I LOVE my friends!!!!

[podunklander]

It's so GREAT when my friends do something no matter how big or small, just for me as a nice gesture, an act of kindness to make me happy :biggrin:! And in turn it makes them just as happy :).

[Jesse Joe]

Lovely story Pam, do keep and treasure those friends as they {loyal friends} are hard to find these days. :)

[Nightingale]

Hi Pam :)

What a great story...sweet friends that make our lives better are the best gift.

That's very cool that they remembered your plans and made the special effort to do
that for you.
Hey, maybe they even made a few of their customers Gord fans...lol.
That would be very cool, too. :)

Thanks for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading about it. :)

[charlene]

great stuff Pam..Friends and Lightfoot..more great stuff..

[Nightingale]

You were on a "dig" :)

Are you an archaeologist?

I love history. I used to dig for Indian arrowheads, well, I still do but not as often.
I find lots of them around here.

I always thought that would be a fascinating career. I always did like to play in the dirt...lol. :)

[Jesse Joe]

Down here working on a Dig is working in potato(e)s. I myself never have work on a dig but have seen people during potato(e) harvest working on those dig. Is this the same dig you mean Pam, or did you mean "gig" or something else ??? :)

[Jesse Joe]

You were on a "dig" :)

Are you an archaeologist?

I love history. I used to dig for Indian arrowheads, well, I still do but not as often.
I find lots of them around here.

I always thought that would be a fascinating career. I always did like to play in the dirt...lol. :)

Finding Indian arrowheads, that takes you back in history, {Cowboy & Indians}... I wonder if John Mellencamp ever did that as a kid !! :rolleyes: :)

That sounds like it would be fun to find one. If ever Im in Indiana Anne we will go looking for Arrowheads, and of course ~JM~ :headbang:

[podunklander]

You were on a "dig" :)

Are you an archaeologist?

I love history. I used to dig for Indian arrowheads, well, I still do but not as often.
I find lots of them around here.

I always thought that would be a fascinating career. I always did like to play in the dirt...lol. :)

Now I know who has been disturbing all those archaeological sites out in your neck of the woods...BUSTED!!! no sah, kiddin' I won't tell :eek:

exshovelbum

[Nightingale]

I have no doubt that John Mellencamp has found arrowheads, Jesse. We had lots of Indians around the woodlands of Indiana. :)
If you ever come to Indiana we will have lots of fun. Hey, maybe we can get Patti to come visit at the same time and we'll all go visit JM :)

Pam, be nice...I have a tomahawk and I know how to use it....lol. :)

On a serious note. There is a very prominent hill, not far from my house, that I have always wondered about. It looks like it could be from the moundbuilders. Such a flat landscape and then, boom, there is this hill that just looks like it doesn't belong... it's quite large.
I want to dig around it sooooooooooo badddddddddddddddd.....lol.
It is on a farm that is owned by a very grouchy old farmer that has signs posted everywhere that say...Trespassers will be shot. If you survive, you will be shot again!

So, okay, I don't want to dig up the hill that bad...lol. :)

[Patti]

I have no doubt that John Mellencamp has found arrowheads, Jesse. We had lots of Indians around the woodlands of Indiana. :)
If you ever come to Indiana we will have lots of fun. Hey, maybe we can get Patti to come visit at the same time and we'll all go visit JM :)

Pam, be nice...I have a tomahawk and I know how to use it....lol. :)

On a serious note. There is a very prominent hill, not far from my house, that I have always wondered about. It looks like it could be from the moundbuilders. Such a flat landscape and then, boom, there is this hill that just looks like it doesn't belong... it's quite large.
I want to dig around it sooooooooooo badddddddddddddddd.....lol.
It is on a farm that is owned by a very grouchy old farmer that has signs posted everywhere that say...Trespassers will be shot. If you survive, you will be shot again!

So, okay, I don't want to dig up the hill that bad...lol. :)

That would be nice to find an arrowhead. I was once offered a few by Levi's dad that he found when he was working on some man-made ponds. I didn't take them, I thought they were just too special for him to give away, but I felt in awe just to look at them.

[podunklander]

The workmanship involved in toolmaking is so intriguing. I have handled well over 10,000 via excavations, cataloguing and I would never tire of examining them. So many I've found while testing/excavation but one that remains as a favorite was a large, yellow Jasper scraper. In that same block someone found a spoon made from bone.

An amazing site I worked on here in CT, close to the NY line was acres just loaded with stone tools and debitage. It was a major manufacture/trading site. Amazing.

I don't collect -not a one. I always find historic artifacts while working in the garden though and incorporate them into my garden. One cool one here is a toy pistol from the 50's.

[Patti]

The workmanship intrigues me also, but I think what gets me is the connection I feel for the history. Going to museums used to be one of my favorite things to do. It's been a while... The yellow Jasper scraper sounds pretty special. Once in some classroom I was checking out some stone tool that was multi-purpose, like part scraper, part knife, etc., it was kind of square, about 3-4 inches. It was some nice workmanship.

Sounds like you did some collecting for somebody. I don't blame you for not wanting to keep any of those, but if you did find some on your own time, that would be different.

Once I found some little motorcycle/jack-knife in the garden that looked like it was probably from the 50's. -
(it looked like a little toy motorcycle, but it had a blade like a jack-knife.) I thought it was sort of cool and kept it for a year or so, but I think I threw it away one day.

[Nightingale]

Hi Pam and Patti,

Yes, that's a good idea about IU or Purdue. I hadn't really thought of anything like that but it would be great to be involved in something so interesting.
I have read several books about the moundbuilding Indians...great culture and some of the artifacts were so beautiful for such a supposedly primitive society (societies)

I love the artifacts but have given most of mine away. I really didn't want to display them so I passed them along to two different family members that really wanted them.
I find that the older I get, the more I want to get rid of collections...pass items along and generally clean out stuff, even though I have treasured many of them.
I think it comes from having to clean out so many houses for other people when they pass on. It's difficult and hard when it's someone you love so I don't want anyone to have to go through all the stuff I have stored away for so many years.

I love holding the Indian artifacts and thinking that the last person that held it was the Indian that made it...very strange and lovely feeling.

I know what you mean, Patti. The connection to the history is really nice.

[Patti]

I'm glad you knew what I meant about the connection to the history even though I probably didn't explain very well, Nightingale. I think you have such a pure eye. Kind of like some of the people that made arrowheads.

[Nightingale]

Thank you, Patti. :)

I thought you explained yourself very well.

We come from a different time but the human beings that roamed these areas that we live in now suffered, loved, lived and died just like all of us do.
We all belong to the human family....just separated by time and different cultures.

I always feel that way when I go to old graveyards, too. It's kind of like the people resting there want you to know their story. I always love to read the old headstones and piece together the history of a family or person if I can.

Making arrowheads...
Well, I do have a little Indian blood in me. :)

[Jesse Joe]

Im like you Nightingale, cant help myself but think that in 100 or 200 years from now, will the people walking on this earth maybe stop and say, I wonder how people lived in 2008 !!! :eek:

[podunklander]

ah gee this all brings back memories of PI (poison ivy), sunburn, being covered in dirt, stuck in the mud (a nice senior citizen pulled me out), covered in burrs (a nice senior citizen pulled them out of my hair), horsefly and mosquito bites, making my way through pickers, carrying an auger and 2 shovels over one shoulder, a bucket filled with equipment and a backpack filled with paperwork and artifacts...tripping and having no choice but to fall flat on my face :). gotta love it

I loved the 2-3 weeks I spent floating soil samples in a waterhole, boating out to a private island for a dig, stumbling across some great Americana (a moonshine shack). Gawd I miss it!!!!

[podunklander]

Im like you Nightingale, cant help myself but think that in 100 or 200 years from now, will the people walking on this earth maybe stop and say, I wonder how people lived in 2008 !!! :eek:

My former prof, mentor and boss used to quip about how archaeologists in the centuries to come, will consider us the "Coca-Cola" people :).

oh and yep gals...thanks to you I've made a move towards getting back into fieldwork (if my back can hold up until the work comes through!).