Rocks and Fossils

Last week we went and collected a few big boulders (OK - maybe it was a bit more than a few!) from near Monte Lake. We brought them home so the kids could search them for eye agates without fear of being run over. We dumped the rocks on the cement and leisurely picked and hammered away until we had collected a nice selection of agates that looked promising. I've done this a few times and each time I manage to find a few nice pieces but I am still eagerly looking for something really worthy of a collection!

Anyway - into the tumbler they went for the first round. Today I washed them and checked to see what we got. Although the elusive collectors specimen has still not made an appearance we did manage to get a few nice pieces. I separated out the ones that are ready for the next step and put the rest back with some other miscellaneous rocks that needed more time in the coarse grit. I think I will take another trip out soon and see if we can get some more.

These are some pictures of some of the nicer ones we got.

Spring . . . .where are you!!!!

Aggghhh, Is it ever going to warm up this year?? Last year we were harvesting lettuce from the garden in late March - this year the plants are barely 2 inches tall in the middle of April!