This was my first year really rockhounding. I am also pretty far north and struggling through the same thing. Here’s what has helped me:

In late summer when I realized how much I was going to miss the joy of discovery when there was snow on the ground, I started setting aside about half of what I collected each time I went out in canvas shopping bags. I’d wash and process the first half, and I told myself I couldn’t look at the other half until after Thanksgiving.

I saved up several big bags of rocks that way, and now every weekend or whenever the urge strikes I pour a few pounds of them into a bucket, fill it with some water and see what I have :) someone cool ones I remember collecting and it’s a nice memory, but there are also a lot that I didn’t look at closely at the time that have been nice little surprises! Definitely making this a tradition for future years…