Sickness is a matter of life but time goes on.



I have not posted for some time but now have to get busy to make up for time spent with other activities.



You may have notices that I like to do some gold panning. I was able to go to Vernonia for my first outing. I found a few very small flakes as well as several of the "fossil" limb casts. I also found some pieces of petrified wood that I will tumble.



I will get busy and get to my customer's orders. Most need some cutting and then polishing so it is just getting the items in the process and proceed.



My supply of cabs are increasing. The supply of material is almost mind boggling. I don't have all the latest finds but I have most all of the old time materials and a lot of materials that are not common.



That's all for now.

I have appreciated a break in the busy schedule I had had before Christmas break. I did have a customer come in today with a large garnet that he wanted polished on two faces. I'll work on that in the coming two or three days.







I started to use a new vibrating tumbler I had purchased some time ago at an estate sale. I have others. One the same brand and another large bowl vibrating tumbler that I have used in the past. I usually just put my cabs and small things I want polished in my 12 pound tumbler and let them go through their cycles. For my large batches of just tumbling rock, I use my 5 gallon barrel tumbler. It is always fun to empty out a big batch of polished rocks and sort them out into different sizes. These are stored away until needed.







I have been sorting through my cabs and arranging them according to types of materials. I had so many small batches in plastic bags and did not really know what I had. I am trying to get more "organized". I am not pricing anything now as I can see by the last time I priced them (which was a long time ago) the value has changed so why put a price on things now and have to change it a year from now.







A cat (a calico colored - female??) must have been dropped off near our house. It was just starved. I made the mistake of feeding it. Now, it is mine. It has taken over my clean shop. It has found a chair with a soft seat and that is now his/hers. I know it has to be a girl since it is a calico but I would hope that it is not or will not get pregnant. If it does have kittens, maybe I could make a new rule that the first 5 (or more) customers that come to pick up their orders would also have to take a kitten home (or not get their order.) How would that work? Sounds good to me if I do get some kittens around here.







Well, so much for my yaking.

I have been going through some of my old writings.  Some of these I will transfer to computer files while others will be discarded as useless or outdated.





One paper I ran across was a description of how to share slab of rocks with others without really giving away the slab. This was through 35 mm photography. The new digital cameras and the internet have made sharing pictures of slabs instantly possible now for almost everyone now.







This article also made me realize how fast things  change. This is a good time to think of this since this is the first of a new year. It might make us think - what will be old and obsolete by this time next year.







This article also remind me that at the time I was writing it, it would have made a good article to send in for publishing in a rock and gem magazine or a lapidary type magazine. Now it is outdated and useless. Exerted effort but to no benefit







It is helping me think I need to get serious about not only planning projects but also to proceed to their completion.







As this new year starts, may we all see what would be good to do but then also proceed in finishing the task.

We had a little snow today which is very unusual for Portland, OR. The weatherman said that Portland had had snow about 6 times in the last 60 years on Christmas Day.



I haven't done much the past few days. I will start working again on my customers work and my own cabs and specimens this week.



I don't tutor at Sylvan Learning Center until Jan. 7th so I have a few extra hours. That may not mean I will get any more done though.



If there is a half-way nice day in the next 10 days, I want to go check out my panning creek. It had flooded about 2 weeks ago and I want to see is any more petrified wood is showing as well to see if there are any bigger flakes of gold that have washed down out of the hills.



I am thinking about revamping my thoughts on what kind of materials to work up for cabs.  So far I have not been working the "better" material. Rather, I have been trying to "use up" all my old material that i have had around for years. I may start working more of the "better material" but I don't know if I should make the material into standard sizes or into free-form shapes.



I also don't know how large of cabs I should make them. Some of the styles of jewelry seem to be going for the larger size of stones for the necklaces.



Anyway, these are some of the things I have been thinking about.



Latter all.

December already. Last minute orders coming up. How do I get them all done? I'll just have to see if the GET DONE!

I am working a lot on cabs both free form and standard sizes. My tumblers are still going even though it gets cold at night. I have found some ice on my gold panning tubs so I know it has been cold at times. Cleaning out a tumbler in cold water is something else.

I have to heat my water for my grinding of my cabs. The water hasn't frozen inside the sheds yet. Winter slows me down  little bit.

An order for a piece of lapis set in gold is my major project especially at the price of gold now. I am not sure what its final cost will be. Something to think about.



The recent rain storm flooded out the little creek I like to go gold panning in near Vernonia, OR. In fact almost the whole town of Vernonia was flooded. Come Spring I'll see what it did to the creek. I can't wait, I may go take a look-see during Christmans break from Sylvan.



Till next time.