[Rockhounds] Re: TUCSON 2009! with pictures!

[Kris Rowe]

Howdy, John!
                      Thanks for the kudos, you're into some pretty colorful
stuff yourself! Checking out the trip reports on such luscious sites as
Peterson Mt. and your own Rats Nest Claim, I needed a dribble cup to keep my
shirt dry!
 I hope that, as a guy who does this ( more or less, I know *grin*) for a
living, you get the chance to check out Searles Lake & the Gem-O-Rama one of
these years. It was one of the most memorable collecting experiences I've
had, and certainly makes you appreciate a nice, quiet gravel pit all the
more! The "Mud Pile" experience was the collecting equivalent of rush hour
on the New Jersey Turnpike, and I received many scowls from "serious" young
collectors who obviously felt my grinning visage lacked the proper
*gravity*in such a mud coated environment.

Thanks for the heads up on the Fine Minerals Show. If things work out as I
desire (a decidedly rare occurrence) I'll be on the way back from Oregon by
way of Eureka and the Coast Hwy, and will be able to stop in before getting
back to Fresno and resuming the business of cutting-what-we-collect, and
wiping babies butts & noses. My partner and I operate a home daycare biz,
and I'm *trying* to get my workshop set up in my "spare" (Ha!) time. Trust
me when I say that I know just what you're going through, marriage wise,
I've been there.
Actually, I hope that things have shaken out a bit on that front for you.
I've been told that sometimes a little distance will bring clarity to a
woman's mind, though I have yet to see proof in my own life. Still, hope
springs eternal, which is why I found and am with my lovely Laura.

Back to things geological, we've been out collecting the past few weekends,
around the Tumey Hills BLM area, less than 2 miles off of I-5 south of Los
Banos, Ca. This area is one of my favorites, with LOTS of varied minerals
and cuttable stones. Last weekend, we collected 'Satin spar' gypsum while
enjoying the sight of wintering sheep, then visited a private gravel pit
that I've long held permission to collect, for the 'crypto'-quartz's,
serpentine, "alabaster" (quotes because several friends maintain "It's not
really alabaster!" I say, "It cuts like alabaster, so go sue me!" *grin*)
petrified palm & woods, howlite, nephrite, "bedded shell" fossils,
and a little of just about everything that can be found in the Coast Ranges
of California. I've even found "Moss on Snow" jadeite, a turquoise nodule,
and a lone peridot crystal there in years past.

Well, time to let you get back to more important pursuits, my friend. I'm
gonna go out, fire up the diamond band saw, and see what's under the surface
of the cobbles we collected yesterday from that gravel pit, which include a
*really* different looking piece of what seems to be silicified wood. It has
all of the growth patterns of wood, with the rings in gray & *flesh pink,
and *the cellular features in shown by black manganese stains, like moss.
This is either topped or underlain by clear to "foggy" crypto-quartz, with
sharply defined flesh pink clouds and black moss! My eyes fell out when I
washed this one off!

Keep your chin up, and your feet dry, and remember, you've got a friend who
cares!

Be Well!
                Kris


On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 9:07 AM, John Cornish <cornish at tfon.com> wrote:

> Hi Kris,
>
> Thank you so much for writing, I very much appreciate it! I stopped over at
> the link you provided and toured your site a bit. I've not been to Searles
> Lake, but boy if I had, I'd want to find halite of the same fantastic color
> that you did! Beautiful! Keep up the good work having fun in this outrageous
> hobby/obsession of ours! All the very best,
>
> John
>
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