A dig, a visit, and a concert

We don't usually take family pictures in a bathroom, but this is part of the joy of living in the South--having to shelter in an interior room when severe weather blows in, as it did this night. The tornado sirens in the park next door went off, and off we went!

This year's summer archeological dig happened in northwestern Arkansas, at Pea Ridge National Military Park. Pea Ridge was one of the largest Civil War battles west of the Mississippi River, and proved an important early Union victory in the war. As with many Civil War battles, the lore and legend of the engagement are better documented than the actual battlefield, so with the graces of the National Park Service, the Arkansas Archeological Society and Arkansas Archeological Survey conducted some excavations and surveys of various parts of the park. Pictured above is part of a large field that was part of the battle I worked during my week there. Pictured below is the beginning of the "Battlefield Archeology" field course Kenny and I took (that's Kenny, seated on the ground with the blue hat):

Because "modern" battles such as those in the Civil War used metal weapons and lots of other metal pieces, we spent most of our time using a metal detector to look for artifacts. Below, Kenny is sweeping an area for items; once we found something, we'd dig it up and put a pin flag next to it:

So what did we find? Mostly, more modern items, including many tractor and implement parts (the field is still cut for hay), as well as nails and other items from post-Civil War occupations and site usage. However, we (and the others taking the course) did find a number of battle-related objects, including the items Kenny's holding below:

The smaller conical object is known as a "Minie ball", which is the lead bullet that most of the soldiers used at that time. The larger chunk of iron was a shell fragment from a bursting artillery round. Kenny also continued burnishing his reputation as a Civil War artifact finder with the bayonet fragment we found below:

You may recall on a different effort a couple years ago, Kenny and I found a much more complete bayonet--which the archeologist we were working with claimed was almost never found on battlefields. Now we've gone and found yet another one...albeit a smaller piece!

Kenny and I were metal detecting our entire week there; others excavated parts of a house that was in a community present during the battle. Below, Dr. Jamie Brandon of the Arkansas Archeological Survey (in the cowboy hat) explains the lay of this house to a group of visitors:

We didn't just work at the site; Kenny and I got to a minor league baseball game one night:

This summer has also brought a change for Hope--she still works for Arkansas doing 4-H, but has a new position and office (this one on the UAM campus here in Monticello). Below, she is organizing her new office space:

A visit from Rich Pruden over the 4th of July was an excuse to go fruit picking, as you can see my peach Beth picking some yummy fresh peaches:

and Stephen picking some awesome blackberries:

Monticello really doesn't do a public firework display, but we traveled a few miles out of town to join a number of other people in a small community for a brief fireworks display by their local volunteer fire department:

As you can see from the picture above, we had good seats close to the action:

The kids, Rich, and I also snuck off to Hot Springs while Hope was working one day to visit a science museum...and get stalked by some dinosaurs:

This museum has an interesting elevated outdoor play area, including some rope bridges:

and given that it was hot--about 100 degrees--and muggy, we felt that some ice cream was called for:

Kenny and I also took advantage of an opportunity to see a couple of my favorite musical groups from the 1980s, Def Leppard and Journey, who played an area in Little Rock: