Mikayla brought her rock collection to show me. She has a good eye for beautiful specimens of common stones. She loves geology. I thought it might be fun for her if we conducted an archaeological dig in the backyard. So we built a simple soil sifter from spare lumber and wire mesh, like the ones I made for fossil sieving in days of yore. We chose an empty plot of ground beyond the corn, dug a shovel's worth, dumped it in the sifter and shook out the dirt until only rocks and other things were left. To our surprise and gratitude, we enjoyed immediate success. There were Native American artifacts on the screen! Pieces of corrugated pottery and chipped agate, proof positive that Indians once stood in my backyard. We continued and found more artifacts, together with an old penny and a button. Mikayla said, "Grandpa, this is addictive, because you never know what the next shovel full will have in it." And we never know what the next hour or day will uncover in our lives. We keep digging.
