I focused on osteoarchaeology, so while I do enjoy shellfish and acorns, I usually get in trouble at parties for discussing...uh...burial practices. Sometimes pig bones! Sometimes chicken bones! Really, detailed human and animal anatomy of any sort. (But not dinosaurs. Never dinosaurs). I'm not too experienced with Californian archaeology (having been to school in Canada and England), but because I have excavated burials all over the world, I am apparently eligible to excavate burials here. And the local archaeological consulting firms seem to be in need of people who are good at differentiating human from animal bones, when all the bones are in tiny pieces and crushed by a mechanical excavator. The dig I just finished up was actually in San Jose, they had to remove a burial ground before putting in a new BART station.
Are you from Australia, or did you just go to school there? I have been to New Zealand, but never Australia! It seems like an awesome place, although I think that is one of the only countries other than the US with such high tensions between academia and native peoples where archaeology is concerned.
I feel guilty for not talking enough about chickens. My friend just moved to the country outside of Elk Grove and his family is considering getting some chickens. If anyone has any extra pullets that they think would be good "starter chickens" let me know, they have a long way to go (their yard isn't landscaped at all, and they would need time to build a coop and run) but I thought I'd see if I could get a few breed recommendations/availabilities to throw their way.
