Dave Brenzel and Holmes Semken met Will Mott at the Tarkio Valley site Friday morning, April 26, to prepare the site for the next dig. Sloth-digging veteran, Will Mott of Council Bluffs operated a small tracked Bobcat that Jeff Evans, Evans Equipment Rental, delivered to the site. Will first moved the levee we created in December about 10 ft. to the north and closer to the area where we dug over the past few years. Will then started clearing a new 10 ft. X 40 ft area north of the December 2009 dig. Will designed a blade for the bucket and he proved he could shave off very thin (~1/2″) layers of clay with precision.   The clay was mostly the oxidized brown color like we encountered for the first time in December, with only small thin patches of our familiar blue-gray.  We thought that might mean bad news for any bone discoveries but it fooled us. We spotted a bone pocket just inside the north wall and collected three toddler ribs and the remaining baby shoulder blade. These bones are at least as well preserved as those we found in the blue-gray and are close to the bone concentration previously recovered. There is still unexcavated space between the recent find and the recovered concentration to the north. In the future we plan to rely more heavily on Will’s blade to remove overburden because it does not damage the bone anymore than being hit by a shovel. Thus, there probably will be more handwork around bone clusters and less overburden removal for volunteers. It is clear that there is more bone in our future.  
 
David Brenzel and Holmes Semken, April 30, 2009