Breathing Fresh Air and Wetsuit Funk

Bad smells won't kill you

but it makes for a long day when every time you move you get a whiff of ripe wetsuit.

I decided to experiment with a product called "Sink the Stink" when we are on the river for more than one day but I guess I'll have to buy it first.  

The funk was balanced by a surprise treat of wild sweet tangerines 

foraged on a walkabout in the woods.

I'm not complaining.

I'm very grateful that I am physically and geographically able

to enjoy Florida's fossil history.

Hopefully Florida's chigger population won't put a damper on my fun.

We found some big-ass bones over the weekend

but the glamour fossils, like 3-4" megs and whole mammoth teeth, continue to elude us.

That's ok because the tantalizing fragments of these mega fauna make for super satisfying digging.

I was in glyptodon heaven (maybe literally).

Look at all these scutes! 

 I couldn't resist the comparison to Oreo cookies.

I was happy to recover this tiny raptor claw:

I prefer to use a screen with larger holes so little treasures like this

 usually sift back into the river for future fossilers.

This is half of a giant sloth tooth. 

Sloth material is rare and I only have a couple of beat up sloth teeth so this was exciting if only because I started to hope I would find more (I didn't).

Tom found another detailed antler butt with the dark color of the Peace River, 

as well as a super chunky alligator scute.  Sweet!

Two days of digging, at my age, 

requires 3 days of recovery napping and Epsom salt baths

so my photos this time aren't as good coz I was tired!!!

This is a tray of goodies which includes a sea lion tooth with root, a horse wolf tooth and incisor, a tapir incisor, a llama premolar, deer teeth, small megs, gator teeth, and various other things that appeared in my screen.

Giant armadillo scutes at the top and an array of turtle and tortoise fossils.  

Some horse molars and mammoth enamel and the ubiquitous eyeglass lens.

I got a new toy,

a flat lap polisher,

but just like the kid who gets a bike for Christmas that needs to be assembled and adjusted,

I'm going through the frustrating phase of getting the polisher to do what I know it's capable of doing.

I ran my first batch of slabs which took about 20 hours total, only to have to accept that I needed to upgrade my saw blade in order to get a smooth enough cut for the polisher.

Tom works artistic wonders with handheld polishers but I don't have the patience for that yet I still want to be a part of the rock polishing game.  Hopefully, in a few weeks, I'll have some pretty coral pictures to post.

The Season is in Full Swing

Florida Fossil Season Is In Full Swing

The conditions have been good: 

very little rain, water levels slowly falling, and warm temperatures.

Grab your chicharrones and get going!

We enjoyed a good day on the river recently.

Everyone's in it for size so I'm still the "Finder of Small Things".

Pam screened a monster gator tooth:

Tom found his first serious chunk of mammoth tooth,

and a big, gorgeous lower bison tooth:

Meanwhile, I reeled in a toe bone, probably from a house cat:

JK!  It's a great little toe bone.

I mostly made do by finding small pieces of large animals:

a couple of glyptodont scutes and a scute from a giant armadillo.

Now that I have Tom to dig with

I've discovered he's my Elf on a Sand Shelf

If he's not in the river, I can usually find him lounging on the bank, enjoying a snack. 

I rarely stop digging, only eating when, as Pam once pointed out, I feel dizzy. 

 I live 2 hours away from the Peace River so time is of the essence.

Here's some of our finds:

Glyptodont and turtle scutes.

I keep the prettier pieces of turtle, even though they are numerous, because the day will come that I can't get in the river anymore and I'll be able to fossil hunt through the boxes I've filled over the years.

Detailed antler pieces.

A handful of gator teeth.

Turtle "peace signs" and tortoise spurs.

A few horse teeth including the big equus lunker on the bottom with a pre-equus perched on top for comparison.

Tom's first tapir cap.

My mishmash photo including sea urchin spines, fish mouth plates, dolphin ear bone, snake verts, hemi, tiger, and lemon shark teeth with a small meg thrown in, and a marble.

So if anyone who looks at my blog has made it this far, thank you!  There are millions of blogs out there and it means a lot that you check out mine.  I recently decided to apply for Adsense in the hopes that I could earn a buck or two for my efforts but Adsense turned me down, stating that blogs composed  mostly of pictures weren't eligible.  I found that interesting because the first thing that turns me off to a blog is a whole page (or pages) of monotonous writing with no pictures.

Fine!  I'll play the game by their rules and start writing more but I'll put the bulk of the writing towards the end so that my fellow fossil freaks can get their fill of photos

 and then get back to fossil hunting.

Did you happen to notice that the chicharrones are Baken-ets brand and are "$2 only"?

There, that used up some space.  Take that, Adsense!  :-)

Well, CRAP!!!

Or maybe I shouted something that started with an "f".

We've all been there:

paddling up to our honey hole only to discover that someone else has come along and dug it out.

I've been quietly working a site for over 2 years and no one else has discovered it.  It helps that it's not in an area known for great fossil hauls, so my heart sank and I cursed a bit to see that someone had finally horned in on my spot.

The reality, of course, is that it's not MY spot.  The river doesn't belong to me or anyone else; it's here for everyone to enjoy.  

All well and good, but I must ask this phantom fossil hunter,

"Why did you have to make such a mess?!"

He left visible piles of gravel slung all along the bank and gouged holes in the bank above the water line which is a big No-No.  There's no better way to invite every passing digger to your spot as well as rile up the ill will of those who would like to put an end to fossil hunting in Florida's rivers.

I wished I'd had a small board and a wax pencil.  I would've left a note saying,

"A little discretion, please!"

But then, I don't suppose he'll be back.  It takes moving a ton of gravel here to find a tiger shark tooth; not a great payout for the effort.
There ARE lots of oddities in this one tiny area, including more eyeglasses and eyeglass lens than I've found TOTAL in all other places I've dug.

This is just one day's sampling, which is kinda creepy.  I didn't start keeping track until I realized it was a trend so I don't have an exact number but it's a couple of eyeglass parts every time I'm there.

Other treasures sure to discourage:

one of the thinnest pennies ever found.

And how about this?

Clay containers for homemade candles used during the Indian festival of Diwali.

I just came back from a trip to India so I knew exactly what these were the moment I saw them.

And there's always a HUGE load of this:

I did some housekeeping that day,

filling in holes, dispersing gravel, and splashing everything with water to smooth it out.  I've been back a few times and the fossil slob has not yet returned but if he does, I hope he gets the message:

You're more than welcome to dig here, but keep it clean.

Don't be startled...

It's just a big oyster shell.

Ah, but I digress.

Weren't we talking about fossils?

Another warm holiday season in Florida makes for some extra fossiling time 

and Tom and I took advantage of it.

There was a definite theme under the Christmas Tree.

We kept the festivities going while on the river.

We started our Christmas weekend with Bloody Mary's while digging 

 and our New Year's weekend started with sushi and shovels.

Our efforts were not wasted.

For an area that doesn't yield much, I still managed to find a crocodilian tooth, several nice tigers, a meg blade, and a tapir cap (posing with an old dachshund).

Tom pulled a big chunk of mastodon out of the gravel.

I found a beautiful "stained glass" garfish scale

and an interesting tooth that might have belonged to a pre-equus horse.

If anyone has ID ideas, please comment.

I didn't know I had my own action figure.

Tom thought this reminded him of me as a Fossil Queen super hero.  

Very sweet of him and seriously, add a decade or 2 to her age and there is a resemblance.  

Now, to get out there and truly earn the title of Fossil Queen!