Lime

On Tuesday we tried again.  After several hours of tricky route finding, we discovered another perfect kiva, this time in Lime Canyon.  Its roof had been collapsed by a chunk of rock falling from the overhang above, so I guess it is no longer quite perfect, but this condition allows for a clear view of the kiva's construction.  The roof consists of three layers.  The first is made of juniper trunks or branches.  These are the logs you can see.  I think it is interesting that the builders "cut" the logs to length not with a saw, but with a fire.  The second layer is made of juniper bark.  You can see this clearly on the right side of the image.  The top, or final layer, is earth or mud.  The other really nice thing about this structure is the quality of the interior walls.  You can see in the center right portion of the image some smooth reddish plastering.  This is very hard mud, almost like concrete, but nearly smooth, like it was finished with a trowel.  I'm not sure I've ever seen interior walls that were so finely finished.

The Perfect Kiva

 

On Monday we walked into one of the tributaries of Slickhorn Canyon.  This was something VSO wanted to do.  It was beautiful and rugged, and after a couple of miles we were able to find this:  The Perfect Kiva.  It is a completely intact 1000 year old ancestral Puebloan kiva.  I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it.  The only "fake" item is the ladder, which is a replica of the original.  The original ladder, which is completely intact, is now at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding, Utah.  It is currently on display.  Beside it is a Tom Till photograph from inside the kiva.  The photo was made in the 1980s and it shows the original ladder still in place.

Anasazi Pots

On Sunday we were out in Recapture Creek looking for Anasazi potsherds.  EDO found a nicely painted one (above).  After a while, I took a walk up the creek for two or three miles and started climbing around on some small sandstone walls.  When I dropped down to start back, I noticed a nearly intact corrugated pot under a rock (below).  It may have been sitting there for 800 to 1,000 years.  (Still is sitting there, in fact, because obviously I didn't touch it.)

Light Christmas; White Christmas

Like she did last year, VSO decorated The Homestead with luminara for Christmas Eve.  By the evening of Christmas, though, we had quite a different decoration:  A foot of snow.  It is one of the larger snowfalls we've had since we bought the place.  Arriving home from Grandma's house last night, we were confronted with a snow-plow berm over which I didn't feel like driving the car.  Quite a bit of shoveling was required to make space for ourselves.

Last Day of Autumn

 

It was one of the drearier days of the year.  The sky was gray from horizon to horizon.  It was spitting a little light snow.  The effect on this loaf of rock was to frost the top and streak the side.  White and black.