Archaeology Day

Inside: Carissa and I have been trying to declutter the house and mop the floors all day, but doing that is like doing anything else around here - difficult to start, nearly impossible to finish. I say that in the kindest of spirits, of course - I do actually like it here.

Outside: My brother-in-law Rob arrived with his friend Ken to start digging up the foundation of the cabin that the Nisbet family lived in while they built the Stonehouse, meaning it would have been occupied from about 1848 until about 1863. The cabin was then used as a corn crib until the 1940's. Rob and Ken are going to excavate the foundation, which means they have to find it first. We know the general location but not the specific site.

Rob used the new workshop to build sifters out of 2x4s and wire mesh with 1/4 inch holes. He and his apprentices (my children Owen and William and two camper kids named Bobby and Ian) began the excavation by finding out how many paces each had to take to go 10 yards. Then they paced off 10 yard sections of the area and placed flags to mark specific areas to dig.

Finally the digging began. Here are Rob and William putting the first shovels in the ground.

They dug a hole about 2.5 feet deep and used the sifters to sort through the material they pulled out of the hole. Owen dug like a mole while William helped pull out any items that got stuck in the sifter.

So far they have found nails, charcoal, and this - an arrowhead! The digging will continue as soon as nap time is over.