Dig so far

Hi Team,
So we're about half way through the 2011 Flat Rocks season already.  Hard to believe.
The first week we tried out a new site, "Swim O'clock rock", 100m down the beach from Flat Rocks.  We picked this site because we had found a large number of bones on the surface and believed it to be an ancient log jam.  We mapped it extensively and broke up quite a bit of rock.  We were not expecting it to yield as many bones as the main site, and it didn't.  A useful experiment, though.
We started with some cold and slightly damp weather, which meant that we only really started having swim o'clock breaks on the beach this week. We have been sharing our pond with a couple of small rays which is way cool.  The weather forecast for the rest of the week is not looking good, either.
We've been working "Bridge East" and removing overburden from "Far East" and "Mid East" this week.  A lot of drilling, hammering and hauling of sandstone in our wheelbarrow.  We even had to buy a new wheelbarrow since ours was falling apart under the strain.



The Bum Biter

We have a new dig towing vehicle, the "Bum Biter" ute leant to us by Mike C.  Now the real problem: finding vollies brave enough to drive it!

We have had a couple of trips to Wonthaggi Hospital casualty this dig (which we're not happy about: we pride ourselves on our safety awareness), including with John our excavation manager who has had to go home with a handful of stitches.  He is much missed, and not only because of his uncanny ability to make our reluctant pumps sing!

The new house is two storeys, and we are discovering that much of our cutlery and mugs end up downstairs when we want them upstairs, and upstairs when we want them downstairs.  And, since it is a new house and we're not really good at knowing exactly what we need, I keep phoning Nicole with requests for things such as serving spoons and cutting boards.

The Wyatts who owned the house we used to rent generously gave us a bunch of towels and sheets and other stuff that they no longer needed now that they have permanently moved in to Lavington street, and that has made things a bit easier!
Regular dig attendees will be delighted to learn that there are just as many jumping jacks in the backyard of the new house as there were in the old one.

Nicole has not been able to go down to site this year, so many thanks to the other "public liaison officers" who have stepped up - in particular Mike C, Kat and Lisa.

Anyway, great to catch up, but I need to go hit some rock with a hammer and find that elusive theropod jaw...

Wendy.