President’s Message

 

Good food, good company, and another steak fry is over. Have you ever noticed that it doesn't ever rain on the day of the steak fry? The steaks were excellent this year, and the corn was the sweetest that I ever remember. I'd like to thank everyone for the salads and the desserts that they brought. The turnout was good, and everything was wonderful. Thanks to Don and Ruth, Larry and Ardith, and Henry and Donna. They always go the extra mile. And an extra thanks to Don Smith who was so patient and cooked everyone's steak exactly as they wanted it.

It's almost time for the show. Anyone who can come and help set up for the show on Thursday, September 22nd, we need you. Don't forget to get your door prizes and your wheel prizes ready.

 

See you at the next meeting.

Bob Titus

President

 

Tooele Gem & Mineral

Meeting & Steak Fry

August  20^th 2005

 

The meeting was called to order by President Bob Titus, everyone was welcomed to our steak fry it was very good and the Cook Don and his helpers Ruth and Henry did a good job.  Larry Higley reported that we will have a dealer as well as demonstrator to replace the Dealer that cancelled his place at the show, he also asked everyone to check the work schedule and make any corrections or additions that may be necessary.  The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved, the treasurers report was read and approved.  We had some steaks left over they were sold to those wanting them for five dollars each.

We were reminded that there is only one meeting before our show, have your door prizes and wheel prizes ready.  We will need a lot of help setting up on Thursday so every one come out and help.  The meeting was adjourned..

Minutes submitted by

Larry Wilson

Secretary.

 

Remember Our 2005 Show

Tooele County Fair Complex

400 West 400 North

 

Remember we need your help at our show September 23-25. Please check page 7-9 for show assignments. Show setup is on the 22^nd, as soon as the electricity is setup we need help setting up everything else.

 

Ironwood

(Olneya tesota)

A report by Randy Vandehey

 

Ironwood is one of the largest and longest-lived Sonoran Desert plants, reaching 45 feet in height and persisting as long as 1,500 years.

It is multi-trunked evergreen tree, and displays lavender to pink flowers in May. By early summer the pods mature. Each 2-inch pod contains one to four shiny brown seeds that are relished by many Sonoran animals, from small mammals and birds to humans. Its iron-like wood is renowned as one of the world's densest woods. Ironwood is so dense that when struck with a hard object it rings like quality iron.

The shaded sanctuary and richer soils created by ironwoods increase plant diversity and provide benefits to wildlife. Ironwoods are too hard to provide nesting cavities for birds, but the cacti that grow beneath them provide such opportunities. Insects abound within the ironwood complex, attracting birds and reptiles. As with other legumes, the ironwood's leaf litter supplies nitrogen to the soil and its seeds provide a protein-rich resource for doves, quail, coyotes, and many small rodents.

The Ironwood tree is found only in the Sonoran Desert, in the dry locales below 2,500 feet, where freezing temperatures are uncommon. In fact the Ironwood's habitat is almost an exact match of the Sonoran Desert boundary. Ironwoods are most common in the ephemeral washes. Ironwoods function as oases of fertile and sheltered habitat within a harsh and challenging desert landscape. As a tree becomes established, it tempers the physical environment beneath it, creating a micro-habitat with less direct sunlight, lower surface temperatures, more organic matter, higher water availability, and protection from herbivores. Because of these factors, the Ironwood tree has immense ecological value in the Sonoran Desert.

Air temperatures may be 15 degrees cooler under the ironwoods than in the open desert sun five feet away. Ironwood also shelters frost-sensitive young saguaros, organ pipe cactus, night-blooming cereus and many other native plants growing beneath them. More than 230 plant species have been recorded starting their growth within the protective microclimate under ironwood "nurse plants". This also creates an optimum wildflower nursery which is foraged by rabbits, bighorn, and other native species.

In addition to the birds, there are 62 reptiles and amphibians, and 64 mammals that use ironwoods for forage, cover and birthing grounds. At just one site in the Silverbell Mountains, an ironwood-bursage habitat also shelters some 188 kinds of bees, 25 ant colonies, and 25 other types of insects. That adds up to an extraordinary level of biodiversity.

 

Ref. From SDCP Education Center - Rock Scoop February-March 2005

 

Via HY GRADER 4/05

 

Canceled Stamp Program

 

Do you save your canceled stamps? Do you donate them to the RMFMS? The Money received from sales of donated stamps goes to the RMFMS General Fund.

The committee would appreciate receiving the stamps already removed from the envelopes by soaking, if you have time, or cut the stamp from the envelope, leaving about 1/4 to 1/2 inch border of envelope around the stamp. The recommended method is to soak the stamps off in a flat container of warm water containing about 2 drops of liquid detergent per quart, for about 2 to 3 minutes, or until they can be removed. Then peel the stamp from the envelope and place face down on paper towels, or newspaper to dry. It would be appreciated if you would sort and bag like denominations together.

The committee would prefer nearly perfect, older or rarer stamps. Especially airmail, commemoratives, sets of stamps or collections of stamps. Stamps that have been cut, damaged or heavily canceled, unless the stamp is rare or extremely old, do not have as much value as other stamps.

 

Send them to the stamp chairman,

Dean Shafer

PO Box 727

Gentry AR 72734

 

from Rocky Mountain Federation News 8/05

 

Hints And Tips

How to Cut Obsidian

 

·  GOLD SHEEN: To get the most out of mahogany gold sheen obsidian, saw with the bands, as if they were a stack of plates, and you wish to unstick them. Watch for "Fire spots" in gold sheen. It is not plenti­ful, but Opal-like colors do sometimes occur in ma­hogany gold sheen.

·  IRIDESCENT: There ate two types of iridescent ob­sidian. In cutting both correctly, the orientation of the color is most important. One type of obsidian is banded and the color lies in the bands. On the unbanded types of obsidian the surface has to be chipped to find the color. The banded type will have several colors or shades, while the unbanded types will have only one color. Cut the banded material parallel to the bands to get effect. To get rainbow effect cut the stone at an approximate 15-degree angle across the bands.

·  MIDNIGHT LACE: Lace patterned obsidian should be cut across the surface pattern that you desire to re-produce. Though obsidian is comparatively soft, it is still very important to sand away all scratches before going to polish. Some advise that wet sanding be done, since obsidian is heat sensitive and very brittle. For final polish, felt with cerium oxide is the choice. Should you be faceting some particularly gemmy ob­sidian try cerium oxide on Lucite, but keep it wet.

·  RAINBOW OBSIDIAN: Cut parallel to flow layers. These can be seen by examining fractured surfaces us­ing an overhead single lamp bulb. These are not al-ways straight; it may be necessary to turn the stone slightly in the saw. Examine each slab set with either water or saw oil to see if the correct angle has been obtained.

·  GRINDING OBSIDIAN CABS: Approach your grinding wheel with the material at a slight horizontal angle. If brought straight in, it may be a "Shattering" experience as obsidian fractures conchoidally, and this is a sure way to do it.

·  POLISH ON OBSIDIAN: Keep the polishing wheel wet. A dry polishing will result in blisters and scratches. Obsidian is relatively inexpensive, easy to obtain and soft. With proper understanding of its glassy properties you can obtain some beautiful restilts. After obsidian is sawed, be sure to bevel the edges all around on your fine grinding wheel to keep them from flaking and chipping. Wear goggles or glasses at all times. If a small chip of glass (obsidian) got into your eye, it would be hard to remove as it is transparent and hard to see even with a powerful magnifying glass, and the edges may cut your eye to a great extent before it could be removed.

 

Source: Quarry Quips -May 2005

Via Rock Chips July/August 2005

 

Advice For Rockhound Watchers

Author Unknown

 

Can you spot a rockhound? The species isn’t rare.

·   You can tell him by his honest face, and his willingness to share.

·   You can tell him as he saunters by, his eyes glued to the ground.

·   No matter where he goes, he’s sure there’s gemstones to be found.

·   You can tell him by his friendly smile, he’s an all—round pleasant guy;

·   But the sure—fire way to spot him, is the flashy bola tie!!

 

From EUREKA NEWS 1/86

via QUARRY QUIPS 4/01

Via August 2005 Rocky Mountain Federation News

 

Juniors Get Acclaim!

by Cathy Gaber

Chair, AFMS Club Rockhound of the Year

 

By popular demand, we will start accepting sub­missions for the AFMS Club Junior Rockhound of the Year. Juniors (under 18) deserve to be recognized for their contributions too.

This junior honor will be in addition to the previ­ously recognized AFMS Club Rockhound of the Year, which has been used only for adults. The rules will be the same.

Anyone in the club can submit a candidate for ei­ther or both of these programs. Information needed to process the submission includes: name of the hon­oree, name of the submitter, name of the club, home state of the club and about 50 words describing why the honoree deserves to be recognized. In the case of juniors, I will leave it to your discretion to include the child’s age or not. Each club can have one person in each category every single year. We will continue to accept couples in the adult category.

These submissions are printed in the AFMS news­letter and usually in your regional federation newsletter as well. I would encourage your club editors to also print this information. That gives both the adult and junior members credit throughout the country. What an honor! Surely you know someone who would appreciate being recognized from your club.

 

Please send in your recommendation to your regional representatives as soon as you can.

California -

Barbara Matz <barbmatz@yahoo.com>

Eastern -

Cathy Gaber <bg@his.com>

Midwest -

Fran Gutkowski <gutkowski@Dearborn.com>

Northwest -

Dick Parks, 2004 SE 134th; Vancouver, WA 98683

Rocky Mountain -

Leon Gorrell <leon81040@yahoo.com>

South Central -

Dee Cable <spheresrus@aol.com>

Southeast -

Vacant at this time

 

There are still 3 months left in this calendar year for your club to send in the name of your adult and your junior honoree. Through June of this year we've had submissions from clubs in each of the Regional Federations as follows:

California - 7 clubs

Eastern - 9 clubs

Midwest - 2 clubs

Northwest - 1 club

South Central - 2 clubs

Southeast - none to date

Rocky Mountain - none to date

 

What a nice way to say thank you to someone!

Cathy Gaber <bg@his.com>

 

Via AFMS Newsletter 9/05

 

Deep Impact: Celestial Hammer

 

On April 25, 2005, sixty-nine days before it gets up close and personal with a comet, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft successfully photographed its quarry, comet Tempel 1, at a distance of 39.7 million miles. This is just the first of many comet portraits Deep Impact will take leading up to its historic comet encounter on July 4^th, when the spacecraft will fire 800-pound impactor right into the path of its 4-mile wide target. Scientists are very eager to learn about the interiors of comets, how comets are formed and what their mineral composition is. The mission is expected to cost $330 million.

 

The Pegmatite 5/05 summarized from an article in The Agatizer 4/05; learn more from website deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov

 

Via Hy Grader 6/05

 

Baking Soda In The Field

 

Here are some reasons you will be glad you took a box of natural soda along on your field trip.

1.   Insect bites, minor burns, poison oak — add water to make a paste and apply to affected area.

2.   Sunburn, wind burn and prickly heat — add 1/4 cup to a basin of water and bathe or sponge on.

3.   Acid indigestion — add 1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 glass of water and drink slowly.

4.   Tired feet — add three tablespoons to a basin of warm water and soak.

5.   Tooth cleanser and breath freshener — Use as much as needed on moist toothbrush.

6.   Hand and fingernail cleaner — Rub dry on mois­tened hands to remove pine pitch, odors or grease.

7.   Fire extinguisher — for grease fire, throw a box full at the base of the fire.

8.   Freshening camp coolers and thermos jugs — add 2 teaspoons and partly fill with water, shake and rinse.

9.   Deodorant — sprinkle some inside your boots or hiking shoes.

10. Safe, natural cleaner for camp dishes and pans — add 3 tablespoons to a pan of warm water and soak.

11. Cleaning a dirty, bug spattered windshield, chrome and camper frames — rub damp sponge sprin­kled with baking soda.

12. Freshening RV water tanks — flush with a solu­tion of 1/4 cup of soda and 1 gallon of water. Rinse with clear water.

 

Source: Quarry Quips -May 2005

Via Rock Chips July/August 2005

 

Minerals 'R' Us

By Millie Heym

 

I looked at the label of my vitamin jar
And got a glimpse of what we are:
Calcium, magnesium, manganesee, and more,
In all those bottles at the health food store.

 

The same minerals that make our pretty rocks
Are the human body's building blocks;
No wonder we are drawn to stones-
They're literally in our very bones!

 

Coral Geode 3/00 et al. via The Tumbler 6/04

Via Hy Grader 4/05

Just came across this exercise suggested for us older folk, to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders. It seems so easy, I thought I'd pass it on to some of my friends.

The article suggested doing it three days a week. Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-LB. potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides, and hold them there as long as you can.

Try to reach a full minute, then relax.

Each day, you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-LB. potato sack. Then 50-LB. potato sacks, and eventually try to get to where you can lift 100-LB. potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in the sack.

 

Via Email

Interesting Tidbit

Unsolved Mysteries Of Our World's Past

 

A cube of metal carefully machined, notched and rounded on one side was found in the center of a block of coal in Austria in 1885. It's still in a museum in Salisbury and no one can explain it. Basing their conclusions on the age of the coal bed, various experts estimate it to be 300,000 years old.

Workmen found a piece of gold thread embedded in 8 feet of rock at a quarry in Rutherford Mills, England. The London Times reported this discovery in June 1984, and the experts say it has to be 60 million years old. Who could have dropped a gold thread in England 60 million years ago?

Perhaps these items were the handiwork of the same people who made the strange pieces of very ancient pottery which have been found in rock quarries and coal mines around the world along with steel nails, perfect glass lenses and even, believe it or not, bones of prehistoric animals with bullets in them. Giant chains have been found embedded in great rocks in both North and South America, not merely embedded, but actually passing through the rock!

Another enigma is the "Plain of Jars". It came by its name because it is literally strewn with huge stone jars, some over 6 feet high. Some are so huge they can hold six men. There are over a thousand of these peculiar artifacts scattered over the high plateau surrounded by mountains. Carved of limestone and granite, no one knows who carved them, when or why! One last mystery, though many battles have ravaged these plains, most devastating were the secret battles and air raids of the 2nd Indochina War. Hundreds of thousands of bombs rained down upon the plains, destroying, among other things, the beautiful town and temple of Xiang Kuang, while running battles were fought and lost among the jars. American bombers also jettisoned unused bombs over the plains as they returned from raids on Vietnam, yet the jars were virtually untouched.

Or how about Peter T. Lund and The Laserstones of Portland Main. The Laserstones are supposedly a collection of stone artifacts made by laser or similar beam technology some thousands of years ago. According to a local geophysicist, "they appear deliberately shaped by a process involving intense heat. Fashioned from European beach cobbles, they range from soft ball size to bigger than a basketball. The cuts on the stone are made with extreme precision thru the hardest basalt, granite and other minerals.

And finally, the Grooved Spheres from South Africa. Over the past several decades, South African miners have found hundreds of metallic spheres, at least one of which has three parallel grooves running around its equator. The spheres are two types - "one of solid bluish metal with white flecks and another which is a hollow ball filled with a white spongy center. (Jimison, 1982) They look man-made, yet no intelligent life existed at that time.

 

Author unknown, source The Petrified Digest, Ginkgo Mineral Society, Wenatchee Washington, Nov/Dec 2003

 

Via Quarry Quips 7/05