At this point I’ve been working in CA for two months. Things are going pretty well and I’m
glad I took the position. I’ve
adapted decently to living in the desert in the middle of nowhere, my two
roommates and I get along and haven’t yet tried to kill each other in our
sleep, and I think I’m progressing decently with the work. I’ve started the survey of the off site
storage facility and brought up about 20 boxes of materials that have been frozen
and thawed a few times and am now starting to sort through them in greater
detail to actually find out if what I thought before would be important still
is. So far most still seems
important. There are site
survey reports of archaeological digs, maps, some analyses, and I’ve found about 40
pictures from a collection Jessica was afraid was completely missing (we’re supposed to have about 5,000).
Pretty soon I’ll be entering the sorted work into our software program,
PastPerfect, which will not only be good for me as a new system to learn and put
on my resume but will mean that I can (theoretically) connect artifacts and
their paperwork. This is exciting
because it’s what I came out here to do.
Most of the artifacts we have now are separated from their paperwork so
we don’t know any of their stories. Where were they found, when were they
found, what else was there, what could it mean? So getting things tied together again will be the highlight
of my work here. It’s different
from what I’ve learned in school and other internships, but I’m enjoying
looking at archives in a slightly different way. My other fun project is working with our lantern slide
collection. Every Saturday I take
a break from paper records and work on cleaning our collection of nearly 800
lantern slides, re-housing them into archival envelopes, and cataloging them to
be found easily. At some point we
will start getting them digitized and put into Pastperfect as well. Lots of possibilities once that
happens! I’ll probably do a blog
just on the lantern slides later on.
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| Prickly pear cactus |
On my personal list, I’ve done a few hikes and learned that
while I enjoy hiking, I’m still very much a beginner and need to stick to the
bunny slopes (so to speak). We
discovered the hard way that I get altitude sickness so it looks like I’ll be
left out of some of the more interesting hikes because they will be at high
elevations and I apparently can’t handle that. I’ve seen a red tailed hawk, jackrabbits, and (the highest
on my bucket list) a coyote. The
coyote reminded me quite forcefully to always bring my camera when I go
outside. I went out of the museum
one morning to walk down to the road and open the gate and there he was,
standing in the parking lot. We
looked at each other and then he trotted off. I stayed put, watched him go out of site and knew that
was going to be a good day. And
kicking myself for not having my camera to take a picture of a coyote maybe 20
feet away from me. What are the
chances of my getting close enough for another shot like that? Or even seeing
one again?
Well the answer to that is: better than before. I’m going home for a month in December
but then get to come back out and keep working here for awhile. We haven’t set an end date for my
project, but I’ll get farther into it at least. And I’ll work on finding a job that will pay more than room
and board. Sadly, some things in
life are still all about money, no matter how much we wish it was
otherwise. Because really, it can’t
get much better than this.
Building an archive from the ground up, helping get a museum going from
the ground up. Living in a place
with so little light pollution that at night you can sit in the hot tub and see
the Milky Way and all kinds of stars.
Hikes and coyotes. How can
my next job possibly top this?
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