Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2015 20:54:59 GMT -5
You guys probably have a nice "guntry club" to join. Nothing out here... yet!
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Post by fantastic5 on Jan 14, 2015 21:19:34 GMT -5
Well... I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain I'm not into yoga and have half-a-brain I love making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape And I'm nobody's poet...
Sorry, couldn't resist....
I'm married to a wonderful man who has 3 children, two adopted and grown and a 14 year old son who is still living with us. My daughter is a senior in high school and college tours and scholarship auditions are taking up a lot of our time. Full rides have been offered, but not for any of the schools she wants to go to. Still hoping for the full ride to one of her two top schools. I've worked for the same hospital for 22 years doing everything from teaching lab didactics in a family practice residency program to supervising indigent care clinics. For the past 6 years I have been back in the 'main lab' supervising Special Chemistry and Point of Care Testing. Worst career move was 15 years ago when I thought being salaried was a good idea. I put in 50-60 hours each week, which really cuts into my family time, which really cuts into my rock time!
I have to admit that I am a serial hobbyist. I started out as a hiker/backpacker. Then it morphed into white water kayaking and scuba diving. Three years of pottery lessons interspersed with the 8 or so years of kayaking. Then after children I became a caver and vertical caver. Now I avidly collect rocks. And yes all of these are somewhat current and interchangeable. My kayaks and snorkel gear went to the Withlacoochee, we backpacked out west two years ago and I've fossil hunted while scuba diving in Rainbow River. I garden, keep poultry, brew kombucha, played with making my own cheeses and regularly bake bread. And most of all wonder why I don't have enough hours in the day!
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,341
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Post by quartz on Jan 15, 2015 0:03:28 GMT -5
When the weather is poor, I either grind rocks or work on one of my "nutty projects". wife looks at me a little funny when I start one, but likes finished product. When the weather is good, the place and garden takes majority of time. The stem of this one is a piece of twisted off Peterbilt driveshaft I fixed. Wood is Ambrosia Maple. A bunch of neat stuff put together, knife switch not functional. Hangs out in the shop. Open the valve to turn the light on. This one not readily seen in the house. The "boss" ruled on this one. I put these on yesterday evening while my wife was snoozing, she said this needs to be here too, she likes it. Up on dipstick is rope light on-off, down on dipstick is cabinet on-off. I was lucky to get the lubster, in a little rough condition, for free.
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2015 0:16:56 GMT -5
quartz. I love all you projects! I bet they bring a smile to everyone's face !
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jan 15, 2015 3:11:25 GMT -5
Open the valve to turn the light on. This one not readily seen in the house. The "boss" ruled on this one. This one is my favourite! I'd love that in my house. I have enjoyed this thread very much. I didn't realize there were a few video game players on here. I like Skyrim too. Used to be a big time Xbox nerd in high school (shows my age). Haven't gamed much in recent years though, except the NHL games. Like fantastic, I am a serial hobbyist and constantly going off the deep end into new interests. Besides rocks, I like roller blading, kayaking, ocean fishing, hiking, storms, rain. Used to play baseball and hockey but team sports has fallen off the map since high school. I like news, politics and history. I enjoy city council meetings, if just to infuriate myself. I like reading, but I am no fan of fiction, and I don't even like watching shows or movies that are fiction. Something about acting bugs the hell out of me. In two weeks I'll be on the road from Vancouver Island to Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories. Not sure if that will make me quite the most northern member of this forum next to some of the Alaskans. I'm continuing my career in muckraking and looking forward to experiencing life in a new place. I seek adventure and new horizons. I get antsy if I'm in one environment too long, no matter how nice it is.
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Post by captbob on Jan 15, 2015 8:40:17 GMT -5
Stew, You are moving from Vancouver? But... but.... you're our Dallasite connection!
We may have to vote on allowing this.
grumble grumble grumble
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jan 15, 2015 9:46:18 GMT -5
Stew, You are moving from Vancouver? But... but.... you're our Dallasite connection! We may have to vote on allowing this. grumble grumble grumble My girlfriend, who sneakily has made an account here, might be able to fill the void at some point. If only someone would hire me to be a full time rockhound.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2015 11:41:55 GMT -5
Larry those are perrific! Bet they'd sell well on etsy.
I love that "altered" drive shaft. Something had to be done with it.
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,341
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Post by quartz on Jan 15, 2015 12:45:12 GMT -5
I notice on this thread, many are interested/enjoy video games. How many of you have seen PacMan's nuts?
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,687
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Post by Fossilman on Jan 15, 2015 13:49:58 GMT -5
When the weather is poor, I either grind rocks or work on one of my "nutty projects". wife looks at me a little funny when I start one, but likes finished product. When the weather is good, the place and garden takes majority of time. The stem of this one is a piece of twisted off Peterbilt driveshaft I fixed. Wood is Ambrosia Maple. A bunch of neat stuff put together, knife switch not functional. Hangs out in the shop. Open the valve to turn the light on. This one not readily seen in the house. The "boss" ruled on this one. I put these on yesterday evening while my wife was snoozing, she said this needs to be here too, she likes it. Up on dipstick is rope light on-off, down on dipstick is cabinet on-off. I was lucky to get the lubster, in a little rough condition, for free. totally crazy cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by captbob on Jan 15, 2015 14:11:23 GMT -5
Stew, You are moving from Vancouver? But... but.... you're our Dallasite connection! We may have to vote on allowing this. grumble grumble grumble My girlfriend, who sneakily has made an account here, might be able to fill the void at some point. If only someone would hire me to be a full time rockhound.In your "business plan in the modern economy", bcrockhound.com/2014/08/04/my-business-plan-in-the-modern-economy/you wrote: (among other things) " I plan to collect a substantial amount of Dallasite and other unique rocks. I will generate popularity and knowledge of its name and advertise it as a symbol of the island and province. I will connect it to Tourism BC and put it in gift shops and on BC Ferries." From the fantastic cabs I have seen Chuck and Tommy make with your Dallasite; and the way the final stages of your Dallasite that I am tumbling is turning out, I believed that you could have made a pretty good income from your rockhounding efforts. It's not some precious gemstone, but I could see a market for it IF advertised and promoted properly. I search for Dallasite on the web ALL the time. There's just none offered or available anywhere. In six plus months, the only listing I have ever seen on eBay is for some Dallasite skulls. pffft... Dallasite is a FUN rock to work with, just not well known enough YET. Someone ought to be bringing Dallasite to the market, why not you? I would explore ways to sell/ship it from the US though to lower those Canadian postal fees. Reading your ""business plan in the modern economy", I couldn't help but marvel at the opportunity you have and the drive you showed to even propose such a venture. Good on ya. I hope that when you get back from Yellowknife that you pursue your dream. I don't think it is out of reach. Providing you could find enough material to keep up with demand. It wouldn't suck to have beachcombing as an occupation. My girlfriend, who sneakily has made an account here ... I haven't seen anyone with the ID of bcrockhound'sBetterHalf
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2015 16:55:25 GMT -5
My girlfriend, who sneakily has made an account here, might be able to fill the void at some point. If only someone would hire me to be a full time rockhound.In your "business plan in the modern economy", bcrockhound.com/2014/08/04/my-business-plan-in-the-modern-economy/you wrote: (among other things) " I plan to collect a substantial amount of Dallasite and other unique rocks. I will generate popularity and knowledge of its name and advertise it as a symbol of the island and province. I will connect it to Tourism BC and put it in gift shops and on BC Ferries." From the fantastic cabs I have seen Chuck and Tommy make with your Dallasite; and the way the final stages of your Dallasite that I am tumbling is turning out, I believed that you could have made a pretty good income from your rockhounding efforts. It's not some precious gemstone, but I could see a market for it IF advertised and promoted properly. I search for Dallasite on the web ALL the time. There's just none offered or available anywhere. In six plus months, the only listing I have ever seen on eBay is for some Dallasite skulls. pffft... Dallasite is a FUN rock to work with, just not well known enough YET. Someone ought to be bringing Dallasite to the market, why not you? I would explore ways to sell/ship it from the US though to lower those Canadian postal fees. Reading your ""business plan in the modern economy", I couldn't help but marvel at the opportunity you have and the drive you showed to even propose such a venture. Good on ya. I hope that when you get back from Yellowknife that you pursue your dream. I don't think it is out of reach. Providing you could find enough material to keep up with demand. It wouldn't suck to have beachcombing as an occupation. My girlfriend, who sneakily has made an account here ... I haven't seen anyone with the ID of bcrockhound'sBetterHalf Bob, let's follow that business plan all the way thru. What is Dallasite & chinese writing stone as he has that too gonna sell for?? $2 a pound? Now we need to set a target income for Stewart. $50k work for you bcrockhound? Then he needs to collect and sell 25,000# at retail. I am not sure how long his season is. Say 3/4 of a year? OK 39 weeks to collect. Does he get one day off a week? 234 rockhounding days. That is 106# per day, every day, 6 days a week, 39 weeks a year. Stewart, is this a reality? 600# a week? forever? Assuming you worked very hard every day Like catmandewe seems too and maximized your efforts, can you find 100# a day forever? OPERATIONS ====================== Assuming this is real and supply is doable, 20# seems to be maximum box size from Canada. this assumes Canada's demand is a small portion of sales. That is 1250 orders for 20#, every year, forever. He has a girlfriend whom may help, so when he is hounding, she can take and ship orders for him. So logistically, this can happen. Plus the sales & shipping can ship every week 52 a year averaging 25 boxes a week. Operationally, this part seems to work. VARIABLES ====================== Supply required is lessoned if the price jumps. For $3/#, for example, the requirement goes down to 66#/day Wholesale clients buy more stuff, but demand a lower price. Stewart might like to make more. CONCERNS======================== Are there 1200 boxes a year worth of customers? I am the wrong dude to ask.Is it legal? IN CLOSING====================== I offer no answers to the queries above. I simply wanted to flesh out how this business plan would look. This doesn't take into account the costs associated with gathering rocks for over 200 days a year. Shoes, gasoline, tires, brakes.... Personally, I am proud of bcrockhound for pursuing his dreams and moving to the great white north. Good job dude! captbob - Sorry, just bustin' ur chops. Have a great time with your new saw!!!
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Post by captbob on Jan 15, 2015 17:36:11 GMT -5
Well, I guess he will need some minions to do the collecting. If they don't have illegals up there, maybe we could ship him some! If he got into the tourist shops (Vancouver has tourists?? who knew...) he could probably get a couple bucks (Canadian - hahaha I crack myself up sometimes!) for a tumbled rock. Chuck and Tommy sell the Dallasite cabs for what 30-40 bucks apiece? Looks like his Better Half is gonna have to learn how to cab. Between shipping and bookkeeping duties. She's young and probably doesn't need much sleep, so that's all good. Slabs could go for better than 3 bucks a pound. Yer gonna need a saw Stew!
I've bought 3 boxes of the stuff from him - so far. It's just the darn postage that's a bear.
*sigh*
Okay, maybe he will need a day job...
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Post by Toad on Jan 15, 2015 17:50:48 GMT -5
Make paint for a living. Study martial arts with my 12-year old son. Love to read - currently starting the Wheel of Time series again. Occasionally get distracted by a video game - Skyrim. Skyrim is just about my favorite game ever. Good luck on the WoT re-read, really wish Jordan had a more aggressive editor helping him, the books became so mind-numbingly tedious and slow as the series progressed. by the end, I just read the cliff notes for the last few books and called it good. I highly recommend the Kingkiller chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss if you haven't checked it out yet. I agree with you on books 6-10 but then the last ones picked up steam again. Also, the tedious books weren't nearly so bad when you could read them straight through rather than waiting 2-3 years in between. Like the way the series ended too. Favorite series ever!! I'll have to check out Kingkiller when I'm done with my re-read. I'm only about 10 hours into Skyrim because I'm too cheap to pay full price for video games. Played the heck out of Oblivion so it's taking a while to get used to the changes they made.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 15, 2015 18:01:02 GMT -5
A bunch of neat stuff put together, knife switch not functional. Hangs out in the shop. Being a part time hot rodder, I'd love to have something like this in my shop.
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jan 15, 2015 19:10:37 GMT -5
My girlfriend, who sneakily has made an account here, might be able to fill the void at some point. If only someone would hire me to be a full time rockhound.In your "business plan in the modern economy", bcrockhound.com/2014/08/04/my-business-plan-in-the-modern-economy/you wrote: (among other things) " I plan to collect a substantial amount of Dallasite and other unique rocks. I will generate popularity and knowledge of its name and advertise it as a symbol of the island and province. I will connect it to Tourism BC and put it in gift shops and on BC Ferries." From the fantastic cabs I have seen Chuck and Tommy make with your Dallasite; and the way the final stages of your Dallasite that I am tumbling is turning out, I believed that you could have made a pretty good income from your rockhounding efforts. It's not some precious gemstone, but I could see a market for it IF advertised and promoted properly. I search for Dallasite on the web ALL the time. There's just none offered or available anywhere. In six plus months, the only listing I have ever seen on eBay is for some Dallasite skulls. pffft... Dallasite is a FUN rock to work with, just not well known enough YET. Someone ought to be bringing Dallasite to the market, why not you? I would explore ways to sell/ship it from the US though to lower those Canadian postal fees. Reading your ""business plan in the modern economy", I couldn't help but marvel at the opportunity you have and the drive you showed to even propose such a venture. Good on ya. I hope that when you get back from Yellowknife that you pursue your dream. I don't think it is out of reach. Providing you could find enough material to keep up with demand. It wouldn't suck to have beachcombing as an occupation. My girlfriend, who sneakily has made an account here ... I haven't seen anyone with the ID of bcrockhound'sBetterHalf That one piece of Dallasite on ebay is junk too, not even pickup-able. You were the biggest factor in me getting a grip on what good Dallasite is. Shipping from the US would be great, Canada Post is horrible. Thank you for your kind words. Bob, let's follow that business plan all the way thru. What is Dallasite & chinese writing stone as he has that too gonna sell for?? $2 a pound? Now we need to set a target income for Stewart. $50k work for you bcrockhound? Then he needs to collect and sell 25,000# at retail. I am not sure how long his season is. Say 3/4 of a year? OK 39 weeks to collect. Does he get one day off a week? 234 rockhounding days. That is 106# per day, every day, 6 days a week, 39 weeks a year. Stewart, is this a reality? 600# a week? forever? Assuming you worked very hard every day Like catmandewe seems too and maximized your efforts, can you find 100# a day forever? OPERATIONS ====================== Assuming this is real and supply is doable, 20# seems to be maximum box size from Canada. this assumes Canada's demand is a small portion of sales. That is 1250 orders for 20#, every year, forever. He has a girlfriend whom may help, so when he is hounding, she can take and ship orders for him. So logistically, this can happen. Plus the sales & shipping can ship every week 52 a year averaging 25 boxes a week. Operationally, this part seems to work. VARIABLES ====================== Supply required is lessoned if the price jumps. For $3/#, for example, the requirement goes down to 66#/day Wholesale clients buy more stuff, but demand a lower price. Stewart might like to make more. CONCERNS======================== Are there 1200 boxes a year worth of customers? I am the wrong dude to ask.Is it legal? IN CLOSING====================== I offer no answers to the queries above. I simply wanted to flesh out how this business plan would look. This doesn't take into account the costs associated with gathering rocks for over 200 days a year. Shoes, gasoline, tires, brakes.... Personally, I am proud of bcrockhound for pursuing his dreams and moving to the great white north. Good job dude! captbob - Sorry, just bustin' ur chops. Have a great time with your new saw!!! I love the breakdown @shotgunner! I truly believe it is workable, and that any business is workable with enough hustle. However, certain costs are very high, such as the ferry ($70 each way for a vehicle) and Canada Post ($35 to ship 5#). As well, I have discovered that for what I consider high-quality Dallasite, there is not as much as I thought when I started out, and I don't know if I could even find 100# a week working 12-hour days straight through. I would need to keep travelling farther too. I think the money potential is more in finished pieces than bulk rough. Over Christmas I had probably 10 good 3-hour sessions, and I don't know if I came away with even 50# of high-quality material. Lots of so-so stuff, with some nice sections, but a bunch of weight in basalt/quartz. For selling rough, I think doing it in person is way better than online, because people looking to cut it would be able to determine how they could get the good stuff out of each piece. I would love to spend some time filling up a truckload and then driving to the US and trying to offload it. As for Flowerstone, though, I am proud that I did find one spot that probably has tonnes of good pieces. It's government property and inaccessible in winter. I have found one inland Dallasite location that seems very prosperous, but again it's in a public park and is a very difficult spot to access. Well, I guess he will need some minions to do the collecting. If they don't have illegals up there, maybe we could ship him some! If he got into the tourist shops (Vancouver has tourists?? who knew...) he could probably get a couple bucks (Canadian - hahaha I crack myself up sometimes!) for a tumbled rock. Chuck and Tommy sell the Dallasite cabs for what 30-40 bucks apiece? Looks like his Better Half is gonna have to learn how to cab. Between shipping and bookkeeping duties. She's young and probably doesn't need much sleep, so that's all good. Slabs could go for better than 3 bucks a pound. Yer gonna need a saw Stew! I've bought 3 boxes of the stuff from him - so far. It's just the darn postage that's a bear. *sigh* Okay, maybe he will need a day job... My girlfriend is way ahead of me in the business department. Runs her own online biz, used to work at a stone cutting place too. Ultimately, I have felt that I need to continue my career and I got an opportunity that ticks pretty well all the boxes I've been worried about lately, but I never want to stop rockhounding and will certainly be back for more, in time. My eventual goal is for my career to be doable from a computer and internet connection, and that will be the day I can rockhound at will without the nagging sense that I am just losing money.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2015 20:06:37 GMT -5
Yikes! $7/lb just for postage!!!
You could drive it to Bellingham once a week and ship from there. I used to ship reptiles to Canadians there for them to smuggle home. A couple guys did enough biz they even had a mailbox store location they had a permanent address at!
ETA: Yellow Knife does have some neat geology (copper!!) and lots of glacial erratic stuff left from the last ice age. You'll do fine up there!
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Post by drocknut on Jan 15, 2015 21:56:02 GMT -5
Diane, I have a whole bunch of already downed trees you can come and cut up if you want. Mostly cottonwood with a few ash & Russian olive thrown in. Even got a Mac & a Stihl saws you can use. No thanks, those Russian olives are horrible and ash are a pain in the ass. I do trim and cut down a lot of cottonwoods but I think I'll let someone else have the fun in your neck of the woods.
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Post by drocknut on Jan 15, 2015 22:01:47 GMT -5
Thought I'd add that I am single, love my knot headed dog Gypsy, do beading, wire wrapping, live in my travel trailer, read Zane Gray books, and according to Gypsy, spend way too much time playong with rocks and not enough time playing fetch.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 15, 2015 22:04:22 GMT -5
No thanks, those Russian olives are horrible and ash are a pain in the ass. I do trim and cut down a lot of cottonwoods but I think I'll let someone else have the fun in your neck of the woods. [/quote]
Don't know what you're missing. Got all the way up to 39 above today. Fine weather for chopping up trees.
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