Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 8, 2014 11:00:03 GMT -5
Mel- You are the second person to mention the Hornitos breccia. With all of the geology similarities between here and there, I'm sure that's what's going on in this one. If you went through my buckets of poppy jasper, you could probably pull out enough pieces to set up a step-by-step progression between poppy jasper and this stone. Pretty neat. A friend came over from Spokane for a visit last week and found an amazing piece of white quartz with large red jasper (1/2") eyes in it. Inside the red jasper eyes was specular hematite. Very impressive piece.
Thanks for all of the kind words about this stone folks! With some luck, I'll cut enough to share over the next few weeks!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 7, 2014 18:24:31 GMT -5
Wondering if anyone has seen this before. It came from an old collection, but that's all I know!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 7, 2014 9:59:02 GMT -5
I think they are calling it California Picasso or some such. I don't know the deets on the deposit, but it's supposedly inaccessible. Nice looking stone though!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 6, 2014 22:38:04 GMT -5
Two Pendants made by my friend Frank (Rainshadow Beads):
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 6, 2014 20:42:24 GMT -5
Not yet. Just got this first cut off the saw. It's been waiting for me to get my saw back together. Very excited to work it up though!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 6, 2014 20:19:17 GMT -5
New material that I've been finding with a buddy lately. We're calling it Washington Harlequin Jasper. Very silicated, damn near fracture free, plus it doesn't leave as much iron oxide behind in my (freshly cleaned) saw! I've got some high hopes for this material!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 3, 2014 22:22:25 GMT -5
That is from the Cascades in Washington. Like I said, I've seen pieces with big and small chatoyant crystals.
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 3, 2014 9:33:44 GMT -5
I have very little experience with jade, but what I have learned (at least with our Washington Jades) is that if it's a bitch to polish, it's likely Jade. I watch master lapidaries struggle with our local jade, even with years of experience working with it.
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 2, 2014 10:53:48 GMT -5
That machine is perfect! Does it's job without any fancy un-needed extras! I first saw an old timer named Wally Marx (rip) who owned the highway 50 rock shop in Fallon NV cutting cores for spheres. Wally was the guy who found and claimed Wonderstone mountain out there in the 1950's. I well remember visiting his shop, where he had all of the big pieces minus the cores in his $1/lb bin. Great way to find good cutting material too, since you can see the patterns inside the stone. Didn't mean to make this into a remembrance of Wally, but I think I'll post a photo of him. Fantastic job on the machine. This is a pic of the last time I saw Wally, next to his 48" saw.
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jun 1, 2014 18:46:56 GMT -5
Looks amazingly like a material that I've gotten from my buddy (RainshadowBeads) that he had x-ray id'd as Enstatite. I've seen it with both large (my photo) and small (yours) chatoyant crystals. Beautiful stuff! I'm looking for someone to make a sphere on trades with me.
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 29, 2014 23:35:41 GMT -5
Made it back home with 3495 miles on the odometer. Trip was not long enough by half, since I had to spend 5 days replacing a transmission in the middle of the travels. Since I had to do that, I truncated my rock hounding locations quite a bit. Still got to enjoy the desert, and I'm already trying to find a way back. Started by doing a drop in on Davis Creek for Rainbow Obsidian. I pulled into the area after 10 hours on the road, planning to stay a couple of hours and then move on to a prospecting location near Cedarville, CA. When I pulled up there were some folks working a commercial pit, and I thought that stopping to BS looked like much more fun than starting a virgin hole. Considering the fact that you have to move about 5 feet of overburden, I think I made the right choice. After 15 minutes of telling lies to each other, I volunteered my and my trip mate's services moving muck for Quinn in the Volcanic Treasures claim. The guy was so cool, that the entire time I was there working, he spent grading out sweet rocks for me to take home. I guess I hauled a couple of hundred pounds of killer rainbow in exchange for some pick, shovel and wheelbarrow work. My trip-mate Andrew staring at the rough ob pile: After Davis, we rolled into Cedarville at sunset and camped. Woke up to a beautiful morning the next day and went looking for this lost agate location. Found the road, but it was 4wd only, so we headed up on foot, through a gate. No luck sussing out the agate, and when we got back, there was a huge bull hanging out, rubbing his butt on my little truck. I decided to sit back and enjoy the view through the fence until he left, about an hour. Left Cedarville, and headed towards Gerlach, NV. Saw some guy walking through the desert with his head down and a squirt bottle in his hand, so I flipped a U-turn and hopped out to meet a new friend. Picked up some black obsidian and a couple of nice colored common opals, before heading into Gerlach for the traditional bloody mary at Brunau's Country Club. After that, I went to my favorite spot on the Black Rock Desert for some needed hot springs time. Frog Pond: This is me and my buddy Jason (I'm the small one) in the middle of the Black Rock Playa. Not a rock or insect or plant for 30 miles: Couple of random shots from the back side of the Black Rock: Again, not having 4wd shot me in the foot, so I couldn't get anywhere near the Black Rock Thundereggs. Lost in the desert for 4 hours and viola! I drive up to a guy digging in the dirt. I got out of the truck, thinking I was bound to find a good rock with that wasted day. I'm now the proud owner of about 5lbs of pure sulfur. Woot. I can hardly contain myself. Drove like hell for 3 hours on dirt to my brandy new, never been dug, top secret petrified wood location. Arrived a half hour before sunset, just in time to battle the turkey mosquitoes. Nice black & tan opalized wood: Made it into Fernley about midnight, and crashed with my friend Jason. I had planned to take the next day off and visit some friends in Reno before heading back out on the road. Rush Hour in Reno, and my truck stops shifting (manual transmission). I had known it was on it's way out for awhile, and I had lost 4th during the drive down. That was cool, but I'm hanging out on surface streets, with the truck locked in 2nd gear, and my passenger brake caliper locks up. So now, I'm trailing smoke, limping in traffic, and the brake fluid heats up until the only working brake is the one that frozen on. After 30 minutes of limping across town, I pull into my friends house, and help myself to many barley pops. <insert boring 5 days of driving to junkyards and working in the sand> Back on the road, I went up to a place called Fairview peak that was listed in the rockhounding Nevada book. The access from the book was closed years ago, because of the navy bombing range, but there is a sweet back way in. I dug about 30 pounds of 3" agates here, mostly clear, but the good ones will be dark with white banding, tight like a botswana. Wonderstone Mountain happened in there somewhere as well. Time was short here, so I headed to my blue agate locale, which I call Blue Fairy since it's far enough from the MT. Airy claims to deserve a new name. Camped at Spencer Hot springs the night before, where there is a 12' diameter pond that's about 108degrees. Plenty hot for a 10 minute dip and a nice wooden deck to cool off on. Woke up the next morning to hardcore rain and hail. There was about 2" of snow up at the blue agate locale. Another wasted day, sitting in my tent and running back and forth to the hot pond just to get warm. The next day was my last day out hounding and I worked it for all it was worth. Found some nice blues, including the nicest one I've ever seen from out there. Had to bail late in the evening to make it to LA to trade/sell some rocks and made tracks up the coast like a madman for the next three days. Sorry about the few photos... I got kind of disgusted with the trip after the transmission and left the camera in the car mostly. I'll be cutting slabs like a maniac the next few weeks to hopefully recoup some of the costs of the trip. Some random wild flower shots: Shoe Tree! The total Haul: Some wonderstone: Killer pattern in one of the big wonderstone blocks: A nice blue agate: The vug in my best blue agate piece: The Killer side of my good blue (sorry the light is washed out, I've got to get reacquainted with the clouds in the PNW!):
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 29, 2014 22:15:16 GMT -5
Nice trip! Thanks for taking me along!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 29, 2014 16:00:23 GMT -5
Congrats on pulling a big one! Nothing like the feeling of pushing yourself to bring home the biggest one you can. RAD!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 29, 2014 15:58:22 GMT -5
The rules of this forum include one that asks you not to post for sale ads until you have at least 50 posts. This is done to allow the community to get to know you as a human, as well as deter spammers from cluttering up the place we like to hang out.
I'll leave it to you to decide if you are a spammer, or someone who wants to participate here and make friends. Best of luck.
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 29, 2014 1:02:54 GMT -5
Just for kicks, here are a couple of shots of a piece of wonderstone that I collected last week - Brought home some nice big ones too!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 28, 2014 22:02:09 GMT -5
I'd agree on the second one being rhyolite. Wonderstone is a common name for this rock, and it's found in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and I think California....
The first one looks kind of like a california poppy jasper, Stoney Creek maybe?
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 23, 2014 12:16:07 GMT -5
Cheers all! Sorry for the lack of updates, but NV is a hard place to find internet access... I successfully replaced the transmission, and got back on the road last week. I had to cut most of my prospecting locations in order to stick to my schedule, but I did find some great rocks. Wonderstone Mountain never dissapoints, and I gathered some killer material there. Then up to a nice agate location, where the agates are small, but very interesting with a outer coating that looks much like the snakeskin agate from Oregon. I headed to my favorite blue agate dig, but was too late in the day to head up to the 7500' elevation site. Rolled into a great hot spring that I had never been to before and took a soak in the 107degree pool. Woke up the next day to pouring rain, and the agate site had a couple of inches of snow. Killed time, mostly sitting in my tent in the rain, and managed to bootleg into the site the next day. I had to stick to my schedule, so the agate dig only got me 1 1/2 buckets, but I found the best piece of this blue that I've ever seen. EVER. On the road now, heading slowly towards western Washington, and I should be sleeping in my own bed by Sunday night.
I promise photos are forth coming. Need a minute to breath and unpack the goodies. Prepare to see the photo of this blue one more than once, since I'm so excited about it!
Joshua
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 20, 2014 22:46:58 GMT -5
So much for worrying about how much I could haul. Blew the transmission out on my 4th day out. Thankfully, I have a great friend in northern Nevada that hauled me to his place and gave me space to toss a junkyard replacement in. 5 days of my trip down the drain. Made it back on the road, got out to central NV to wake up this morning to snow! My $$ dig is going to be too wet to access for the next couple of days, so I'll be prospecting around the center of the state, and then cancelling the CA leg of my trip so I can crawl home with my tail between my legs.
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 14, 2014 15:36:52 GMT -5
Just checking in from the road... It's a great trip so far. Couple of good sites, and a couple of not so good ones. Met a bunch of crazy rock hounds, and I'm starting to worry about how much the truck can haul.
Pics in a week or so when I return to the shady PNW.
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on May 9, 2014 11:27:27 GMT -5
Heading out in two days for a two week rock collecting trip. I'll be visiting Oregon, Nevada, and California! I'm very excited, to say the least.... Pics to follow.
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