MORNING RAINBOW OVER CAMP MAKELA. (photo by Hallelujah Truth) |
Hallelujah for rainbows
and being here NOW in the miracle of each moment! Stepping out of the tent on the morning of July 23 at Camp Makela, I was greeted by an immense rainbow arcing from one
side of the mountainous horizon to the other. Hallelujah! But within minutes, a gray cloud curtain draped over this miraculous natural performance of light
refraction that brings us humans so much awe….enjoy the miracle of each moment!
OUR TENT (photo by Hallelujah Truth) |
On this rain day, the
second since my arrival, the generator came on at 5:00 a.m., casting a large
humming sound across the accumulation of tents, trailers and trucks here at
Camp Makela. The energy supplied by solar panels had been depleted. Beginning around 6:00 a.m., various Egg Mountain dig
volunteers wandered into the coffee-breakfast trailer where I was writing
this blog entry to learn about the day’s plans. Sustained rains allowed them to go
back to bed.
During this rainy morning, my Chiboogamoo sat across
from me reviewing his field notes and contemplating various ideas related to
what he has “read” from the rocks in the past few days here in the Two Medicine
Formation. Rain days are opportunities for reflections—like this blog entry I
am writing now.
What am I doing here
grappling with information about deep time? How do I integrate the knowledge I
am gaining about excavation of bits and pieces of Cretaceous mammals and
dinosaurs and the exploration my husband Chiboogamoo does regarding traces of
ancient vertebrate and invertebrate behavior?
I am intrigued by this
entire operation—the environment here in central Montana, the educated
paleontologists conducting the dig, and all of those who have gathered from
countries around the world, like England, Japan, Sweden, and Cuba. I like being
stretched by diving into the unfamiliar and somehow making connections with it
through the person that I am.
Perhaps, one of my
strongest connections is through the people—the paleontologists and volunteers
inhabiting this Cretaceous landscape and
learning from them, whatever they want to share.
This blog entry consists of three of the 15 personalities now residing at Camp Makela, who love working at a paleontological dig site surrounded by rolling
hills and geological structures that have been whimsically named, Thunder Dome,
Flaming Cliffs, and Butt Rock.
MY HUSBAND, THE
ICHNOLOGICAL STAR
AT THE ALTAR OF THE CHURCH OF ICHNOLOGY. Kneeling out in the badlands of the Two Medicine Formation, Tony Martin gets a closer look at fossilized burrows. (photo by Hallelujah Truth) |
As one who loves to
document the every day miracles of my life, I have a favorite subject! Yes,
Chiboogamoo, my husband! Ever patient, gentle, and kind, Tony Martin is a
delight to wander with on the Cretaceous sediments of the Two Medicine
Formation, scanning outcrops for evidence of life that took place 75 million
years ago.
I trail behind him looking
for opportunities to capture a photo of him in this vast and various Montana
landscape. His concentration on the rocks beneath his feet fascinates me. He
pauses, stoops down to the ground to scoop up a rock, and reads it! Nodding his
head, he announces to me something like this, “You can see the backfill here
where the animal pushed back the sediment in the burrow. In this one, you can see
its leg impressions.” Or, “This is another toe of a hadrosaur track. Look at
how the mud was deformed here.”
He may gently place the
specimen down and walk on, leaving me to follow. He may stop to take a GPS reading, measure the specimen, and make a note of it
in his small yellow book that he keeps in his field vest pocket. I too look for
rocks that tell stories of past events, for example, colonies of crayfish
living together in a system of burrows or wasp cocoons from which the animal
possibly never emerged. He has taught me well through his methodical practice
and careful explanations.
ULF, THE STEADY AND
EXPERIENCED SWEDE
ULF ON HIS LAST DAY 2014. Ulf puts his excavation tools away on his last dig day at Egg Mountain. (photo by Hallelujah Truth) |
Ulf Schyldt left Camp
Makela today (Thursday, July 24) to return to his home country, Sweden. This July 2014
signals his fifth dig season at Egg Mountain, and it shows in the way he moves
around the dig site, steadily digging, identifying bone fragments, labeling them,
and gently assisting other dig volunteers or “rubble rousers” as I have been
calling them on this blog.
Thanks to the beauty of
the Internet, Ulf found his way to the Two Medicine Formation and being an Egg
Mountain crew member. He will be back next year. For the time being, he returns
to his day job working in Swedish politics and in his free time playing
Dungeons and Dragons and with flight simulations.
Farewell Ulf! You will be
missed!
EMMY, THE BRILLIANT GIRLSH
ANOMALY
CHEF EMMY HILL |
Emmy is smart, fast-talking
and a great story teller. At Montana State University, she is a chef with
food services and she is majoring in geology. Everyone here
at Camp Makela relies on her for weather information (apparently she excels at
meteorology), good cuisine, and entertainment (games of Catan and Cribbage included).
As an Emmy-plus? In addition to
being a dedicated and skillful rubble rouser at the Egg Mountain dig site, she
takes her fingernail glamour seriously and has an internationally appreciated
blog, The Daily Lacquer, about her original nail art.
Stay tuned for additional
blog entries about Camp Makela characters. That’s Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL
BLOG with me! What are your ephemeral miracles? What questions or observations do you have about these three personalities comprising some of our Cretaceous
Summer 2014 crew at Camp Makela in the Two Medicine Formation of Montana?
HALLELUJAH MUSING. Being sure to attend to my introverted tendencies, I take joy in sitting up by our tent at Camp Makela to reflect about my Cretaceous Summer 2014. (photo by Tony Martin) |
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