I said I was gonna do it...

I said I was gonna scoop up a bucket of sand

to sift through for tiny fossils.

Someone remind me why I thought this was a good idea!

   I've got the fever and the cure is fossils (not cowbell) but now I know, the cure is normal size fossils.  I went back to Apollo Beach with two 5-gallon buckets (holes in the bottom to let water drain out) and braved a heat index of 106〫F  to collect the sand/shell/fossil mix and take it home.  Better to sift through it for fossils in the AC.  I had also promised a family member who teaches geology in Michigan that I would send her a box of sand as a class project for her students.

     It didn't take long to realize that I wouldn't even be able to lift 5 gallons of sand so I ended up making 2 trips from the truck to the beach and back, collecting a TOTAL of approximately 4 gallons of sand.  Never has the truck looked so far away as it did when I started back with that second bucket.  I was mentally comparing Apollo Beach with Wauchula which had a listed heat index of 113〫F; another good reason fossil season doesn't kick up again until the fall.

I really thought I had enough sand to fill this box to the brim.

    Half of the sand barely filled the flat rate postage box halfway and after it dried out, it only weighed about half what it did (or so it seemed), but I can't wait to find out what young people with young eyes and good microscopes will discover in it.

     My half of the sand yielded 3 more fabulous tiny teeth.

Very cool!  Very small!

Front

Chewing surface and back

Front

Chewing surface and back

I can barely even pick these things up!

I need to dig out the old jeweler's loupe and tweezers I have buried around here somewhere.

Among other things...

I discovered my new favorite shirt

during a summer of activities on Florida's west coast.

Lightweight, SPF 50, quick dry, and check out the mesh inserts along the inside of the arms and down the sides: breezy and cool!  The company is Breath Like a Fish and the shirts run about $40.  I have to save up for a second shirt because digging for fossils is going to wreck this one.

I mailed another SolOpsArt at Etsy.com fossil necklace

to its new home in Pennsylvania

...marking off the days until fall...