It’s been awhile since I sat down to write…been a bit tired lately and this blog ate all my pictures I had put in from previous posts so I had to take a break or kill the machine! I have and am slowly adding the pictures back but its quite involved-so bear with me. My computer geek husband can’t even figure out why the pix disappeared. I surely don’t wish this to happen again. 

We have been in Deming for almost a week and weather here is quite bizarre. Gusty, cool, warm, cloudy, rainy and then sunny. What a mixed bag we have had in a week. It’s finally beginning to warm up and we are getting ready to head north to Silver City where our elevation gain can be significant. Oh well I guess that is why it is called spring.

Rockhounding around here is very good. We ventured out into the Cook Mtns. to find what we expected would be Carnelian but found only 6 small ones! What a surprise that was. However, we found some gorgeous agates and jasper with swirls and pattern to it. Odd colors like chocolate brown, olive green, blues and beautiful reds. Picture Rhyolite is well known in these parts and can be up to $17/#. A large cutting rock can run about 10 pounds so it can be spendy to buy. 

The Deming Rock and Mineral show is taking place now so we took part in one of their “Big Diggins” and came home with 50# of beautiful colorful agate for $20. Lots of drusy, vugs with unusual crystal formations in them and just some gorgeous specimens as well as large cutting rock. I would just warn anyone partaking in this adventure to be sure and be safe when digging. There were 70 cars going into that dig and rocks were flying everywhere. We got our haul rather quickly and left before anymore rock flew at us. A large pit was dug and the tailings were what most of us were pawing through, but when you are elbow to elbow digging through it, it can get dangerous. We did recommend that they limit the number of people who go as it was a bit dangerous at times. I wear glasses as does my husband but I have eaten my fair share of shards being chipped off a rock by my neighbor’s hammer. In fact I had a similar experience in Oregon that resulted in a broken tooth that cost me more than the rock was worth! Hazards of a hobby I guess.

Being in copper country also spirited me to finally buy a small specimen of Azurite and a rather odd iron mineral called Goethite. We of course have added to our opal collection also. We found a nice small piece of Mexican Red Opal that is so fiery and will make two nice cut pieces. We were to go to a dig site near the Mexican border but the owner of the mine found two deceased (beheaded no less) casualties of the Mexican drug wars on the property so that dig was cancelled. We were quite happy to just visit the show and see what we could have found. I rather like my head on my body!