sunday spent examining 19th century building materials and privy pit finds

the greater part of sunday was spent gathering wood samples from building sites and digging privy pits. by the time i gathered all of the materials and brought them back to the shop, i should have went home and rested. instead, i pushed on...

the darkness of night was setting in, but i continued sanding wood fragments i wanted to photodocument from the day's gatherings. despite this, in the back of my mind i was trying to determine whether i should tackle the large pile of "dug" artifacts that needed to be cleaned and documented. after finishing the last piece of wood at 500 grit on my orbital sander, i felt there was enough momentum to work on the excavated finds from the russell site. by then it was approaching 8pm and i grinned a bit as my hands and arms were vibrating continuously from operating the sander for the past few hours.

i spent time carefully sorting through the more interesting fragments and intact bottles containing embossed markings. that information will prove important down the road when i begin researching and/or trying to date the artifacts. by 9:30pm, i had finished sorting and lightly cleaning all the artifacts i wanted for the photo shoot.

shortly thereafter, i fired up the strobes and began photgraphing one artifact after another. i really dislike using tripods, but needed to use one since my hands were still vibrating. in addition, the contacts on my camera body's hot shoe were acting up, so i was having difficulty with my wireless firing. i grew frustrated, but pressed on - for better or for worse. once i reached the point of utter exhaustion, coupled with the back pain from the day's activities, i called it. i packed up and headed home around 10:30pm.

perhaps i should have relaxed at that point; eat a nice dinner and begin reading. that did not happen - instead, i at once hopped on the computer and began working some more. i spent the next few hours tweaking my paper on the john kent russell house and editing several images including the ones shown in the gallery below. by 2am, i decided to eat and finally get some badly needed reading time in. i must have barely made it through a single page before i passed out in my chair.