the cat... and some progress photos.

before the excavation work began on our house, i asked our contractor to please save anything of interest that the crew found in the sand. it's always interesting to see what gets unearthed when digging under historic homes.

well, everyone got a bit more than they bargained for this time around...

gino, one of the more jovial guys on the crew, was shoveling more of the never-ending beach below the house, and let out a yelp of surprise. he had found a mummified cat (we think) that curled up and went to sleep under our house, permanently.

if you don't have a strong stomach, scroll quickly past!

kitty must have been quickly covered up by the shifting sands. much like mummies seen in the terrifying photos from our childhood world history classes, the dry sands created a spontaneous mummy via natural desiccation. spooky, but kind of cool too.

we also ended up with a lot of interesting historic ephemera - i'll post about that another time soon.

meanwhile, here are a couple of new photos of what's happening below deck!

lots of interesting temporary shoring

and a look at the first section where concrete will be poured

here's one of the most lovely songs about mummies one could hope to hear, and an utterly charming video, from one of my all-time favorites, the incredible josh ritter: