple thousand years old. Patrick

More Midden

Yesterday we almost finished with the prehistoric midden at Miktsqaaq Angayuk. I continue to be amazed at how well the bones and shells are preserved. We even found whole sea urchins (see bottom photo of Leslie holding a sea urchin we found in the midden). One thing we had been concerned about was whether or not the midden had been redeposited - for instance, dug out when the house was built and dumped in front. But now I am sure it has not - no sea urchin could withstand such a move intact.

The top photo is of rotted blue mussel shells, and the small white oval bones are small cod or pollack ear bones. I am convinced that the preservation is such that we would have seen crab shell parts if they had been present. Prehistorically, it appears that the Alutiiq did not eat crabs. I have never seen crab remains in a Kodiak midden. Patrick

And on into the Kachemak. ... ...

Last Friday we thought we had everything figured out at the site, and then on Monday we found stuff that totally changed how we viewed the site. Such is archaeology! As an archaeologist you put together all the clues to figure out what happened at a site and build your story as you go. Then occasionally you find stuff that seems not to fit with your thinking at the time - so you have to re-adjust your story to make it fit the facts. Once you've adjusted your story it's a better story because it accounts for more facts. If you dig long enough at a site you stop getting surprised and then you know that your story is pretty close to what actually happened. You got your final story.

On Friday we thought we were digging into a 180 year old Alutiiq house that had been built into a 3000 year old site. We assumed that all the midden in front of the site was associated with the 180 year-old house. Then on Monday we found much older artifactsand noticed that we had found nothing historic in the lower midden in front of the house. The lower midden was practically pure shell, and in my last post I discussed how this might reflect a lack of hunters living at the site in the spring. Now I know that it is actually a couple of thousand years older than the upper midden. No wonder it is different from the upper midden!

The artifacts pictured above were all found on Monday, and the 2 of bone were found in the lower midden. The top piece is a bi-laterally barded dart used for sea mammal hunting, and stylistically it is typical of the Kachemak Era on Kodiak (3500 - 1000 years ago). The other bone artifact is a socket piece that would have fitted onto the end of shaft and given it heft to add energy and help with killing sea mammals - the dart would have fit into the hole at the end of the piece. The slate point is a 'Three Saints Bay' style endblade that would have also been used to kill sea mammals and is stylistically typical of the Kachemak Era.

After we determined that the midden in front of the site had a lower Kachemak component I had to re-think about what the site looked like 3000 years ago. I went back to our notes from 2002-2004 at the adjacent Zaimka Mound site and examined all the profiles of test pits we had excavated all over the surrounding meadow. I noted where the 3800 volcanic ash was present. If it was not present then I knew that that part of the meadow had been under water when the ash fell. I also noted where 'black kachemak' deposits and old shell midden deposits had been present. From this I created the map of what the area looked like 3000 years ago.

It looks like as the shoreline migrated away from the older Zaimka Mound site that the Alutiiq moved their site down to the beach in front. They built a new mound from debris deposited as they smoked fish and threw their shell midden off of the sides.

My map is based on what the meadow looks like today with the modern beach and features on the underlying map. You can see all the modern ATV trails and the late prehistoric housepits that are mostly built on land that was not present 3000 years ago. The areas shaded grey are the 2500 to 3500 year old 'black kachemak' deposits where Alutiiq people were smoking fish. The areas shaded yellow is where we found old shell midden deposits and the blue represents what was then covered by the sea. The red shaded area is our current excavation - note the 180 year-old house drawn on the original base map.

Well that's our story for now. ... I'm sure that as we continue to dig more at the site that it will change again - especially with all those late prehistoric houses that would have been in the water 3000 years ago. Right now we know practically nothing about them. But by the time we finish digging at the site, and this may take a few years, we ought to have a pretty good story to tell. Patrick

Fridays Finds

Community Archaeology Update - On Thursday it rained and we spent a day in the lab, but on Friday we had perfect digging weather. This year it seems to rain every other day, but at least the days in between are beautiful!

On Friday we continued the house excavation. In the un-attached sideroom Kunsang found a HUGE pile of fire cracked rock. It looks like this room was used as the banya. The rocks were probably brought in from the main house hearth and then water dumped on them to create a steam bath. The room also appears to have a bench along one side, and Kunsang even found well-preserved upright wood planks along the walls. Mark and I are a little miffed why the banya did not have a tunnel connecting it to the main room. The house inhabitants would have had to go outside and around to the side to get into the banya.

In the main room of the house the floor deposit is extremely thin and we have been excavating very carefully and 'point proveniencing' every artifact that we find (see second photo). When we point provenience an artifact we map its exact location on the floor and depth below the site datum. Later, we will be able to go back and put all of the artifacts onto the final map of the house. Jill found some lead bird shot and on the final map you will be able to see exactly where an Alutiiq hunter spilled his musket ammo. Also we plan on refitting together all of the pieces of ceramics that we have found and it will be interesting to examine the scatter pattern of individual plates and cups after they were broken and discarded.

Finally, on Friday we got into the lower level of the midden outside of the house. While the top layer of the midden was dominated by cod bones the lower layer is practically pure beach-collected invertebrates. Nothing but chitons, clams and sea urchin with a lot of blue mussel shell at the bottom. We also noted a pocket of herring bones. So it looks like this lower level represents a huge feast in April when the urchins and herring would have been available. Mark and I are a little bit miffed about why so few animal bones are represented in this lower level - where are the fish and sea mammal bones? Could this 'feast' actually represent the end of a hard winter where the occupants could find nothing to eat but what they collected on the beach? Perhaps all the household hunters and fishers were off working at a Russian artel and the shellfish represents all that the occupants could gather? It will be interesting to find out what more experienced archaeofaunal experts have to say on this one! Patrick

Photos: The excavation in progress as viewed from the top of a nearby tree. Second photo is of Amy, Alex and Jill point-proveniencing and artifact on the house floor. Third photo is of Miriam's adze. She wanted this to be artifact of the day, but it is actually a miss-placed artifact from the far older component of the site. Since it lacks provenience - its significance is much diminished. Fourth photo is a close up the lower midden - note all the sea urchin and chiton! Finally the bottom photo is of John and Hannah excavating the upper, cod bone rich, midden. Patrick

Skunked

I've always thought that on opening day in Kodiak's alpine getting a deer is pretty much a sure thing. Now I am humbled, and know better. No deer harvested on opening day this year :-( I bet the deer hunting gods conspired against us because I had made plans for a deer liver, new potatoes, beets and onions meal before I had the liver.

It's funny because this year I really was sure we would get a deer. The weather seemed perfect. On the previous 2 opening days I had been worried about our odds because each time it was foggy and rainy. Yet each time we still managed to bring home the deer liver.

This year the weather seemed perfect, and we hiked up with high hopes into the alpine. We camped out and woke up to a glorious sunrise. It really seemed perfect (top photo). We were already seeing deer and I went back to my pack to retrieve my spotting scope so we could check them out. By the time I returned a few minutes later the fog had socked in (bottom photo). In the top photo you can see the fog forming - it happened REALLY quickly. It's hard to find deer when you can't see. By the time the fog lifted around 10:30 all the deer had bedded down for the day. It's hard to find deer when they are bedded down for a midday nap!

Before the fog hit, Preston and I had noticed how unusually difficult it was to keep our binoculars from fogging up. Obviously the air had been super saturated and on the verge of turning to fog.

Patrick

Trip to Cliff Point & shhhoooot-shoooooot

COOKIES AND SANDWICHES AT CLIFF POINT
The past week, I took Thursday and Friday off from physical therapy and was home with the kids. Yesterday the weather was just gorgeous and I decided to take the kids down to Cliff Point to see Patrick at the community archaeology dig.

The road down to cliff point is REALLY bumpy and full of lake size pot-holes. As my subaru traversed the potholes down the 2 mile descent, Nora could tell I was rather enjoying the ride. She started to say, "you like this, mamma? You like this?" I said, Yeah-I do-this is FUN!". I hoped and prayed that my little purple subaru would make the trip with all pieces intact.

When we made it to the bottom I saw Patricks truck in the distance and I was SO happy he was at the spot where I thought he was. There were so many little sideroads that I didn't take. When we saw his truck, Nora cheered, "Hip-Hip Hooray!". I brought Patrick and Mark sandwiches from Cactus flats and we had a few minutes to play at the beach.

The trip back up the hill was even MORE fun because I was in a rush to get to my haircut appointment so the puddle splashes were even bigger. The kids got a kick out of it!

STUEYS NOISES
Recently Stuey has taken on a VERY annoying habit when he gets mad/tired. He first makes attempts at spitting, then says "shoooot...shooottt" while pointing his finger at whoever he is mad at. The past few days have really escalated with the behavior--I"m not sure if perhaps he is tired, OR he sees how much attention (negative, however) he gets from it. Part of me thinks that ignoring it would be the best thing, but maybe not. Especially when he is doing it to guests who are over at the house! Ahhh...the joys of toddlerhood. They really know how to press buttons at times. This morning Amy M. reminded me as we ate breakfast that he is, in fact, a two-and-a-half year old. And he is acting like one. Exerting his independence.
When he does it, I'd like to teach him to put into words that is mad, saying, "i'm mad mommy" instead of doing the "shooottt" noise. Boys, boys, boys.

Zoya

We start to excavate the house

Today we started to excavate the Early Russian period house in earnest. It turns out that the house floor is only a centimeter or so thick. Is this because people did not live in the house for very long or did the occupants keep it super clean? Judging by the midden pile (read garbage dump) outside it looks like the former. The midden associated with the house is relatively thin, and this leads me to believe that the house was not occupied for a long period of time. Mark and I guess people lived there for less than 10 years.

While the housefloor is thin we have found quite a few artifacts. These include: a brass button, a piece of leather, a copper ring, glass beads, bits of ceramics, a 'lead spur' created when the occupants poured lead into a bullet mold. and an abrader and associated metal 'pin'. Lots of stuff and we have only excavated a little bit of the house. But really - relatively little metal or European goods. It looks like the house is early enough that the Alutiiq had not yet been flooded with 'European junk'.

Out in the midden in front of the house we also found a gun butt plate and a type of barnacle that only grows on humpback and sperm whales. Cool stuff - the Alutiiq who lived in the house obviously owned and used firearms and hunted whales. If you read the historic literature the Alutiiq were not supposed to own guns. Lydia Black, a renown Russian America scholar, always told me that the Alutiiq were allowed to own firearms and what we've found seems to support her viewpoint.

We've also determined that the siderooms associated with the house had roofs covered with sods while the main room appears to have had a roof of thatched grass. We've even found preserved wooden roof beams. I can't wait to excavate the rest of the house!

Photos: Marks screens the backdirt while Miriam and Amy excavate inside of the house. Bottom - the crew at work. Note Mark supervising the crew excavating the midden outside of the house in the distant middle.

Hunting 101 Reprise

With hunting season around the bend I thought I'd post practically verbatim a post from last year. My views have not changed and perhaps a hunter new to Kodiak might learn something. Also I updated the deer hunting photos!

Deer season opens in less than a week. Soon, instead of endless blog posts about skiing and snow it will all be about hunting and exploring the backcountry in search of various species of game. Time to fill the freezer. So in honor of the change in season, I figured I’d leak the secret to my success at hunting.

Rightly or wrongly, I do consider myself a successful hunter. I proxy hunt for a few people, and every time I go out deer hunting on the road system I harvest a mature 3 point buck with eye guards (see photos from last year). Most of the meat Zoya, Stu, Nora and I eat is something my hunting partners or I shot. Last year we ended up with over 1300 pounds of processed meat (deer, mountain goat, elk, and reindeer) – cleaned and cut up, wrapped, and sometimes ground – all in our own kitchen.

The secret to my success? I hike for my meat.

It always annoys me when I meet new guys to Kodiak who believe the first, and most essential piece of hunting gear they need to acquire is a four wheeler (ATV). Later, after the hunting season, I invariably find out that they did not harvest anything, or if they did, something puny. I’d say instead of spending 4 or 5 grand on a quad (if you’re lucky) – buy a custom rifle and good scope, really good binoculars, and the best camping gear and clothes you can afford. You can buy some pretty good stuff with $5,000. Put your money where you’ll need it.

Don’t get me wrong – an ATV is a useful piece of hunting gear. You can use an ATV to access some remote places. But the essential point is that it only gets you there – you still have to hike and hunt for your meat. Most guys who hunt from ATVs never get off of their ATVs. Worse yet, ATV hunters are generally all concentrated into the same areas, and the melee and noise drives all the game away.

It’s funny but some areas of Kodiak’s road system now have better hunting than they did 25 years ago. Back then practically everybody hunted on foot and hunting pressure was pretty evenly distributed about the road system. Today, most people hunt in the ATV accessible areas and the other areas see much less pressure than they did 25 years ago. The key to getting a big buck is to hunt areas where ATVs cannot go.

The sad thing about ATVs is that they are slowly but surely degrading the road system hunting. Every year sees new ATV trails into what were pristine hunting areas. And soon enough these same areas are devoid of game.

A common defense of the ATV hunter is that the machine allows backcountry access to the young, out of shape, elderly and crippled. And that is true – but the increased access also pushes the game further away from the road and makes it more difficult for the individual on foot. What about access to the backcountry for people who cannot afford an ATV? After all, hiking in is free, and most people can get in shape.

OK enough on my rant – but if you’re new Kodiak and want to get a big buck. Hunt high, buy great gear, and forego the ATV. Good Luck.
Patrick

Photos: Two of the deer I harvested last year - a nice 4 point, and a roadsystem 3 point.

Nora and Stuey-isms

Nora is becoming quite the little talker--she is still difficult to understand at times but her intelligibility improves all the time. Her sounds are becoming sharper.

Stuey is speaking up a storm as well.

Lately Stuey is very good at saying "hi" "bye" and "thank you". He says thank you sometimes unprompted, which just blows my mind away! Even when he says it once a week unprompted I am incredibly happy, as the other one thousand times are prompted. I don't mind prompting all the time if needed until they get the hang of it because good manners are important in the world.

Stuey also says, "Uh-oh, big truck mamma" at every big truck, tractor we see in the world. He is such a truck guy. Its not like we've groomed him to do this in ANY capacity. He has a fascination with trucks. Makes me think the truck/car fascination with little boys is more nature than nurture.

The other day we were salmon berry picking and Nora at one point asked, "Is this bushwhacking mamma?" I laughed to myself-as we stepped over a few salmon berry and blueberry bushes. our daughter knows the word bushwhacking in her vocabulary from hearing Patrick talk about it with regards to hunting trail conditions. She is our little bushwhacker in the making...:)

When we were berry picking, with virtually every berry Stuey saw, he would say, "Boo-berry, Mamma". He believes that every berry out there is a blueberry, and it should be picked and eaten. This goes for even the horribly under-ripe, practically green berries. He eats them all with a big smile. I think as far as he is concerned, if he picked it off the bush, its going to taste good. Hes the little gatherer in the making!

This age with the kids is so fun-there are funny interactions between Stuey and Nora.

Zoya

Stratigraphy

Yesterday we mostly excavated outside of the house. It had rained hard overnight and the house was a little mucky for careful excavation. But we had plenty to do and find outside of the house. Our biggest discovery of the day is that the site appears to have 'multiple compnents'. In other words, we determined that the house was built into an older site.

Everywhere outside the house we found tiny beads and bits of ceramic probably associated with the inhabitants of the house. We found these historic artifacts in the top 0-5 cm below the 1912 Katmai ash. Below that the excavators started to hit pebbly dark soil and find REALLY OLD artifacts - 3,000 year-old U-shaped abraders, cobble scrapers, red chert flakes, notched stone netsinkers and even a 6,000 year-old microblade core fragment. 'Uh oh', I thought. 'It looks like the Black Kachemak' - shades of virtually every other Community Archaeology dig for the last 11 years. And, yup, I do believe that is what we got.

It looks like there is a 3,000 year old site below the 200 year old house. After people abandoned the nearby Zaimka Mound site it looks like they just moved closer to the beach. We know that prior to about 4000 years ago the ocean partially eroded Zaimka Mound, but by 3,000 years ago they were living on the beach in front of the mound where we are digging today. Then 200 years ago it looks like Alutiiq people returned to the site and dug housepits into the much old deposits. I believe that the house we are excavating had the back half of it dug into the older deposits and that the front half was built up directly onto beach gravels with the walls made from the excavated dirt and sods. Pretty complicated scenario, and we will need to dig a bit more to see if I am actually right.

Photos: Mark on the screen while a USCG cutter cruises by in the background (far left). Second photo is of Jill and Alisha excavating. Third photo is of Amy Margaris and shows where we were excavating yesterday morning on the landward side of the house. Bottom photo is of the crew hard at work.

The big Dance

Last night we celebrated Meghan and Bruces recent engagement with a party! It was a Kodiak-fare style dinner, including deer burgers, goat sausage patties, grilled halibut, king crab, buffalo burgers, a large salad comprised of greens from our garden and home-made hamburger buns. (the hamburger buns were an experiment-a first time attempt and turned out fun! They were mini "White Castle" style buns for mini hamburger patties!)

One of the highlights of the party was dancing! I compiled a dance play list and around 8:30, we pushed the furniture aside in the living room and danced away. The kids were SO into it, as was myself, Meghan, Bruce and a few other adults. Video to come on future post.... :)

Meghan and Bruce are preparing to leave Kodiak in the next few weeks for their new life in Anchorage. As Bruce put it, "they'll be close in our hearts and closer yet on Facebook..." :)

Zoya

Stone, Iron and Ceramic

Yesterday we finally got our first full day of excavation. No more removing grass sods or shoveling off ash. No rain either. Cloudy with just enough breeze to keep the bugs away - perfect for digging. Everybody was happy to settle down and start to find stuff. And we did find stuff.

The artifact of the day is the slate ulu that Miriam is holding in the bottom photo. What's cool about it is that it shows that the Alutiiq were still making ulus out of slate rather than metal at least 50 years after Russian contact. Did they prefer slate or was metal still too scarce to waste on ulus? We also found lots of European ceramic sherds.

I've been reading what Dan Thompson has to say about the ceramics found at the Castle Hill Russian fort in Sitka. He reported that in Russian America the Alutiiq preferred the painted tea sets and decorated ceramics over the plain utilitarian wares. They appeared to have enjoyed a certain amount of ritual with their daily tea. Dan reports that a certain lead-glazed earthenware made just outside Moscow occurs in Russian American sites dating to between 1815 and 1858. It is rarely decorated and appears to have not been popular with the Alutiiq and other native Alaskans. Archaeologists rarely find that it comprises more than 2 % of a site's ceramic collection. Only at the Russian fort in Sitka (a distribution center) did they find appreciable quantities of the distinctive lead-ware.

However, at Miktsqaaq Angayuk we appear to have quite a bit of it. What's going on? Were the Alutiiq who lived in the house poorer than most? On the other hand we have also found a great deal of the gaudily painted 'tea set' sherds (see Alex with painted sherd in the top photo). I have sent photos of the ceramic sherds we've found so far off to Dan Thompson, and will be interesting to hear what he thinks. Perhaps we've mis-identified the lead-ware; perhaps we've got something interesting going on. Patrick

House appears beneath the 1912 Katmai ash

We finally got all the Katmai ash (from the 1912 volcanic eruption) off of the multiroom house. We have opened up a HUGE area and the ash had blown into the house pit - so we had A LOT of ash to remove. Once the ash was removed the house features are quite clear. The main room never had roof sods so the hearth and sub floor pits are all exposed right on the surface. Note box hearth in the middle of the house, doorway pointing out to the right, and sideroom connected by a tunnel between the crew and the main room. The main room measures around 3 by 4 meters. I took these photos from the top of a nearby tree.

Yesterday, after I took these photos, we started to excavate in the midden outside the house and we found excellent faunal preservation. We found out what the Alutiiq people who lived inside the house had eaten and thrown away. We found mostly cod bones, some seal, clams, blue mussel shells, chitons, and lots of sea urchin. I only saw one salmon vertebrae. Sea urchins produce roe in March/April and cod come inshore in the late spring. So what we've found so far looks like the remains of a late winter/spring feast.

Last night Mark and I also re-evaluated our guess as to when the house was occupied. I had previously guessed mid to late 19th century based upon one ceramic sherd of what I call 'gaudy ware' and the fact that the house had completely collapsed prior to the 1912 Katmai volcanic eruption. Last night we referred to a report on the Castle Hill Excavation of the Russian Fort in Sitka put out by the State Historic Preservation Office and noted that the most common ceramic we have been finding peaked in popularity around 1815. We also found one drawn and cut blue bead which is also typical of the early Russian period. I also realized that we have found none of the sponge stamped light green and red ceramics typical of the late Russian and Early American period. So I am tentatively going to say that the house was probably occupied in the early 19th century. However, we've hardly begun our excavation and this conclusion is based on a tiny artifact sample. So take it for what it is - a very preliminary guess! Patrick

Sticking it out in the Rain

This week we started our Community Archaeology excavation out at Cliff Point, and, of course, it started to rain. But as you can see from this photo we've been sticking it out. In fact, things have been going pretty darn well. We have already uncovered an entire multiroom house. I have never seen a house so clearly after just removing the layer of Katmai ash - they are usually far more deeply buried. Judging by the bits of metal and ceramics we've been finding the house appears to date to the mid 19th century. It has a slate box hearth and a sideroom attached by a tunnel so it is clearly an Alutiiq house. I had been a tad bit worried that it would end up as a rancher's barn or something. Prehistoric multiroom houses were occupied by several related families, and it will be interesting to see if this one was a single or multiple family dwelling. Patrick

Community Archaeology Begins!

It begins! Community Archaeology 2009. This year we are digging out at Cliff Point on the Miktsgaaq Angayuk site. We are excavating an entire, early historic Alutiiq multiroom house. I made a video of our first day of excavation. I put a camera on a tripod and had it take a picture every 8 minutes. It recorded away as we removed the sod from the 116 square meters that we plan to excavate. That is a HUGE excavation. More to come, but check out the video at youtube - address below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfI5ceqSghU

Enjoy, Patrick

Nora's First Pie

Yesterday Nora helped with her first salmonberry pie. We went for a walk and found plenty of berries right in the road and along the side of the road on the way to the park. Nora even managed to find a few blueberries and even a couple of ripe strawberries. It took quite a bit of effort to not to eat all the berries as we picked them. But Nora reminded herself as we picked that she was going to make a pie, 'and Uncle Gregg will have some, Stuie will have some, Mommy will have some. ... ..'

Uncle Gregg did the actual pie making, and instead of a true pie he made a crumble. I actually liked it a lot better than most pies I've ever had. Nora was ecstatic. Patrick

Zoya's Eco Challenge Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgEJEkGLL9g

My first imovie production!

A five-minute documentary of the Eco Challenge race I did yesterday. Includes race footage, trail conditions and my video journals from the trail!

Zoya