October 2010

Howdy All!

It has been a few weeks since my last post.  Don't think it was because I haven't been busy though!  Life and my Rock Hounding have kept me away from posting for a bit.

Stacy and I continue to explore our new passion.  She and I had the opportunity to go out into the "Field" together a few days ago.  It is interesting to see how different our perspectives are.  She would pass over some things that caught my eye, and I did exactly the same to her specimens!

We chose a local spot (we only had a few hours) to explore together.  To be fair, we went to lunch then I decided to show her a local favorite.  There is a steep mountain road on the outskirts of Johnstown that has an interesting water run-off that cuts into a hillside.

The majority of specimens are of course Sandstone and Coal, but we also found some conglomerate and siltstone.  Digging and picking through the trench, we each pulled out different things that we liked.  Some of the sandstone was very fine quartz moving up to rather rough quartz sand.  All of the stones have iron stains and even magnetite banding in them.  Some of the finer samples have amazing wave formations in them from the previous river/stream/lake action as they were originally laid down.

My most impressive find was another "Pennsylvania" geode.  This sample was about the size of a potato.  Made of finely grained sandstone, the center once contained another material that rusted/eroded out.  It has an opening about the size of a silver dollar and was filled with silt from the run-off.  After washing it out, I now have a hollow Sandstone sitting in the kitchen!  (Pics Soon!)

One of the other things I have been doing for the past two weeks was working on the tumbler we bout.  We bought a double drum tumbler capable of 6 lbs.  It is very convenient to have two drums as I have been trying different samples at one time.  I have successfully tumbled our specimens from Gem Mountain as well as the first two stages of the Barleywood Farms Blue Quartz.  I must say I really like that quartz!

We purchased the tumbler from Harbor Freight Tools.  They carry rotary tumblers, grit packages, and even Vibratory Tumblers (we got a 5 lb Vibratory Tumbler as well).  It was put to immediate use and the learning curve is pretty easy.  It took the cats a few days to get used to it, but they no longer pay it any attention.

I renewed my membership in the GPAA (I will post separately about this), and have been working on research into future trips.  I will keep everyone posted on the amazing fun we are having!