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.