Movin' on up!

Tonight is the last night in Stroud. We're driving almost 50 miles to get to our survey area right now, which means that 2 hours each day is devoted to drive time. So we're moving down to Ada, which is pretty well centered for the next 50 miles or so of survey. It's also a much bigger town, with a movie theater very close to the hotel. We'll also have microwaves and refrigerators, which means I can get a little bit closer to my regular dietary routine.
I did find out something interesting about Stroud tonight. There's a huge concrete foundation behind our hotel, just up a small hill. It's visible on Google Maps. Apparently, this was the location of a huge outlet mall which was completely flattened by tornado some years back. There've been a number of tornado watches and warnings north and west of here the last few weeks, and the tornado watch siren went off the second or third night we were here. I know this has already been a crazy year for severe weather (Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather, maybe?), and Oklahoma seems to be right in the path of it all. So maybe there's another positive to moving 60 miles to the south.
We found a site today, by Wewoka Creek. Not sure how big it is yet, so far it's just two surface finds and a positive shovel test on a nice little sandy rise. I didn't see the whole shovel test, as I was setting up other people's spots, but there was apparently a lot of burned sandstone at one point, suggesting there may be a hearth or other burned rock feature. I don't know how much of it we'll dig up, though, probably just enough to know the site extents and whether it's significant enough to avoid. Such is the nature of most pipeline surveys.
Not much else is new. Still lots of ticks and poison ivy out there. Saw some deer today. Oh yeah, I also put some new pictures up on Flickr, including a great portrait of me in action.

Go here for some kicks

old Rte 66 roadbed
Originally uploaded by texasrobo

A portion of the old Route 66 roadbed crosses our survey corridor. Interestingly, it shows up on Google Maps, even though it's not an active road and a lot of it it destroyed and overgrown. We recorded the location for the client and took a few photos.
I uploaded a few more pictures from the project so far onto my Flickr page.
Woke up this morning to heavy rain and thunderstorms. Right now it's sunny, but we're waiting until noon to give all the storms a chance to pass or break up before we try and go into the field. I drank too much coffee to take a nap, so I'm finally getting to catch up a bit on photos and blog. I'll probably even tap on my thesis a little bit. And this is all at least partially on the clock.
I don't think I mentioned that I got a performance review right before we left for Oklahoma, where I got a bit of a promotion and a small raise. I'm now officially a crew-chief level archaeologist, rather than a senior field tech. A lot of added responsibilities, but I'm happy.

Another snake

Water Snake
Originally uploaded by texasrobo

I saw another snake today, hanging out in a puddle formed by a tire rut. I was probably two steps away from it when I noticed (the photo is a zoom in). I have no idea what kind of snake it is, just that it's not venomous. I suppose I should look these things up. Maybe I should find a volunteer research associate.
It was not nearly as wet as I expected. I guess the Rosharon area only got around a tenth of an inch of rain. I still wore my waders, which was good because I hit some wet areas, but nothing higher than my ankles.
Nothing to report archaeologically yet. It's probably just as well, as the client would rather not have any more sites and I'd rather not record anther crappy early 20th century trash scatter.
Speaking of, I put some photos up on my Flickr of the cistern and some of the bottles I found at the site in Fort Bend County last time I was out here. There's also pictures of an owl I saw yesterday. Check them out!

Welcome to Texas

Welcome to Texas
Originally uploaded by texasrobo

I uploaded a few pictures from the field here in Brazoria County, mostly fun shots and animals. I really wanted to keep this, but I was more than a mile from my truck.
I've already worked 47.5 hours this week. Tomorrow is likely another 11 hour day, and Saturday may be a full day plus a drive back to Austin. I'm banking right now.
Today I spent the day monitoring the drill crew. It was a little boring (no pun intended), but at least I didn't have to walk all over the place and got a ride across most of the wettest stuff. I think I'll be back with them tomorrow, when they actually drill near/in some sites.
That's about it. I find out tomorrow if I'm here for the long haul or going back on Saturday. I'll miss the HD-TV!

Look, I'm famous again!

And so is Dan. And Staci. And Katherine and John!
One of my friends (Kensey) tipped me off that they saw my picture on some website, from the last Okay Mountain art show. I went mostly to see If Bricks Had Wings, plus check out some art and drink some beer and see some friends. I wasn't actually very impressed with most of the art. I was very impressed with If Bricks Had Wings, although it would have been better if people had SHUT THE FUCK UP and listened to the band instead of talking!!!
So go here and scroll down past all the cool kids and check us out! And go see If Bricks Had Wings (Tim Kerr and some people I don't know doing old-timey country and bluegrass) next time they play (I think during SXSW at an art show).

More from the garden

can you see the caterpillar
Originally uploaded by texasrobo

While inspecting the garden this evening, I suddenly realized that I was not looking at a weird leaf but a very large caterpillar. So naturally I went and got the camera before moving him elsewhere in the back yard. He looks like the Very Hungry Caterpillar (which I called the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, oops). Our dear President once called that his favorite childhood book, which is funny as he was in his 20s when it was published. My favorite was Corduroy, by the way.
As usual, there's other new garden and related pictures on the Flickr page. Some of the Sweet 100s are starten to ripen, and there's a couple of zucchini growing, plus one that I harvested this evening!
Today I got 154,000 points for "More than a Feeling" on medium on Guitar Hero. I only missed four notes the whole song. I totally feel like a rock star while I'm playing that song.
Back to TxDOT this week.

Ripe tomatoes and other backyard stuff

ripe tomatoes
Originally uploaded by texasrobo

Some of the cherry tomatoes are ripening. The one in the middle, near the bottom, will be ready to go tomorrow. This way Tini can enjoy the first taste of our tomatoes before she heads to Vegas. The first fruits of the garden were the hot peppers, which Tini passed on, so the tomato will be her first reward for all of our efforts. None of the other tomato plants have ripened yet. While outside, I also took another picture of Jack the live oak (which was supposed to be better than the first one but really might be worse) and of the new screen door. If you click on the picture to the right, you can see the new photos.
Speaking of photos, Yahoo Photos is closing so all of my old photos on there were transferred to my Flickr photostream. Now there's a bunch of archaeological and other pictures to look at there!