So glad you have an effective member of Team Lori now — looking out for your best interest and trying to cut through all the redtape for you! That's invaluable!!!!

Is there a way that we can codify this into law?

Instead of 50 gazillion things not to discriminate against, why not make the law clear and simple?

Thou shalt not discriminate. Period.

It turns out that polishing rocks is quite the workout. I currently have three tumblers, one single-barrel, and two double-barrel, each with a 3-lb capacity. I am rolling 15 lbs of rock 24/7. This mostly happens in the background for a week at a time. After a week, it is time to clean off the stones and inspect them. Some get moved to the next stage, some need a little more work and will stay. Sometimes, they crack and break and may need to return to the first stage and start over. Stage 1 is for Shaping the stones, rounding off sharp edges, and clearing surface damage. Stage 2 begins Smoothing the stones so they can take a polish. Stage 3 is Pre-Polish which makes the stones very smooth. And the Polish stage is where the stones are given a good shine. Not all stones will shine. Soft and porous stones will keep a dull matte finish, so I spray them with Clear Coat to bring out their colors and features.

Any time I am outside, I am always looking at rocks. Sometimes the colors catch my eye. Maybe it's the banding, swirls, or even clarity when a light shines through them. Sometimes I recognize what kind of stone it is and how it was made. Other times I will be completely bewildered. I still enjoy them.










Isn't Nature just grand?

Quote from: LoriDee on March 20, 2024, 03:13:55 PMIt turns out that polishing rocks is quite the workout. I currently have three tumblers, one single-barrel, and two double-barrel, each with a 3-lb capacity. I am rolling 15 lbs of rock 24/7. This mostly happens in the background for a week at a time. After a week, it is time to clean off the stones and inspect them. Some get moved to the next stage, some need a little more work and will stay. Sometimes, they crack and break and may need to return to the first stage and start over. Stage 1 is for Shaping the stones, rounding off sharp edges, and clearing surface damage. Stage 2 begins Smoothing the stones so they can take a polish. Stage 3 is Pre-Polish which makes the stones very smooth. And the Polish stage is where the stones are given a good shine. Not all stones will shine. Soft and porous stones will keep a dull matte finish, so I spray them with Clear Coat to bring out their colors and features.

Any time I am outside, I am always looking at rocks. Sometimes the colors catch my eye. Maybe it's the banding, swirls, or even clarity when a light shines through them. Sometimes I recognize what kind of stone it is and how it was made. Other times I will be completely bewildered. I still enjoy them.










Isn't Nature just grand?

LoriDee,


You rock!


Chrissy

Quote from: LoriDee on March 11, 2024, 09:11:14 PMOne of my favorite books of all time is "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach. He has some interesting ways of looking at things from a different point of view.

A passage that I really like reads:

"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." ― Richard Bach

We intuitively know that we are not happy with ourselves. We know the change required (transition) will be a problem for us. But we seek it out because we need that gift. It is difficult to love someone else if we don't love ourselves first. If we don't look after our own happiness, we won't have any left to give to someone else. Be kind to yourself. Find that love and it will expand exponentially, and there will be plenty to share.

Hugs!

Hey Sis!

Well this figures... That is one of my absolute all time favorite books as well!... That quote was one of the standouts and I believe I quoted it here on the forum but, it disappeared with the lost years... Alas but, perhaps it is for the best because here it is again, as shiny and new as Don Shimoda's Travel Air...You aren't from the Holy Land of Indiana are you? 🤔... I had a few Johnathan Livingston Seagull posts in my old blog as well 🤗

Love Ya Girl!!!

A 😀💕🌻

Quote from: LoriDee on March 20, 2024, 03:13:55 PMIt turns out that polishing rocks is quite the workout. I currently have three tumblers, one single-barrel, and two double-barrel, each with a 3-lb capacity. I am rolling 15 lbs of rock 24/7. This mostly happens in the background for a week at a time. After a week, it is time to clean off the stones and inspect them. Some get moved to the next stage, some need a little more work and will stay. Sometimes, they crack and break and may need to return to the first stage and start over. Stage 1 is for Shaping the stones, rounding off sharp edges, and clearing surface damage. Stage 2 begins Smoothing the stones so they can take a polish. Stage 3 is Pre-Polish which makes the stones very smooth. And the Polish stage is where the stones are given a good shine. Not all stones will shine. Soft and porous stones will keep a dull matte finish, so I spray them with Clear Coat to bring out their colors and features.

Any time I am outside, I am always looking at rocks. Sometimes the colors catch my eye. Maybe it's the banding, swirls, or even clarity when a light shines through them. Sometimes I recognize what kind of stone it is and how it was made. Other times I will be completely bewildered. I still enjoy them.










Isn't Nature just grand?

Those are great, Lori! What do you do with them?

The only reason I ask is we had this woman in our department (her title was "secretary" but it might as well have been "person who actually runs things since everyone else here has the maturity of a child" - but that's too long for a desk plate) and she collected/polished stones as well!

She would fill clear vases and/or tall squared or oval glass jars with stones and put them on her desk and the effect was quite lovely. Everyone would always comment on them.

They were always a source of UTTER fascination for every coach's child who ever ventured by her desk, especially!!

But I also know, from what she said, there are countless other things people do with their stones... and some people just like to polish them for the sake of polishing them and enjoying them as is!

Curiously yours,
Allie

@imallie

Thanks, Allie!

I am in the process of learning how to make wire-wrap jewelry with them. Not all of them are jewelry-grade, or the right size, so I have some in a candy dish and others in small bowls. Most will become either necklace pendants or possibly keychains.

Rough Stones to Jewelry

Hugs!

Hi Lori

You said;

Quote from: LoriDee on March 20, 2024, 02:48:20 PMIs there a way that we can codify this into law?

Instead of 50 gazillion things not to discriminate against, why not make the law clear and simple?

Thou shalt not discriminate. Period.

Simple, put it into the constitution!

Hugs
Sarah B
@LoriDee

Quote from: LoriDee on March 20, 2024, 09:28:53 PM@imallie

Thanks, Allie!

I am in the process of learning how to make wire-wrap jewelry with them. Not all of them are jewelry-grade, or the right size, so I have some in a candy dish and others in small bowls. Most will become either necklace pendants or possibly keychains.

Rough Stones to Jewelry

Hugs!

Oh very nice!!!

Hey Lori!

Your post above got Illusions swirling in my head and inspired me to open my copy of Messiah's Handbook I keep in my nightstand this morning and see what quote came up... Some of the quotes were used in Illusions but, most were not... Today's was a good one for all who see it...

"The Only Thing That Shatters Dreams Is Compromise" 🌻

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29944.Messiah_s_Handbook

Onward We Go!

A 😀💕🌻

Another of my favorites:

"In order to live free and happily,
you must sacrifice boredom.
It is not always an easy sacrifice."

Hugs!

Quote from: LoriDee on March 21, 2024, 03:38:55 PMAnother of my favorites:

"In order to live free and happily,
you must sacrifice boredom.
It is not always an easy sacrifice."

Hugs!

and the ever popular...

"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours"

Onward!

A 😀💕🌻

"No act of kindness is too small."

Chrissy

"every cloud has a silver lining" well it does for me.

Seeing so many wonderful posts over in Photography, got me putting together some pics I took last summer when I was homeless/camping/prospecting/waiting for my new apartment to get built. I took hundreds of pics. I won't post them all right here.

In early 2015, when I first moved to the Black Hills, I studied the history. Specifically, the gold mining history. What I learned was that most of the old abandoned gold mines were not abandoned due to a lack of gold. During World War II, gold mines were closed as they were not considered "essential" to the war effort. That left a lot of unemployed young men to go off to fight the war. When they returned (if they returned), many were too old or disabled to resume mining. The mines filled with water, became run-down and very dangerous places. Many had previously used dangerous chemicals like arsenic or mercury. The gold is still there, it just isn't easy to get to. For decades, the mines sat because the price of gold made reopening old mines prohibiting. Today, with gold price at over $2,000 per ounce, large mining companies are looking into buying up old gold claims.


Empire Gold Mine was a top producer in Pennington County, SD

My favorite photo was taken in August 2017. I was in the creek getting set up to do some mining. The valleys are steep, so it takes time for the sun to rise high enough to warm the valley below. I looked upstream and the sun was warming up that area while I was still in the shade. It was so peaceful and calm, I had to snap a pic. Behind me is where I have been digging gold since May 2017. This picture hangs on my wall to this day.

Interesting history.  World Wars caused a migration of farmers.  Farm boys in Vermont heard about places where folks could farm without hitting rocks all day long and moved west!

Very beautiful picture Lori. 

Mission Impossible: The Story of Old Blue

Grab some popcorn while I regale you with this tale of woe and despair. Ok, well maybe that is inaccurate. Sue me.

For those who may not be gold miners and unfamiliar with some of the jargon, a "lead" (pronounced Leed), is an indicator that gold may be found in the area. There is a town in the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota by that name with a very large gold mine. The Homestake Gold Mine was one of the top gold producers in the U.S.

There is a particular type of rock that has a blue-colored sheen to it, and the old-time prospectors called it "blue lead". Again, it is a lead (clue). One summer, I was with my mining buddy and we were digging samples from a new location in the creek. Just below the surface of the fine sand was a blue rock!

My buddy is no slouch when it comes to unearthing large rocks from our "office". Our thinking is that this rock has been sitting in this spot for hundreds if not thousands or even millions of years. What is under it? As a blue lead, it could very well be sitting on top of a large gold deposit. So we started digging all around it to see if we could loosen it up and lift it out of the hole. We nicknamed the rock "Old Blue".

We dug and we dug and could not locate all of the edges. How big is this thing? We kept digging and digging and digging. We soon realized that we were not going to be able to lift it ourselves. I returned to my truck and brought back more tools. I have a cable puller that can pull 2,000 lbs. I have an extra pulley that I rig so that I can pull 4,000 lbs (2 tons).

The plan was to dig under the rock enough to be able to wrap a tow strap around it, and then attach the cable puller. I can anchor it to a tree on the shore and winch Old Blue out of the creek. But we couldn't find the bottom of it! I dug a hole four feet deep and still did not find the bottom of the rock.

We were only able to unearth two sides of this massive boulder. We were able to clear off about 8 feet x 5 feet, but could not find the other edges, or get underneath. I was beginning to suspect that this might be a chunk of bedrock that formed the bottom of the creek. But there are no other rocks in the area that are this color.



All of the sand and gravel we pulled out of the hole was loaded with very nice chunky gold. That is a very good sign that we were close to the source vein. If we could just get that beast out of the hole!

This was late Fall, so the temps were starting to get colder. We worked the rest of the season trying to unearth Old Blue, but never got her to budge even the slightest. Never got a strap around her. Eventually, it just got too cold and we had to wrap it up.



The following Spring we had a flood. The water level was almost five feet above Old Blue. The holes filled with gravel and rocks and we had to start all over. Then COVID happened and we decided to sit the season out and let the flood waters recede.

To this day Old Blue is still in the same spot, buried about two inches below the surface just waiting for me to try again.

What is the best theory as to why the lead stone is correlated to finding gold?  Are the forces that caused the gold to be present there the same forces that cause the blue stone to be present?

AS I understand it the gold comes to the surface from volcanic activity, usually associated with quartz. So if the blue rock is some sort of volcanic material then yes a good indicator for a gold seam but then it could be the edge of a HUGE slab.