Out at the old fort we are removing soil that has oil and metal filings in it, preparing this portion for use as a cultural park. Dan strips off the soil and soon we start finding archaeological features, from the fort and the tuberculosis sanitarium that followed, as well as prehistoric features.

The area north of two of the Officer's Quarters contains small ditches and numerous planting holes, just to the north of an adobe wall.

Planting pits.

In another area nearby, we found a pair of wagon ruts that probably date to the fort period, from 1873 through 1891.

Wagon wheel ruts.

In another area, Allen found a metate and a pestle. Somebody in the prehistoric period cached the two items, and for some reason never returned to re-use them.

Metate and pestle.

One unexpected find was a tarantula, about three inches across, which popped out of a hole as Dan was stripping away dirt. Allen found a safe place for it to hide inside.

Tarantula (click on picture for a closer view).

Forest and I traveled north on Thursday afternoon, in Flagstaff Evan awaited us for an adventure.

On the way.

We had some pizza and beer and went on a late-night hike.

Evan and Forest.

Once again I saw no elk.

Late night exposure.

The next morning we crammed into Evan's truck and went to see some sites.

We are pouty.

At one point we climbed way up and I took a photo.

When I climbed down I had a perilous moment.

Forest realized his dreams of becoming a cheerleader.

Mascot for the Tumbleweeds. 

We climbed in the Focus and headed east on I-40.

The scenery was pretty.

That night we went to Little Anita's in Albuquerque. The food was grody. Forest developed unfortunate symptoms. While I attended a conference on Saturday, he and Evan had a harrowing adventure involving the car, ice, and a truck from Georgia.

That night we went to a diner.

I had a grilled cheese, onion rings, and a shake.

Forest was still feeling a bit off.

He also had a milkshake.

The next morning I returned to the conference. Evan and Forest went hiking in the Sandias.

Mountain climber Evan.

The scenery was pretty.

Sandias.

My talk was the last one of the conference and I did a great job. We left Albuquerque at 4:00 PM.

Driving west on I-40.

I arrived home at 2:00 AM and was out at the work site at 8:30. I am a tad groggy as I type this.

Forrest is here for a week visiting. I made him hash browns and cheesy scrambled eggs for breakfast. He says I make them just like him (that's because I learned how to from him).

And cats.

Tomorrow we going to FLagstaff and he and Evan are going to play instruments and then we are off to Albuquerque, where I have a conference to attend and they get to go hiking.

Little Tiny had a genital operation and won't be able to many tinier Tinies, a first for my neighbors, who have never fixed any of their dogs.

She always runs up to fence when she sees me.

I finished my PowerPoint presentation for the conference and wrote some feature descriptions. I then went to Swade Barbershop and got my hairz trimmed.

After.


The Arizona State Legislature is now in session and I can hardly wait to see how the Republicans will punish Tucson. In their last session they took a sewage plant away from the county and gave it to a small community. A sewage plant that all of the residents of Pima County paid for (millions of dollars) and is given free to a Republican stronghold.

And they tried to force the City of Tucson to change how we do city elections, unhappy that Republicans only hold one or two city positions. That didn't succeed.

The most egregious was to ban Ethnic Studies in Tucson's school district. Our current Attorney General and the his replacement as Superintendent of Public Education are racist scum (that gets you elected in this state). So they convinced the State Legislature to ban a successful program that has helped many Mexican-American high schoolers get an education, writing a law that specifically targeted Tucson. The Tucson Unified School District is now being told that it will loose 10 to 15 million dollars a month unless it gets rid of the program. Of course the fucking Republican politicians in this state hate education with a passion, since most of them are fundamentalist Christians or Mormons, who would prefer that tax payer dollars be spent on religious schools, where children can be taught that the earth is 6,000-years-old and electricity is magic.

Personally, I hope I never meet Tom Horne- I'd kick that piece of shit right in his racist ass.

Patrick and I played Scrabble last night.

I know all of the two letter words.

 As we played we talked about things.

I had camera envy.

His nice next door neighbors were having a Wayne's World 2 viewing party. I saw the end of the film and understand why it did not win any Oscars.

This morning I trimmed my beard and I look 3 years and 2 months younger.

I need a haircut.

Suddenly I will be out at the old Fort site next week, I wonder whether we will find anything. 

Forrest is coming to town next Tuesday. On Thursday we will drive up to Flagstaff, where he and Evan will play music. On Friday the three of us will go to Albuquerque for the weekend. I wonder what kind of trouble we will get into?

I left Mummy at home to watch over the cats and drove north to Flagstaff.

Evening approaches.

 We made a lemon cake for New Year's Eve.

It was delicious.

 We went for a walk in the woods, looking at the remnants of pit structures. Some were excavated in the 1930s or 1940s and never back-filled.

Evan stands in a pit structure.

There were many sherds that we looked back and returned to the ground.

Black on white ceramics.

It was a lovely weekend, spent with my man. I even managed to get up right before midnight on New Year's Eve.

Besties.