Back in the Canyon

There is a couple inches of snow in the canyon, but it is melting fast, at least on south-facing exposures.  The area of the canyon where I am staying gets no direct sunlight at noon, even though it is on the north side.  The south canyon wall blocks the sun around noon.  It just doesn't get high enough to shine over the cliff, so I am in the shadow when snow starts to melt.  Maybe this afternoon the west sun will shine at the house I'm in.  

My Desk

I am working in an office in a building called the Quail Barn.  It is not a barn, but the room is cold.  I have a small heater on the floor behind my chair, but it still feels cold.  I have been a desert rat too long.

Conference Room from My Desk

The conference room that my desk is in has a table big enough for me to work on maps and archeological dig artifacts.  I have a map of the Ranch to frame and then hundreds of artifacts to sort through.  I was lucky enough to catch Leah Ezans-Janke in her new building at the University of Idaho on my way to the Ranch from Spokane.  Leah is charged with cataloging and organizing the artifacts from the archeological digs done by the U of ID Anthropology Department.  The work she and her team does is detailed, precise and quite phenomenal. The U of ID houses the Ranch's boxes of artifacts from the 1999 Kittle Rockshelter dig conducted in the Canyon by Dr. Lee Sappington.  One of my Sabbatical tasks is to build a display highlighting the findings of the dig for the Lodge.  The collection consists of well over 2000 bones, flakes, points, shells, beads, and other relevant items from the dig.  Each artifact has been labeled and recorded in Leah's database.  Here is a page from the database:

A Page from the Kittle Rockshelter Artifact Database.

Leah brought out some boxes for us to go through.  I was fortunate that Redneck Joe was along.  His memory of the dig far exceeds mine, even though I was present at the site more than he was, and his knowledge of animal, bird and reptile bones proved to be invaluable, as I have a very limited knowledge of paleontology. We tried to select representative samples from each level and trench of the dig.  Out of the hundreds of bags, we chose enough to almost fill a box.  Leah and her team recorded everything we took, which was no small chore.  Each of the little packets like the ones in the above bag had to be individually recorded that I have them.  I will spend hours going through them to construct the story and create a display for guests of the Lodge to enjoy.

I will be writing every morning now; sorting, organizing, visiting and dreaming every afternoon; and spending as much time as possible listening, watching and trying to embrace the spirit of the Canyon. BUT, one of the lion hunters is back, and he shot a tom up in Suzie Creek.  I'm going to go see it.  I'll post the cat's picture next week.  Until then, "Bye."