2022 IN REVIEW
Photo: In the middle of a round about, Holder, Switzerland.
JOB 12
7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
9 Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this,
10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?
After a few difficult years of Covid (and having 2 immediate family members receiving cancer treatment through it all), restrictions have lifted and we are getting inquires for tours and fossil trips again. Enjoy this year's adventures! Martin and Marc.
APRIL
SMALL TOUR
Above Left: A good start to the year was a small museum tour with some teens and Timothy Hartley. Timothy has a small creation ministry based in Barrie Ont. and it was great to bounce ideas off of each other throughout the tour. Here is a link to his website:  https://thebiblejourney.ca/ 
Above: This new wall display was set up just in time for the tour. Just 2 examples out of many that man and dinosaurs actually co-existed!
Left: This display also set up just in time. Rapid formation of calcite inside a metal pipe!
​A little more info on these new displays are found in the 2021 newsletter.
MAY
SWITZERLAND
 We had a great time in Switzerland this spring visiting relatives and I managed to take some time to do some fossil collecting. One area I wanted to go to for sure was in the Canton Aargau where the Jurassic rocks are exposed. The best place for that is always in a quarry so we headed over to the old Schümel Quarry, now a nature reserve in the town of Holder.
Daniel on the old Schümel Quarry road.
An interpretive plaque showing the fossils that can be found and the rocks that are exposed.
The rocks here are Middle to Late Jurassic but interestingly the sedimentary layers are almost running vertical! This part of the world had experienced some serious up-lift.
Daniel with almost vertical layers in the background.
A plate of coral or bryozoans. This site reminded me of the Ontario Hungry Hollow site where the fossils are just falling out of the embankment. 
Part of the haul of invertebrate fossils. 
Martin standing vertical just to show how tilted the Jurassic rocks are behind him.
The fossils were plentiful. Here is an ammonite section.
Watching over us as we collect!
On to the second Klopfplatz (literally knock place) in the town of Frick! Unlike here in Ontario where fossil sites are being shut down, in Europe there are designated areas for the public to collect fossils thus keeping the next generation interested and engaged. 
At Klopfplatz Frick with lots of interested students in the background.
A possible fossilized branch (top of hammer) and a faint outline of an ammonite (right of hammer).
JULY
COLLECTORS FOSSIL TRIP
Every year I try to arrange a field trip just for seasoned fossil collectors where I myself can concentrate on searching for museum upgrades and collect new and different specimens. The guys are hoping again to catch that elusive complete Bathyurus trilobite specimen.
This Kawartha Lakes Quarry exposes the Gull River Formation.
The darker softer limestone seam containing the trilobites is situated about a third of the way up the quarry wall.
Kevin, David and Malcolm back to do some serious searching!
Fascinating pyrite crystals occur in the harder lighter rock above the trilobite layer. 
This year the blasts left lots of the desired rock to collect from.
Also several corals can be found there.
A ripple slab indicating this place was under water.
A small orthocone, an extinct squid like creature with a straight cone.
Now the trilobites pieces are showing up.
Here's a 3/4 complete Bathyurus trilobite.
And a Isotelus trilobite probably complete underneath the rock. 
Someone coming to pay us a visit, wondering what the excitement is all about.
Close-up of Isotelus trilobite.
Yes this is a real country quarry where we have to share the place even with the local cattle. Malcolm sacrificed some of his lunch for the hungry guy!
A nice Pelecypod (shell) mass mortality plate. A mortality plate is a whole group of organisms (usually the same kind) that have been washed into one area and then fossilized. Mortality plates are a common occurrence in the rocks of Ontario. The textbook type of slow random burial is just not found in the rocks.
By the end of the day some great museum upgrades were found and lots of fossil giveaways for museum functions.
JULY
GOODWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH VBS
Every year Goodwood Baptist Church (where the museum is housed) has a week of VBS and on the last day calls me in to run a fossil trip. Oil shale slabs loaded with trilobites are brought in from the Craigleith area for kids to crack open.
It was a really nice day for an outside fossil hunt.
Here is a good split revealing some trilobite tails.
Another common find are orthocones, a squid like creature with a coned shell.
After kids found a good fossil they were able to match it up on the fossil id. sheets.
Gabby and Stephanie had the find of the day...
...A complete trilobite fossil. Positive and negative impression!
​This also made it very simple for each girl to take home part of the specimen!
When splitting open the shale the kids smelt oil. Oil is just converted plant and animal matter. The trilobites and other organisms must have been buried quickly or there wouldn't be any oil, or any fossils for that matter! 
Sometimes two are needed to get a good split but watch those fingers! 
Identifying the fossil finds!
Here's a great find too. A trilobite tail and an orthocone all on one slab!
Conclusion: The kids learned today that these rocks were formed quickly due to the presence of oil. The only organisms found were extinct, as in the trilobites, or they were still here today, as in the shells found, called living fossils!
SEPTEMBER
NIAGARA REGION FIELD TRIP
Photo: Melissa walking up the steps from the Niagara Whirlpool.
After a few years of the Niagara Region field trip program collecting dust we were finally able to use it with a local homeschooling group. This program consists of 2 stops, The Niagara Glen and The Niagara Whirlpool, all part of the Niagara Gorge system. I had forgotten how difficult the trails were, or perhaps I am just getting older or, a combination of the two!
Walking past the limestone undercut on the Cliffside Trail at the Niagara Glen.
We had to search for it a bit but we finally found the best geological feature of The Glen, a giant pothole!
Potholes are formed as torrential waters along with rocks and gravel swirl and grind a hole into the limestone, some even several meters deep! Slow processes cannot form these features and indicate a catastrophic past, in this case, The Ice Age.
After lunch we headed down to the second site, the Niagara Whirlpool.
A shot of the churning whirlpool with Whirlpool point (USA) in the background. 
The Whirlpool is a popular spot for fishermen but we were off to fish for fossils.
Adara found some really nice (Ice Age) fossil leaves. Not surprising as this whirlpool area is part of the old gorge that was filled is with debris from the Ice Age.
Close-up of fossilized leaves (Ice Age material).
An amazing calcite bloom which is not really a flower at all but just calcite or dolomite mimicking one. Calcite blooms are quite common in the nearby Queenston Quarry.
Huge ripple slabs can be also found in this area. To be preserved, ripple slabs have to be buried quickly.
James found what is called a vug (cavity).
Close-up of the vug which is filled with pretty dolomite crystals.
Between a rock and a hard place!
A group shot amongst fallen boulders forming part of the Niagara Glen. 
Conclusion:
All in all it was a great "although rigorous" trip. We found some great fossils and minerals and saw lots of evidence for a catastrophic past. Because of the pothole features, the Niagara Gorge is now thought to be much younger than previously estimated. How much younger? Click the link to 7 ONTARIO GEOLOGICAL WONDERS and scroll down to number 7, "The Niagara Gorge" ​to find out.
SEPTEMBER
KAWARTHA LAKES FOSSIL TRIP
Back to our Kawartha Lakes Quarry where because of our July trip, I knew the place would just be loaded with fossil specimens. This homeschooling group was not disappointed.
Part of the cliff wall after a blast.
There was plenty of safe collecting areas this year.
A Bathyurus trilobite but typically found are just the tail and mid section. 
Bathyurus trilobite mid-section.
Bathyurus trilobite tail and mid-section.
...a partial and compressed orthocone.
Shining in the sun were these attractive pyrite occurrences. 
Folks were able to take home the fossils that they found!
Joshua has a great find here...
Orthocones (an extinct squid like creature with a straight shell) can be found here with colour banding on the shell. Here is a rare occurrence where the colour banding had slipped off the orthocone shell and had scattered around the area. This creature must have been buried rapidly to preserve even the colour banding!
A 360 degree view of the quarry.
The hard to find heads of the Bathyurus trilobite.
There was no shortage of Bathyurus bits.
 Near the end of the quarry dig Svyat and Ludmila found the best fossil of the day. A Bathyurus trilobite that is probably complete underneath the rock.
After lunch in Norland we went South of highway #35 to a road cut at Powles Corners.
Close-up of Bathyurus trilobite.
This cut reveals a very fossiliferous Verulam Formation with a mixture of limestone and clay beds.
Not only are great organism fossils found here but also fossil trackways, trails created by the organisms. 
Here are several types of trackways, smooth and straight, and also zipper like.
Barukh found a slab containing gastropods (snails).
This is also indicative of a quick burial to be able to preserve these trackways.
Gastropods are a living fossil because they are still here, living today. Noteworthy with this slab is that most of the gastropods are lined up indicating a directional flow of water.
CONCLUSION
Everything found today lines up with what we read in the bible. 1) There appears to have been a flood, as in the flood of Noah's day. 2) Creatures really do produce after their own kind, as in the gastropods and shells found, called living fossils.  What's the flip side to living fossils? It's the fossils found that are extinct today, such as trilobites and orthocones. We are loosing species instead of gaining them which is the opposite of evolution. Creatures no matter where they are found in the geological column show signs of being intelligently designed! There is really no such thing as a simple creature!
NOVEMBER
JAMAICA MISSIONS TRIP
Every year Springvale Baptist Church hosts a trip to Teen Challenge, an addictions rehabilitation program in Jamaica. This year 20 guys came down to help with counseling and to help frame up a new multi-use facility. I was able to attend for the first time this year.
With the concrete floor poured just the day before we were able to start with the framing.
Some of the construction crew.
Sometimes we has to improvise due to a lack of tools.
The rock in the area is Tertiary and there was plenty of white limestone on hand to check for fossils. This piece has fossil shells in it (a living fossil) and no matter how old evolutionists say these rocks are.... sea shells turned into sea shells! 
DECEMBER
NEW MUSEUM ACQUISITION 
Some more artifacts purchased from Vance Nelson (Creation Truth Ministries). This one, a fossilized (permineralized) felt hat from the mineral springs of Karlovy Vary Czech Republic. After 14 days it's as hard as a rock. Things do not need millions of years to fossilize! Check out more of Vance's artifacts by following these links!
http://www.creationtruthministries.org/storenews.html    https://www.untoldsecretsofplanetearth.com/store/#/
Some of the fossils from this year's collecting are saved for the preparation phase. Check out what's been prepped this year by clicking the button.
2023 TOURS AND FOSSIL TRIPS
Book your group for a 2023 museum tour. More details @ MUSEUM TOUR
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Book your group for a 2023 fossil trip or get on a list for the next public trip. More info @ FOSSIL TRIPS