Another Piece of Jane

     On week one I went to the museum for one and a half hours, and after missing a week I spent three hours in the lab during week two.

     Since I was not in the lab for too long on the first week I decided to clean another small piece on bone from Jane that was found near the leg bone that I have been cleaning. For this I used a straight pick instead of an air scribe, which I have not used much because usually the caliche on Jane's bones is a little to thick for it. While the air scribe may have been faster I enjoyed practicing using a tool that I do not get to use all that often. I was very happy with how well the caliche cleaned off of this piece.

     During the second week I continued to use the air scribe on Jane's leg bone, and I was able to clean off more bone from both the back and front. 

The Intern Gets an Intern

     On week one I spent four hours in the lab. During this time, I worked on removing caliche from the underside of the pice of Jane's leg bone I've been working on. It took a while for me to get through the caliche and actually reach bone. This was due to the thick layer of caliche and the fact that I didn't know where there was bone and where there wasn't. Needless to say it was a very slow, but rewarding, process. Once I reached the bone I spent the rest of my time in the lab slowly removing caliche outwards until I had made a decent hole in it. In order to better see the bone I dipped a q-tip in water and used it to remove the remaining dirt. That was a very rewarding moment because I finally had a really good view of the bone I had been working on exposing for four hours.

     During week two I spent three hours at the museum. Ian came with me, like normal, but since he had finished his scientific illustration the week before and David was out of town I got to show him what I do. I had him organize bits of bone from the spoil pile to try and get an idea of what everything was. While he did that I worked on removing more caliche from the front of Jane's leg bone with the air scribe. Then I got the explain to him what all the things from the spoil pile actually were and how they fit together, or didn't. Finally I taught him how to used the air scribe and helped him to try it on a bit of spoil bone. He did a really good job, and told me he had a new appreciation for what I do in the lab.