BONUS: Sunday, July 8th
Today was the Dinner on Main Street event. After having a meeting with my boss and some of the interns about what we needed to do before the event, I trimmed some overgrown grass at the Speaker's House. Then we prepared the visitor's center at Henry's (cleaned it up, organized the leaflet table, stocked the bathrooms with toilet paper, etc.). From both of these sites, we collected extension cords that would be used by the band. We then met at the church across the street from Henry's to collect tables and chairs to be used in the street for the Dinner on Main. When the road closed at 3, we quickly started to set up the tables, chairs and decorations. Once everything was setup, we went to our posts at Henry's to give tours of the first floor; I was posted in Henry's study and Henry/his wife's bedroom, while another intern was in the kitchen, and the third intern was in the dining room (we also had a volunteer greeting he visitors and directing them inside). After tours finished, I closed up the house, then we joined the dinner. At the end of the event, we packed up all the tables/chairs/decorations.
Hours: 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Overall Working Hours: 8 hours
Tuesday, July 10th
Worked at Dewee's today. We were cleaning out and reorganizing the west attic, specifically the little landing and the art annex room. That took most of the day to finish. Then we went to do the trash at Henry's and back at Dewee's (this included getting scrap metal from the basement).
Hours: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Overall Working Hours: 9 hours
Wednesday, July 11th
Even though the field school ended, I and a couple of volunteers, were going to continue excavating the units on the east side of the house. I oversaw the two volunteers (who worked in EUs 108 level 6 and 109 level 7), while I continued digging EU 107 level 8.
Hours: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Overall Working Hours: 8 hours
Thursday, July 12th
Continued excavating with one of the volunteers in the units again. Today, though, I was responsible for taking the archaeological photos of the three units (EU 107 level 9, EU 108 level 7, and EU 109 level 8), which is not something I have done before so that was a pleasant, new experience. We then mapped and took recordings for EU 107 and 108, then started excavating their new levels. Additionally, we soil probed the two units to see if we would be reaching subsoil soon: it doesn't look like it; EU 107's soil probe had a charcoal smear on the bottom while the two soil probes in EU 108 had an artifact and mortar respectively.
Hours: 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Overall Working Hours: 8 hours 30 minutes
Friday, July 13th
Continued excavating with two of the volunteers. A descendant of the Muhlenberg family came, so I gave them a brief tour of the Speaker's House, then let them into the Henry Muhlenberg house to be given a tour by an intern. Then I went back to excavating; gotta dig those holes (but subsoil seems like a long ways away... Like, at least ten inches...At least).
Hours: 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Overall Working Hours: 8 hours 30 minutes
Saturday, July 14th
Sorted and re-bagged/re-boxed the Walter Payne collection into the same provenience (of import was the Lancaster County and Chester County ones). Then started constructing metal shelves to be used in the art/archaeology/archive annex rooms in the attic. As it was Saturday, we ended by working at Henry's, waiting for visitors to give tours to. It was a slow day, so while we waited for potential visitors, we continued organizing the right and left sides of the carriage house.
Hours: 9:00 am to 4:45 pm
Overall Working Hours: 7 hours 45 minutes