Day 12

Today was slightly different as we all knew we would be going home for a three day break. Which provided mixed emotions as many of us enjoy the atmosphere, the camp and all that we are learning.

Today we prepared a Wendat Feast.  Our meal for the feast included corn on the cob, squash, duck, rabbit, white fish, salmon, chicken, beans and wild rice with leeks and wild ginger used for flavour.

We all worked together to prepare and cook the meal. We were very fortunate to have special guest who taught us some basic knowledge about their aboriginal culture. The feast was a success the food was exceptional no one left hungry.

After we the feast everyone packed and prepared to go home to do laundry.

We are all looking forward to returning for another week of camp.

Cheers
Keane

Day 11

Today we spent the entire day with Dr. John Steckley and Ted and discussed many of the practices of the Wendat culture and the problems and turmoils that both the Wendat and the Europeans would have faced when the met.

This day was extraordinarily educational and fun. We gained a good grasp on this topic and I think many of us are itching to get our hands on a least one of his books to further widen our minds.

We finished off this day by preparing for our Wendat feast by collecting wild ginger, leeks and pounding corn.

The day also included a practice Bell Ringer test - which was quite interesting due to the "ensemble"  worn by our younger staff.

Cheers
Keane

Day 9

On day 9 we had our last Archaic skills day, evolution - moving right along - and it rained yet again.

I decided to make a quiver ( arrow holder) out of cat tales. My quiver worked out well, I was not able to finish the entire thing as it is bigger (wider and taller) than the average woven basket.  

As the rain lasted a large portion of the day we all had a lot of time to talk and socialize as we were doing our specific tasks.

Have I mentioned the kitchen staff provides us excellent food which is not only tasty but also has a lot of variety - thank you.

Day 10

Today we worked on site again and we finished shovel shining two and started trowling which was of extreme excitement to everyone.

In the evening we were privileged enough to have a lecture given by  Dr. John Steckley. Dr John Steckley is a world expert in the Wendat  Language. His talk was absolutely brilliant and inspiring to all. He discussed the Wendat language and showed us how archaeologists and everyone can learn from it.

Cheers
Keane

On the seventh day - we did not rest, in fact we started living like it was the Archaic period all over again, so much for evolution.
Today Aldo led the archaic skills project where we chose an archaic skill that we wanted to learn. I choose to make an Atlatl and dart- which is a spear thrower. Other choices were to make a fire bow, basketry, twine or rope making, food and medicine and a fish trap.
My Atlatl worked well except for the fact that I ended it's life as I broke the spear point each time I threw it. Apparently the kitchen is feeding us to well.
Aldo has an exceptional gift for teaching this topic as do all the other staff in their fields of expertise it is truly enjoyable learning from them.
Day 8
Once again we are back at site and moving more dirt, although today we started shovel shining two however it was interupted by the heavy down pour. The down pour sent us back into the building to clean artifacts and left group B in the rain to complete their second day of Archaic skills.  We are all grateful for porches.

Cheers 
Keane 

We will skip apart about the technical difficulties and get on to the good stuff.

Day 5

On this day we had very interesting day in class with Ted and learnt about a number of important finds which are effecting the way we currently look at archaeology. Some of these were Monte Verde in Chili, Kennewick in Washington, Spirit Cave Man, the Paisley Caves and many other sites.

The second part of this day we were able to learn about different types of faunal - which are bones from Cathy and were lucky enough to have pop quiz.

Finally we ended off this day with an environmental hike based on Archaic era food led by Aldo.

Day 6

Moving right along, today we were back at the dig site yet again. Todays main aim was yet again to move as much dirt as possible as this end of the site is deeper than the rest.

Today we found a lot of white ware and more nails. Many of the nails we have found are horse shoe nails and long square nails. We also found a decent amount of vessel glass which is thick and has a distinct curvature or seam.

Cheers for now
Keane

First off I would like to apologize as we have had a few technical difficulties and I am catching up with the blogs on our break.

Today (Day 4) we were on site for the second time, which was an extreme pleasure. The experience of being on site is completely different from the classroom experience, as it is not entirely like anything else I have ever done. 

Throughout the day my square partner and I were mainly focused on screening as much dirt as possible so as to get down into the deeper layers by Friday. Today's find was not a glass button but a copious amounts of nails and fragments of pottery - such as white ware and course earthern ware.

The camp is divided into two groups. I am a part of group A. Currrently group A is working in eight squares which each have two people working in them. I feel a bit bad as I have a square which is located beneath a rather large tree whose shade I appreciate. In our day we spend approximately 5 hours working on site between 9am - 3:30, with two fifteen minute breaks at 10:30 and 2:30 to rehydrate and an hour long lunch break at twelve. Lunch is a nice break, everyone gets the chance to talk and share about what they have found in their squares, this gives us a great chance to see the big picture beyond our own square and time to get to know one another.

Cheers
Keane

Today was our day in the field. After we finished breakfast, we walked to the site, which didn’t take as much time as we thought it would. When we had got there, I had realised I forgot my camera, which made me sad for a short while. My solution. Asked Naomi to borrow her camera for the day. We were assigned square-partners and I got to be with Shamim, a friend I made on the Facebook page before the course started. We got one of the sites closest to the prime datum (the measuring point that doesn't move). It has A LOT of driveway cobblestone. It is a nightmare! We believe it may be a driveway that was made in the last 50 years or so. We and our neighbouring classmates (2 other pairs) have almost got to the end of the cobblestone layer. We found a few small artifacts. I found about 4 pieces of mortar, 2 piece of brick and 2 pieces of white-ware pottery. We did a lot shovel shining (1) and screening. Most of the time we were screening though. It was really hot, and it started to rain. It started with a few showers here in and out. Then, it was raining buckets. We all were running under the tent. Lots of funny moments. We decided to end it for the day, and walked back. The walk back, was longer then it was in the morning. T.T Well, we got back (gained 2 more additional mosquito bites, totalling to about 6 now) and we all took showers. After the showers, most of the girls in our group was washing our mud and sweat covered clothes in the sink. At this time the other group came in with cuts on their hands from flintknapping. They also got to use glass in addition to chert. The only thing that was significantly different from the two groups was that Group A have a tendency to get more hurt then our group. Oh well. Nicole seemed to get a large amount of glass shavings on her hand, that had cut her. We had dinner, then a debriefing of what happened today. We also were told we were going to get another assignment tomorrow. YAY! …

Right now, I’m in the lounge once again and from what we are told there is supposed to be a Northern Lights sorta thing today or tomorrow. There may also be a meteor shower on the 11^th or 12^th. We will see if we can see it this year. I hope so, it would make a great picture.

~Alex

Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Keane. I am going into grade 12 and I am  looking forward to spending the next three weeks learning about archaeology and digging up some interesting history.

We all have our talents and preferences mine would be history and more than anything else I enjoy being in the out of doors and learning about survival, and how Aboriginals lived and the techniques they used.  

I enjoy learning about any type of history my particular interests lie in European and Ancient civilizations. I enjoy a good debate on these and any other topic up for grabs.

I try to put to practice many of the things I have learned about survival techniques while camping. I have been very lucky as I am part of a scout troop where over the past number of years I have had leaders and mentors who have taught me many skills. In turn I enjoy helping out with the younger scouts teaching them what I know. I just spent the last week at camp up north and am now waiting for my laundry to dry so I can pack and be at Boyd for 9 am tomorrow.

Looking forward to learning many new skills, meeting new people and having a good time.

Cheers.
Keane