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Hello everybody! In continuation of the Frozen Fossils and Frozen Fossils II topics this report covers fossil hunting in real winter, with excavating fossils from under the snow (@JamieLynn might be interested). The trips took place this week when we had a thaw with temperatures raising to +1-2 Celsius after a long period of frost (so that digging became possible). This time I visited the same site as in FF2, which is MUCH poorer than the one covered in FF1, but MIGHT yield more diverse fossils (which was unfortunately not the case).

We've been having a warm spell here in southern Germany for almost a week now, which gave me the chance to check out my favorite spot in the ditch in the Danube Valley where the Kimmeridgian ammonites can be found. I had done a drive-by about ten days ago to check it out, but although the snow was almost gone at the Lake of Constance where I live, it was still piled up to half a meter in the valley. But like I already mentioned, the temps have been well up over freezing for a good week now, so I figured I'd have another go. Knowing that the spot I wanted to work at was in a hollow, I took along a large measuring cup in order to bail out and was prepared to make dams and sluices. So I was looking forward to a mud bath and that's just what it turned out to be. It was worth it in the end as you shall see and besides, anything is better than being cooped up at home because of you-know-what. I took these shots when I arrived, so you can see what I had to cope with. The layer I want to get at is under a foot of water at this point. Here's my trusty measuring cup after the bail-out and a bit of shoveling and hacking. So now I could get to work at the layer. And here come the first ammonites. These ones are small and hard to see because of the mud. Continued...

Hi everyone! So Friday morning, after a few enjoyable days of skiing in Switzerland with my dad, we decided to leave the village because the weather was really becoming horrible for any further skiing (especially for a beginner like me!). I had done a little bit of research as to what fossil locations we could visit on the way back home, and eventually Kevin @Manticocerasman very kindly pointed me towards the site of Resteigne in Belgium! A (no-longer in use) quarry known for its Devonian brachiopods, corals, crinoids and sometimes trilobites. Which was a fantastic opportunity for me, because in my so far 7 years of fossil hunting I had never been in a quarry or hunted for trilobites!!! So seizing the opportunity, we booked a Bed & Breakfast in the small village of Resteigne. We arrived late that evening after a long and annoying road, but luckily the hosts were still up and warmly welcomed us. The man knew quite some things about the great geology of the area, and told us that apparently this region was now a Geopark of the UNESCO! (To avoid any confusion, we are allowed to collect fossils here without any problems. It is not like the national parks where it is forbidden to take things out). He sometimes found some fossils himself when he was going out on walks. After a good night sleep and a delicious breakfast, we set out to the quarry.

I went to this quante little out of the way store and walked in. A little old man was there. I walked to the very back of this little store and there was three shelves. The top shelf had boxes and boxes of 'Antient chinese secret laundry deturgent. My wife uses those. Works purty good too. Second shelf had lots and lots of cans of 'Woopass'. I still have half a case of those. They come in real handy when your mad at your neighbor!! And the bottom shelf had one can of 'Snow be gone'. Just what I was looking for. $3.99. Bought one can and took it home. Popped it open and Poof!! All of a sudden there was a little orange tractor. It only last 90 minutes, so got to work. Worked just fine. Now we can get out of our driveway!!! Woooooop!! Wooooop!!! One more job done.

Any members of the forum who live near or in Calvert County in Maryland, I have a question. Is there currently snow on the ground in your area? I'm considering going hunting at Brownie's tomorrow, but a bunch of snow on the beaches would be a pain. According to the weather channel, it definitely snowed there (and it did quite a bit where I am), but what I'm wondering is if you think it would still be there tomorrow. I think it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, and maybe the tides will clear the beach of some snow, but I'd really love to know the current conditions if anyone could tell me. Thanks in advance!

I was hoping today to continue on with my foraging expedition from last week, but when I got to my little mountain in the Wutach, there was still too much snow lying on the slopes to guarantee me not slipping and sliding over precipices, so I decided to just go to my exposure and do a bit more digging. This time I remembered to take along the camera, so I can show you a bit of the landscape and give you an impression of the digging activity. The first three pics are on the approach to the exposure. Can you guess where it is? A little hilly, eh?

It's been about a month now since I went on my last hunt, due to snow and cold weather. There's also nothing to do in the workshop since I finished up my last commision work a couple of weeks ago. All that was left was to do some dusting, so I was starting to get a bit depressed. The weather was warming up a bit, so I got in touch with a friend yesterday who lives close to the Wutach and he told me that the snow was pretty well gone for the time being. I grabbed the bull by the horns this morning, threw an extra spade into the car and took off to my favorite locality. On the way there it started to rain, which then turned into sleet, but I decided nevertheless to keep on going. It was still snowing a bit when I got there and in the woods the dampness was dripping from the trees, but it wasn't all that bad and I had packed myself up pretty good, so the dampness wasn't about to penetrate my protective clothing. The spade was for the cubic meter of overburden which I knew I was going to have to remove in order to expose the fossiliferous blocks I was hoping had a few nice surprises in store for me. I ended up slinging mud for about 3 hours before I could get to work on the blocks, and that took another 3 hours, 2 of which were in the dark with my headlamp on. Why does the sun go down so early in winter? Unfortunately nothing larger than 10cm. came out this time, but I'm pretty sure there are some nice ones there anyway. Here's the booty. Hope to get down to some serious prepping tomorrow.