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Monica

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Hello everyone!

 

I'm sorry for the late reply in posting this, but I was busy on the weekend with a course I'm taking, so it took me a few days to get my act together.

 

On Friday, October 12th, 2018, a bunch of TFF members met up at Penn Dixie Fossil Park in Hamburg, New York in order to do some group fossil-hunting for mid-Devonian trilobites and other critters.  The members in the pictures that follow are Malcolm @Malcolmt (he's wearing the beige bucket hat), Greg @Greg.Wood (he's in the striped shirt), Ken @digit (he's in the red jacket), Ken's wife Tammy (she's in the blue jacket), my daughter Viola (she's the only child in the group, so she's easy to spot!), Kane @Kane (he's in the black shirt), Kane's partner Deb (she's in the black jacket), and Mike @ischua (he's in the blue touque and green jacket).  Diane @Mediospirifer and her husband were there, but I didn't get any pictures with them - so sorry! - perhaps Ken got a few photos... 

 

I encourage the others members of the group to add pictures to this thread if they have any, especially pictures of the finds - thanks!

 

Monica

 

The group hard at work:

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Malcolm using one of his toys to clear off some dust and debris:

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Greg doing some heavy lifting:

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Malcolm splitting some rock:

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continued...

 

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Malcolm, Ken, and Greg checking out some rocks:

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Viola and Tammy hammering rock together:

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Viola working hard and looking cute a the same time:

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Ken, Greg, and Malcolm:

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Another group shot:

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A couple of our finds: an Eldredgeops rana multi-plate and a Greenops pygidium:

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continued...

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After Kane and Deb arrived, they went straight to work:

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Greg spotted a beautiful moth sitting between the two of us while we were splitting rocks and he carried it to safety:

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Malcolm entertaining Viola with use of another one of his tools: a rock saw this time:

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As for what I personally took home that day - it wasn't much - just a couple of E. rana cephalons and a few brachiopods from the creek located within the park.  I'll take a few pictures this afternoon if the sun cooperates and I'll add them to this post...

 

That's all for now.  Thanks to everyone in the group for a wonderful day out last Friday - Viola and I really enjoyed hammering rocks with all of you!!! :D:dinothumb:

 

Monica

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Sweet snaps of the crew, Monica! :) 

 

It should be said that Monica was also supplying the rockhounds with vitamin B - as in brownies (Deb loved them!).

 

Malcolm and Greg were the first to arrive and opened up the hole from nothing but slump and overburden. By the time Deb and I arrived (with an actually smooth pass over the border), it was fully operational and ready for some slab carve-outs. We all worked steadily that day. Viola was having so much fun she didn't want to leave, and managed to convince mom to stay another 15 minutes. :D It was great to see everyone (and particularly to see @ischua out and about in the field again). 

 

This is a picture of the hole after the day was done:

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Deb and I stayed on for the following day and a half. One of my trip-makers was found on the Saturday: this quite large semi-prone Eldredgeops rana that will be a delight to prep. The pygidium is tucked underneath, so I might pedestal this one:

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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The north end of the pit was going a bit dry in terms of trilobites, so after I cracked out a few on that end of the pit just to make sure, I went south and unlocked a good swathe of them that were hit and miss. PD's own Lead Educator, @DevonianDigger, joined us for a time in between regular duties up front. 

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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By the end of Saturday, the bench was extended considerably. I'm standing on one end taking this picture, while Deb is at the other end. The slabs were getting tangled up and cross-bedded, so the going got a bit tougher.

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Returning for half a day on Sunday before having to return back to Canada, more bench extension. By the end of it all, we more than tripled the size of the initial bench and I couldn't fit it all into one shot. 

 

As I was only keeping full trilobites, mountains of 2/3 partials and other little goodies were given to the PD folks to hand out to the visitors, and we gave a bunch to the kids who came our way. A lot of that rock could be broken down further, but I wanted to leave those out to weather so that other visitors who may not have the tools or the ability could have a chance to find something delightful.

 

By the end, we managed to fill two 5 gallon buckets to the brim with full trilos, including a Bellacartwrightia cephalon in ventral position that may actually be a complete (but only some time at my prep bench will say for sure). As is usual, rollers outnumber prones, but both were well represented in our finds. Deb pocketed a few plump Rhipodomellas and other brachs we found along the way, while I was just pitching them aside. :D 

 

Overall, a good reprieve from teaching, and refreshes my supply of material for winter prep. Like Monica, I'll try to take some photos of the best dirty finds from the trip to add here. I still need to empty a bucket. Finds-wise, I think we came away with a little under a hundred trilobites, which is not the most we've found, but not the least in our times at PD. More would have been found, but the layers were fickle in pinching in and out like pulses.

 

With that much sledge-swinging and slab-flipping over the three days, I was pretty sore and moving slow the next day! A big shout-out to Jay for gifting me some wedges -- I couldn't have moved as much rock without them. :fistbump:

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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What a delightful report :) great to see so many TFF members together having fun .

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

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It was an excellent (if a bit chilly at the start) get together. I'm glad our travels through the area could provide an adequate excuse for a number of members to show up at the same time and place. TFF is a wonderfully informative and social forum and it is nice when there is an opportunity to extend that beyond keyboards and screens into the real world. We took some photos between helping to wedge out slabs, attempting to split them on seemingly non-existent bedding planes to look for treasures, and taking a break to check out the nearby creek to hunt for brachiopods weathering out of the banks. Our extended roadtrip (Chicago to Washington, D.C.) is still in progress (currently in the Boston area) and we have had other TFF meet-ups already and have more planned before the end. I'll write up my usually verbose and photo-stuffed trip report once I'm back home and sorted. Meanwhile, I'll drop a few photos to this thread to extend it a bit.

 

Thanks again to all who attended and especially Monica who not only took a personal day from work for this but also baked some delicious chocolaty goodness into the form of brownies to share with all in attendance. Malcolm and Kane made sure Tammy and I got to know the Devonian wonders of both Arkona (Hungry Hollow) and Penn Dixie. I have witnessed with my own eyes and now fully appreciate why Kane has earned the moniker 'Human Backhoe'. In my opinion backhoes should be called 'Mechanical Kanes'. ;)

 

Some photos soon....

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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You can compare this image to the ones above from Kane to see what the site looked like toward the start of the day with the bench of rock still mostly in place. Here is Greg, me, Monica, and Viola hammering away at a slab. This amount of effort is referred to as an "mk" or milli-Kane. :P

 

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The object of all this effort:

 

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Viola and Monica washing off a slab in the standing water to better see what treasures are exposed.

 

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More working photos--including one of me from my best side (good thing my drooping pants were pulled up). A school group of students looked on as we worked. They were there surface hunting and were fascinated by the hammering and prying we were doing. ;)

 

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You can see the blocks that we pulled to split behind Malcolm and his leaf blower site cleaner. Our little work/demolition area was rather crowded so Diane and Karl searched other less congested areas of Penn Dixie. They did not escape the camera's lens though (last photo) when Diane came over to wash some of the micro-matrix material she had collected.

 

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Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

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Looks like a great trip, nice finds and lots of Forum Folk getting together. 

How wonderful. :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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Just a small selection of finds to follow...

 

* A little multi-plate with a full prone showing

* Ventral cephalon of a Bellacartwrightia showing its doublure.

* Possible complete Greenops barberi tucked in the shale (missing a few lappets :( ). 

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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* Deb's first in the field repair. :) It seems to have shifted, so I'll be applying some acetone and resetting it.

* A few full rollers in need of liberation from the matrix

* A prone for prep

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Kane, the true Canuck!! Everyone else is bundled up in jackets and hats while Kane has just a T-shirt. I salute you, my friend. See you Sunday.

There's no limit to what you can accomplish when you're supposed to be doing something else

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* Possibly complete, or possibly missing their pygidia

* Just a roller that split right through, but I kept it for its internal crystallization

* Assorted other stuff for practice or parts

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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It was a great day at Penn along with an equally awesome day at Arkona with Digit and Tammy and Kane a few days earlier. Interesting it was only three dyas later but there was about a 30 degree F. swing in the weather between the too days.

 

 I really only take home complete bugs so I ended up with about 20. Here is what was undoubtably my best find of the day a 99% prone greenops. Obviously there is still a bit of final cleanup to do on it to clean up the little bits of matrix that are in the fine details, but I figured I should get a pic into this thread while it is fresh. 

 

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* Another full (small) prone to prep

* Deb empties her pockets of some brachs.

 

@Northern Sharks - LOL. I tend to have a high body temperature. :P Already booked the motel in Clarington, and totally looking forward to our (looking to be chilly) big adventure in Bowmanville! :dinothumb:

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Kane said:

* Assorted other stuff for practice or parts

What's this?

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Everything is generated through your own will power ~ Ray Bradbury
 

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Nice one, Malcolm! I haven't had an opportunity yet to get to the prep bench. Looks like you're leading the way!

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Ah Kane but the real adventure begins in the days before Bowmanville. A shame you and Deb are not joining us........

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Just now, Walt said:

What's this?

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A horn coral. They are numerous enough to get in the way! :D 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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I only took three pics on the two day adventure with Digit. I thought I would post them for now in this thread since they were the start of the adventure with Kane , Digit and Tammy in Arkona, Ontario. 

 

Here is Tammy taking a break

 

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Ken (Digit about to show off his best side.....yet again

 

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