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