I love the smell of bobcat pee in the morning

The critter that has been spraying in the Room 28 quonset hut covering has eluded the Park Service critter-cam, but we all suspect it’s a bobcat.  Why?  You know that smell that tells you the kitty litter box is overdue for a cleaning?  That’s exactly what Room 28 has smelled like the last few days.  Park Archaeologist Dabney Ford has suggested it might be TWO bobcats fighting over whose territory the Quonset hut really belongs to.  Last night, the critter apparently decided that a large bag we keep our project plastic bags in posed a threat—and he sprayed it; since that bag was in the bottom of the room space, he is (or they are) apparently concerned about more than just the unexcavated part of Room 28A that is under the tent.  Hopefully the critter cam will catch him in the act tonight. 

In addition to the excavation of Room 28, the crew has been involved in Site Condition Assessment with funding from the National Park Service under a contract to UNM and Dr. Chip Wills.  Dr. Wills has been doing site condition assessments in Chaco for four years now and has developed a really efficient method for completing the process.  The crew has to go off-trail in order to do the work of finding sites in Chaco and assessing their conditions today.  But going off-trail attracts attention in a park where this is not allowed, so in order to signal that they are WORKING, the crew wears bright orange or green vests, carries an NPS radio to communicate with the Park Service personnel about where they are going and how long they are out, and generally keeps everyone apprised of their actions.   Despite the vests, visitors to Chaco often see people walking off trail and report the crew.  It’s hard to imagine that tourists going off-trail would wear neon vests, but it apparently can happen.  So we felt the crew needed some additional identifying clothing to distinguish them from people breaking the law.  See photo below.

We spent today mapping the room and cleaning out the postholes—Pepper had pulled the beams from all but a couple of them already, but they are very well preserved and lined postholes.  Today we had a lot of visitors:  Dr. Bruce Huckell came up from UNM for a few hours—it was great to have his perspective on our work in Room 28 and some of the chipped stone materials we are finding.  The SMU field school visited led by Dr. Kit Nelson.  Finally, Bob Dunnington from UNM visited to assess our safety.  He gave us the go-ahead to keep working and cut back a part of the profile and the balk covering the door to Room 32.  So we have some work ahead in the next few days.  We won’t take tomorrow off, so we’ll miss seeing fireworks, but somehow being in Chaco is even better.

Jennie Sturm, Leigh Cominiello, unknown person, and Chip Wills model latest fashion for Site Condition Assessment.  The hope is that someone reporting the crew as wearing neon vests AND tall hats might tip off the Law Enforcement group that it is our crew.  Thanks to Jim von Haden for the photograph.