For those of us located in the mid to upper north-east, winter time spells freeze for most areas, and some of the usual fossil hunting locations freeze up as well.  For those who hunt Calvert Cliffs, most winters aren't harsh enough to freeze the salty water, but the shallow water nearest the shore does occasionally  freeze up making collecting difficult or impossible if we get snow (which is uncommon for Maryland).  There's nothing like trying to pry a hemi that's been frozen to the sand with a stick or piece of large shell.  There hae been times when I have to dig around and under a frozen tooth and take a clump of frozen sand with the tooth and let it thaw at home to get the tooth off without breaking it.

So, what do you do during the Winter?  I usually save up some micro material to go through while sitting at my card table in the corner of my family room.  I usually have plenty of Lee Creek material from the spoil pile in front of the Aurora museum, as well as material from some various places I hunt in Maryland.  Another favorite past time is going through all of the boxes of material that I packed away during the earlier months of the year, and sorting it in order to separate the good from the junk.  This is one of my favorite things to do because I'm always surprised by how much stuff I found, and how much I fogot that I had.  So, it's sort of like finding it all over again.  It's scary though too because for the most part, if I never looked at it again, I would never have known I even had it in the first place.  Have you ever had someone ask you about a tooth or something and you're like, ya I've got one of those somewhere in my collection.  Then you spend forever tearing apart boxes and little plastic containers looking for that stupid little tooth.  Man it would be nice to be organized!

Anyone going hunting (fossil or otherwise) on Thanksgiving?

Daryl.