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