A Grave Situation

Sam Roeper missed his wife something awful. Maybe it wasn’t so much his wife missing that bothered him, as much as what was missing since she’d left. Regular meals, for one. The mass exodus of dust bunnies from under the furniture, for another. Hospital corners, pressed sheets, the smell of fresh baked goods wafting from the kitchen every weekend. Sadly, these were all things of the past since Mrs. Roeper left. Only one thing in Sam’s life had gotten better since that day: Sam’s garden out back. Here, tulips bloomed, and roses, pink and fragrant, lilted in the breeze. Mrs. Roeper wouldn’t have any of it when she was here. There were always too many bees a-buzzing round the peonies, sparrows dropping waste on the chair next to the bronze bird bath, marring the very idea of what she felt a garden should be [Read more…]

The Mystery of the Missing Mill

Originally published in Arch Notes 95(3):36-39. The Ontario Archaeological Society Inc.: Ontario.

Historical research at best is not easy–the archives never hold the documents you are looking for, and if they do, it’s never early enough in the historic record; books and other documents, the documents you know hold the key to your research, always seem to go missing; and the people at the land registry office never understand why anybody would ever want to look at two hundred year old records [Read more…]

The Bruce County Board of Education: Excavations at the Mason Family Cabin Site

Originally published in The Second Annual Archaeological Report of Ontario. AARO Vol 2, 1991, 95(3):36-39.

Between 30 May and 6 June 1990, a successful small-scale field school was operated on the Mason Family Cabin Site (BeHh-8). The excavation was sponsored by the Bruce County Board of Education with additional funding by The Ontario Heritage Foundation to support faunal and artefact analysis as well as report preparation. The field school was directed by Elise Marla Sherman [Read more…]