Day -2 Digging

Last night as I was cooking my dinner, the wind was howling and I heard cracking from the limb above my head. I moved my operation to the other side of the picnic table and 15 minutes later the limb came crashing down and landed a foot from my food. All my neighbors were worried, but my food and I were safe. Many people came to check on me in the next few hours.

Today I arrived at the museum and Greg sent us (3 interns, 2 summer staff, and 2 permanent staffers) to the dig site we were at yesterday. We began in the same places and were working on "pedestally" the bones. You dig around and beneath leaving them on a pedestal that you can then pour plaster around and "jacket" the entire bone.
It was windy and hot for the morning. At around 10 am, Greg and another boss type person came up and told us to move so there wouldn't be dust storms stopping our work every 3 minutes. Just at that moment I tried to clear some rock away and broke a bone!!! Greg showed me how to apply glue and label the bone so the lab can put it back together.
We all packed up and moved to a different location on the mountain ( I learned that there are over 100 places that bones have come from on the mountain, and each are named). We moved to a site called, Cheryl's blind or CB for short. Any bone that comes out is labeled CB, with a number and a date. We dug at the bone for a while. One of the staff members found some bone that was a high up vertebrate. Skulls are the most sought after fossil. So much so in fact, that they don't say the word, in case that saying it would cause it to crumble or dissapear. We may have "that which shall not be mentioned" of an Allosaur. We went down the hill for lunch and went back up after. My legs and arms are sun and wind burned. Later that afternoon I uncovered the first bone of my time here at the hill. It was at a site where we know bones are and they specifically told me to dig there, but still. I am the first human ever to see the bone, as well as the first living thing to observe it in 150 million years. Chew on that! however, ....I broke it. I needed to glue it again and the next rock I turned I had broken another bone. The experts weren't with us, so I went digging at another part of the hill. Today there was much more chatter. I learned about everyones school, and the geology programs they have gone through. There were also geology jokes, ....such as.....you want to find a mouse in this formation....HA! or....Your tetrapod and cterapod are no match for my saurapod,...idiot (and riotous laughter ensued).
I As I type this, the wind is so strong I need to hold my hat on everyonce in while. Let me just say ...that I was born to do this and I love it. I love it...I love it. Now to go bath in a sulfur rich pool to get the dirt out of my nose and ears.