Field School - Parting Shots

So what can I say about Field School in closing?

Well, quite a bit actually but I’ll keep it short.

It truly was a learning experience (which, of course, it was meant to be). Many of my classmates have commented on how much they got out of the experience and I agree with them completely. There was a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun too. And I made some great friends in the process.

However, after 6 weeks it had to come to an end. Calling it quits was sad enough but I’ve got to show you what I found to be the most depressing aspect of the whole field school adventure.

Note that everyone in the photo has a shovel in hand. What they are doing is back-filling Block 2. Everything which we excavated during our time there had to be filled back in before we left!

If this had been a project which we would be returning to in the near future, our excavation units would have been lined with plastic before doing this. That way we could more easily remove the back-fill, and pick up from where we left off. But, at this point in time, there are no definite plans to return to this site. So, all the dirt we dug out had to go straight back into the units it came from. We had to leave the site in as close to its original condition as we could get it.

You really get an appreciation for all the work that was done when you get to this point. It doesn’t really seem like you’ve moved much dirt when you’ve done it gradually over a period of weeks. But it’s a completely different story when you’ve got to move it all at one pop! Even with several of us working on it, back-filling Block 1 (our largest block) took more than half a day.

Here are before and after shots from Block 1, taken exactly a month apart …

And we had to do that with all 6 blocks. Bummer!

But enough of that. All in all, field school was a blast. We had a great time while we were there. Lots of good times and laughs. There were daily food fights at lunch time, which also included water balloons one day during the last week. And practical jokes such as Craig’s fart machine and Scott’s stinky boots (which I would have to explain in person – lol).

Here is a shot from ‘Craig Day,’ where everyone on his crew came to work dressed like him. Craig (one of our staff people) is second from the left.

And with that I’m gonna wrap up the Field School chatter. I’ll probably come back to it at least once at a later date (trying to get a group photo to post) but, for now, I’ve run out of time for this topic. Hope everything has made sense.

Okay, one last photo to end with. Here’s Adrienne and Aisha dancing in the rain. :)