lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Oct 22, 2022 20:47:53 GMT -5
Originally when I started rock tumbling I took a bunch of stones from my backyard and tossed them in the barrels to see what would/wouldn't tumble. I liquified about 75% of the rocks I tossed in, and a lot of them wouldn't hold a polish. I recently went back and ran the 'surviving' stones through my UV-18...much better now! (shown below) Photo #275 |
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Oct 29, 2022 20:44:28 GMT -5
With Halloween imminent:  Only one Brazilian Agate shown. Don't ask how many times I was bitten while trying to take this photo...the answer is a lot...  |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Oct 29, 2022 22:32:53 GMT -5
With Halloween imminent: Only one Brazilian Agate shown. Don't ask how many times I was bitten while trying to take this photo...the answer is a lot... Well, you didn't leave any blood in the photo (on the skull, for instance), so that's a plus! I was bitten more than a few times when we used to raise snakes, never did lose more than a few drops of blood here and there. The most bitey snake we had was a female black ratsnake, given to us (rehomed) as an adult. She would get all in a tizzy whenever someone just entered the room! She was worse than the Bismarck Ringed Pythons and the Green Tree Pythons (all captive bred). It was fun for awhile, but then it became too much like work, lol. Between raising the mice and rats (feeding them, cleaning their cages), going out to the rabbitry to get rabbits for the larger red-tailed boas (they were humanely killed bagged and frozen), feeding the snakes (then cleaning their cages), on top of working 40 hours a week. I also hated having to give up a weekend every so often to do a show. I got burned-out doing it. I don't miss it one teeny tiny bit! I can keep as many rocks as I have room for, and they don't need to be fed or cleaned up after! |
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Oct 30, 2022 7:49:16 GMT -5
Well, you didn't leave any blood in the photo (on the skull, for instance), so that's a plus! I was bitten more than a few times when we used to raise snakes, never did lose more than a few drops of blood here and there. The most bitey snake we had was a female black ratsnake, given to us (rehomed) as an adult. She would get all in a tizzy whenever someone just entered the room! She was worse than the Bismarck Ringed Pythons and the Green Tree Pythons (all captive bred). It was fun for awhile, but then it became too much like work, lol. Between raising the mice and rats (feeding them, cleaning their cages), going out to the rabbitry to get rabbits for the larger red-tailed boas (they were humanely killed bagged and frozen), feeding the snakes (then cleaning their cages), on top of working 40 hours a week. I also hated having to give up a weekend every so often to do a show. I got burned-out doing it. I don't miss it one teeny tiny bit! I can keep as many rocks as I have room for, and they don't need to be fed or cleaned up after! A few drops is a ball python is going to draw as well! I understand the fatigue of keeping a large collection, especially of different species as they all have their own requirements. It becomes a ton of work to keep up. I knew the amount of work larger snakes would require so i steered clear of them... Originally I was planning on breeding corn snakes and various species of milk snakes, and while I maintained a single ball python I was not planning on breeding her. Years later I happened to pick up a pair of leopard geckos and they were so much easier than the corns and milks: that I sold all of my snakes except the ball python (which was minimal effort)-so I could focus purely on Leos. Unfortunately I put all my 'eggs' in my leopard gecko 'basket' and when an untreatable contagion surfaced in my population: it was a total loss...my only remaining reptiles at the time were a tiger salamander and a single ball python. I got a second ball python and several years later I crossed them together, the rest is history... |
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Dec 10, 2022 8:09:58 GMT -5
Took a short break to buy a new camera. I noticed there were pixels missing and patterning that should not be on Photo #279. My Olympus TG-5 is 7 years old and is used heavily. Lens (shown below)  I purchased an Olympus TG-6 on Cyber Monday and I am back to it! Photo #280
 Pastel Axanthic Ball Python with Rubellite Rubellite - Pink Tourmaline in Quartz (from The Rock Shed) The rough was heavily fractured to start with, pieces broke apart at all stages (including Vibe). Many of these pieces took weeks in the vibe and batches had to be re-run several times in polish due to splintering and scuffing the batch... If one does not look too closely it does make a nice photo though. |
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Dec 25, 2022 13:58:32 GMT -5
Merry Christmas! Photo #281 |
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steelheader
having dreams about rocks
Member since September 2021
Posts: 50 
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Post by steelheader on Dec 25, 2022 16:53:16 GMT -5
Pieds are by far the greatest morph around!
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Jan 20, 2023 12:15:27 GMT -5
Photo #282 Big chunk of Leland Blue. My Leland blue is very porous material, I decided to try not to get a high sheen polish as it might shatter the piece.
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Feb 6, 2023 12:56:17 GMT -5
Photo #285 Pastel Piebald ball python with some assorted Red Agates.
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Feb 10, 2023 9:46:40 GMT -5
Photo #286 Brazilian agate nodule-easy tumble/polish.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Feb 27, 2023 21:48:42 GMT -5
lordsorril That's a crazy cool pattern on that snake! Nice tumbles, too. 
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lordsorril
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2020
Posts: 938
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Post by lordsorril on Feb 28, 2023 9:23:27 GMT -5
lordsorril That's a crazy cool pattern on that snake! Nice tumbles, too. Thanks! Every year my hatchlings are going to have increasingly varied patterning as I incorporate more genetics. The ball python mentioned above has a recessive gene called 'Clown' (+pastel). It is called Clown because the first ball pythons with this gene had little teardrops below their eyes. Because my Clown Line is so far removed from the originals...you can only make out a few faint black dots below the eye where the teardrop should be.  |
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