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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 22:38:03 GMT -5
Even with all the pitfalls, you've pushed-on. I admire your perseverance! I hope they finally turn-out the way you want them this time!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 22:34:27 GMT -5
Thanks KD. The whole experience was a real shocker. I had no idea that there was anything exciting but gold out there. As I've been cleaning and sorting it, I've still occasionally blurted-out "WOW"!
I'll have more batches up for sale in about a half hour or so.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 21:50:00 GMT -5
Dean, I KNOW you must have one heck of a pile of rock building-up!
You'll love the WF. It's a very useful tool, especially for it's low cost. I'll be looking forward to pics of the slabs!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 21:46:04 GMT -5
Hehehe I wondered if it would do the Jack-in-the-box thing ... cramming this plus your other stuff in that large FRB was a real trick. I was surprised the post office accepted it because there was about 3/4" gap between the top flaps (I tried to hide that with tape LOL).
Can't wait to see the slabs and cabs. There's REAL nice pieces in there!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 21:37:52 GMT -5
All of the agate except pic #9 is from Agate Road ... #9 is the O-w-l-h-o-l-e Springs moss agate.
You may be right about the toothpick with this one. It was a tight squeeze.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 13:45:44 GMT -5
I keep coming back to look at this thing, drooling. But, ya know, if I wanted to shine that much rock, a massive vibe tumbler would make much more sense. Pre-round the stones on a saw, then straight into the mega-vibe. It would take MUCH less time, so the electricity cost would be much less, plus you'd save a fortune on grit. If you did preform pendants, by my calculations a 400 pound vibe tumbler would do about 20,000 per load!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 12:48:35 GMT -5
"Wood Elves & Mining Dwarves" "Luxurious Lathe & Lapidary" "Turning & Churning" " Rockwood Elemental Designs" "Rockin' Wood" "The Turn Around Rockhound" "Spinning Wood & Shining Gemstones" "T & A ... Our Wood is Rock Hard" ;D Thanks for the contest, Tony! This is a real fun one!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 25, 2009 12:21:59 GMT -5
Hehehe in that case, all of the locations will be a breeze. Me-thinks you're going to be sending a lot of flatraters to yourself!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 22:04:45 GMT -5
SOLD to snuffy!
Thank You Very Much!!!
Not to worry, folks ... I'll have more up tomorrow!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 21:20:12 GMT -5
Jo, the only problem is that the "road" is pretty bad, and definately requires 4WD. My truck isn't 4WD, and there's NO WAY I'd even attempt to take it there.
OH, I forgot to mention ... in the fourth pic, behind me, there's a cave, and you can see the trickle of a creek that flows out of it if you look closely. Inside that cave, you can hear water rushing like mad. It sounds like continuous thunder! Apparently, this is one of the main feeds to the Pahrump aquifer. There are several springs up in this area. It's REALLY beautiful up there! You'd never expect an area like this out in the desert.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 21:15:39 GMT -5
This is 25+ pounds of gorgeous material. The two big purple pieces are from the legendary Johnnie district, as are the three nice chunks of chrysocolla and other copper-related materials in quartz. The big striped chunk is a REAL nice piece of Boysenberry quartzite which was collected near the California/Nevada border. BELIEVE me, the pics absolutely aren't doing these stones any favors. They're MUCH nicer than they appear! Once these go in the box, I'll add more stones to fill it. Although I've always gone way overboard with taping-up my boxes, the US Postal Service has recently managed to desecrate a couple of my boxes, so I'm now doubling-up on the tape. They won't be easy to open, so please be careful not to hurt yourself if you're using a sharp instrument. The price is $35, which includes free Priority Mail shipping within the continental US (I pay the $10.35). Make your payment to my PayPal account, groovatism@hotmail.com, THEN PM me to let me know you've made the purchase, so that I can mark the lot as SOLD. For those who prefer not to pay online, I also accept US Postal money orders. If you live outside the continental US and wish to buy, please contact me before paying so that the shipping cost can be calculated.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 21:03:17 GMT -5
Lori, that WHOLE outcrop is this gorgeous purple jasper and quartzite. I need to get someone with a 1-ton pickup to take me out there ... I could fill it in a few hours!
Snuffy, I'll have some stuff up for sale in about 15-20 minutes.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 20:14:57 GMT -5
A gold prospector friend of mine came by this morning with a gleem in his eye. He'd been prospecting out by the Johnnie mine yesterday, had found a few things that he knew I'd be interested in, and wanted to take me out there immediately. Who was I to argue? Off we went. The legendary Johnnie area is just north of Pahrump, not even a 15 minute drive from home. The first stop was only a couple hundred yards from the road, where there were massive piles of chrysocolla, much different from the Blue Mule material. I about messed my drawers when I first saw it, but quickly discovered that most of it was just copper ore, of no lapidary value. However, I did find about 20 pounds of VERY cool copper-based materials in quartz in the very short time we were there. I'm sure there's a LOT more there, but this wasn't the "main attraction" that he dragged me out there for, so we jumped back in the truck and headed for a different part of the area. After maybe 20 minutes of driving up a pretty nasty "road", he stopped and told me I was about to be amazed. Climbing up this little hill, I discovered that he'd made a major understatement. The whole top of this hill was a massive outcropping of purple/pink/red/orange jasper/quartzite that was absolutely incredible. Needless to say, I started scurrying to his truck with a bunch of it, but he stopped me before I could even get half of it in the truck. He said, "Wait, there's more!" We got back in the truck and drove less than a half mile further up the road, coming upon a spring with an even MORE gorgeous outcropping of similar stuff behind it! As is my usual goal, I ended-up with over 500 pounds in total, and the whole trip was only about 4 hours. He told me to hurry up and sell it so that he could take me back out there to get more! So, there ya have it ... pics, including me, and here are a couple of bad pics I just took of a couple of the big chunks... It's probably hard to tell from my bad pics, but a lot of this stuff is even nicer than the Boysenberry Quartzite I collect. I'll have some up for sale real soon, and I'll try to take better pics.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 0:45:25 GMT -5
It wasn't a job, it was just doing some work for the landlord to work-off some rent.
I worked for him 3 days last week. He said he was going to work me some more this week, but I haven't heard from him. Par for the course here in Pahrump. All I can do is see what tomorrow may bring.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 0:29:06 GMT -5
Those emails are a steady flood. I get them at least once a week. The best way to avoid problems is to simply never log-in to PayPal or any financial insitution via any links. Always go straight to the site's legit page to log-in. If you think there's a problem or a question about your account, call them on the phone. Don't believe any emails alledgedly sent from a financial institution claiming that you must follow their link.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 0:22:44 GMT -5
Hmmm ... maybe sheep-kababs? The horns would look good mounted on the hood of that little truck!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 0:13:41 GMT -5
The fourth one is rhodonite.
The first one is probably a different rhodonite, but it MIGHT be rhodochrosite. Hard to tell for sure from the pics.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 0:04:52 GMT -5
See, now THAT'S a tumbler! I could put that to GOOD use!
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Post by Michael John on Jun 24, 2009 0:01:55 GMT -5
This batch is no longer for sale.
Thank you all for participating in this thread and for all of your kind words and support! That really means a lot to me.
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Post by Michael John on Jun 23, 2009 23:56:11 GMT -5
Glad you like the wonderstone. Although I have very little experience with wonderstone, it looked real nice to me. It'll be great to see what it looks like sliced, once you get back to your big saw. I have another huge chunk of it, but it's way too big for a large flatrater and I'm afraid I'll ruin it if I bust it up.
That "brimstone" is some strange stuff. I never saw anything like it. I only have one little chunk left. I've sent some out to several people, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it works-up. I hope it doesn't undercut too badly. I definately wouldn't recommend putting it in a tumbler.
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