Week of Crazy...

Well! Here I thought I was doing a great job of keeping my blog up to date. This week has been anything short of crazy. Both of my mini-explorers got what was a pretty nasty bug. Two days of high temperatures keep me home with them from work and I also ended up missing my start date at the interpretive center. They are doing much better now which makes me feel all proud. My super mommy doctor powers are going strong. I figured that since today is really the first day they have been okay on their own and I haven't been slammed doing something else that I would give everyone an update.

I did make it to the fort last Saturday. I had no idea what to expect as a lab tech but it was pretty awesome. Yes, the work was tedious and I did sit in a chair for a solid three hours straight but I got to work with some pretty cool stuff. I ended up helping to analyze artifacts from a dig that took place when I was in kindergarten. (Just to give perspective of how long things sit around before people are able to get to them). For the most part it was just random metal. Nothing that you could tell what it once was. The group I was working with plowed through the box pretty fast so we went from fragments to objects in the one session. This is where I stumbled across the coolest item of the day, a thimble! I know, I know. A thimble. Come on Rachel...that's not that cool. On the contrary! This was no ordinary thimble. According to the head of the lab it is what's called a thimble bead.

The below picture are thimbles found on a dig by the University of Maryland. These are pretty similar to the one I analyzed with the exception that mine had a hole in the top. According to the lead archeologist, many women during the historical period would take thimbles, punch a hole in the top of them and then wear them as adornments on their clothes. Like beads. Pretty cool huh?! Well, I thought so.

Despite the fact that I missed my chance to go to the interpretive center last week, I did make up for it today. I got to proofread three different files on local history. One was an oral history that had been transcribed and two were news articles related to Skamania County. It sounds like I am going to get a chance to not only transcribe tapes that have not been done yet but I will also get a chance to turn those oral histories into stories for the museum to use. I love writing so I think that's something right up my ally! All in all the group that I'm working with there is a blast so that makes it even better.

Since the lab at the fort was closed this Saturday I didn't get to go but am looking forward to making it down there again this week. I got 3.5 hours in there last week and already have 1.5 in at the interpretive center. So far this has all been a real blast and I am looking forward to searching out new opportunities and hopefully moving forward in my career choice.

Rachel B.