00:00.40 archpodnet Welcome to the show. Everyone joining me today is bill in Northern California and Heather somewhere in the northern midwest not California I don't know if you want to tell where you're at just Chicago there you go. 00:06.35 Bill White Um, hello hello. 00:10.13 Heather And Chicago that's fine. That's where I'm from a Chicago girl originally. 00:14.11 Bill White Ah. 00:18.13 archpodnet That's right, that's right, you escaped the ah the crazy wet ridiculous wave weather. They're having down in ah Southern California first no instead there you go. So yeah, all right? Well just ah. 00:23.37 Bill White Yeah, yeah, ah. 00:24.86 Heather Um, same right? yeah. 00:30.78 archpodnet Let the audience know we are recording this on the last day of the year Twenty Twenty three December thirty first and I know this comes out on January tenth so I just want to let you know that we do record this bottle a week and a half ahead of time the significance of that is and I don't know if you if you follow our socials you would have seen this a couple of days ah towards the end of the year but we hit for the first time in the just over nine years of the archeology podcast network we hit 1000000 downloads in a calendar year which puts us somewhere around ah ah 8 to 8 to 9000000 downloads total for the whole network of course to life in the network. But that's the first time we've hit a million downloads in a calendar year. 00:55.81 Bill White Wow. 01:07.57 Bill White Wow. So. 01:09.59 archpodnet And that is just nuts. It's really crazy. So thanks to everybody who's listening for you know, sharing this and letting other people know about the podcast because every little bit helps and this is kind of a small show on the network because well it's a niche topic in a small audience. So but every little bit helps and we really appreciate it. So. 01:25.10 Bill White Um, yeah. 01:28.20 archpodnet Bill. Did you ever think we would be talking about a million downloads when we started this program twelve years ago 01:29.39 Bill White No I didn't think that I didn't think there was enough people who wanted to hear about real archeology you know because we don't have any magical cities or you know we never discover anything Aliens Never do it on our show. So I was surprised that people wanted to hear about actual archeology. But it's amazing. 01:37.73 archpodnet Yeah. 01:46.73 archpodnet Yeah, indeed indeed. In fact I was um at my brother and sister-in-law's house and there was a documentary being played on tv so I think it was from Netflix or something like that called encounters all about ufos and aliens and stuff. But this one guy was on I just got to say that since we're in the Christmas season and. 01:47.76 Bill White It's great. 02:06.80 archpodnet We're talking about aliens he brought up he was like he reads his children a bible passage every morning by the way this is where the guy's coming from so he's very religious very Christian but saw these lights in the sky in Texas and a whole bunch of people did apparently it's a big well-known event back in like the 90 s or something and he's got his kids believing and himself that. Jesus was probably an alien because he came down to this planet. You know to save everybody and came from somewhere else so he was probably in reality an alien not a human and ah and and really believes that and he it's kind of an interesting viewpoint though because you know you ask people that. 02:32.26 Heather Um, how. 02:35.11 Bill White Um, ah. 02:43.43 archpodnet If ah, aliens do exist which more probably they do but can they get here more probably not. But even if they did you know does does did god create them too. You know did does does Jesus save the aliens or just humans. You know what? I mean. 02:49.49 Bill White Um, I'm going to say yes right? I'm going to say yes because at the end. 02:59.92 archpodnet Yeah. 03:01.70 Bill White There's going to be someone with this old book checking off all the bad stuff I did and I want this to be a day where I did good. So I say yes I say you know they they were created and yes I agree. Yeah. 03:05.56 archpodnet Nice, nice. 03:13.38 archpodnet Well there you go and it it just I'm only bringing this up in the context of archeology because I mean it does throw it. It would throw something like the entire archeological record going back a certain amount of time into question if ah aliens did exist and things were actually turned out to be. You know. 03:29.70 Bill White Yeah, yeah, yeah. 03:30.92 archpodnet All that kind of stuff but it's all just wacky. We have a show on the archeology podcast network called digging up ancient aliens where Frederick one of the hosts he goes over he pours over the ancient aliens episodes god bless him I got to say because ah, they're horrific but he goes through them and brings through the evidence against. 03:39.43 Bill White Wow. 03:47.86 archpodnet Basically everything that they're saying and just talks about the reality behind what they're talking about. So if you're interested in that kind of stuff. Go listen to a show hu all right? So with that we're just kind of chatting about the ah the end of 2023 the beginning of 2024 the winter you know moving into. 03:50.20 Bill White Yeah. 04:06.55 archpodnet Um, moving out of the Christmas season I mean you're listening to this in what's becoming the middle of January One of the coldest months of the year January and February typically and so you're either lucky enough to be doing crm right now and having a job where you're you're doing some lab work or maybe you're in a region where. Doesn't really get a winter and you can you can work outside at least the snow's not on the ground. That's really all that matters. It can be cold. It doesn't matter how cold it is. But if there's snow on the ground it makes it difficult to do survey? Um, but if you're in one of those areas where you can still work then then great and that's one of the things we were talking about like we used to have conversations on this show around this time about. 04:28.39 Bill White Yeah, exactly. 04:28.97 Heather How. 04:42.20 archpodnet What do you do over the winter and that that 2 three months where you're off and and you had to save up money for but I'm just hearing chatter just anecdotally online a lot fewer people are actually off for the winter these days and I have a feeling. It's due to the fact that. But seems to be fewer people in the field I think bill you brought that up and also there's just bigger and bigger firms that are running the shows these days and lot a lot fewer smaller firms which means that the bigger firms I mean well they can they can either afford to keep you doing stuff over the winter that maybe not related to archeology or. 04:59.10 Bill White There. 05:17.36 archpodnet They've got the work in places where they can shuffle you around and and move you to where the work is and and they're more diversified too I think and Heather you mentioned something along those lines. So Heather go ahead. 05:26.17 Heather Yeah, yeah I was I was going to say that this is a ah good reminder for for those that are in areas with cold weather climates that think that they are limited by um, their geography as to the amount of work that they can do. And that's really not true. I Think if you have worked in that area for a very long time or a decent amount of time you may not realize that you know there Obviously we we all know there's a shortage of archaeologists right now and so you know if you're working for firms. Um, the firm that I work for you know. It's not that much of an extra expense to fly somebody somewhere so you know it is if really you're still putting people up in a hotel. You're still giving them per Dm and mileage and and all that um, sort of expenses. So just having a an airfare somewhere. 06:04.50 archpodnet E. 06:18.50 archpodnet Yeah. 06:21.15 Heather It's not that big of a deal right? If you have a large enough project where you're spending money on hotel and per diem spending the money on an on airfares is not that much of a difference and so it really opens up your potential employment opportunities and you know hope everybody keeps that in mind. 06:38.59 archpodnet Yeah. 06:40.60 Heather Um, everybody should be able to work year-round now as long, you know, Obviously there's some limitations personal limitations that might prevent you from being able to travel too much., But if you do have that option to travel and it doesn't have to be for months on end. It can be for you know? Um, especially if it's a. An assessment based work where it's not Monitoring. You know you come in for a couple weeks and you're back home. So um, that's becoming I think more and more prevalent now because it's it's difficult if as as firms move into. More and more geographies they come into an area. They don't know who the technicians are um which is also too bad for the local technicians but you know, um, it just opens up your possibility of employment. So make sure that you're casting a very wide net. Um, and that you're preparing ahead of time. 07:27.78 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 07:36.89 Heather You don't get to the winter and now you're like oh ok now I need more work. You know, start putting your name out and your resume out to places around the country and um places maybe that you would like to gain experience in. Yep. 07:50.68 archpodnet Yeah. 07:51.23 Bill White Yeah, that's excellent advice about the preparing for the downtime in the winter because I remember when I first started doing cultural resources I didn't do that and so there was always a time around you know December January February where I was. 07:59.42 Heather Yeah. 08:08.35 Bill White Essentially unemployed right? Lao was living in Idaho at the time and so it snows there's no survey. It's really hard to dig because the ground freezes in a lot of areas and stuff and so you know there was this time where you're just kind of scrambling looking for work. But of course everyone else is in the area and so it's just really kind of hard to. Make that shift whereas if I had known other ways then I could have left and gone to a place where it was warmer and where things keep going I mean in Arizona the winter's a great time to work. But it always seemed like it was slow for some reason. Um, and I I was mentioning this before we started the the show. Maybe someone can. 08:38.90 archpodnet Her. 08:45.76 Bill White Talk about this end of the year phenomenon where the companies where I was working out. They were always kind of like well things are kind of slow right now even though it's the best time to work in Arizona and then the worst time to work outside in Arizona was when we were like absolutely like you know, hustling to get things done in july. 09:00.33 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 09:02.21 Bill White And in August right in in June when it's boiling hot outside. That's when everything was was booming and so I always had these questions about well what happens at the end of the year at a crm um company. You know why is it that all of a sudden There's this rush to get certain contracts done and there's you know, fewer contracts and stuff and so. Maybe someone who knows more can tell us a little bit more about that. But. 09:21.97 Heather Yeah, well say as far as the timing that is a major frustration because you know we have projects ah quite a bit in the um in the desert regions of California and Arizona Nevada and it is. Um, you, you always had that question. Why are we working in the height of the of the heat and you know the timing of of ah field work is has very little to do with the cormcompany. It's very much um, unless the sear company is on not all that organized. But for the most part. It's really based on the client's need. and um and I mean for me I can speak on my end once we get authorized to do field work. We're moving as quickly as we can to do that field work. Um, we're not sitting back and say okay, well let's wait until the weather's better because. 10:08.13 archpodnet Yeah. 10:14.79 Heather I Don't know any clients really that are willing to just let us wait until the until the everything is a rush right? Um, until until it's a hurry up and wait on the client's end right? and they're like yes Yes, let's go. Let's go and then all of a sudden you have ah a lag or the authorization for the larger cost of the fieldwork doesn't come in So I think. 10:18.38 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 10:34.25 Heather You know people. It's a lot of times has nothing to do with the actual managers from the Crm side. It's it's usually client driven this the schedule is um, lis. That's what I experience. 10:45.58 archpodnet Yeah I've I've never seen a client say oh here here project signed. We're good to go start it whenever you want you know it just doesn't it just doesn't work that way now the see the exception might be some of the. 10:53.98 Heather Um, yeah. 10:57.87 Bill White Ah. 11:01.27 archpodnet A little more esoteric like Blm um projects or or even military projects where it's just something they have to get done within a certain time but there's there's not like you know a hard we have to start here and we have to end here kind of thing. Um, so you do see those occasionally. But yeah, your general client-based work that's more I guess construction related usually is. 11:02.66 Heather Um, yes, true I. 11:20.52 archpodnet Ah, is usually you're behind but you're behind before you start Anyway, it because everything took longer to get started to begin with so all right? Well let's take a break right? there and come back and keep talking about this on the side pack in a minute. 11:24.44 Heather Um, right.