Evening of Day 9

The afternoon went by quickly. I spent most of that time drawing profiles of excavation unit walls in the jailhouse area (more Native American artifacts found there). Dio's team worked on a possible hearth feature, Pete's team opened a new unit to expose a possible cellar feature, Jim drew plan views of the cemetery, and Scott supervised the excavation of a new unit in the jail area.

Thanks to Bonnie and Franny we had a dinner feast of eggplant parmesean and lasagna. Another night outside the Burch House is in store for us.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Lunch time of Day 9

Jim's church/cemetery area is now clearly a cemetery. We identified 3 grave shafts and some associated features. The graves will NOT be excavated. Just finding the lost cemetery is enough for our research.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Late Morning of Day 9

We are working in all four excavation areas this morning so it is a bit quieter at the site with everyone spread out.

Dio has four units under his command and we appear to have a daub hearth at the center and some other evidence of a 1700s structure mixed with Native American artifacts.

Peter has five units under his command and likely has another 1700s structure mixed with Native American artifacts. Pete's structure has much more rubble, especially mortar, so the two structures were very different in architecture and Pete's may be more recent.

Scott is in command of three units at the jailhouse where they are docuumenting the exposed foundation.

Jim is at the possible church/cemetery area but we have little evidence of a church or cemetery.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Morning of Day 9

8 AM: 20+ volunteers have already arrived and are assembled to raise the tents that cover our excavation units. So many of them know the routine by now and little oversight is required. That frees the staff up a bit to join in the chatter of the morning greetings. Many new friendships have been formed in the last 8 days.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Day 7 and 8

Has anyone seen Dio's red bandana? That is the kind of day it has
been. Busy, busy, busy but fun was had by all!

Once again we are sitting by the Burch House after dinner. Hot dogs
and burgers on the BBQ were just what I wanted. Nobody brought the
smore supplies, that is my only complaint.

We have the jailhouse foundation. We have two or three 18th century
buildings. We have significant Native American deposits. What more can
a research project ask for?

One of today's highlights were unscheduled lunch time talks by Wayne
Clark and Nancy Geasy. The afternoon sugar rush was provided by Karen,
a volunteer. After fieldwork I gave a faunal workshop to a large crowd
of volunteers.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Day 6

The field session is officially half over and we have made a lot of progress. Tonight we have some scheduled down time for the staff and volunteers. It is pizza and movie night at the Port Tobacco courthouse. I will blog about out finds tomorrow.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Day 5

Jim was away today so it was a much different day in the field. I put the three teams in close reach by gains them work on the Wade House, Native American, and Centennial Hotel areas. We did a lot of detailed excavation today and sent many volunteers to out field lab because excavation was slow going. The field lab provides volunteers the opportnuity to study the recovered artifacts more closely and the lab supervisors assist them with identifying just what it is that they are washing.

I plan to ramp back up to full fieldwork capacity tomorrow, sending Scott back out to take another crack at the possible cemetery, Pete will continue on the Native American area where we have some possible 18th century earthfast structures, Dio will move over to the Centennial area where we have more 18th century and Native American components, and Jim will oversee mapping of the jailhouse.

First comes laundry, dinner, and a good night's rest.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Day 4

The field session is rolling along. We had to keep an eye to the sky
today. A cool breeze mixed with dark clouds seemed to alternate with
our normally sunny and warm weather. The storms did hold off until the
day's excavations were over but not by much. Just after everyone left
the wind picked up and the rain came down. We would have been comfy
and dry in either the courthouse or the Burch House if I hadn't
noticed that one of our shelters had blown off the Wade House units! A
handful of us, including Charlie Hall, had to reposition tents and
tarps and resecure them with extra ropes. We got soaked but the units
seem ok.

Today's excavations included testing of two new areas. Neither are far
enough along to discern the results just yet. We also continued work
at the Wade House, removing many complete vessels, and the Native
American cluster.

We must be working hard. It is not even 10pm and most of the crew is
settling in for the evening. I already hear some light snoring coming
from the next room and I think I hear my pillow calling too.

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw

Day 3

The PTAP staff and a few volunteers are sitting beside the Burch House, waiting for our BBQs to be ready for our dinner grilling. All is well.

Jim lead an Ethics workshop earlier this evening while Dio and I did the grocery shopping for the crew. Pete and Jeff assembled the grills. Nothing like teamwork.

We continued our excavations in the three areas described yesterday. We are closet to defining the jailhouse and Wade House foundations and may have found a building in the Native American area, but not a Native American building.

We may branch out to explore a few other areas during the week, depending on how many volunteers come out. So come down and join us!

-April
-------------------------------
April M. Beisaw