Birthday Hawtness

I turned 26 on Dec 8^th. Awesomeness, I must say. I got to spend the day with Jake; he skipped working today to stay home with me. He put the hinge clamps on the card table for me so I could silk screen some things and it made me giddy!!!!! FINALLY!!! YAY!!!!

We also went to dinner at Macaroni Grill with Jennifer, Katelyn, Tracie and the girls. I must say, the food was wonderful and I did make myself a little sick on the chocolate cake. I did share with everyone at the table and even ordered it with no nuts so Annabeth could enjoy some.

Not that birthdays are about getting presents at all, but I have to brag about it this year. I was given an awesome green fuzzy blanket by Katelyn which I have so obviously named Kermit. I am wrapped up in him as I type this up, he is keeping me toasty warm on this snowy evening. Tracie gave me this adorable blue rose necklace, LOVE IT!!!!! Annabeth totally rocked the house with a drawing of a flower, which is hanging on my fridge with all the other Annabeth originals! Jake’s folks sent me a replacement Aladdin Genie cookie jar (that passed away a few months ago after an incident with ants in the kitchen which I will not go into further), a really neat shirt from Prince Edward Island. They went on a cruise recently and got to go the Green Gables (places hand to her ear to hear the universal sigh, and “Gilbert”) and were nice enough to get me a magnet, stickers and a really cool t- shirt as previously mentioned. They also got me this book called Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson and I am so excited to read it!!!! Erika sent me a Michael’s gift card, which I am totally using once I get well enough to go out into the world of people. Jennifer totally floored me this year. She gave me Inception on DVD, a cute fedora, and a pair of feety panda pajamas! I have never received a gift that I never knew I wanted so badly until I actually had it. They are so me and I had to put them on and show them off!

Thank you to all who made my birthday a good one!

Hey let's go, hey let's go

When the Davis Family came to visit over the Thanksgiving holiday Brandon played with some soot sprites I had made a while back and absolutely LOVED them. (Side note: Soot Sprites are from My Neighbor Totoro, one of absolute all time favorite films) If he was in my house he had then in his hand. After he left I had an idea for some Christmas tree ornaments. After 1 trip to Michael’s, a few burnt fingers, and a day’s worth of labor I was the proud parent of 20 Santa Soot Sprites.


I think they turned out quit cute! I decorated my tree with some of them and dropped a few off for the Philip and Tracie Shafer family, mailed some to the Davis family, gave a few to Jennifer on her Annual Christmas Tree Decorating Party which took place tonight, and have a few to give to the Sam and Mary Jane Shafer family. Happy Holiday!

Long time no blog

It has been such a long time since I updated this poor blog. It must feel so neglected :(

Let’s see, what has been happening since my last update? Came back to the States, enjoyed quit a few meals at Cancun (the best Mexican food in town!), went back to work, stopped working, Jake went back to work at Best Buy, then he stopped working at Best Buy to spend his days slaving away at his dissertation in a 3 by 5 ft office for 12 hours a day. At least he has a window!

I have been applying to every job posting I can find. No, that’s not true. I have been applying to every job posting I can stomach the idea of working at. I made a vow a long time ago that if I could help it I would NEVER return to the world of retail. I don’t know if that will last much longer. So, at least until after Christmas I have put my job finding days on hold so that I can bust out all the Christmas presents I have to make with Jake and I being on a limited budget. Homemade gifts are the best right? (bites her nails hoping that everybody likes their gifts)

So far it has been going well. I have been silk-screening like made ever since Jake put the hinge clamps on the card table for me so I don’t have to have him at home helping me. I have a pretty good system set up, it just takes a little time and requires the bathroom window open which hasn’t been fun the last few days being so cold. I have burnt my fingers so many times with the hot glue gun I can’t feel them anymore. I was making good progress, that was until Jake got sick, and then he gave it to me this past week. I have spent the past few days on the couch with my laptop in tow catching up on some Fan Fiction and TV spoilers.

I have recently discovered that Criminal Minds is a pretty good show. Jake and I signed up for Netflix and we raced through the entire series and are now caught up and have to wait like everybody else for new episodes. I just read a spoiler for new Reid episode and can’t wait. I feel that the Reid fans have been gypped this season and most of season five. Bring it on! I have to say that Jake really does love me. When I start to watch a show, I become obsessed with it. With ION showing it every night and watching the DVDs it has been on basically nonstop for like 3 months. He has been so patient with me and listens to me ramble on and on about it that I KNOW he loves me because any other man would have told me to shut up long ago. Anyway, he has nothing to complain about now, we have moved onto Leverage in our Netflix Queue, another good show we never get to watch because we have no cable. I love you Netflix instant streaming!

Anyway, so I vow to update my blog more often, although I am not sure if anyone actually reads it. Doesn’t matter, it’s fun for me anyway.

back posting

I haven't been able to update the blog for the past few weeks. So I have posted the last few posts today, but they spanned over the course of a month. We should be leaving Pucon on Sunday. Finally!

slow internet

The internet card has not been working for the last week or so. We have been driving into the town just so we can check our email. We are sitting in the truck as I send this email. Sigh.

We hope everyone had a good Easter! We enjoyed the photos from the Shafer get together. Jake and I spent Easter washing artifacts. We tried to listen to conference online, but the internet card could not handle the streaming audio, so we had to wait a day and download the audio files. So, we heard Saturday’s sessions on Sunday. We really enjoyed conference this year. Jake especially enjoyed Elder Bednar’s talk where he said that archeology can’t prove faith.
For our Easter meal I made chocolate chip pancakes topped with strawberries and whipped cream. I also made Jake some peanut butter cups. He loves Reese’s cups! He ate them all.

Not much else to report. We are still washing, photographing, etc. Hopefully we will finish with it in the next 2 weeks or so. Jake and I are feeling a bit of cabin fever….yeah, I said it. We are really tired and are praying the next month goes by quickly.

So, we are still here. No more earthquakes, at least not this week. No volcanic eruptions. We are still waiting to hear about where we need to take the artifacts when we are done. Jake is waiting to hear from about 5 people on various things and none of them have emailed him back. We don’t really want to lug these artifacts all over the country just trying to figure out where they go!

We are so happy to hear that the Shafer family (Sam, Mary Jane, Bow Harrison, Kate-lin Mae, and Noah) made it home safely! We are sad to miss the big homecoming. He looks so stinking cute! We can’t wait to meet him and see all of you!

Mandy & Jake

FIlling it all back up

Friday of last week we finished up the digging portion of the project. After you finish digging, you have to do what is called “back filling”, which is basically just putting all the dirt you took out back in and packing it down. There were 3 large trenches and one smaller trench. Jake and I filled up the smaller trench by ourselves when we went to the site alone one day last week. The guys that are working for Jake filled up 2 of the large trenches over the space of two days. Then the finial trench that produced so many features was the last one to be filled. Jake was gathering soil samples and recording a few things in that trench up until the last day. Friday morning we gathered some old tree trunks that were piled up on one side of the field we were in. The site is on a cow ranch and they had pulled up a lot of trees when they first started about 30 years ago. We gathered 2 truck loads and heaved them into the trench to compensate for what we took out of the soil and to help pack everything in tightly. It took all 5 of us almost all day to fill up that trench. Jake figured we would be done by lunch time, so I didn’t pack us a lunch… Luckily I had left 4 peanut butter crackers and a smashed Gansito (basically like a little Debbie snack) in the truck and we were able to split that as our lunch. The guys thought it was so funny that I was working as well. They even took photos of me shoveling dirt. I love Jake, but my back and leg muscles were not very happy with him and haven’t been for a few days. We finally finished at about 3:00pm. Even though we have finished this part of the project there is still a lot to be done before we can come home.

The museum in Temuco was assigned by the Consejo (the government department that gave Jake his permits) to take all the artifacts that Jake found. Well, Jake got in contact with the museum to let them know that he was done digging and needed to know what he had to do to correctly submit the artifacts. They told him that due to the earthquake the storage location where they keep all the shard artifacts was damaged and they couldn’t take his artifacts. Everything that Jake found was shards, not a single intact piece. So, Jake contacted the Consejo to see what he needed to do, we are still waiting for them to get back to him. Jake was planning on using the tools at the museum to analyze the artifacts. Now he will have to analyze them here in the cabin and hope that he can borrow or buy the right tools he needs to do so. The Consejo decides where everything that it discovered goes so they may say that the museum in Temuco has to take them anyway. They could say for him to take them to another museum or they could tell him he can take them to the US and analyze them there, giving the museum in Temuco time enough to repair the damage and take the artifacts. We have no idea at this point. For the next 3 weeks or so we will be in the cabin working with the artifacts. Ugh.

We finished the digging at the right time, because the rains have returned in full force! It has rained no stop since Friday afternoon. We will be so happy to return to the states where it will be Spring and hopefully sunny!

Happy Birthday to AJ and Sofia this week! Also, my brother Sam and his family will be traveling to China this week to pick up Noah Benjamin! We pray that they will be able to travel in safety! We can’t wait to meet him!

Mandy & Jake

washing, and washing, and washing

Thursday we took a trip to Temuco so that Jake could talk to the people at the museum and see if he could figure out what was going on with his artifacts. The Conejo told Jake that he should ask if the museum in Valdivia could take the artifacts for a while. The woman who is the director is Jake’s counterpart here. She said that they could take the artifacts for a while, but that they couldn’t stay there for long. When we got the museum in Temuco on Thursday Jake was able to speak to the woman he had been in email contact with. He found out that their shard artifacts were being kept in one particular building downtown, which due to the earthquake was damaged enough that the building is going to be destroyed. The museum will have to find another place to store all their shards, and until then, Jake can’t give them to the museum. They have no idea when he will be able to. The Conejo hasn’t told Jake where they will go for good, but at least he knows they can go to Valdivia for a while.

On a plus side Jake was able to find some calipers and a scale! Yay! Now he can at least get to analyze the artifacts while we wait. While we were in Temuco we had to drop off the truck we are renting so they could change the oil and check it out. They gave us a white version of the truck that we are renting to drive around town. They washed the truck and vacuumed out all the dirt we had tracked in since January. They also polished the rubber floor boards. They polished them so much that they were soaked when we got back in the truck! Oh, the smell was terrible! We were afraid that if we put the mats in the bed of the truck they might fly out so we rolled them up and shoved them into the back floor and rode back to the cabin with the windows down. By the time we got back to the cabin I had one MASSIVE headache and went to bed quit early that night. Ugh!

Since then, we have been washing, photographing, weighing, and measuring artifacts. Oh, and watching “Lost”. Ah, the good times and adventures we will be able to share with our grandchildren someday.

There was a 6.2 earthquake that hit north of Santiago yesterday. Nothing we felt. Still no massive repeat quake that is being expected… yet. That’s a lot of fun waiting around for let me tell ya. The weather had been nice and sunny the last two days, which has been a nice change from the cold and rain.

We enjoyed some French toast this morning. While finding maple syrup is very hard to do in Chile, we did top it with some sweetened strawberries and whipped cream!
Hope everyone will have a good week!

Mandy & Jake

Funny story

This morning at 2:00am all over the world clocks were rolled either forward or backward 1 hour. Jake and I changed the time on our phones and his watch. We enjoyed the extra hour of sleep and lazily got ready for church this morning. We were quit confused when we saw the meeting was ending when we got there, not about to begin. Turns out that this past week the Chilean government decided to delay the daylight savings time change until April 3rd, 3 weeks from now. The reason in doing this is to help out the people who are still without electricity because of the earthquake that happened 2 weeks ago. Um………ok. Jake and I were not aware of this because the only news we check out online about Chile is to make sure that something hasn’t erupted, no military coup has taken place, or something to that effect. So, even though the electricity has been restored to almost every city (some have been completely destroyed) we have to wait 3 weeks for the time change. Until April 3rd we will be 2 hours ahead of Nashville.

With fingers crossed this will be the final week of the digging part of the project. Jake and I went to Temuco today to get some supplies we can’t get in Pucon. So after missing church we headed out. We went to the Mall to have lunch first and it was in bad shape. There were stores closed all over and the 3rd level was completely closed off. In the food court the only place open was the McDonalds. Some of the stores were closed due to structural damage while some were closed because they had been looted dry. There is a pharmacy by the main floor entrance that was almost completely empty. There were cracks in some of the walls and ceiling tiles missing all over the place. We drove by the hospital but didn’t see any damage to it. Downtown there were a lot of older abandoned buildings that had toppled over or lost big chunks out of the concrete. There were piles of bricks and concrete all over the sidewalks. I am glad we were in Pucon when it happened, I don’t think I would have done very well if we were anywhere else.

After lunch we went to a store called “Easy” which is kind of like a love child between a Home Depot and a Wal-Mart. We wondered all over the store multiple times until we found someone who actually knew where what we were looking for was located. When we were checking out the lady at the register asked Jake for his passport because he was paying with a debit card. We don’t carry our passports around with us and we have never had to show a passport when paying with a card before. Luckily Jake had taken money out of the ATM before we went to the store otherwise we would have had to leave, go get some cash and come back. Very odd, but we had to get the stuff so oh well.

Tomorrow Jake & I will go to the site to finish up recording and digging out the remaining features and site maps. Then starting on Tuesday we will be back filling all 4 of the trenches. There is one more 2 meter by 1 meter pit to dig, but that will be dug and filled back in over the course of a day. After that we will be completely done with the digging part! Maybe by the time we get back home we will have gotten all of the dirt out from under our fingernails!

We are STILL feeling aftershocks! There was one just about an hour ago, and it wasn’t small. I am looking forward to the SOLID ground of TN. Anyway, hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

a taste of home

Jake and I have been waiting for a package from his parents and one from my Mom. It has been a month since the package from his folks was sent. We figured that the mail delivery was hindered by the earthquake. Well, we got both packages today! My Mom sent her package a day or two before the earthquake which has been about 2 weeks. Don’t know why it took so long for the first package to get here but oh well! We hit the mother load with the packages! Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

From Jake’s parents we got:

A box of brownie mix
2 jars Peter Pan peanut butter
2 jars JIF peanut butter (even though we compromise on some things peanut butter is not one of them)
a bag of Mini Cadbury eggs (my favorite Easter candy)
a bag of Robin Eggs (woppers)
11 Cadbury cream eggs (one of Jake’s favorite Easter Candy)

From my Mom we got:

1 jar if JIF peanut butter
package of sesame crackers (while in the car I opened the peanut butter and crackers…..heaven!)
a package of Almond cookies
6 microwaveable meals
2 Chow Mein microwaveable dinners
2 boxes of Mac & Cheese (ah, mac & cheese finally)
a box of Corn Pops cereal (I hope I don’t eat them all in one sitting!)
2 cans of tuna
1 can of chicken
3 bags of peanut M&Ms
2 bars of soap
a canister of Country Time pink lemonade mix
an Olay body wash (it has almond oil in it and smells really good by the way)
scent free sun block (we are almost out of our current sun block!)
oh, there was a roll of two ply toilet paper, which I think was used for packing material but we will use it!





The packages were too big to be delivered so Jake had to go into the post office. The girls working behind the counter saw the name on the packages "Jacob". In Spanish the letter J is pronounced like the letter h. The girls behind the counter asked "Your name is pronounced Jacob (with the correct j sound) right? Like in the movie?"

Jake said "Yes."

The girls then questioned, "Are you a werewolf?" The movie they were referring to was either "Twilight" or "New Moon", for those of you who don't know these are books in a series about vampires, werewolves, and a teenage love triangle. I will refrain from commenting on their taste in books. Jake replied "Nope, not a werewolf. Thanks for the packages." They asked him "Are you sure you're not a werewolf?"
Jake replied "I'm not a werewolf, I'm too chubby to walk around with my shirt off. I'm just a lowly archaeologist." So, apparently werewolf is higher on the job totem pole than archaeologist. Who knew?

We cannot thank them enough! We love all of it and will surely have enough to eat until we are done here in Pucon! Thanks again!

The work is moving along and we are getting close to the end. We opened a new trench on the other side of the field. This one is going to be much smaller and we should have it finished by Saturday or Tuesday at the latest. We are going to head to Temuco on Monday to get some supplies that Jake has to use for back filling all the trenches. Tuesday we will dig a small 2 by 1 (meters) trench and then start to back fill everything. If all goes well we should be finished by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week!



Attached is a photo of the volcano from a morning this past week! Check out that smoke! Hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

it pays to brush

“Mini” quakes aren’t fun, and neither are aftershocks. We have been feeling them all week. I am ready for this ride to be over so I can get off! Other than that, everything has been going well. The rain has return and is making working a full week hard. There are 3 more weeks before we will be done with the digging part of the trip. After that we will be traveling all over, or at least where the earthquake damage will allow. We have to make a trip to Concepcion, which is near where the epicenter was, so that will be fun.

One day last week a tooth popped out of the dirt Erwin was screening. One tooth, turned into 2, and then 3 and so on. Jake got into the trench with his little dental tools and spent the better part of the day digging out the rest. He found part of a human cranium, crushed and almost paper thin and about 25 or so teeth. The only parts that were left were the teeth, and a few pieces of the skull. There were no other bones found. We don’t know why it is so thin yet. Could be that it is REALLY old, which would be really cool. Could be that the soil effected the bone so much it just decomposed faster. Could have been how it was buried, we won’t know until the bones are tested later this year. The first excavation back in the 80-90’s there were 8 skeletons uncovered, but they mostly intact. Those were found inside the modern fence the landowner had built, but I doubt that 30 years would have done that to the bones, but who knows. Jake doesn’t have any of the notes on those 8 skeletons, and nobody really knows where they are now. There has been some word that they were shipped to a university in Alabama, but no one knows for sure. Finding them will require a little bit of “digging”, sorry about the pun. Anyway, just goes to show that you should really get to the dentist more often!

I am excited for the daylight savings time change on Sunday. With everyone at home springing forward an hour and us here falling back an hour, the time difference will be back to just one hour ahead of Tennessee, and 2 hours ahead of Colorado. It will make communication just a little easier.

It rained all night and this morning so we aren’t working on the site today. I have had a slight fever last night and today, which totally justifies my eating of peach cobbler for lunch. Don’t judge me! Cold, rainy, and sick = peach cobbler for lunch in my world.

My friend Amanda had her baby on Friday the 5th. She was waiting to find out what she was having until she had the baby and she had a little girl! She is 8 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. Her name is Brooke Illyana Adcox and they are calling her Lilly for short. She has a full head of dark hair and has cute little chubby cheeks. Congrats!

Hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

more quake stuff

Yesterday it was back to work as usual. It felt very strange just going back to work while all terrible things are happening in the areas around us. Jake was hoping that the quake had somehow opened up the last trench and he wouldn’t have to dig anymore, but no such luck. The site was perfectly untouched. We spent most of the day digging out more of the features that fill this trench. One was particularly deep and once I had dug so far down that my arms wouldn’t reach anymore, Jake had to finish it up. His arms are slightly longer than mine. There are a few photos to enjoy attached.





Jake finally heard from his friends in Talca. Everyone we know there is safe and no one’s homes were damaged. Talca got hit pretty hard, his friend Jessica said that the downtown area is completely gone. Talca is always our first stop and last when we come here. We don’t know if we will be able to stop and stay on our way home if the town is torn up. A little less than 3 months isn’t a lot of time to fix all that was torn up, especially here in Chile. Thank goodness they are all ok.

We still haven’t heard from our friends in Tome yet. The power is still out in that area and should be back on in a few days, but until then we can only pray that they are safe. In Temuco, the town that is about an hour and half away, the hospital was split open. People started looting which caused the Chilean government to declare martial law in some areas, which scared Jake more than the earthquake did. There is a curfew in place to cut down on the looting and there have been a lot of arrest so far, Jake is just concerned that when this is all said and done that the balance of power goes back to the way it was before. It has only been declared in a few areas so far. There is also concern that the earthquakes aren’t over yet. The two plates that separated haven’t corrected themselves yet. If they don’t within about 2 weeks, there is expected to be another massive earthquake. We’re hoping on the “correcting themselves” theory.

Also, come to find out in Chile the drinking water and the sewage water pipes run side by side, and in the event of certain events, like earthquakes, sometimes the pipes can break and mix together. So, even though we have running water, it could be quit yucky. We went to the store and bought a few bottles just to be safe. There has been no bread the last few days so I am having to make it.

We are still feeling aftershocks, which makes for not too restful nights. We talked to Jake’s parents last night and turns out they were on the local news in Palisade. The news crew interviewed them about Jake and what he is doing down here. They Tivo’d the interview and are going to try and post it online so we can watch it. Also, Jake’s Dad is going to have to have surgery again on his arm sometime in the next week or so.

Happy Birthday to Trent yesterday! Hope he liked his present! We’ll keep everyone updated when we can!

Mandy & Jake

Earthquake

Well, we had an interesting night/morning. At about 3:40am Jake and I were shaken, literally, awake. The entire cabin was shaking, we were being tossed around like rag dolls for about 2 minutes. It seemed liked forever then the shaking lessened and finally stopped. We had no power and were a little on edge. Jake took it like a champ, this was his 6th earthquake. I on the other hand did not handle it very well. I think me being scared made Jake more upset than the actual earthquake. It also didn’t help that I was having a bad dream when I was jerked awake at 3:40 in the morning! I was too frightened to move, let alone make it to a door way. I do not like earthquakes! Who does though? The epicenter was about 400 miles North West of us. It registered at 8.8 on the Richter scale and what we felt was about a 7.

It was the 7th strongest earthquake in not just Chilean history, but history in general. After it hit we walked outside and I saw some flashes of light over in the area of the volcano. I was terrified that the volcano had erupted or that it would after the quake. She seems quiet for now and I want it to stay that way. If that wasn’t bad enough we were laying in bed trying to get back to sleep when another smaller (30 seconds or so) one hit about 5:00 am. We didn’t get much sleep and we were still feeling after shock when we got up this morning. We got dressed and headed to the site to pay Jake’s workers and make sure everyone was ok.

We had no power, no phone service, and no internet access. We didn’t know how bad it had hit other parts of the county until Jake was finally able to get a hold of his parents. It was scary not knowing what was going on and not be able to call anyone and let you guys know we were ok. We didn’t even know if the quake had made the news. Little did we know everyone knew about it. There was almost no damage to Pucon, a few broken windows downtown but otherwise untouched. Santiago and farther north is another question. Lots of damage and over 140 people died. A family Jake baptized lives in Tome, on the cost one town over from Concepcion. The epicenter was just off the cost of Concepcion. We visited there on our trip last year. We haven’t been able to get in touch with them and we pray that they are ok.

Even now as I am writing this email we are feeling aftershocks. We were able to make a call to Jake’s parents and to Jennifer to just let everyone know we were safe and sound. We received a call from the Branch President, who was stuck in Santiago, calling to make sure we were ok.

When we finally got power back at about 4:00pm we drove into town to make a few calls and let everyone know we were ok. When we got back to our cabin the Elders from the ward were waiting on us. They were checking to make sure we were ok. Since we feed them a few weeks ago there was a transfer. Instead of having two American missionaries, we have the greenie from Idaho and a guy from Argentina. After talking for a bit about how scared we all were, able to laugh a bit about it by that point I was really hungry. I was planning on making pizza for dinner and was really hungry so we offered to feed them too. They left for about an hour to check on other members before coming back here. The greenie from Idaho had been shook up all day; he had never been though an earthquake either. He was so sick to his stomach I sent him home with a Ziploc back full of Tums.

We are very grateful to be alive and safe. All day the power had been off, and all day there were cars lined up at the 3 gas stations in town and I mean LINED UP! Most people here don’t have generators so they were all just freaking out and “Had” to get gas. We were able to get to the store, all the bread and bottled water, no shock there, were gone. We were able to grab a few candles before that shelf was emptied out too. I had a killer headache and took some benedryl sinus which means I am going to be OUT in a few minutes. I pray that the earthquakes are done and the aftershocks are over. Thank you for all the prays and the phone tree that was taken care of! I don’t down the power the Shafers and Sauers have in the ways of the phone tree!

We wish we could have called and talked to everyone, but internet access in limited and Jake was only able to put some more money on his pay as you go phone. I will send out emails more regularly for the next few days just keep everyone updated that we are still alive.

I can’t say enough how much I DID NOT enjoy that earthquake. I have had the heebie-jeebies all day because of it. The quake shouldn’t disrupt any of the work Jake is doing here; we haven’t been to the site yet. We will see how well it did on Monday. For now, be safe everyone and we miss and love you all.

Mandy and Jake

Valentine's Day

Well, this past week we had some rainy days so we had some days off, which were nice for catching up on sleep and watching Bones. Man, I forgot how much I love that show! We have already made it through to the 3rd season. We are almost done with season 3, and will be sorely upset because we don’t have season 4. L This week on the site we found 2 more pipe steams, and arrow heads. There are about 40 features that have popped up in this trench, twice as many as were in the other 2 trenches put together. There are so many things in this trench that it is hard for Jake to figure out what exactly the stains in the soil are and who they belong to. So he has to dig out soil samples from all of them to test later. He is just a boy digging in the dirt.



One of the guys that works for Jake offered to have him mom make some corn humitas, similar to a tamale. They were freaking awesome! We bought 6, shared 2 of them with the guys, and then we enjoyed the other 4. Jake likes to sprinkle his with a little bit of sugar, oh my goodness! You take fresh corn kernels, chili peppers, salt and pepper, grind it up and wrap it in some corn husks and then boil it for an hour. We will definitely have some more of them before we leave and might even be something that I can make myself!





We were in Chile last year for Valentine’s Day and we went out for sushi, so we figured we would keep up the tradition here in Pucon. There is a little sushi joint near the church building in town so we gave it a shot. Jake got some sashimi Salmon. The salmon itself looked ok, but it had been soaked in some kind of oil and there was a slash of sesame oil on the plate, needless to say he didn’t finish it and that was the first time he has EVER let sashimi go to waste. We got a California roll, an Ebi Cheese roll, and some other roll that had shrimp in the middle and breaded chicken on the outside of the roll. The rolls were the best they could be in Pucon, Chile. They weren’t the worst we have had but they also weren’t the best we have ever had. We are looking forward to a trip to Ken’s, Fulins, and Kyoto when we get home in the spring. We will make a trip to the great sushi place when we get back to Santiago before we come home.





It only took me going to the other side of the world to learn how to make certain things from scratch. This past week I made some cinnamon rolls and put the dough in the fridge so we could have something sweet for breakfast on Valentine’s Day. Behold, the first cinnamon rolls! They were very enjoyable and will not be the last ones I make! Martha Stewart eat your heart out!



We hope everything is going well at home! Hopefully the weather has improved so that Rachel can get ready to fly back to China on the 20th. Happy Birthday to Spencer this week! Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Chinese New Year!

Mandy & Jake

a good meal

This past week we were feed the missionaries that are here in the Pucon ward. Both of the Elders are Americans, one has been out about a month and he is very “green”. We made what Jake’s family calls Spring Time Diner, which is ground beef, onions, potatoes, corn, and cream of mushroom soup. We also made a tossed salad with real ranch dressing! Jake likes boiled eggs on his tossed salad, and Jake told the Elders that the eggs were for the salad if they wanted. I guess they misheard Jake, because they piled the eggs on top of the spring time diner. I guess they are used to having eggs on top of a lot of meals here. The meal was very good, but desert was amazing! I made peach cobbler and it was delicious. The green missionary asked his training companion who has been out for about a year and a half, “Have you ever had peach cobbler here before?” His companion quickly explained that he hadn’t and that this was probably the only time he was going to have it.

They elders had their Pday on Monday and they were having a joint Pday with some elders and sisters from other areas. Jake invited them to come to the site to have a look around. They showed up about 45 minutes before we were done. Jake gave them a tour of the site. One of the sisters was attending a university in Las Vegas before she left for her mission and she wants to be an archeologist so she was really excited to see everything.

Sunday night our neighbors had a very loud and very long party. They did not stop partying until about 7:00am, so we were very tired on Monday. It was raining this morning so we didn’t work this morning so we had a chance to catch up on some much missed sleep. There is a chance for rain again tomorrow, but we will have to see.
Nothing much else to update. Hope everyone is doing well at home!

Mandy & Jake

Excess use

Sorry, I haven’t sent out an email in a while, but there hasn’t been much to email about. We get up every day, we go to the site, we dig, we screen, we find a bunch of ceramic pieces and we go home! We did have a surprise when we got back to the cabin on Monday afternoon. After a long day of playing in the dirt, we can get quit dirty and we each look forward to a nice shower before dinner. Unfortunately that day the water wasn’t on. Jake called Sonia, the woman who owns the cabin. She had someone out at the cabin that day to fix the faucet in the shower, so Jake just thought they had forgot to the water back on. He got off the phone and went outside to turn the water back on. After about 5 minutes of turning the switch every way under the sun, there was still no water coming out of the sink in the kitchen. So Jake called Sonia back and she said she would call the water company for us and call us back soon.

We had worked a full day on Monday, and it was about 5:00 when we got back to the cabin. We were both very hungry, but couldn’t cook dinner because we couldn’t wash our hands to cut up any vegetables or have any water to cook the mashed potatoes with. So, we waited for Sonia to call. She called about 6:00; the water company had shut off the water due to “excess use”. How nice, instead of calling the occupants, or billing them for the extra water, they simply shut it off! We were very confused; there was no way that we were using enough water to warrant it to be shut off. Sonia said she was on her way to us and that she would get the water turned back on. She showed up and showed us the bill; the water company just seems to be trying to charge them way to much! For the months of Oct, Nov, and most of Dec were each about $10 a month, which is about normal (I wish it was like that at home!). Then for the end of December and the beginning of January, the weeks we weren’t even here but back in the states, the charge was about $30. Sonia said she would go down and take care of it. After she left we were finally able to shower and each, at about 7:00. We then had to rush into town to drop off our laundry before it closed. Over all it was an interesting evening.

The dig site is coming along very well. We have found a lot of stains that Jake is still trying to figure out what they are. We have also found an arrow head made out of white quartz, which was really neat. Julio has taken to catching those ugly flies and pulling off the wings then leaving them in the buckets of dirt I screen though. Not sure if I should laugh or be disgusted, I haven’t been bit since that first one and I haven’t gotten a sun burn, so the death toll has been increased in the last few weeks.

So, as it turns out the first winter storm to actually hit Tennessee in a long time, happens when we aren’t there. We have enjoyed various photos of the fun from both sides of the family. We have missed out on 6 to 7 inches of snow, building snowmen, sledding, hot cocoa, warm fires etc. Well, all I have to say to that is that it is watermelon season here and we have been enjoying a juicy watermelon since Saturday! So there!

It rained very hard last night and it has seeped into today, so we are not at the site but in the cabin. Hope all is well at home.

Mandy & Jake

Busy in Pucon

This past week marked our first full work week in the entire project! The trench we are working on now has produced more artifacts than the last two trenches put together. Every day we have been pulling out ceramic after ceramic. In the area we are working in now there are these huge horse flies all over the place. They fly right into your face and buzz really loudly, which is annoying, but then one of them bite me and it was on! My goal before we leave is to kill as many of those flies as I can! I have devised a system in which I knock them to the ground and then stomp them with my boots. One of the guys working for us, Julio, is able to catch them. His fly to death ratio is higher than mine, but I hope to catch up. The flies don’t really bother the workers very much but they were just going after Jake and me. Jake’s advisor from Vandy, Tom, has been in Chile for the past month working on various projects and he came out to the site today and he said that the flies were attracted to our sun screen. He said he just stopped using it because the flies wouldn’t leave him alone when he had it on. Do I not wear sunscreen and get a terrible sun burn, or do I wear it and then get eaten alive by these huge flies? We will just have to see what the future holds but I do not take melanoma lightly.

We had a great visit with Tom. There was a triathlon in Pucon today and all the roads in downtown and leading into downtown were closed off for the race so we weren’t able to get to Church this morning and we had to walk into town to meet Tom. I have never seen Pucon so packed! People were everywhere! Tom and Jake talked about the ceramics that we had been pulling out and looked at a few of the artifacts. He treated us to lunch at our favorite restaurant in town; I enjoyed my Pumpkin ravioli and Jake his three-peppered steak. We then drove out to the site after the roads were reopened. Tom was pleased with the work Jake had done and gave him some advice and then Tom headed back to Temuco.

Not much else to report other than we will never leave home without a supply of ground black pepper. We brought some McCormick black pepper with us this trip and it has already made a world of difference in the food we have been able to cook. The spaghetti, the springtime dinner, the fajitas have all been so much better with it. I also made some vegetable stir fry for dinner one night this past week and it was GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!! We bought some Kikkoman Soy Sauce and I made some fried rice. I then cooked some carrots, zucchini, onions, green and red peppers, and cashews in the soy sauce with some garlic and peach jam. It was so good we are going to have it for dinner again tonight.

We hope everyone at home is doing well.

Mandy and Jake

Day one

We didn't have access to the internet while we were at home over Christmas break, so I wasn't able to update the blog until now. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed our stay at home, it wasn't long enough.

Being back in the cabin feels like we never left, which is making it strange to be here. Even though we went home and slept in our bed, sat on our couch, cooked in our kitchen; being back feels like we were never there. One major plus to this trip is that we brought our Playstation 2 with us. We brought a couple video games, but we mainly brought it to hook up to the TV and watch TV show DVDs and movies without having to watch them on one of our computers. This time we brought more DVDs then we will probably be able to watch so we won’t run out of any this trip. Granted we won’t have as much time on our hands as last trip, but still better safe than sorry. Also, it seems that Jake and I are not responsible for the unnatural amount of rain this summer, it continued to rain even when we left to come home for Christmas. Hopefully that rain will let us dig more this trip. It was raining Sunday morning but cleared up enough for us to dig on the site yesterday.

If the first day on the dig site is any indication of how this trip will go, then fantastic! Even though we could see our breath when we left the cabin yesterday morning, it warmed up quickly by lunch time. During the first trip Jake was focusing on digging within the fence that surrounds the Santa Silvia site that Gordon worked on in the last 80’s early 90’s. This trip Jake is focusing on the area outside the fence that has never been excavated before. We started digging in two 1 meter by 1 meter squares and there were so many artifacts coming out! We pulled out lithics, pieces of obsidian, roof tiles, and a ton of ceramics! Nothing was a complete pot or plate or anything like that, but we pulled out between 65 and 80 pieces yesterday alone! We found more in the first day than we did in the first month last trip! Since everything is broken and there are rocks that were used to create tools and weapons in this location, Jake thinks that maybe we have found were the population would dump their trash. We were down to 30 cm by the time we left yesterday and there is no way that erosion would be able to move that much, that deep, and that far away from the original site. We will see what today will bring!
Hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake