field journal #7

okay so in addition to my now thinking i might need help finding old coal mines, so i can find some of the lost quarrys of francis slate, i remembered another reason you should have other people along with you while fossil hunting...

safety!

fortunately for me today's accident wasn't anything serious, and frankly more embarrassing than anything (okay and quite painful). at the same time i realized it could have been much worse...

the moral of the story, and something i should most certainly be doing from now on, when going fossil hunting do NOT go alone!!!


i thought i'd do a posed photo in front of some prickly pear cactus (when i was a hatchling i used to think was prickly paired cactus LOL) . they occur all throughout the alberta badlands, and add to atmosphere of the area while you're hunting in it.

at the same time their very painful should you happen to put your hand down on, step on, or worst of all fall on...

which funny enough is what i did by accident while trying to set up my camera and pose for the shot (which in my defense is REALLY hard when you have arms as short as mine!) on top of the often slippery rocks of the badlands (now technically their more crumbly, but that makes them slippery like... when they get wet, and that benetinite fills up with water then the rocks really are slippery!!!).

point is, had i not been trying to take a photo with them i'd never have fallen on them! so no making fun people of the innerweb! i incurred these "injuries" for your benefit...

the good news due to my thick scaly hide most of the needles only gave me minor poke holes... had i been a fleshy soft skinned mammal like most of you, it probably would have been worse.

these cactus have two types of spines. big ones, which are the ones you immediately see, whose job i think is more to advertise this cactus is packing pain, but they aren't the ones that do the most damage. that would have to be the smaller ones, which not only are sharper, have mini fish hook like barbs that make the darn things stick into your flesh once their in, but detach from the cactus to ensure you have a miserable time after messing with the mother plant!

so i heading back into town i was fortunate enough to find a nice man who helped me pull the worst of the quills out of my back where I couldn't quite reach them (on account of my small arms)!

tomorrow i'm not heading out fossil hunting without some back up! that way if i have a more serious accident someone will be there to help me out right away.

plus i'm needing help finding these old coal mines. today the cactus incident cut short an otherwise unsuccessful hunt for one...

fortunately for me, i know just the guy who can help me with such an effort!