CRM Work

Ah, back in the field this week. My goal after all, is to be outstanding in the field.

Cultural Resource Management is the term given to the practice of managing historic, or potentially historic, sites and structures. Normally this is a term and process associated with government agencies and their management of property and permits. Any federal project or any project receiving federal funds or needing a federal permit must be evaluated for the project's impact to any historic building or archaeological site. There is a very detailed process for this. But...Basically, this means that any building fifty years old or older that is going to be affected by a government project has to be documented and evaluated. The same goes for archaeological sites.

When I talk about this, I say that the process is meant to insure that Lincoln's log cabin is not bulldozed for a new highway.

My first job after graduating with my architecture degree was working for a CRM company. All of the museum work I have done has had lots of components similar to CRM work. So, if you look at the blog, I have been doing CRM all month.

Anyway, this week I have been working on a large project evaluating 61 architectural sites which are mostly nineteenth century farmsteads. I like this work, but after about ten minutes out of the truck my hands get so cold that I can't sketch or write.

I have a goal, or a dream maybe. For the next ten years I want to work in an area that is a vacation destination. Then, everyday is like a vacation. Though there are hunting cabins and hunting stands everywhere we have been looking for historic structures this month, the woods of southern Ohio is not the recreational area that I am thinking about...

Why Oh Why Oh Did I Ever Leave Ohio

This week I am in Cambridge, Ohio, all week helping a friend of mine, Dr. Keener, with an archaeological survey of about 2500 acres for a coal mining permit. I have probably walked 6 to 8 miles a day. IN THE SNOW!


When I get back to the hotel every evening I have to take off all the cold weather gear and hang it over the room heating so that it will dry. This is just like hanging out a wetsuit to dry, with the exception that it is awful.

I had nothing but sandals when I returned to the US in September. Dave Horn begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting gave me a pair of tennis shoes so that I could do some roofing. I have been wearing these to work in everyday. Dr. Keener stopped on the way out here so I could buy a pair of boots. All this is great. But I think I would rather be somewhere where I only had to own sandals.

Oh, by the way. It is really cold in Ohio.

To Blog or not to Blog,That is the Question

I want to thank all the people who have read this blog over the last three years. I have been amazed how many friends I have run into that have said they read it regularly. I appreciate that so many of you have enjoyed the adventure. I only ever looked at the numbers during the first year, but was surprised to have had over 58,000 hits to the site. That is just crazy to me.

Since I have been back to Columbus, many people have asked about the blog and the fact that I am not writing anymore.

"Why can't you look for the adventure in everything you do and just keep writing?" asked my brother.

Thanksgiving weekend some friends from out of town came over to see us. They complained about there being no closure. Just a last blog three months ago that was not even that good.

The intention was to continue writing. And yes you can just find adventure in regular life. I have had many things happen in the last few weeks that I wrote blogs about in my mind. Actually, you would probably find some of my stories hard to believe. Every time I sit down at the computer, however, it just does not feel right.

I re-read the first dozen blog entries today. They seem like a lifetime ago. Grand Turk was such a new and different place. But our experience there over the last three years was so extreme that nowhere seems that different now. I had a discussion with Lucas and Stephanie this week about how your idea of normal can change. It is actually a floating bar based on widening your expreiences. I am holding on and would like to move the bar a little more. We will see what the future holds.

Heck, today I stood on the border of Mexico...and that's a whole other story.