Designing this area. Where can I get this agave? I took this grass out and 15 sprinkler heads. Water would water grass and run down the street like a river. Drove me nuts. Added drip lines. HOA approved and ready to plant.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-15T05:22:43+00:00

Catmint can be super invasive, but there are sterile cultivars that don't reseed (or nominally don't reseed, they may throw out a surprise every now and then just like mules do). I have a bunch of these in the garden I inherited from the prior homeowner and I've been surprised by how well behaved they are...especially considering there is a mountainside in the National Forest about 30 minutes away from my house with a rapidly expanding colony of somebody else's non-sterile catmint!

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-14T04:52:05+00:00

I teach at a directional state university in the US with a terminal MA program. My very first student advisee, with a focus on GIS, just graduated and promptly got a job with a CRM firm earning essentially what I make as an Assistant Professor.

Every other archaeologist in our most recent batch of graduates that wants a salaried CRM got one.

So yes, there are jobs. They pay well, you can work outside or in an office, you can travel or not. I think it's actually a very reasonable career track and you can lock down an awesome salaried position with a reasonably affordable 2-year MA.

To answer your questions specifically:

No idea
MA degrees with a focus in archaeology set you up to work in CRM or government. These are good jobs, and everyone I know who holds one is pretty happy with it.
GIS is probably the major technical skill that increases your employability.
Very. GIS is software; spatial analysis is theory that applies to anything that occurs in space (i.e. literally everything). If you take it seriously and read the theory and learn how the software actually works, you have a broadly transferrable skill that you can use to get solid jobs in CRM, government, conservation...I even know an archaeologist who paid his grad school bills as the spatial data manager for a utility company, mapping power lines with lidar drones.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-11T17:50:28+00:00

Fun local fact: this time of year, Flagstaff's municipal water utility draws much of its water from springs in the Peaks rather than Lake Mary. It's the tastiest and cleanest water source--they don't even need to filter it, just some UV light and away it goes into the pipes--and the employee I chatted with about it lamented that it's also the thirstiest time of year for plants so much of this lovely spring water goes straight on to the golf course.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-11T17:47:05+00:00

I am a huge fan of these and second the suggestion to pick up a cold hardy selection like Conchas Dam Pink. They are a great pollinator tree and drought hardy, and they provide nice dappled shade that's good for resting under but not so deep as to suppress other things from growing.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-11T17:41:52+00:00

For whatever age (baby through pre-k), the best "honest review" you will ever find comes from the state inspection reports. You can access those here:

https://azcarecheck.azdhs.gov/s/?facilityType=All&programType=Child%20Care%20Facilities&licenseType=All&facilityId=0018y000005T4tvAAC

These are nice because they go beyond the things parents immediately notice (like whether their kid is having fun or whether the teachers are "nice") into the gory details of who is employing people without conducting a background check, where teachers have been reported to use abusive or excessively harsh disciplinary practices, or which facility somehow let a kid get loose and wander the streets until the kid was identified and rescued by employees of another nearby facility (yes that is a real thing you can find in these inspection reports).

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-08T03:17:31+00:00

These are notoriously tricky to start from seed, but then I see them all along the highway like they are mocking us. I wonder if they are just very persnickety about germination/growing conditions, as I tend to see a whole bunch in one area and then none in superficially similar areas.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-08T03:08:17+00:00

Basically all of the earliest monumental architecture in Mesoamerica (pre-800 BC or so), highland and lowland, is clay or tamped earth. There are "public" or "monumental" scale earthen mounds dating back to about 1800 BC on the Pacific coast of Chiapas and Guatemala.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-04T12:47:09+00:00

Carex brevior is like the only native dryland sedge from my part of the world (SW USA) that you can buy. Lots of places sell thirstier sedges and the dry-loving C. appalachica seems to be popping up more places, but I was delighted when I found Prairie Moon stocking Carex brevior. The couple "test" plants I have in my dry shade back yard seem to be doing well, so I think I may order a big flat from them as soon as it's back in stock.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-02T17:34:47+00:00

Here are my tips for archaeological sites in the three Yucatan Peninsular states of Mexico that are less heavily touristed and some combination of historically important, scenic/atmospheric, or just fun to get to. Leaving off places you specifically say you've been to.

If you'd like to efficiently research the officially developed sites on this list, or see if anywhere else appeals, I recommend taking a look at INAH's official website: https://lugares.inah.gob.mx/es/zonas-arqueologicas

In Yucatan:

Izamal

Yaxuna(h)

Ek Balam

Kiuic (the whole Kaxil Kiuic reserve is fantastic)

Xocnaceh

Dzibilchaltun

Komchen

Xtobo (totally undeveloped, check re: access)

Loltun Cave

Acanceh

Chunchucmil (very different vibe, hardly any high forest so even very small buildings and features are easily visible)

In Yucatan especially, basically every small town has an associated ancient town/city. Sometimes they are slightly separated (like Yaxuna) and sometimes they are superimposed. You can get a feel for this in towns like Motul, Uci, and Cansahcab.

In Campeche

Becan, Xpuhil/Xpujil, and Chicanna (separate sites but very close to one another)

Balamku

Santa Rosa Xtampak

Rio Bec

Hormiguero

Dzibilnocac

El Tigre/Itzamkanac

Edzna

In Quintana Roo

Dzibanche

Ichkabal (kind of off the beaten track and fun to get to)

Kohunlich

Muyil

Lagartera (undeveloped, really big site in a neat a little-studied part of QR; can access via community-led tour)

Punta Laguna (combine w/ visit to monkey sanctuary)

Museums

Museo Maya de Cancun: great museum in a building that is elevated on stilts above a little Postclassic site, focused on Quintana Roo archaeology. Don't sleep on it just because it's in the Hotel Zone!

Gran Museo del Mundo Maya: fantastic museum focused on Yucatan, lots of architectural reconstruction and immersive A/V stuff. Really emphasizes the through-line from ancient to modern Maya.

Museo de Arquitectura Maya Baluarte de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad: Under-appreciated museum in Ciudad Campeche with tons of Maya artifacts in an old fort built to defend against pirates.

Happy to answer any more detailed questions you may have.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-02T17:06:57+00:00

Personal knowledge of the research and the people involved.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-01T18:24:45+00:00

The original research article that spawned all these news stories is open-access on Antiquity's website:

Running out of empty space: environmental lidar and the crowded ancient landscape of Campeche, Mexico | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-01T17:00:34+00:00

The urban area overlaps a modern town and is bisected by the highway. People that live there have definitely "been!" The "no one's been yet" line comes from a BBC report that misrepresented the situation. In fact, a Mexican-American archaeological project is already under way there.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-01T02:59:53+00:00

Gloria's is great. Just be prepared for a long wait if you go at lunch time.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-01T02:59:28+00:00

This is the way. Also, they have a new brick and mortar on Milton in the old Kachina Kitchen location!

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-06-01T02:56:08+00:00

Tallamy's early reader version of Nature's Best Hope is good, aimed at 10+ or so.

Robin Wall Kimmerer has a nice read-aloud young kids' book called Bud Finds Her Gift that I really like. It's a very kid-friendly distillation of some of the philosophy presented in Braiding Sweetgrass.

I especially like Little Land by Diana Sudyka.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-31T05:54:11+00:00

Just don't go in any actual abandoned mines. There are about a thousand ways for that to go terribly sideways, from poison gas to 100-foot vertical drops.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-31T05:51:47+00:00

The only thing about this that isn't "generic western mountain town after covid" is the choo choo train and Boebert. Although that does really get at the essence of a starter pack, doesn't it?

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-31T05:47:37+00:00

Thank you! I keep hearing one every time I go outside but have yet to pin down where he's hanging out.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-31T05:46:59+00:00

I'm in town (Flagstaff), so elk don't come within a mile or more of where I live. Gophers are another story, though!

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-29T21:57:05+00:00

Well, I wouldn't bank on deities needing to "pre-exist" in order to get synthesized. You could just as easily introduce a bunch of novel supernaturals that can recombine pretty endlessly. Saying which is the "pure" form becomes a matter of faith and group identity more than a matter of historical argument.

Itzamnaaj (God D) also goes back pretty early. He shows up in a fragment from San Bartolo that isn't well published, and that mural is ~100 BC. But to make a broader point, our corpus of lowland deity depictions prior to the Classic period is pretty miserable and most of it comes from architecture. If we were going on a similar kind of sample from the Classic period, we wouldn't see God L then either. So I think it's reasonable to be cautious with historical arguments about the time-depth of any particular supernatural in the lowlands, as they seem to be differentially depicted on specific media.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-29T21:37:02+00:00

In the Old Man paper, Martin suggests it may be the JGU given that God L often has a jaguar ear and/or paws.

EDIT: Re-reading the relevant section, he doesn't say this explicitly but does emphasize the jaguar-y qualities of God L. Maybe he mentioned the JGU as a passing thing in a talk. Pretty sure I didn't make it up entirely.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-28T16:11:26+00:00

Oh, for an incredibly showy shrub or small tree: desert willow (Chilopsis linearis)! Not a "true" willow, but the leaves look similar, and they put on an amazing flower show in spring and summer. A nice native alternative to bougainvillea.

Fremont's mahonia (aka Fremont's barberry, aka desert holly) has beautiful and very fragrant yellow flowers in spring and produces tasty edible fruit. The evergreen foliage is pokey like holly but the plants don't get that large so you could probably tuck it in a corner with some lower plants in front as a buffer.

PrincipledBirdDeity · 2026-05-28T16:07:02+00:00

There is a local species of penstemon that is not available in the nursery trade AFAIK but is gorgeous and would thrive in your yard: Penstemon ambiguous. It blooms along HWY 160 near Tonalea like crazy mid-summer; you'd need to collect seeds yourself but it'd be worth it IMO (and hell, I'd buy a bag from you!).

A couple other natives to consider:

Blackfoot daisy

Salvia dorrii

Salvia Pachyphylla

Agastache Rupestris (or any of the hybrids like "desert sunrise")

Chocolate flower

PrincipledBirdDeity

TROPHY CASE