By Samantha Schlazer

Today was really comfortable outside; there was even a slight breeze. There does not seem to be much smoke left, even though the fires continue. This morning was around 60 to 70 degrees outside, which was much cooler than the last four days. We continued shovel testing around the Martin house. We opened up a few new units on the southwest side of the house. The soil is very hard in this area where there has been high traffic. It is compact and really hard to dig through, due to the lack of rain. We all keep hoping for a really heavy storm to soften the soil.

Michelle and Moe, our graduate assistants, showed me how to use the total station today and we plotted 10 more points before lunch time. The total station is an instrument that employs a laser to calculate specific locations on a site. We are using it to create a site grid plan, which will identify the coordinates of our shovel tests and excavation units. All the points or locations are established from a datum or origin point on the site grid. It was difficult to take the points because there was a lot of vegetation. Clearing was necessary to gain a line of sight from the instrument to the prism, which reflects the laser back to the machine to record the location. The total station can be set at various heights depending on the person taking the reading. Since Moe, who is much taller than me, was taking the readings today, I assisted with holding the prism. It really takes a lot of familiarity with metric units and cardinal directions to be adapt at using the total station.

I think everyone is getting the hang of the shovel testing and getting a little more comfortable with their partners. The digging seems to be moving faster now and hopefully it will continue to move steadily. We are all wishing for rain and good digging.