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.