This is my Day of Archaeology 2015 post. Here are my past posts:
2014: More Companies, More Changes
2013: DayofArch2013: Continuing Changes
Thanks again to the organizers for putting this on. Hopefully CRM in the US will start to have a bigger presence as the years roll on. For now, though, it's just a few of us. Here's the Day of Archaeology Page
2014
Last year I had been part of the formation of a new company, Field Tech Designs, that was set up to create a tablet application for CRM and beyond. We went quite far with the developers on that, but, in November my backer and business partner backed out. I guess the cost and pace of app development was a bit too much. Who knows. Either way, I've moved on and I have a new collaboration with the Center for Digital Archaeology and they are making something that will be great when it comes out! More on that later.
I also mentioned the podcast in last year's post. Well, as of December, 2014, I started the Archaeology Podcast Network with a fellow podcaster, Tristan Boyle of the Anarchaeologist Podcast. Together, we've built the APN into quite the little network with a total of seven shows right now and more on the way. We're getting around 7000 downloads a month across the network and that number keeps rising. Creating podcasts for people to learn from and enjoy has really been the highlight of my archaeology career. I have a real passion for teaching and outreach and this is my creative outlet for that. Go check out the APN if you're interested and don't forget to leave some feedback on our iTunes page.
Finally, I mentioned that my book had just come out from Left Coast Press. The Field Archaeologist's Survival Guide did better than I expected for the first year, given the price and the small size of this field. My first royalties check came just in June and I took my wife out for a nice McDonald's dinner. Not super-sized, of course; I mean, it was no Harry Potter. All kidding aside, I knew I wouldn't make back what I put into the book. Our field just isn't big enough. That's not why I wrote it or why I went with a publisher. I just wanted the info to be out there and I thought it was a book that could help some people. I've achieved that goal, I think.
2015
This year has been the year of DIGTECH! After two years of networking, proposal losing, small jobs, and living of the knitting income of my wife, I've got $400k in work this year and as of the Day of Archaeology I've paid out over $60,000 in payroll! That's a big deal for me. Not only have I had the satisfaction of winning a few contracts and getting to work on them, more importantly, I've been able to hire and support a few friends of mine and some new friends. That's the biggest satisfaction for me. When I think about my friends receiving a paycheck that says, "DIGTECH" on it and using that money to support and feed their families, I feel very honored and humbled. Being an employer is an awesome responsibility. I heard someone say once that you'll know you're a business owner when you go to sleep at night worrying about payroll. That's certainly the truth!
For this year's event I'm in the middle, well really the beginning, of a 30,000 acre survey. I've got four employees with three more coming in October. I just finished a proposal that I think this year's jobs will get me, too. I haven't really had the past performance to win much in the last few years, but, these two jobs should change everything.
We're recording fully digitally in the field, too. There are some issues with the system I'm using, but, we're adjusting and moving on. In fact, I talked about some of this at the San Diego Archaeological Society's monthly meeting on July 25th. It's the first time I've been invited to speak somewhere about these issues and it was a huge honor.
2016
I'm hoping that I'll have something really interesting to write about in 2016. Just a few weeks ago I moved on a project I've been thinking about for several years now. I've got people here that want to help out with it, knowing that it won't pay right now, but, will in the future, and they're willing to put in the time. We'll see. We've just started and I love the energy they have here in the beginning. I just hope that enthusiasm sticks around.
My Day
I guess I'll briefly talk about my actual day for a minute. Since this is a small company, I'm usually out in the field with the crew. If we go to one part of the project area we leave at 0530. For the more distant part we leave at 0415. That's to avoid much of the Mojave desert heat that we have to deal with. Leaving at 0415 gets us home by 1245. That's not too bad. Of course, that means dinner at 2pm and bed at 8pm, but, it's better than working in 105+ F. On the long drive days we spend 1:45 just getting to the project area. Then, we survey for two hours, take lunch around 0845, survey another two hours, and, go home. It feels like a really short day.
The survey on the long drives is working out, though. We have a certain number of acres we're trying to hit every day and there isn't much out there in that part of the project. So, we cover a lot of ground in that short four hours. Luckily, the dense parts of the project, for archaeology that is, are near town.
That's it for this year. I hope to have an even better year next year and have a lot more to talk about.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the field!!