I Have SO Much Dirt In My Pockets!

As much as I would like for this to be a well-written, nicely thought-out blog post, I think I will just be appeasing you all by posting pictures. Well, since most of these will be from the Music Festival, I will write a tiny bit about the groups I am posting. That way they aren't just rockin' pictures on their own.
Two more work days here and then we are headed to Whitehorse and then home. The Alberta group leaves early tomorrow morning. Sampling is going well. We will probably have a last day in the field tomorrow.

Cheers!


This is Dan Mangan. He's Canadian, folksy, and has great lyrics. The chorus to one of his songs is "Robots need love to... and want to be loved by you."



















This is The Burning Hell. Their main guy, Mathias, is hilarious and plays... the electric ukulele. No joke. They were a great band. We saw them twice. They were definitely one of my favorites.















This is Coolooloosh. They are from Isreal. Very rock/rap/hip-hop, but with a Mediterranean sound. High energy show. Saw them twice.















This is the only American group at the festival, JC Brooks and The Uptown Sound (based in Chicago). JC Brooks is quite the showman, and very, very entertaining. Saw them twice, and they ended Saturday's set/show with "Shout!". The whole place was rocking.


































This is Shakura S'Aida from Ontario. They were a fantastic band, with some of the best musicians in the whole festival. In fact, the guitarist (Donna Grantis) is the BEST guitarist I have ever heard live. She was a-mazing. She has a few things on youtube (as all of these bands do!). The piano player was also really, really good.






































This dapper young fellow is extremely famous for Canadians in my generation, and famous enough that a few of his songs even made it down South in the States. Anyone ever heard the song "The Cat Came Back, the Very Next Day?". Yes, that was Fred Penner, children's entertainer extraordinaire. He was great.



















This group is from Whitehorse and is called Sasquatch Prom Date. They were really fun to listen to and had great costumes.



































This last photo is from Sunday night, the last night, last song. All of the artists came on stage and they all (including young Fred Penner) sang Beastie Boys "You Gotta Fight.. For Your Right... To Parrrrrrrty". Loved. It. . It was packed, everyone was dancing. When I get back I will try and upload a video, but it will take half an hour here.















All together it was one of the best things I have ever been a part of. I would love to come back again for it. Totally worth the money. Hope you all look up dcmf.com
for more info, or info for next year's show (up in a few months!).

Livin the Dream

I have to be honest with you all. This will not be a "real" post because I am smack-dab in a music festival and we are between shows. The money has been well worth it, just last night I spent over five hours listening to some of the best live music I have ever heard, if not THE best.

There have been Canadian bands (lots), an American group, and an Isreali group so far. All have delivered. There has been dancing and beer and new friends.

As glorious as the music is, the people here for the Dawson Music Festival are a completely new breed of crazy awesomeness. Every color, shape, age, style. Everyone is dancing. Everyone is drunk. Most people have a dog, which adds to the atmosphere. The dogs are as diverse as the owners.

The money has been well worth it already and we still have tonight and all day tomorrow. Yesterday we got back around 3, and we're expecting that again tonight, if we don't end up at an after-party.

Just in case someone important is reading, yes, we did do cataloging today. Sporadic rain made it difficult, but it is getting done. We plan to actually head out on a "tour" of the mines tomorrow for some of the visitors.

I'm off to another jam session.

Cheers!

(I promise pics and a real post soon)

Girls Can't Play Clubs

Hello Everyone! Just back from a loooong day in the field (9:30-7). We were down to one bag of bones to catalog but after today we brought back six or seven more. Not all of them are full, but it still means work, work, work! Mathias is feeling a little crunch because he now has to go through all of the bones we’ve cataloged and start cutting chunks out of certain ones. He hopes to take back a few hundred samples with him. His girlfriend arrives tomorrow (another Ancient DNA gal) and will be extremely helpful in accomplishing all of the work.

Before I continue I feel like I should give a small apology to the grammatical state of these posts. Most of the time I write them in between showering and dinner or sometimes before showering (which means in a hurry). I do not edit my posts and now that I’ve gone back and read some of them I realize how many mistakes are there and sort of broke out in a cold sweat. I hope the amazing pictures and awesomeness of my words has tricked you all into thinking this is writing gold, but if it hasn’t I apologize and promise that I normally edit.

The night before last a few of us headed back into the town to the Pit to watch The James Murdoch Band for their last performance. It was just as good as the previous night, and the guys were giving it their all even though they had a THIRTY HOUR NON-STOP road trip home directly after. They had a cool green mini school bus, but that wouldn’t make 30 hours in a row any easier. After buying their CDs, we wished them luck and sent them off.

We stopped at four different sites today in the gold fields. We had great timing for all of them really, getting there when water was being shut off so we could see things, or leaving just before the rain. It was great. At Dominion we fed Slim Jim the Female Feral Fox some jerky and she followed us around for the remainder of our time. We also located a large ash (tephra) deposit and collected as much as possible before a huge ice chunk fell nearby and we rannn out of there.

Saw another porcupine on the road but alas, he was another one that was not photogenic. They are so cool looking in the wild though. We took a small detour in between a few sites and drove up to King Soloman’s Dome, which is the highest point in the Dawson Area. It was cloudy but you could still see the amazing landscape of the Yukon. Tyler took a panorama shot and when he patches it together I will definitely pass it along to you all.

To end today’s post I would like to talk about a special animal that every single person warned me about when I first told people I was going to the Yukon. Every single person commented on the mosquitoes and how bad they would be, even my eye doctor! I have been very surprised, I can count the number of bites I have received almost on one hand. I do not know if it is the peppermint soap and shampoo I have been using or what, but they have really left me alone. They aren’t too bad, no swarms, no real buzzing. Some days have been worse than others, but I have to say, I like the Dawson mosquito population. Wasps are another story…

Until next time! Cheers!

So You Think You Can Dance PaleoGlacial Edition

As I began this post it suddenly started pouring down rain. It had been threatening all day but was quite nice, and now there are large puddles all over and it is still coming down. Luckily, someone was cooking and was able to cover the bones as it began, so they shouldn’t be too wet. This particular batch has had some unfortunate time spent on the tarp, with us forgetting about them twice and they being soaked twice and having to dry out. Oops.

Weather also caused a huge headache for two of our group this morning. Britta and Duane were headed off to Fairbanks for some important work and were already stretched for time. Duane happened to read the highway report this morning and apparently last evening the road (yes, the ONLY road) was completely washed out. They were estimating 3-4 days before it opens. This is the road that continues once you cross on the ferry by the house. Duane and Britta had to make a decision: Drive down to Whitehorse and connect with a different highway and drive up to Fairbanks that way (turning what would normally be an 8 hour trip into a 16 hour trip), or wait until Thursday for the next flight to Fairbanks. They actually went for the former, choosing the drive because it would save them a day overall.

Yesterday after a successful day in the field some of us headed in to the Pit to hear The James Murdoch Band. Tyler actually went to jr high and high school with the lead singer/band leader (James, who actually goes by Alex). They were amazing! Totally surreal to see them playing at this run-down dump because they were seriously good. You couldn’t even tell that they were missing their bass player. They took turns playing bass during the show. It went on until about 2:30 and then we were kicked out of the bar so they could close it. The band would come hang out with us during the breaks so we got to talk and get to know them. Super fun. We are headed back tonight but will probably consume less beer this time. They do have a website/itunes section and I highly recommend their stuff. They even stopped by this afternoon to take a look at the bones and tusks!

Bones are still being found at all three sites but we finally feel like we have a handle on the cataloging process. Mathias is going to be taking samples next week so I will probably take over all cataloging while he and Susie sample. We did run into a small “snafu” with the nail polish. Apparently there is only one place in Dawson for nail polish and we bought them out two weeks ago. We ended up having to get a clear “sparkly” bottle just until Friday when we will get some more from our visitors from Whitehorse (coming up for the festival). I will try and take a picture of it in the light.

Matias and I also found a great way to make some money for future research. Yesterday we found a bone that had a thing of ice in it. The ice came out and it was perfectly clear and smelled fine. I totally licked it. Then we decided that we should go ahead and set up a bottling company and sell people 25,000 year old ice water. It would work. People are crazy like that. Any takers? I'll give you a good price!

Well, I’m off to buy my own ticket for the Dawson Music Festival. Unfortunately, this means that I will not being going to Whitehorse for the archaeology dig. I’m not too disappointed though, because I’m still having a great time. I should probably run into a few of the stores and buy some of the nicer things just in case, because lots and lots of people come up here for this weekend. Time is running out too… phew, too much stuff to do!

Cheers!

Bear Repellent is NOT to Be Used Like Bug Repellent.

It has been a slow day around here, although a bit of work was accomplished While I’m updating you all on here I’m also trying to update Twitter with a pic of the work accomplished today, but the internet (even the landline connection!) it not working and making me frustrated. Ah, must have patience.

The bone contest is officially over. Andi was correct, the bone in the picture is actually a mastodon vertebra. There are quite a number of differences between the mammoth and mastodon, but in terms of bone identification the differences are subtle. It was sort of a trick question, but not really because I wasn’t picky about the answer. Andi, you will be receiving something exciting for winning the contest.

Yesterday we took half a day for cataloging bones and then half a day in the field. After searching for an hour at Dominion, I headed with Tyler and Britta to a (new to me) site called Paradise Falls. They monitored there last year and Britta did collections, but she wanted to see how it has changed. We were turned around a bit because in the mining areas, roads can change almost daily depending on where stuff needs to be, so after months of mining, it took a bit to get to the correct spot. The faces of the exposures were lots of fun to climb (while Britta and Tyler were actually working), and I got very dirty.

(Can you see Britta in this pic? Look closely!)

Today the weather was nasty in the morning and a cool wind has come over the valley. Mathias and I unfortunately left our bones uncovered last night when we went to bed because the weather was nice and sunny (at eleven pm). Of course, we learned a lesson the hard way like the boot incident, because overnight it poured and poured. We spent an hour getting water off the tarp and out from under the bones, but luckily they were all labeled and even had nail polish on them so none of the whiteout became compromised. We learned our lesson though.

Because the day was so slow a few of us drove up to what is called the Midnight Dome, which is the huge dome overlooking the city and the Yukon River. I’m glad we drove and can’t figure out why people would participate in the Midnight Dome Run in a few weeks. I guess it’s like the La Luz Trail Run in Albuquerque. Craziness. The views were pretty good even though it was still a bit cloudy. We have some nice pictures. On the way home we stopped at the Dawson City Information “Museum” and took some brochures and pictures. There was a small funny section about “collecting fossils”. The first thing it said to do was “Take a Breath.”.

Tonight we may be headed down to the Pit because one of Tyler’s friends is going to be performing. We’ve been playing his stuff on the drive out to the sites in anticipation and I like it. If anyone would like to look him up it is called The James Murdoch Band. Hopefully it won’t be as crazy as last night for some of my coworkers.We may stay home tonight so some of them can *ahem* recuperate and go tomorrow. He's playing for three days.

Cheers!

P.S. If anyone is wondering about this title, Tyler told us a story about a group of German tourists who did in fact use Bear Repellent as Bug Repellent. True story. Don't do it.

That is NOT Going in the Truck.

Has it really been two days since my last post? It seems as though they are starting to meld together quickly now. A few more posts and I’ll be back! Whoa. Things to look forward to in the future include going on a paddle boat (saw it leave today and I really want to look into going on it), going on a hike on the other side of the river, and the Dawson City Music Festival.

We all just finished a delightful dinner of fresh Arctic Charr. Oh my, it was amazing. It was caught and prepared this morning, and then we put it on the grill with oil, salt, pepper, and lemon. With salad (with local veggies) and pasta (that included local mushrooms found in the field), it was quite the dinner. And Mathias and I didn’t even ruin it by having ice cream a few hours ago when we returned from the field. There is one place in town and although it doesn’t serve homemade ice cream (it is Nestle), they do make their own waffle cones each day. And dip some of them in chocolate. So the lack of homemade ice cream is almost worth it.

We spent the morning doing more cataloging. If you follow me on Twitter, you would have seen a video I posted today about the process, made by Tyler. Here it is for anyone else that would like to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3H5bOFxGTk&feature=youtu.be

This video was shot over the span of many, many hours, even if the sun doesn’t change angle much. Notice that I do change clothes too, and that’s because it was actually shot over two days.

I have more wildlife to add to my Yukon sight-seeing collection. A porcupine! He was right by the road on the way home and very cute. Others in the group have reported moose and baby, bears and babies, porcupines and babies, and a lynx. No wolf sightings. Don’t think mountain lions are up this way either.

Yesterday Mathias and I headed into town to try and find some important things at the hardware store. The store looks a little puny on the outside, but it is huge inside! There was quite the selection. We bought them out of Rubbermaid containers at 23 dollars each. We paid with a purchase order from the Yukon Government. Meaning, they gave us the total, we filled out this form, and that was that. Actually, the same works at the grocery store right now. We check out, fill out a form, and go on. It is quite the system and everyone uses it around here. Beth was excited that she didn’t have to leave us cash for a month.

Mathias and I also saw the sensational Dawson City Airport yesterday when we dropped Hailey off for her return home and picked up some air freight that arrived for Duane. There was one counter, one person for the airline Air North, the only airline there. I felt a little bad taking up the guy’s time for the air freight when he had a (small) line of customers checking in for their flight, but he didn’t mind. Something noticeably absent in the airport: security screening. I hear that if they are going on another flight from Whitehorse, they have to go through security there. There was also a teeny little customs office for the once-a-week flight from Fairbanks.

Duane, Paul, and Fabrice came back from their Northern fieldwork today. Laundry was the first priority for them. Second priority was seeing all of our finds, including all of the tusks! Duane also mentioned that this is the most extensive collection/cataloging of Klondike fossils being undertaken in many, many years. I’m so lucky to be a part of it, especially because two weeks ago I knew squat about bones, fossils, and the Klondike. Wow.

And finally, a new bone contest! I have finally figured out the blog settings, and now anyone that would like to participate in the contest may. Sorry about that last time...So that you don’t have to look back at previous posts, here are the kinds of animals we have been finding (not in any order): caribou, bison, horse, mammoth, mastodon, saber-tooth cat (awesome), arctic fox, ground squirrel, sheep. If you guess any of those, you will have a 1 in 9 chance of being right. At least 50% right, because you also need to guess what part of the animal it is. Here’s a hint, it’s not a toe bone. It’s also darker at the bottom because it is wet. That has nothing to do with identification. If you have any questions about it, let me know. Let the commenting begin!

Cheers!

And I Got It On My Shorts.

I am currently on a puppy high that has nothing to do with fieldwork. We were just walking home from dinner in town, and came across a very friendly mama border collie in the road. The dogs in the Yukon have been pretty happy overall. I think it’s all of the fresh air and lack of leashes. Dogs roam free all over Dawson, but most have collars, as did this dog. She was very happy to receive some scratches and then run back and forth between the two groups of us walking. I noticed she was nursing and after a quick search saw a puppy face from a nearby fence. Upon further investigation there were six extremely adorable puppy faces looking at us with excitement, and one very unimpressed cat looking at us through the window.

I have to admit that the last two days have been a very nice change from all of the driving. Mathias and I have worked really hard to start cataloging bones, and have taken time off from visiting the field sites. The others have brought us bones from the far places, and we’ve gone to a nearby one a few times, but not much of the long, long trips in the car. It is very satisfying to finish a site or a day of bones for cataloging. Tomorrow we have to take a trip to the hardware store because we have filled up 4 rubbermaid containers and are not even halfway finished. Today we did a time-lapse video of the process, and when it is uploaded I will let everyone know where to find it.

Speaking of the process, someone (Hi, Jenny!) asked me what we use the clear nail polish for. I thought that I would explain it a little more. Each day we get bags of bones. We make sure they are labeled and put them under a huge tarp. When we have time/space/energy, we pull out bags based on day and site. The bones all get a bath (in really cold hose water), and some get a needed scrub. Then I sort them out and lay them on the tarp to dry. Mathias goes through and puts whiteout on an area that he is NOT going to sample (I can say more about that later) and I go through when that is dry and give them all a Field ID with a sharpie, based on site, year, and number of samples (for instance, today on a bone I wrote EL-10-223 (for EL Claim, Dominion Creek, year 2010, and it was the 223 bone that I wrote on my list). Then we use clear nail polish and cover all of the whiteout and sharpie so it stays put. Sometime during the process we have to identify what the bone is and what species it is from. Tyler will photograph each bone, and then it goes in the container until it will be taken to Whitehorse.

Yesterday after the World Cup game we headed over to the health center, but not because someone was sick. Grant had called Tyler because the head of an archaeological salvage dig going on there had found an elk antler, unmodified, and wanted to know if we wanted it. We walked over to check it out. The dig seems like fun, and I really liked their screen setups. They will only be there for a little longer, I think until Friday. A salvage dig means that they are planning on expanding the currently health center site and wanted to make sure that nothing historical or archaeological would be disturbed or lost in the construction process. The archaeologists put “test pits” around the area to see if anything comes up. Luckily for the health center, nothing has been found so far.

We had two new members join our team yesterday, although one is only with us for a few days. Britta is a geologist from University of Alberta who studies tephra, the volcanic ash layers in the Yukon. Hailey, from the University of Alberta by way of the UK, was her assistant in the field for the last 2.5 weeks in Fairbanks. They have both been super fun to have around, although Britta seems to have some bad luck following her regarding wasps… A few days back she was hiking to a site in Fairbanks and was actually stung a few times on the eyelid. She had a semi-bad reaction, meaning that she had no problems breathing, but her face was very swelled and painful. Yesterday, after being here for less than an hour, another wasp stung her right under her eye on the same side as the last one. She is still swollen and can’t believe her luck. It didn’t stop her from being in the field today by 9.

Last night, after all of the wasp excitement, we all headed into town for the second part of Dawson Idol. It was at the Pit, the glorious dark, dirty, old and charming pub in the heart of the city. We had no idea what to expect, but I definitely wasn’t planning on spending four hours there. The event was hosted by the Radio Community Association as a fundraiser. Monday night was People’s Choice, where the audience paid a few bucks for a vote or two and voted on their favorite act. Last night was Judge’s Choice. They never really introduced the three judges, but they were all young guys. There were some acts, not much talent. It lasted quite long until the judges announced the Top 3 and then the winner. A fan favorite was Chedda’ (yes, his nickname is Cheddar. No word on how he received the name), who was extremely drunk (and very likely, always is), and sang a great song about women while playing the guitar. He really was good and we were all a little shocked we could understand most of the lyrics. The eventual winner was a girl named Tess. She had some technical difficulties at the beginning of her performance but was really talented at playing the guitar and singing. Her voice was deep and smooth, although I can’t remember off the top of my head what exactly she played. I do remember everyone sang along…

In fossil news, they found another tusk today at the same location as the other. It is in fairly good shape, but actually does NOT seem to be the other side of the first one. It is broken near the tip and the cross section of the break leads Tyler to believe that it isn’t mammoth. It may be a mastodon. He is looking for it online as I write actually.

Cheers Everyone!

Ok, I just HAD to add this last picture in. There is a famous Yukon/Northern artist who has paintings all around town. Almost every restuarant/bar/hotel, ect has a painting from this guy. The Pit has my favorite painting by far. Here is your WARNING: the picture below is very inappropriate and definitely rated NC-17. You made need to click on it to enlarge it. Enjoy.

I Choose Clubenheizens.

As I blog tonight the sun is streaming in my window. It is past 11 right now. Joel claims that he saw the sun actually go beneath the horizon last night, but the sky was still very lit up. I think the light it making it difficult for me to get up in the morning. Going to bed has been fine, but actually getting out of bed is increasingly difficult. Or, it could be the chilly air, the rain, the working all the time…

I think the blog posts may dwindle to every other day. I just don’t want things to be too repetitive for you readers. I feel like it’s been a lot of: I get up. Drive forever to get to the site. Get stuck in the mud. Find bones. See wildlife. Come home. Do something fun, eat dinner, catalog bones, or blog. Don’t get me wrong, I am still having a GREAT time, even though it is repetitive. Give me some mud and bones and I am totally good. Maybe spice up breakfast or dinner out on the town, but I am good. For you all, however, I could see how it would be a little old after a while. You are welcome for me deciding this a week and a half in and not three weeks later.

Another reason for blogging less frequently is that the internet is sporadic. I could use the Ethernet, and sometimes if I am frustrated with the wireless I will, but usually I just use it to upload pictures for you guys because there are many of us who are using it. It isn’t really a big problem, it just comes and goes as it pleases, which leaves me to pressing refresh/connect many, many times during use.

Joel and I rode the ferry across the (Yukon) river yesterday. It is free, and is the only way to get out of Dawson other than the road we came in on. It is also quite tiny, but fun. The workers were really nice and cracking jokes with us. I think we will ride again. It goes all the time, 24 hours a day. There was also a huge canoe race here where the teams came up the river (with the current) about 750 km from Whitehorse. I saw on a newspaper that a Texas team was tied for first (there was a picture of the team in their canoe, I think there were six of them), but not sure what the final outcome was. They literally paddle non-stop for days for this competition. I think it officially ended yesterday, but that gave people five days to make it here.

A mammoth tusk update: We became very popular with some of the locals and other people staying at our cabins (there are eight cabins around here, and they are all usually filled). There was a group of nuclear engineers from Tennessee who had driven their motorcycles from Denver who were very, very impressed. We first met them on their first stop here, and Beth had a discussion about the validity of global warming with them. They drove up North for a few days and returned, and took many pictures of us with the tusk. They even said we were some of the most interesting people they have ever met on any motorcycle trip. The owner of the land where the tusk came from lives across the road and came to talk with Tyler about it the night we brought it home. Luckily for us, Stewart and his wife are huge supporters of the Yukon paleontology projects, and especially the paleontology/mining museum in the works for Dawson, so he left it in our care until further notice.

Another big “find” also occurred today. Mathias and I were cataloging, which entails whiteout, sharpies, clear nail polish, a field book, and a bone identification book. Neither of us has had a real paleontology course and are definitely becoming skilled (ie, faster) at identification. Mathias was having a hard time with a bone because it was different, and it turns out, we think it is actually from an extinct large cat! We’ve contacted an expert on the subject and hope to hear back from him. We took some hilarious photos with Mathias and the bone and me pretending to be a saber-tooth cat (we think it is actually a leg bone from one of those guys!), and I’ll let you know if it ends up on Nat Geo again. Even better, I will try to get a copy and post it on here for you all.

We stopped by a few new sites today. One was actually closed so we could realllllly stop, but another seems like it will be good. They have found ancient camels there in the past. I definitely want to be in on that. The miner also has invited us over for a night of fun, so that will be something to look forward too.

It has rained and rained here. Svetlana spends a lot of time searching for mushrooms in the surrounding areas. Even though she’s been here previously, she said she’s never found mushrooms before, and we’ve had them almost every night. A restaurant is buying/serving local morel mushrooms, which brings back memories of my old house in Washington, Missouri, where I was too chicken to try the wrinkly mushrooms found in vast quantities. I probably won’t eat them now either, I’d sell them to the restaurant.

We have decided that we need at least a little time off and are trying to plan accordingly around the next few days. I believe we’ve gone with Wednesday, because Germany is playing Spain and we can’t miss that game. We’ve also been invited to see the slucing process from Stewart’s mines, which is the place where they bring all of the paydirt, put it through a sive with lots and lots of water, and eventually separate the gold from the crap. Tyler estimated that Stewart needs to get about $20,000 in gold everyday to make a profit (because of everything else he’s paying for, expenses, workers, ect), so it will be awesome to see that much gold (which really isn’t that much!).

In terms of the contest, I’ve only had three guesses, from Mom, Dad, and Christina. I will bring you all something for at least ATTEMPTING the challenge, but will tell you all the answer to this one. Remember the animals we usually (99% of the time) find are mammoth, bison, horse, and caribou. The bone above it the phalange (toe) bone of a bison. Not too shabby, eh? I will have another “Name that Bone” contest later, even with the low participation rate, just because I think it is fun but super nerdy.

Hope you all had a wonderful, safe, Independence Day! I was the only American here, so I worked! Yay!

Cheers!

I am the Queen of Stuck

Ok, you caught me. I didn’t post yesterday. Hope you weren’t all waiting all night for me to post!! :)

Yesterday began on a sort of sad note. Beth left for Whitehorse, leaving us a tab at the grocery store and good wishes. She heads to France today for a conference and will be missed!! She is the whole reason I am here, and I can’t thank her enough. Duane, Paul, and Fabrice also left. They headed for a site outside of Fairbanks, Alaska to take samples. Duane was explaining that they were taking a helicopter in and out each day, and he estimated that the whole trip would cost about $50,000 for the week! Yikes!

Mattias and I took some great pictures at the pharmacy, which are shown above. We bought out the store in clear nail polish and whiteout, because the bags of bones that need to be cataloged just keep coming!

We then headed to Quartz Creek. We searched around for new bones, and checked on old ones that were stuck in the permafrost. We helped take samples of squirrel middens, and then Tyler filmed a funny scene where I am excited to show everyone the middens while right next to the emerging (complete) mammoth tusk.

For dinner we all decided to go out because it was a smaller group. The sangria was great.

Today, Mattias and I became Paleontologists of the week, as we returned to Quartz Creek and excavated the mammoth tusk!! It is SO COOL. It is HUGE, and it just makes me in awe of how big the mammoths must have been. It was really stuck in the ice, so we had to divert water/flowing mud over to it with ice picks, and literally chisel away around the tusk. It took about 2 hours of work yesterday and another 2 or 3 today. It curls a little at the end, which Mattias said may have been from the mammoths using the tusks to clear away snow.

We learned that mammoth tusks are sort of controversial around here. For most kinds of work, including archaeology and paleontology, there is always some sort of politics. According to Canadian law, all bones/artifacts found anywhere in Canada belong to the Crown (yes, the Queen of England). Here in the Yukon, miners get around this by just not reporting finds and keeping them. We were told today that our intact mammoth tusk could have easily fetched $30,000 on the black market. Holy crap, right? Everything boils down to money, as always. Sigh. I do not know where the tusk will be stored until it goes to Whitehorse to the Yukon government.

This morning, before going out in the field, we enjoyed a World Cup game of Germany vs Argentina, with Mattias being extremely pleased with Germany’s performance. While we were driving to the site (Have I mentioned that the sites are between 1 to 1.5 hours EACH WAY? I spend a lot of time in the car.) Mattias introduced me to a German rapper on his ipod. Not bad overall.

Tonight or tomorrow we are headed into town again to the showing of How To Train Your Dragon. The theater has shows once a day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so we aren’t sure how busy it is going to be, but I’m excited.

I definitely need a shower because this muck really, really smells. :s

Cheers!

No, Officers, this is Not Cocaine...It's Volcanic Ash!

Well, the contest is still up for grabs. Not even an attempt so far! Perhaps you all are scared at failing? Do I need to say what is up for grabs before people become competitive? Maybe I should give something for the most creative answer... Maybe people are actually just looking at the pictures and not reading the blog anyway? :)

I hope this isn't getting too repetitive. Beth said she doesn't want me to be bored so we should take some days off and see some things. I know the Dawson City Music Festival is in a few weeks and is supposed to be ca-razy, but overall, I'm not feeling bored!

We went down to Quartz Creek today, where there was monitoring going on. We began by recording some things in situ, and walking around in the muck. After hours of monitoring, when the water is turned off there is usually a nice collection of things around. This time it was no different. Lots of bones and a mammoth tusk, still stuck in the ice. We will be going back tomorrow to see if any more of it has emerged. One thing about tusks (bison, mammoth, whatever), they.are.STINKY. Stay on your fingers after several washings stink.

I actually had to be pulled out of the mud today. I was very, very stuck and Tyler was nice enough to come help me (he had a major wipeout on the ice with an impressive camera save earlier in the day). Eventually, I had to stand on one of his feet with the other up in the air as he pulled and pulled on my empty boot to try to get it unstuck. I could see it happening but wasn't able to avoid it. In the end, I stayed relatively clean.

Another night is being spent cataloging and sampling some of the last few days of bones. I think we still have something like nine bags to go through... Cheers? :)

His Girlfriend is an Expert on Giant Beavers. No, really.

The day started off slowly because Beth is working on a manuscript about ancient polar bears that needs to be written. As she said, it was due 6 months ago, but she had a baby 6 months ago, so there. We said goodbye to Grant, as he is headed back to Whitehorse, and left for Dominion Creek.

The monitor was on full power when we arrived but Laurie and Mark were taking an early lunch. Slim Jim was also having a snack, and it turns out she likes nachos. Strange but funny. The guys started work again and Beth asked if we could monitor for them until Sandy arrived. The monitor is so cool! It is really powerful and when you are in charge of it and blasting away at the permafrost it leaves you quite giddy.

Unfortunately it was not a good bone day. It also poured on us for a while and then was freezing. I was able to successfully use my new muck boots and feel as though they are quite broken in. They were great. It was nice to be able to just walk across the water rather than trying to jump or walk a mile to find a place to cross.

After dinner we walked into town and were debating between ice cream or beer, until Fabrice said “Well, I’m just going to do both.” So most of us did have both. I couldn’t help but think how nerdy some of the conversations that I overheard tonight were. For sure.

And now, a competition. I just want to keep people entertained while following this blog. What I am proposing are various “Name this bone and animal” competitions. Not too difficult. I will put up pictures of the bone like the two above, and the first person who leaves the correct answer of what kind of bone and what animal it is from will win something exciting from the Yukon. If you do not live in NM, I will send you something! Good luck!! (hint: for the animals, I have talked about what kind of things we are finding in previous posts)

Tomorrow is Canada, Beth’s last day, and Paul’s (a soil scientist) first day.

Cheers!