Today, our last day on site, we cover all the stone and brick features with plastic and then cover them with dirt.

The large pump has been off since July 3 but yesterday the sump pump kept our squares dry. But last night the sump pump went off, and Trench C, where I am drawing the wall, is in water in the southeast corner. Luckily I did the lowest bricks yesterday, but there is still one area I will not be able to draw.

The students are completing the pottery descriptions. Meredith seems to have found herself a ceramic horn. Don’t think it made much noise. But Shaina and she are trying to make the tedium of marl and silt a little less wearing.

It’s been a very fine season, hot and sometimes difficult. But Ashley, Shaina and Meredith have been just wonderful. They have kept their morale up, have supported each other and us and have done great work. So finally Will takes a shot of them joking about their favorite sign in the Detroit airport. Standing in the water of Trench D, wearing their lovely boots, they ask, “What’s going down in the D?” (And it isn’t the water level!).

See you all next winter.