Raining a cantaros

Llovia a cantaros,

or, in English, raining cats and dogs.

See, Mrs. Vallejos?  I DO remember something from all those hours in class.

The rain obviously doesn't bother Miss Vickie but for some reason it freaks me out.

Never mind that I'm already soaking wet, standing in a river.

This is my brave, "I'm having fun!" face.  Note the tension in the neck.

But there was no lightening nor flash flooding, and the digging continued.

So glad I didn't give up:

because I found this.

Probably my prettiest river meg EVER.  Only 2.5" with a tiny bit of damage on the tip but otherwise, pristine with a lovely tan root.

I also dug a couple more nice little megs, a great hemi, and a fat tiger.

When things seem to slow down, 

I start talking about moving on until Jack reminds me 

to tell him when I'm done with the area and he'll come dig on it for a while.

NOOOO!!!!

I'll keep digging!

Definitely not done with the area.

Glyptodont scutes continue to trickle in:

and several assorted teeth:

and as usual, a surprise or 2:

An embalming fluid bottle from the 20's-40's.

Creepy....

But I love it.

Here's Miss Vickie making her way back to town.

Life on the river.

Now, apropos of nothing, here's a baby sitting on the train tracks:

I was having breakfast in Brooksville, Florida, recently with some youngsters and the youngest pointed out the picture, stating, "I don't think that's a very good idea."

I wonder what was going through the photographer's mind and was this photo accidentally filed under "Anne Geddes" when it should've been in "Horror Film Promo"?

Just something to ponder and help add words.

Thank you for reading!

Loving a Season in Full Swing!!!

How great is it to be enjoying a full-on fossil season?

F'ing GREAT!!!

(proboscidean vertebrae, as in mammoth or mastodon)

I am, perhaps, overly proud of finding a good 

spot to dig for the season.

After 2 bum high water years where I was feeling very inferior,

I'm riding the wave.

And I'm still wondering about the wave that someone's boat rode down the Peace River at some point in the past.

So far, I think the flatware count is at 3 forks, 2 spoons, and 1 knife, 

and I was really shocked to pull this out of the water:

Seriously?!

I was nervous about taking a picture because I know this corroded  thing might still be under pressure but I couldn't pass up the photo opp.

I had my moment of joy followed quickly by despair:

3" but with some serious character flaws

(and you can make all the "that's what she said" jokes that you like).

My fossil friend, Jack, constantly pulls perfect 2-3+" megs out of the river.

Why not me?!  Whaaaa!!

Whatev's...

Look at the impressive dolphin ear bones I found:

But wait just a minute!  I started to get very curious about the piece of jaw

 on the top right of the photo.

After lots of research and assistance from knowledgeable and helpful fossilers, I now know that it is an incisor section from a smilodon: saber tooth lion!  Extremely cool!

...of course I still want that perfect 3" meg...

I, of course, feel protective of glyptodont heaven,

and the thought of anyone else digging there puts me in a bad mood,

so when I recently heard of potential encroachment, I spent a whole day skulking around the house.

NOT a good time to do prep work on a fossil, I learned.

I had found this fossilized gator tooth with an intact root and was told that the root would crumble if I didn't take precautions, so there I was, pissed off, nursing a G&T and gripping a bottle of Paleobond.

A recipe for disaster.

I ended up dropping the tooth 2 times (amazingly, it survived), gluing it to my hand, and gluing all my fingers together.  

No one to hear me cursing but the dachshunds.

Next time, I'll walk it off before operating heavy machinery or fossil prep chemicals.

I really like this camelid incisor that I found:

When perusing dentition charts of llamas and camels, I am struck by the fact that

they've got some crazy looking teeth!

Here's another probable camelid tooth:

Each individual tooth doesn't look that crazy but when you put them all together in one mouth

Cra-cra!

Here's a small serving of this-n-that,

and a large helping of turtle:

If you've made it this far, 

thank you!

Please leave a comment, any comment, but nice comments are preferred. :-)

Rehabbing the Digging Mechanism

"Be the shovel, be the shovel..."

Fossiling is hard work and at my age, it's shifted into the realm of painful.

A group of us did a 3 day/2 night camping trip on the river and after 3 days of digging, I was, as the old timers say,

Stove up.

A friend recently turned me on to an Asian massage place at a local mall and I gave it a try.  

I'm a long time massage junkie so I'm fairly proud of my ability to withstand deep tissue work.  I was once being rolfed and the therapist finally asked, "Are you dead?"  

My Asian massage therapist, however, tested my limits.

While she worked on my back, I kept thinking to myself, 

"She's trying to break me and I will not give in!"

But then I view massage more along the lines of the lead character in the the German film, "Toni Erdmann" who walked out of her massage complaining, 

"I'm not paying 100 Euros to be petted...Bring someone who will beat me up."

In fact, I think I need to assemble my own 

fossiling physical therapy team

composed of massage therapists, chiropractors, and OCD therapists.

I may talk a lot about my love of gin but when I'm digging, I mostly keep it clean.  

Why look!  Here's a selfie of me eating a healthy snack!

But enough about me, let's look at the fossils. 

Here's my haul, laid out at camp.  I claim credit for the idea of covering the sawgrass in the area with lightweight frost cloths which creates a nice lounging area in our little tent city.

Tom and I have been working on a theory

that we are digging the debris trail of a boat wreck.

We've found the most interesting things in the area including this full bottle of tequila:

I felt Tom should have left it as is but he opened it and even though I warned him that it smelled "poopy", he swallowed a swig.

He survived.

Shortly thereafter, I dug up this bottle:

So I took it to him and told him it was Goldschlager and he should try it.

He declined.

There are other clues to a nice day on the river gone bad:

Just hoping I don't find a .38 Special ball cap with traces of hair in it.

Still finding scutes:

This is a pleasing combination of glyptodont, giant armadillo, and tortoise.

Tom found a beautiful little 3-toed horse tooth:

I was rinsing out this piece of alligator jaw and found a tiny unerupted tooth inside one of the sockets:

Both of these teeth fell into my screen broken in half.  Obviously they are very fragile but it's rare to find both halves and in the same screen at that.

A little super glue fixed them right up.

Lots and lots of antler in this area as well as chunks of tusk and pieces of mammoth and mastodon teeth:

Foot bones:

Horse and bison teeth:

Megalodons and hemis:

We've definitely had some "OH WOW!" moments

(others more than me, but that's why I'm going to have an OCD therapist on my team)

but mostly it's about the variety.

You never know what's going to turn up in your screen.

Well, I'm off to meet with my tai chi and energy work instructor.

Until next time!