Homer'sWorld

In the bucket.

In a 5-gallon "Homer" bucket from Home Depot I put about five inches of water in and then slowly pour the soil in.


Charcoal floating.

I use a sieve to skim off all of the charred plant materials- bits of charcoal, corn cobs, and other plant tissues.


Light fraction.

I tap the sieve onto newspaper and keep repeating, stirring the soil in the bucket to make more charcoal float to the top. When I stop getting bits, I pour most of the water through the sieve and finish with the light fraction.

I then take the rest of the muddy dirt and dump it onto a screen with window mesh and hose out the bucket. I carefully wash off the dirt and then dump the rest of the material onto a screen as well.


Heavy fraction.

There are a lot of artifacts and animal bone fragments in the midden dirt.

The green piece is olive ware from Spain. Also Native American ceramics and animal bone.

Both samples are dried, re-packaged, and eventually analyzed. The light fraction will be looked at by a ethnobotanist who identified the wood, seeds, and plant tissues. You can learn about the local environment, agriculture, and wild plant gathering this way, and examine how these change through time.

SCIENCE!

I entered the Focus and drove south to Ray and Robert's house. It is like a luxury resort.


Beautiful red.

I should become their pool boy. I would faithfully rescue the bugs that land in the pool. I would have an awesome tan.

Parker kitty is friendlier in her older age. She still doesn't like to have her photo taken.



I wish I had his hair.

In the late afternoon I drove back to Tucson. Shortly after leaving the estate, a pair of deer walked across the road.
I unrolled my car window and whistled at the third mule deer to walk across the road, and it turned to stare at the human making that strange sound.

Mule deer.

It was a lovely day.

The hawk perched on the fence outside my window at work:




I really want these pants:

Ground squirrel.

I left the office right at 5 PM and a short distance up the road was a group of javelina. I have never seen javelina in the neighborhood. They were climbing out of a culvert- five adults and four tiny babies.



The littlest baby was scared to come out and cried.


Video.

On the way.

The weather cooled down nicely.It was in the 90s in Tucson and in the 20s at night in Flagstaff.

Almost there.

Saturday, my camera batteries failed and you will have to imagine me making a chocolate cake with chocolate jalapeno frosting. We also went and saw the movie Oblivion.

This morning we procured batteries and then went to Picture Rock Canyon.

Evan and Homer.

Part of the trail is the Arizona Trail.



A grinding slick is visible on the rock.

Picture Rock Canyon is aptly named.


A thousand years ago or so, someone pecked the designs. Perhaps they were marking their territory, noting an important event, or hoping to catch some animals.


I admired the trees that were blooming.


Car on fire.

At home the cats are climbing all over me. They are locked up in the bedroom and Buddy is asleep on the carpet, snoring loudly.

We then went to India Oven for lunch.

Stache.

Buddy has been getting more exercise lately, I've been taking him on walks, carefully planning the walks to avoid all of the barky neighborhood dogs.

Buddy.

The next day it was time to dress up for the annual meeting. I am now recording secretary.

To help raise money I assembled a raffle basket of Spanish and Mexican items. I sold 63 or so tickets at $5.00 each, and the money went to help pay for the annual luncheon.

Evan arrived in the afternoon. He was coming to work on an archaeology project for my company. That night we went to Rosa's and he had the avocado enchiladas.

Evan at Rosa's.

During the week we went for walks and one time we went to inspect the nearby enormous hole, which was once supposed to be a parking structure, but now is being refilled. In the north wall of the enormous partially-filled-in hole are bricks from the Tucson Pressed Brick Company, which once operated there. A tunnel is visible, lined with bricks and with a metal sliding gate. I am guessing it was used in the firing of the bricks.

Mystery tunnel.

Buddy likes Evan, as does Snowball, which is unusual.


Mummy left for Michigan on Tuesday. It became a nightmare. She got to Chicago and then her connecting flight was cancelled. She spent the night at a hotel, and then back to the airport. I spent three hours on hold trying to get her on a flight. I discovered that Orbitz call center employees are incompetent. On Wednesday several more flights were cancelled due to horrible thunderstorms. She finally arrived at Traverse City at 1:30 on Thursday morning.

Thursday night, to celebrate, Evan and I went to Desta for Ethiopian food. It was delicious.

Ethiopian food and an excited Evan.

He left on Friday to head back north, after having an exciting archaeological adventure (he found a turquoise bead and a large decorated sherd).

This morning I was up early and salvaged some bricks for the walkway between my house and the guest house. I manage to get an enormous gash on my left palm, which I will not subject readers too, because it is ghastly and red and nasty.

And here it is 8:59 AM on Saturday and I have no clue what to do for the rest of the weekend.