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Post by Michael John on Dec 14, 2008 15:34:02 GMT -5
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NorthShore-Rocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2008
Posts: 1,004
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Post by NorthShore-Rocks on Dec 14, 2008 16:03:53 GMT -5
Wow! What a haul! You're collecting while I'm hiding from a blizzard. Boy, your aggates/jaspers sure do grow larger than my area. I'm looking forward to the next set of pictures. ~Steve
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Post by catmandewe on Dec 14, 2008 23:02:47 GMT -5
Man that looks like fun!! I love rambling around the desert. Thanks for showing us.........................Tony
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Post by Bejewelme on Dec 14, 2008 23:07:06 GMT -5
What a haul, and blinding sunshine, havn't seen that for months. Looks the camera is working well. I bet it was fun! Amber
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Post by sitnwrap on Dec 15, 2008 2:08:09 GMT -5
You found some awesome rocks. Is Selenite what some call Desert Rose? and do you ever find it as formed like a rose? Just curious.
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Post by Michael John on Dec 15, 2008 2:43:01 GMT -5
This was the first time I hounded Selenite. I knew exactly where to look for it due to my studying of the area before I went. There were none of the Desert Roses there, though. I think they're found in the reddish-orange Selenite, like they have over in Utah.
There was some light green stuff there that was some different form of gypsum. It wasn't stranded, it was sort-of boitroidal. UGLY stuff! I don't think I did, but I MAY have thrown a piece of it in my truck. If I find a piece I'll post a pic of it.
The Selenite area was really cool. It looked like some alien planet surface. It's like a maze of white-but-dusty hills, with strands and chunks of tattered Selenite all over them. You gotta dig and mine the solid chunks, and it's not easy. At the end of one of the little maze canyons was an enclosed area that looked like a salty amphitheatre, about 100' in diameter. Wish I'd taken pics of it, but I was in no mood for shutterbugging at the time. Mining the Selenite with the high winds blowing the salty dust in my eyes REALLY sucked LOL.
If you look on the internet, you'll find that it's common to see lamps made of Selenite chunks. Since Selenite strands are sort of like fiber optics, the lamps are actually pretty cool. I'm thinking of mountng one of the big, flat slabs I got on an oblong box, and putting a blacklight in it. Might be kinda retro-chic!
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DeanW
has rocks in the head
Member since December 2007
Posts: 721
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Post by DeanW on Dec 15, 2008 3:24:14 GMT -5
Amazing haul there MJ! One of these days I'm gonna find a way to join you I hope.
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Post by Michael John on Dec 15, 2008 9:34:01 GMT -5
Dean, you're always more than welcome to come on down and hound with me. Just PM me a little bit ahead of time so that I can clear my busy schedule ROTFLMAO ...
I drove around a little yesterday to show the load to a few friends and local customers, and got good response. Made $140 just selling a few pieces.
One of my friends wants to join me for a little hounding adventure just south of here, near Sandy Valley, looking for crystals, amethyst, and chrysocolla with azurite and/or cuprite. Hopefully I can get him past the talking-about-it stage and out into the damn desert LOL.
Once I find another good "nearby" hounding location or two or three, I want to host an RTH outing (in the spring) ... three, four, maybe five days, one or two locations per day. I'm hoping that if I include the Cady Mountains in the events, we might be able to coax Mel up here HEHEHE. There are SO many cool people on this forum who live in the surrounding states that this could be a real blast, with minimal driving to get here. This is a pretty central location for folks in Cali, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. I can probably even get special rates for everyone at the Saddle West Casino and Hotel (nice rooms, VERY cheap, and only a few miles from my house). Of course, people who can't afford that will be welcome at my house.
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MidNight~Rocksi3
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2008
Posts: 1,716
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Post by MidNight~Rocksi3 on Dec 15, 2008 10:40:51 GMT -5
Man that is a crazy load !.. looks like you still made out like a bandit! and that monster size jasper and those agates you gotta slice and post pics! i'm dying to see whats inside! lol
*smiles*
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Post by Michael John on Dec 15, 2008 11:11:25 GMT -5
I'm anxious to see them, too. My hounding is rather fast and frenzied. Anything that looks like it's probably good goes in the backpack or truck. I don't waste my valuable collecting time pondering and scrutinizing. I just sort it all out at home. My success rate is pretty good doing it this way, and I get some unusual stuff due to this method, but I do get the occasional clunker, too. I'd rather drag a little junk home than possibly leave good stuff where I found it. I can find SOME use for just about anything.
I didn't figure that the snowy white Dolomite was anything too special, but people I sent it to really liked it. You just never know. So, I picked-up about 30 more pounds of it this trip.
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Post by Tonyterner on Dec 15, 2008 11:51:18 GMT -5
Thanks for the pics. Looks like a productive trip. On your next one don't forget to take some pictures of the scenery for those of us who like far away.
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Post by Bejewelme on Dec 15, 2008 19:10:15 GMT -5
I love the snowy white dolomite you sent me, I don't want to cab it until I get better so I don't ruin it.
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Post by MrP on Dec 15, 2008 20:45:55 GMT -5
Nice haul. I'm with you on taking anything that looks good. If you leave it you always wonder how good it was. I have left some and then decided to go back and get them. Damed if I could find them again............MrP
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Dec 16, 2008 9:52:19 GMT -5
Wow, monster haul! Lots of variety too. I also love desert collecting. Can't wait to see pics of the jasper agate cut open....Mel
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Post by Michael John on Dec 16, 2008 14:20:46 GMT -5
Tony, I did take scenery pics: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=26791Amber, go ahead and cab it! I picked-up a lot more, and there's PLENTY more where that came from (understatement). I've sent a little of it to several people but nobody's done anything with it yet. I'm anxious to see what it looks like finished. MrP, my predicament is that there are thousands of types of stones, and I couldn't even identify 10%, so that could mean that 90% of what I see may be good stuff and I don't even know it ... same goes for MOST people. Knowing that shortcoming, I'd be a fool to leave stuff just because I don't know what it is. If it looks pretty, especially if it's hard, it might be a gemstone, but I would never know unless I pick it up and try to have it identified. Mel, the variety of stuff out in that area is amazing. With your knowledge of "what's what", you'd probably go insane with sensory overload LOL. I'm sure there's even more good stuff there than I realize, simply due to my relative inexperience and lack of decades of accumulated knowledge (I've only had the rockhound bug for a few years). I tend to get a lot of good BIG rocks. It often breaks my heart having to bust them up with a hammer and chisel. If I had a BIG saw, it would definately be put to good use, but that's WAY out of my reach for a long time. In the meantime, I'll just keep torturing my little WF hehehe. It was raining AND SNOWING here yesterday (no accumulation), but there's a break in the weather today, so I'm going to do some sorting and rock-breaking. I'll keep my trusty camera handy while I do it (sitnwrap ROCKS). I have an old solid oak glass-top end-table out in the garage that will make a perfect frame for a light box. If I throw a white sheet over it and use my two little spotlight lamps, I'll be all set to take decent pics indoors. That'll put an end to my daytime-only picture taking limitation, freeing-up that time for more sorting and cutting.
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Post by Bejewelme on Dec 16, 2008 16:03:00 GMT -5
It is snowing here today, yuck!! Ok Michael I am going to do that white dolomite, because I loved it, hopefully it will turn out nice!!
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Post by Michael John on Dec 16, 2008 16:21:47 GMT -5
I've seen your cabbing progress, and I'm confident that you'll do a great job with it. My only advice is to listen to the stone and cut it how it tells you it wants to be cut. Don't be afraid to break from tradition, or feel that you must use a template. Take it to the saw and let the stone do the leading ... you're just there for support LOL.
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Post by frane on Dec 17, 2008 10:47:33 GMT -5
Wow! you had a great haul that day! Very nice dolomite and those last few agates look like they will be amazing as cabs or tumbled... Have a great day! Fran
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Post by BuiltonRock on Dec 17, 2008 11:05:44 GMT -5
Super Haul!!!!!!!!! john
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NorthShore-Rocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since December 2008
Posts: 1,004
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Post by NorthShore-Rocks on Dec 17, 2008 11:34:03 GMT -5
MJ. It's 2000 miles for me, but I have the time. Maybe not enough $ but where there's a will, there's a way. I'm always looking for an adventure and a break from the deep freeze. I've never been to that part of the country before. Hmmmmm
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