(I am not at ALL suggesting that anything about fracking is good, but a neat guy just stopped by, and there is a kewl apparent upside even in the midst of all the land-raping.)

An appropriately-garbed young man (reminded me of our son Mike) came up to the porch mos' 'speckfully just now (I was proof-listening on my new laptop to an AfAm man a read PD Spurgeon work). He was asking about getting onto the farmland behind, uphill, which is owned by our landlord.

Kevin, from PAF: The Public Archaeology Facility (PAF) is a research center within the Department of Anthropology specializing in Cultural Resource Management. PAF's primary goal is to train archaeologists to be field and research specialists within a cultural resource management (CRM) framework.

   PAF's research focus is the Northeastern United States with an emphasis on the Susquehanna, Chenango, and Chemung Valleys of New York and Pennsylvania. Students receive intensive mentoring in the legal, administrative, and research management of archaeological projects through a variety of grants and contracts awarded to PAF.

[my paraphrase of a long chat] "Oh, well, we just want to post flags every 50 feet to dig test pits, to be sure that if there are any archaeological sites under all that fracking-mess, we can make them go around them and then we can look into them or at least record their locations for other diggers. But we don't want the cows to get sick eating our flags. Are they good cows to go among, is there another pasture they can go into when we dig, and who owns the next pieces over 'there'and 'there' and 'there'?"

So of course I hooked him up, but how cool is THAT!?!?!?! His "farm manners" were exquisite, and I was in my jammies, totally OK having him set a spell to tell me what-all they do. Nice peeps. Even in a yellow shirt too much like the frackers wear, but it's for his safety I am sure.

Dogs liked him OK too. Almost as good as seeing Mike in his plant-conservation days.

~Susan