Your first year, season by season

Collecting is seasonal in a way the rest of this estate is not, and the year has a natural shape.

Spring

Roads open, snow clears, and the ground is freshly washed by melt, which is the best spotting condition there is.

Settle the land question for the sites you want before the season, not at the trailhead.

Start the notebook habit on the first trip, because habits formed in the first season are the ones that stick.

Summer

High country access, and desert collecting becomes dangerous rather than merely hot.

Collect early and late; midday is for driving and for shade.

Watch what the car does to material: a boot in July is the worst environment a specimen will meet.

And start processing as you go rather than stockpiling for winter, which is the resolution everybody makes and nobody keeps.

Fall

The best collecting weather in most of the country, and the main show season.

Shows are where a beginner learns fastest: looking at good material, asking dealers what they look for, and finding out what things actually cost.

Buy less than you want to in the first year. You do not yet know what you collect.

Winter

The processing season, and the reason the ratio works at all.

Clean, trim, identify, catalog, number, label, photograph, house.

Run the annual condition check on whatever you already have.

And decide the focus for next year: a locality, a species group, a size class. A second season with a focus produces a collection; a second season without one produces more material.

References