Goodbye 2014, On To More Rocks!

Anyone who follows this blog may have noticed that 2014 posts are missing.  Last year was an incredibly bad year for me. I started the year with a family of 5 and ended it with a family of 2.  To top it off my 5 year old Granddaughter was diagnosed with Kidney cancer.  Thank the Lord she is now in full remission.

Needless to say, I didn't get much rockhounding time in. I spent most of my time in hospital rooms and at funerals and memorial services.  RIP Becky, Mom and Dad. See you in the future. Not too soon I hope.  So now I am starting a fresh new year.

A Portion of the Foothills Trail

I have not had much time for rockhounding until recently, when my Sister-in-law and I have started walking local trails and we have really gotten the rockhounding bug. We have it so bad, we now have to pull a wagon. at least we are keeping up our bone density.

Near the Foothills Trail

We are also embarking on a brand new adventure.  Because I had piles of rocks everywhere, we decided to put them to good use. We are now selling them on Etsy.

Beautiful Polished OR Dendritic Chalcedony Resting on a Nice Piece of Carbon River Marble

We are also making E-cigarette mod stands with the bigger specimens. Drilling big holes in rocks was a big learning curve. At least I now have my own Rock Saw and Drill Press. They are awesome!  We even have giant petrified wood logs for sale for landscape use now.

Giant Petrified Log - It Would Make a Great Water Feature or Landscape Feature!

Where do we walk, you might ask?  Well we mostly walk a trail near my home called the Foothills Trail.  It goes for miles. Our favorite spot to start is in South Prairie, Washington. Thus the name of our new Etsy shop, SouthPrairieHandmade. At several points it comes near South Prairie Creek and the Carbon River. No earth shaking agates here, unless we get lucky and find one in the glacial till.  There is some awesome sandstone and carbonized petrified wood though. we have also found some great granite and marble.  Here are some examples of the E-cigarette stands, check out our shop for more examples.

NM Petrified Wood E-cigarette Mod Stand

WA Boulder Opal and Jasper

What some of you may not know, is that I am also an artist. Thus you will definitely see some of my art for sale on Etsy.  One of my favorites is a torn paper collage of cattails which were surrounded by mist one morning when we were out near the river.  You be the judge of my art. Let me know what you think.

Cattails in the Mist Torn Paper Collage

This is What We Saw That Morning

Anyway, stay tuned for many more rock hunting adventures and rock art. We are now working on jewelry.  My husband actually want us to make some bolo ties out of our rocks. Who woulda thunk it?