Today was a very busy day, we are getting down to the last day or two of excavation before we need to switch gears to primary process all the artifacts, photograph, plan, draw profiles and finally backfill! It’s bittersweet to get to this point, because I am sure our crew is game to dig some more but it is always a careful balancing act to ensure we don’t bite off more than we can handle. There is still so much left to do even after the students have left once the course is over.
Esther visited again, and also Yumi, who brought treats for the students! Thanks for stopping by!
The Snakes have been plugging away in their unit, hunting for the corner of the wall that we are pretty sure has to be in that location. There was a breakthrough today finally, with the discovery of a cobble footing in alignment with the concrete footing, and some displaced larger stones very similar to the other preserved wall segments. It appears as though the bulldozer came from the laneway side to the west of the house and pushed material in to fill the basement, including part of the wall. Jocelyn also made the discovery that there is a concrete pad extending inside from the footing walls, which fits with some of our units from last year, which we had to abandon because large slabs of bulldozed concrete were blocking us from excavating underneath.
Jerry the Snail (a Cepaea nemoralis, Brown-lipped Grove snail) made an appearance today in the Ladybug’s unit. Based on the size, Jerry is a few years old. This species is not native to North America, but was introduced from Europe several times beginning in 1857.
The Foxes have been pushing to try and get the basement fill out, and also they have cleaned up the area external to the walls nicely, revealing a very similar construction style to the corner on the other side of the house. It’s going to be a race to the end as our time is running out!
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