Not a great day

I suppose if I were the superstitious type the sight of a black cat in a graveyard would have been an obvious warning that yesterday was not going to be a great day. It was cold, wet, blustery and quite unpleasant but I got a fair bit done regardless. More strings, more stakes, more wet tape measures and more twigs in the face. In the NW corner of each grid square I've been removing lose vegetative debris down to the soil level to keep an eye out for changes to the surface composition. The mid section is mostly a dark sandy loam which I suspect is getting increasingly acidic due to the pine trees and their needles. The mid section is also fairly level, rising to the north east (it is a hill after all) and has some lumps and bumps and shallow hollows and troughs. I could read a lot into those hollows and troughs and lumps and bumps but that's not good practise. The grid I've been setting up has a way of providing visual points of reference that can make much more visible that which is rather subtle. There are rocks here and there and the presence of a rock doesn't necessarily mean anything in and of itself. But when you find a flat faced rock propped up by another rock, with the flat facing east and a faint mound in front of it that is more than a meter long, well you have to admit it makes one think. I would never have noticed this particular arrangement if the grid lines hadn't acted like neon signs. Is it a grave? Might well be, might well not be-- but it does make one think. OK, no surprise to find graves in a graveyard, right? I'm pleased because it helps to establish that there are still signs of some of the graves (if not many) and the extent of the graveyard. So why was yesterday not so great? I was fine while working hard running lines, pounding in stakes and raking pine needles but when I started recording the squares I stopped generating body heat about the time the temperature took a dive and the wind came up. I got pretty cranky at 4 hrs in and by the 5th hour decided I wasn't getting paid enough to do this (for the record, I'm not getting paid, in fact it cost me money to do this for my degree...), that and I was caring less and less about good documentation so I packed up and headed home. The black cat never did come over and say hi. Got home a little more than an hour later to a stack of emails that had to be dealt with NOW or it would put getting this project the official university blessing even further, digging out documentation that had to be found and provided NOW (remember I was cold and tired and sore and cranky already) but eventually I slayed the dragons, got everyone what they wanted and FINALLY got confirmation that I am well and truly finally registered to do this project for academic credit. Long day, I survived.

A bit of good news, this project seems to be generating some additional interest going by the emails I've been getting. I am not a genealogist and I don't have access to all the information that I've been asked about. I will do my best to direct enquiries to someone who can where possible.