Clean up day

The interns and I are at our favorite La Plata laundromat. None of us
wanted to drive back to Ohio with a van full of dirty field clothes.

We had a full day of cleanup today. We had to bag up the last loads of
artifacts, clean out the courthouse, pack up our field equipment,
empty and scrub down the Burch House, put the Burch house back
together, walk the fields of the town picking up any debris or
equipment we may have left behind, and start packing up our personal
belongings. In between all that work we spent some time with visitors
who dropped by: Jim, Mark, Carol, and Elsie. The interns also spent a
lot of time playing with their favorite local cat who they named Boots.

After all that work we enjoyed our first real restaurant dinner in
weeks. I figured that we needed to slowly readjust back to the real
world where BBQing is a treat not a daily activity. We are planning an
ice cream run after laundry too.

Once I am back at my Heidelberg office I will start posting some
photos and videos from this field season.

To answer the comment on our last posting, we have put black plastic
down in any unit that still has artifact bearing layers left
unexcavated. Those units can be continued at any time once we relocate
them with our mapping equipment and dig out the backfill that sits
atop the black plastic. All artifacts recovered from our excavations
are washed, cataloged, and then stored at Port Tobacco where they are
accessible for research. As for the future of Port Tobacco as a
historical site, that is up to Charles County and it's citizens. The
Port Tobacco Archaeological Project will continue to seek grant
funding to study the entire history of this town, from Native American
to contemporary times, but this work can only be continued as long as
we have local support. Speaking of support, I would like to thank the
landowners who allowed us to dig on their property and the town's
residents who welcomed us into their community.

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