jamesp favorites-Rio Grande #2

[jamesp]

Honda Civic packed to the maximus




Saw rocks stacked on he floor board



The haul. 11 MFRB's, 9 more on the way. then buckets to right. Post office used those totes.

[jamesp]

Nov 6, 2016 18:40:18 GMT -5 captbob said:

Your dogs as happy to see you as mine were?

My wife didn't care, so I won't ask about yours...

Walked in the house and laid down on futon. Raised the covers and 3 dogs piled under and we crashed 4 hours.

[Deleted]

Nov 6, 2016 6:02:59 GMT -5 rockpickerforever said:

Nov 5, 2016 21:13:56 GMT -5 @shotgunner said:

If life from other planets have the technology to be here from their home worlds, we had better be very cautious. Fear is a fair response.

Just remember, "To Serve Man" is a cook book.

You worry about aliens from a bazillion miles away, but not the ones streaming into our country from right next door?  LOL.

No!!

But we make a good comedy team don't we?

Jim, happy u are home safe and sound!

[quartz]

Thanks to the both of you for taking us along on your trip, Carol and I followed daily and enjoyed both the pictorial and written coverage. You sure got a haul of really nice material.

[jamesp]

Thanks Scott. Good to be home.

Thanks for looking on Larry and Carol.

I must say the funnest part of the trip was Bob's wide eyes and enthusiasm.
Been hosting rock collectors for years and have more fun watching their enthusiasm than collecting.
Well, this location was an exception, fine collecting here.

Used to take people deep sea fishing. Got to where I didn't care if I caught a fish. But had a blast watching wide eyed guests hooking into a lunker.
I figure Bob will be going back to the Rio.

[jamesp]

Sawed three large rocks from the mighty Rio. Three that were NOT windowed.(except one)
Two were leaverites.

Leaverite #1, and what the heck ??




Leaverite #2




Keeperite, but not as pretty as window

[jamesp]

Got a good bit of Rio wood. Have no concept on what to look for and it was real variable.(dumb easterner)
No telling where it washed from, most did not look like the upland local wood.
May not be the finest, but darn solid. Hard and tuff stuff.
Absolutely hard to read this stuff in the field. Need x-ray vision. Tried hard for 4 days.
Most had a wood looking shape and skin. Some totally worn to cobble.
First two woods cut

This one had a black skin, never would have guessed it would be red. never never

with the grain



cross grain thin heal, edges porous



This one with grain



cross grain



outside



Not sure why, but a lot of wood is jet black or cherty or just plain weird looking for an assortment of reasons.
No rhyme nor reason.
If you like mysterious, go hunt wood along the Rio.

[Sabre52]

Oh boy, great to see the first cuts James! Rio wood is so frustrating. So hard to tell what the side will be. Sometimes great outside with wild colors and blah inside or the reverse too. Like you said, solid as all get out though. Man, I wish there was an ID book for Rio wood types!

Sad that so many Rios are golden moss. Very good moss, and often with great depth and bright pattern though. Rio orbicular/poppy jaspers and agates give me fits too. So many show fine orbs on the exterior but they are mostly just on the outside. I'm sure ole Bob nailed a couple of nice orby ones he's shown in his pics though. I think your leaverite number 2 is kind of interesting but from the exterior, I too would have thought it would be more of an eye popper.....Mel

[HankRocks]

I have a collected and cut a decent amount of the Rio Wood from years past, both from the valley and some from Terlingua watershed area. Most of it seems to have outside skin darker than the interior. Not sure what happens during the process of eroding out and washing down, maybe buried again and re-eroding. I like the with-the-grain cuts as much or more than the cross-grain cuts.

I am envious of your trip to the Valley and I am hoping to make that trip in the early spring, after Deer Season.

Thanks for documenting so well.

H

[captbob]

Liking the saw cuts.

I would like to see a closer picture of your FR boxes. Looks like the post office had their way with them!

[jamesp]

Nov 7, 2016 7:52:40 GMT -5 HankRocks said:

I have a collected and cut a decent amount of the Rio Wood from years past, both from the valley and some from Terlingua watershed area. Most of it seems to have outside skin darker than the interior. Not sure what happens during the process of eroding out and washing down, maybe buried again and re-eroding. I like the with-the-grain cuts as much or more than the cross-grain cuts.

I am envious of your trip to the Valley and I am hoping to make that trip in the early spring, after Deer Season.

Thanks for documenting so well.

H

Thanks Hank. Man the deer hunting is big high fenced business down that way.
The mesquite beans apparently a serious food source for the deer.
I would hope Texas deer meat tastes like Texas beef, Texas beef has a great flavor no doubt from the browse there.

Thanks a bunch for the tip on sawing, was in a quandary about cross vs with grain sawing.
Windowing wood tricky lest you do a deep window. Darn outer layer can run deep.
Glad to here experience talking about the wood.

What area do you hunt ?

[jamesp]

Nov 7, 2016 8:52:50 GMT -5 captbob said:

Liking the saw cuts.

I would like to see a closer picture of your FR boxes. Looks like the post office had their way with them!

The bags were the saving grace. Rocks would have been strewn every where Bob.
Spent the money on those expensive contractor duty bags.
The local younger temp girl delivered and left about every one of them in PO totes.
The full time lady is about our age and would never use a tote.

all spiral wrapped both ways.

[jamesp]

Nov 7, 2016 7:24:50 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Oh boy, great to see the first cuts James! Rio wood is so frustrating. So hard to tell what the side will be. Sometimes great outside with wild colors and blah inside or the reverse too. Like you said, solid as all get out though. Man, I wish there was an ID book for Rio wood types!

Sad that so many Rios are golden moss. Very good moss, and often with great depth and bright pattern though. Rio orbicular/poppy jaspers and agates give me fits too. So many show fine orbs on the exterior but they are mostly just on the outside. I'm sure ole Bob nailed a couple of nice orby ones he's shown in his pics though. I think your leaverite number 2 is kind of interesting but from the exterior, I too would have thought it would be more of an eye popper.....Mel

Looking forward to sawing the wood Mel. Don't care if it is flashy or not. Pet wood is pet wood and I can't help but have interest in it's preservation.
I collected more than I first thought.
Maybe I can put on a show.

I did find that brown, gold and purple moss often has a bleach white coating.
I did well on purple and was curious if you guys find a lot of purple.
I did terrible on orbs and was struck w/jealousy when I saw some of Bob's orbs in his tumble thread.
I looked. The patina of many rocks there give an impression of serious orbs, on the outside. Failed bad on the orbs. Bob had some, he has the eye.

[jamesp]

Holy Batman, a palm and a wood coming out better than expectations. #3 and #4. Check this palm out Sabre52.

Size of a half loaf of bread, perfectly healed.
This looks like the palm I found a George West.



back side, did not notice palm tubes, thought it was wood



This one quite big too, 30 degree angle to grain

[Sabre52]

Wow, that is wonderful palm, shrinkwood type along he outer edges too. Rio palm is so colorful compared to Commiefornia palm fiber or Wyoming material or even Louisiana palm fiber. Every color of the rainbow on the Rio. Hope you nailed down an example of palm root. Best I've ever seen was from the Rio grande in Matt's collection.

Find quite a bit of purple-red moss but it is usually not all that fantastic in my book. Often more dense and jasper like and when polished makes a darker stone that is not all that showy but then I am pretty jaded as I cut a lot of Rios. My favorite mosses are the real loose, glassy, seaweedy looking examples that show a lot of depth. Those are pretty no matter what the color scheme. Keep the pics coming please! This is a wonderful show!....Mel

[richardh]

Nov 7, 2016 5:37:22 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Sawed three large rocks from the mighty Rio. Three that were NOT windowed.(except one)
Two were leaverites.

Leaverite #1, and what the heck ??




Leaverite #2




Keeperite, but not as pretty as window

Ha! I would have been very pleased with those leaverites. They look like the sort of rocks I picked up down there last week. Shows what I know.

[txrockhunter]

Keep'em coming!!!! I love the palm and pet woods.....can't get enough! Recently got a renewed interest in tumbling the pet woods and palms. I've got crates full of it. Broke up a 5 gallon bucket's worth and it's awaiting an opening in the tumbler. It's tough stuff.....without pre-grinding, it might be in sic 30 for 8-10 weeks!

Seems like a few similarities with wood found in the San Jacinto gravels. Like you said, there is very little rhyme or reason to patterns on outside vs. inside! Your red wood above is a prime example! Not sure how 200 miles could result in a 50% reduction in size?

I'm hoping this thread becomes 80 plus pages with your pictures!

Jeremy

[Jugglerguy]

Nov 6, 2016 13:32:59 GMT -5 jamesp said:

In a sort, you are loading your car with their resources. I gave away 10 pounds of fine tumbles. They make great icebreakers.
It opened the door to people opening their ranches and friendship. This community has strong affinity for nature, serious rock lovers wether gems or natural landscape.
Interested in the geology of the agates.
Were proud of the fact their rocks were so beautiful.

I did the same this summer. I brought a pocketful of tumbled unakite to Lake Superior. Not so much for the locals as for other rock hunters I meet on the beach. Some people are very experienced agate hunters, but don't realize that the other rocks can be beautiful too. Others don't have a clue what an agate looks like. Both types are happy to receive a polished piece of unakite. I met a family with three kids who were staying at Grandma's house on the beach. They each got a rock and then I showed them that the black sand on their beach contained gold. One of the kids ran up to the house and grabbed a magnet off the fridge when I told them that some of the black sand was magnetite.

[jamesp]

Nov 7, 2016 10:27:28 GMT -5 txrockhunter said:

Keep'em coming!!!! I love the palm and pet woods.....can't get enough! Recently got a renewed interest in tumbling the pet woods and palms. I've got crates full of it. Broke up a 5 gallon bucket's worth and it's awaiting an opening in the tumbler. It's tough stuff.....without pre-grinding, it might be in sic 30 for 8-10 weeks!

Seems like a few similarities with wood found in the San Jacinto gravels. Like you said, there is very little rhyme or reason to patterns on outside vs. inside! Your red wood above is a prime example! Not sure how 200 miles could result in a 50% reduction in size?

I'm hoping this thread becomes 80 plus pages with your pictures!

Jeremy

Jeremy, all I can figure is that it was not just a tumble down the river but an grinding high pressure landslide/land movement.
Like these rocks were under 500 feet of soils and the whole mass moving for some reason.
Can't figure any other way these hard rocks got rounded.

Those woods and palms still have cleavage down the grain, can be very difficult to make tumbles from.
I am sawing some of this wood in 1-1.25 inch thick slabs and then breaking it to avoid jags and divots.

The palm looks just like palm ~150 miles north of this local(George West).

You are real fortunate to live in Texas. What a treasure trove.

[1dave]

Envy on the palm!