The Rockhound Roundup

We have had a busy week so far. On Wednesday we went to Rockhound state park to visit with Jeff and Sheryl Bright. They sent us a comment on the blog that they had been following us for a while on the blog and were in the area. On Tuesday they stopped by our rv to say hello and visit for while. After relating past rv experiences, they invited us to their rig to play a few games of Mexican Train and a lot chatting and laughing. We found that they were friends with our rv friends Paul and Marsha Weaver and they follow the blog of Froggi Donna and Stu, another rv couple that we are friends with.....small world out here on the road. We have met a lot of great people since we hit the road and hope to meet a lot more before we we have to give up this lifestyle. We send a big thank you to the Brights for a really great evening. We are looking forward to meeting up with them again down the road.

Jeff and Sheryl Bright

On Thursday it was off to the Roundhound Roundup. The Roundup is a yearly event held here in Deming by the Deming Gem and Mineral Club. They have over 120 vendors selling all things rock related. Lots and lots of rocks. They have field trips to local mines. The first trip was to the Baker geode mine. We acted as tail gunners for that trip. A tail gunner is last vehicle in the line of cars going to mine. Our job was to make sure that everybody got there and no one got lost. We all made it. The Baker mine is famous for their geodes. Geodes are round rocks that have agates or crystals in them. We have found that about half of the geodes we find have really nice usable centers, the rest are throwaways. When they are good, they are really good.

Tailing piles at the dig

big kids playing in the dirt

On Friday we were tail gunners again for the trip to the Big Diggins. This mine is owned by the Deming club. It is famous for it's agates. I found some really nice red agates today. We left the Diggins and headed to the fairgrounds to walk around and check out all the vendors that are there. As I said before, lots of rocks. I took Louise back to the rv, then returned to the show to help out with the silent auction. We set up 20 tables and put 20 items on every table. Every item had a sign up sheet for bidding. After about 10 minutes time to let the bidders do their thing, the bids closed and the winners picked up the item. They did 2 tables at a time. I only bid on one thing and won it.

Serious diggers

The Big Diggins

Tomorrow starts the process of getting ready to move out of here. The rv tends to throw up when we set for a while. The work shop has to have all the tools put back in their place for traveling. Tires checked, oil to be checked, all the other things that have to happen before we hit the the road after 3 months of sitting in one place. I will get the shop all ready to go and take care of several other things, then go back to the Round Up to help out for a while. Louise and I work Sunday, Louise works Monday, we leave on Tuesday. Monday while Louise works, I will finish getting things ready so we can leave early. Congress, where we are heading, is about 400 miles away. We will drive about 200 to 250 the first day, the rest on day 2. We are stopping in Surprise, AZ to have the roof on the rv looked at. The wood carving show starts on Saturday.
Till next time

Duane and Louise

City of Rocks State Park

View from the overlook

We spent Friday on a little field trip to the City of Rocks State Park. This an area of volcanic activity 1000s of year ago. When the volcano erupted it sent tons of super heated ash in to the air. When it made contact with the earth it fused together into masses of rock. The weather has eroded the ash rock into all the sculpted rocks you see here. As we walked around the pillars and boulders, we seemed to be walking along streets and alleyways of a small city. The rocks had small eroded places that resembled windows and doors to complete the illusion. The thing that struck me about this is that you can drive around the entire area in about 15 minutes. All the area around it is flat grass lands, real odd. We went on a little hike to take pictures of the rock formations and got separated. Louise got lost and went the wrong way. I was back at the truck hollering for her, but with the wind and all the rocks to deflect my yelling, she never heard me. She ended up at the visitors center. She had left her phone in the truck so she had to use the phone at the center to call me and tell me where she was. Luckily the area was small enough that she did not stay lost long.
We are nearing the end of this workcamp assignment, 3 days left to work. Louise works all day tomorrow, next Sunday and Monday. I will work 4 hours next Sunday. Pretty cool huh, Louise has to work more than I do....lol. The Rockhound Roundup starts Thursday. It is a gem and mineral show that is put on by the club that we belong to. I will go to the fairgrounds tomorrow to help set things up for the show. During the show we will help lead two field trips to the local area mines to hunt for geodes and agates. They pay for our gas and we can collect all the rocks we can carry away. The trouble is, we have to be pretty choosy because of the weight, we do live in a rv you know. I guess we are going to have to start throwing clothes out to make room for more rocks....LOL. I know we aren't going to cut down on the food, we need our strength you know.

We plan on heading to Arizona on Tuesday the 15th. We have an appointment to have the roof of the rv looked at in Surprise, AZ on the 16th. I am not sure what they will do. We posted earlier that we had it looked at in TX. They didn't want to do anything with than. I think it is getting looser. We will see what they say. It is not leaking, just don't look right to me. Wish us luck with that. Carving week at Congress, AZ starts on the 19th.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

A day in Las Cruces and Mesilla

We took a day off from our labors today and headed to Las Cruces for some shopping and pizza. This time we tied in a little sight seeing too. We started by stopping at the rest area above the city. This is the view from the top of the hill showing I10 and the city against the mountains.

Also at this rest stop is this giant road runner sculpture (I am standing by one of the legs). It is a wire frame filled with junk. The breast is all shoes.

People have added graffiti (of course) and other junk like these yellow duckies. We go by this stop each time we go to Las Cruces, but this is the first time we stopped. Very interesting. We like giant sculptures and junk art.

This sign was posted on an old adobe building in old downtown Mesilla. It is a store now (I added to my wild sock collection with a purchase here), but the sign tells its own story. From here the kid went to Lincoln where he escaped. We stopped at the Visitors' Center, then walked around downtown. This little town is interesting historically. The buildings are all one story adobe except the church. Most of the buildings are original. There are several little shops in the square. The streets are paved, but the sidewalks are bricked. We found a chocolate shop and got some yummy stuff, but otherwise left empty handed.

Here lies sheriff Pat Garrett, slayer of Billy the Kid. He and his family are buried in the Masonic Cemetery on the south side of Las Cruces. He was originally buried across the street in the tiny Catholic cemetery, but someone stole his headstone, so now he is here. He is said to have shot Billy in the back. Interestingly enough, Garrett was also shot in the back--in a dispute over goats!

In between this stop and Mesilla, we tried another restaurant in our ongoing search for good pizza. This time we tried Red Brick Pizza. Pretty good, but we still put Dion's first for now. Next time we want to try Chicago Uno. We shopped in the mall. Barnes and Nobel didn't get our money this time, but Penney's did. I got a new pair of casual pants for work and a new pair of jeans since mine are literally coming apart at the seams.

To round out our sight seeing day we stopped on the way home at Akela. Just off the interstate there is a little shopping strip with all kinds of stuff. We got some prickly pear jelly and some saguaro honey. THEN we went home!


Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane

Our crafts and Fort Cummings

Back

Front

Duane's latest



History in the desert

I know, it's hard to believe, we are actually touring. We sought out another stop on the historic Butterfield Stage mail line across the southwest. We drove several miles down a Jeep trail to find Fort Cummings--at least what's left of it. There is a cemetery ground, though all the graves are supposedly removed to another site. There are a couple of stone or adobe corners here and there. The spring still exists, covered so we couldn't see it. That is the reason for the fort being built there, and the fact that it could guard the pass nearby. The fort was built twice, once to protect the stage line from Apaches and once for the railroad. After wandering around awhile and eating lunch in the truck, we headed back down the road to our favorite carnelian hunting grounds for a couple of hours.

Above is the fifth quilt. This was made for daughter Stacy, who wanted a patchwork quilt. This quilt is made of 6 inch blocks scavenged from the scraps of every one else's quilts--adults and children's'--some new fabric we picked out to represent her various moods, and some fabric representative of some places she's been. The back is olive green and red leaves on a vine. The quilting is simple stitch in the ditch with family symbols scattered around.

Duane's latest is a cabochon made from the inside of a nodule. We learned that if a spherical rock is hollow and lined with crystals, it is called a geode. If it is solid with minerals or mud, it is called a nodule. He had it cut in 1/4 inch slabs then cut out the design from the surrounding junk. Then he polished it and set it in a silver pendant setting. The stone is about 1 1/2 inches long.

That's enough for now.

Louise and Duane

Road trip

We took a couple of days for a road trip to Tucson, AZ for the big Gem and Rock show on Wednesday and Thursday this past week. The show is one of the largest rock shows in the country. This was the first time we had gone to the show and may be the last...lol We had a good time and glad we went. The problem.... this show is BIG and spread out all over the city. It was very hard to find the dealers that were selling what we wanted to see. There were at least 35 different venues, some wholesale only, some open to the public. Of coarse, the first ones we went to were the wholesale ones, couldn't get in to them. We finally got a map of where the "open to the public" venues were. This helped a lot, but didn't have a list of dealers or where they were located. We wonder around looking and looking and looking. Found some dealers selling what are called slabs, rock cut in 1/4" thick slabs so you can mark and cut out the pieces that you want to turn into jewelery. I bought a few slabs, ones that we can't find around here. I prefer to make my jewelery out of stuff we find, but these slabs were to pretty to pass up. I was able to find the tool sales that had everything I was looking for. After a day and a half of walking and looking, we decided it was time to head back to Deming. I as said in the beginning, had a great time, but would not drive the 3 hours to go again. If we are in the area during the show, I would go, just would not drive that far again.

Stalactite's 10 feet tall from China

Geodes from Brazil

More rocks


Dale and Shirley

We spent all most a month running around the desert hunting rocks with Dale and Shirley. They have since moved on to hunt rocks in Arizona. We had a really good time visiting and hunting with them. I hope we can meet up down the road some where to hunt some more.

Before we left for Tucson, a couple came into the rv park asking about rock hunting in this area. The boss came and got me to talk them. I told them we were going to AZ. for a couple of days but would be glad to take them out hunting when we got back. Low and behold they waited on us to get back. We spent Thursday hunting with Bob and Ada from Nebraska. They are farmers that enjoy rock hunting and Indian relic hunting. They invited us to come visit them at their farm and hunt around there. Maybe next year we can take them up on it.

I have been working on getting stones ready to mount into jewelery, Louise has been quilting. We have about 4 more weeks left here before it's off to Arizona and carving week. Looking forward to moving on and heading to CA. to see the kids there.

This is the quilt that Louise made for son Duane Jr. He lives in Texas and was my roping pardner in days past. As you can see, the quilt was done in western pattern material and quilted with Texas stars. This was the forth of 6 quilts Louise has made for our 6 kids. Louise makes one a year and is working on the last one now. The 5th will be posted on the next post. She couldn't post the pictures till they had recieved the quilts, so the 6th one won't be seen on here till after Christmas this year. Something to look forward to for all our readers.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Sorry Ohio friends

Ok, SORRY Ohio friends!!!! Seems I have been calling friends in Ohio telling them how warm it has been down here in New Mexico. Pay back time has arrived. It has been COLD here!! The last few days have been around "0" with the wind blowing 35-40 miles an hour. I had heat taped the hoses going to the trailer from the ground all the way to where it hooks into the house. NO freeze there.... The lines to the kitchen sink did freeze for one night, running today. We are one of the Lucky, or should I say smart ones, that still has water flowing in the trailer. Most here did not wrap there lines and are frozen tight. I'm sitting here at the computer watching people carrying water from the club house to their rvs while Louise is doing the laundry in our trailer.

We spent yesterday in Las Cruces doing some shopping to prepare a little for the next cold snap. We bought an electric blanket for the bed and some matting to cover the floor in the workshop to try and keep some of the cold down. It has to cold to work out here for a couple of days. I had moved the computer into the front part of the house to stay warm. This morning I am back in the shop working and typing. It had been as low as 37 in the shop, not a pleasant temperature to work in. This morning it'65, the new flooring is working pretty good.

The park had a garden sprinkler freeze and break on Thursday morning, luckily I was at the rock shop so didn't have to get involved in the repairs of that. It flooded the main entrance into the park and froze solid. They had to close off that drive because of the ice. I have not been out there to take a picture of that, sorry, to cold....lol

Now for the continuing saga of our craft work. First is a small ring I just finished. The setting is turquoise that I shaped and then fit into a silver mounting. The steps are, shape the stone, shape and solder the band around the stone, solder the band to a back plate, solder the back plate to the finger band, then set the stone and crimp the silver around the stone to hold it in place. The mounting and is all sterling silver. I hope to be mounting some of the stones we have found in the near future. Stay tuned.....

This ring fits Louise's little finger

Now for louise....

This is my third quilt. I designed it for our daughter Rachel in Ohio. The pattern is called Ohio Stars. The white has sparkles, the green has a tiny leaf pattern, and the red has dark red roses. The back is light mottled green. The stars are quilted in the ditch as are the sashings (green separating lines). The dark red blocks are quilted with Celtic knots, a favorite motif of Rachel's. The knots weren't big enough, so the corners have 4 point stars. In case you're wondering, I tried the pattern with green points and middle squares with white and red backgrounds, but it wouldn't work, so this is the finished product. As with all the quilts, the family symbols are scattered around. I just can't help myself. I love puzzles!

Halfway through our bragging,

Louise and Duane

More good stuff

Detail of quilting

Back of quilt 2

Quilt top

Baker mine geode

Duane's latest effort

Well, here we are once again showing off. First pix are of my second creation made for our puzzle loving son. It is a replica of an actual English garden maze, to size: 1 inch = 1 foot. The light green is fabric printed to look like long grass, the dark hedge lines are leafy foliage. The outer edge is printed to look like a stone pathway or the top of a stone wall. The very outer borders are supposed to look like dense forest foliage. The back is made up of scraps of green. The whole thing is quilted in a jigsaw puzzle pattern.

Duane's latest creation is made up of a piece of natural turquoise which he purchased as a rectangular piece. He spent a couple of hours to shape and polish the stone, and another couple of hours to silversmith the ring and mount. Not bad for an amateur, huh?

The middle pic is of a geode we found on our foray to the Baker mine. To find the mine, you get directions from the owner when you ask permission. It takes about an hour to reach it. Then you get your shovel or pick and start digging in the tailings. This is a mining term for trash pile. The tailings are constantly picked over, but with a little persistence, there are still treasures to be found. When you say geode, most people think of the ones that have a hollow center with crystals. In fact, geodes contain any number of minerals in any number of combinations, including mud which has turned to rock. As rockhounds we look for the ones that are not hollow, like the one above. In these, we can cut out the centers to make into jewelry settings.

Enough bragging for now,

Louise and Duane

Crafty people

Louise's very first queen sized quilt

Duane's experiement with yucca stalks

Our new silversmith's first effort

Two crafts combined

Since we are sitting here at Dream Catcher RV Park, we decided to catch up on our skills and learn new ones. Duane has extended his carving skills to dried yucca flowering stalks. Since these are not wood but pithy plants, he can't carve them, but he can wood burn and paint them. The one above is a nod to this area--rockhound heaven. He has been working at mastering rock cutting and shaping. The stone above is not one of our lucky finds, but one he bought. He is also learning to manipulate silver to make jewelry. The resulting combination of the two is quite stunning! I am working on the last of 6 queen sized quilts I promised our children. I make one a year for Christmas. I usually complete them in the first few months of the year. This leaves time for making other Christmas gifts such as bead and rock jewelry, counted cross stitch birth and wedding announcements, and baby quilts, sheets, and blankets. Recently it occurred to me that I had never shown my work. Since they were given for Christmas gifts, I couldn't show the quilts before the holiday, then I forgot. So now you are in for a treat. LOL

Since I custom make these for each person, they are one of a kind. I sometimes use an established pattern and put my tweak on it or make up my own. The are not quilted in the traditional way, but by my own design. The first was made for son Jeremy. He requested one of the old Amish patterns. This is tumbling blocks. It traditionally runs l to r. When I laid out the pattern, the yellow didn't fit anywhere. Since it is out of sync with the other colors, I piled them all in the middle and had them tumble out. Instead of quilting 1/4" inside each diamond shape, I did some that way then put geometric shapes--stars, spirals, etc.--in others. I also decided on a symbol for each member of the family and quilted these in each quilt. The blocks fit on top of the bed. The sides are dark green. They are cross-hatched with more of an angle of the regular cross-hatching. The back is one piece of very light green covered with very thin green vines and tiny lavender flowers. Each quilt is made with front and back contrasting so if the recipient gets tired of one side they can get relief by turning it over. That said, we hope you enjoy our efforts.

Rocks and Petroglyph

high enough for you?

After I got off work today we headed for the hills with friends Dale and Shirley and Ben and Barb from the park. We ended up 9 miles into BLM land at the local petrogliphs. It took us a while to get there because we had to stop several places to hunt for good rocks. We weren't in agate country but managed to find several keepers with potential. The rocks around the petrogliphs was mainly picture sandstone, so called because the way the sandstone layers sometimes looks like pictures. We hunted and looked at petrogliphs and visited and whiled the afternoon away in the beautiful sunny dry desert. Around sunset we headed home. On the way we decided to stop for supper. Ben and Barb had gone ahead, but Dale and Shirley decided to join us. Much good food and conversation later we finally got home. Duane went to the house and I stopped at the clubhouse for a fast game of Mexican Train (dominoes) before I gave up for the evening.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane