Rocks, Gold, and Buckets of Dirt

After a day's drive on long stretches of highway cutting through the deserts of Nevada and California, I have arrived in Arizona.  I am at my vendor space here in Quartzsite, my home for the next 4 months.  As I survey the space I realize how large 40' x 40' actually is, and I wonder how my largest booth configuration of 10' x 15' will appear inside this monstrosity of a vendor space.  Granted, in addition to my vending area, a portion of the space is for my living area, but still, even with my converted van camper and my cargo trailer it seems as though I am parked on a football field.

I parked, unparked, and drove around at least four times before I unhitched my trailer.  It just seemed as though anyplace I parked on my space was just not the right place.   One would think, with a space that size, there wouldn't be a problem, ...one would think anyhow.  But to a vendor who is used to 10' x 10' or 10' x 20' spaces, the brain was on tilt when I tried to envision how to set up my "store".   Then I drove across town to another vendor, one who specializes in stuff for vendors, to price and purchase additional tables and setups.

"So", he said, "twice as much space this year, huh?  That means twice as much profits!!"   I just stared at him blankly as I tried to wrap my tired and overwhelmed brain around his comment.  "Wow", I said.  "I'm glad you put it that way.  That helps alot."  I'm not sure he believed me or not, but when I go back there tommorrow to buy some tables and displays I'll thank him more sincerely.  I'm sure he could see that I still had that "Road Warrior" look about me and just needed some time to chill and digest the situtation.

The funny thing is, I have enough stock to fill my space- I'm just not used to having enough space for all of it.  So now I can actually fill my space the way I really want to, instead of having to squeeze everything into a tiny booth.  And so the initial shock of this enormous empty square marked in white spray paint on the rocky desert  floor has turned to an eager enthusiasm.   I unpack my trailer and I see the possibilities are endless to turn this desolate spot into a beautiful bustling storefront full of beautiful rocks, jewelry, gold, silver, copper, lapidary and prospecting supplies, and all kinds of other great stuff.   And if there is still more space left, there are rocks, rocks, and more rocks, to fill it with.   And it's a good thing I just collected several buckets of Utah Wonderstone two days ago.

  

And then there are the buckets of dirt.   It occurred to me today, when I crossed the Arizona state line, that the last time I was in Arizona in the Spring of this year, I was gold prospecting.   After digging, processing and panning for several days, it was time to go.   I left out with several buckets of dirt, intending to pan it out at my next location, keep the gold, and get rid of the dirt. But this summer was insanely busy.  I was in 5 different states, including South Dakota and Wyoming, rockhounding and prospecting.  The buckets of dirt got shoved to the back of the trailer, behind all the new South Dakota agates, all the half-finished pieces, and myriad boxes of rocks, and I realize that in the past 6 months I have transported this dirt through 9 states, just to end up bringing it back to Arizona again.

Maybe there's a reason I have a 40' x 40' space.  Maybe part of it is supposed to be dedicated to my buckets of special, well-traveled, dirt.  Even if it doesn't yield any gold, it still has seen more states than alot of people have.  That should account for something, right?  In this competitive world, where every business is trying to find that special edge that sets it apart from the crowd, I may have found mine- in addition to my rocks and stuff, at MY booth you can find unique, special, and awesome...buckets of well-traveled dirt.

           

Wonderful Wonderstone!!

I spent two days at a dig site for Utah Wonderstone, and collected lots of beautiful rocks to add to my already large inventory.  The specimens from this site are gorgeous- lots of colors and beautiful patterns.   I can't wait to start cutting and polishing and seeing what beautiful things will come from some of these pieces.

Being both a rockhound and a lapidarist, when I am collecting rocks I have more of a deliberate way of choosing which ones I pick.  Sometimes, as I am collecting rocks at a site, I envision the setting or what type of piece I would create out of certain rocks I choose.   Some will work better in the tumbler, some on the saw and polishing wheel, some with a wire-work setting, some as a cab.

I like to take my time, enjoy the place that the rocks come from, and spend time in that environment.   Being completely solar and wind powered, I have the freedom to camp out in these remote places. I like to feel connected to that special place, and let it become a part of me:  the sounds, the smells, the look, the essence of it.  When I am working with a rock, cutting it and polishing it, I like to remember those things.  I like to try to express those things in the piece I create.

And, so as I load up my buckets of Wonderstone into my trailer, and head southward to Quartzsite, I am thankful for the times I have had this summer and fall collecting all of my special rocks.   Thankful for the beautiful places I have gotten to see and experience, and thankful for the blessings and bounty of the land.  In a few days, I will open my booth for the season.  The sound of the wind across the South Dakota prairie will be replaced by the drone of the rock saw and the shrill whine of the polishing wheel.  The tranquility of the Utah desert will become a distant memory amidst the sea of customers shopping at the vendor booths.  But as I place a stone on the wheel and begin to polish it, I can lose myself in the essence of that stone and find myself, again, listening to the wind on the prairie or relishing the tranquility of the desert.

Oh How I Love the Desert in the Fall

On the road today, on my way to rockhounding sites in western Utah.   Tommorrow I will be collecting Utah Wonderstone, and on Monday I will be digging Trilobite fossils.  Great new stuff to take to Arizona.  I am excited to open next week.

I have lots of rough to start cutting and polishing and several pieces in the works that need to be finished once I am open and concentrating on work again.  I tell myself that I will work on stuff while I'm on the road, but, other than computer-type stuff like this blog, I never do.  I could, technically, but I just spend my days hiking, kayaking, climbing, rock hunting, or whatever, and then when I get back to camp I just want to enjoy my evening by the fire.   This week it has been cold, so the fact that I got my blog up and running again can be directly attributed to that cold weather.   It has just been too dang cold to sit outside by the campfire- so I have been inside at night.

When I get to Quartzsite, it will be much warmer than it has been the entire time I have been on the road this fall.  I will miss this part of the desert.  It is the Great Basin Desert, and it is different in many ways than the Sonoran Desert where Quartzsite is.  To many people, a desert is a desert.  But I have been to all four of the deserts in the US, the Mohave, the Chihuahuan, the Sonoran, and the Great Basin.  Each one is different, with its own character, look, and feel.  Even the plant and animal life varies from desert to desert.  There are many similarities, too, but still each one is unique.

I will miss the desert of Utah.  The fall colors of the cottonwoods and the aspens have been beautiful against the brightly colored hues of the sandstone outcrops.  The rabbitbrush is still blooming yellow and some of the other bushes are glowing with reds and oranges.  Even this week, during the cold spell, the trees were still trying to hang on to their fall regalia.

But, work calls.   The snow bird season rapidly approaches.  After all, it is in the 80's still in Quartzsite, only into the 50's at night.  So I must bade goodbye to the beautiful Great Basin desert and head south to the Sonoran, which will be my home for the next four months.

Back Again, and In Style

OK, so for everyone who follows me, I'm sorry.  I have not kept up with my blog in a long time.  Yeah, I know, Bad Blogger.  If you stopped following me, please come back.  If you have not followed me yet, good, because I haven't blogged in a while anyway, but now is the time to start following me because this Blog is about to get really, REALLY good.

Truth is I have been busy rockhounding, traveling, prospecting, paddling, backpacking, building my businesses, and devoting time to some other stuff- and I kind of forgot about my Blog.  But here I am, back again, and in style.  And gee whiz, do I have alot to tell you.

So, let's catch up quickly on the past year so I can just go ahead and start blogging again.

My jewelry business, Soaring Eagle Designs ( http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/soaringeagledesigns ) is growing very fast.  I am pretty much sold out of all the finished pieces and cabs I had at the start of the summer season (that's a good thing).  I have done a whole lot of rockhounding over the past year, and now I have to start cutting and polishing rocks that seem to accumulate faster than I can make them into stuff.  Funny how big of a difference there is between the number of rocks I can collect in a day, versus the number of rocks I can polish in a day.  Fortunately, in addition to my rock saw and polishing wheel, I now have a rock tumbler.  So I can let the tumbler do the work while I'm off paddling, hiking, or finding more rocks.  And it's a good thing because I am currently in Utah doing some more rockhounding.  Today, while hiking, I unexpectedly came across a great find:  petrified wood.  Not actually on the agenda, but, hey, I'll take it.  I have two more rockhounding trips before I head to Arizona, and two Rock and Gem shows once I get there.  Then I will be open in Quartzsite for the winter.

My other business, EarthWealth, has taken on a life of its own and is growing by leaps and bounds.  Exciting times.  Gold and silver is on the rise, and that has been very good for business. I've gone prospecting for gold in several states, with various degrees of success, and will be doing some more of that again in the spring.   I still have some buckets of dirt from my last prospecting trip that I need to process.  I've been hauling them around in my trailer.  I went to the GPAA show in Vegas in March and learned alot of cool stuff.  But meanwhile, this winter I'll be focusing more on prospecting and lapidary equipment, tools, books, and stuff that I sell.  There are also a couple of new and exciting product lines I'm carrying through EarthWealth, in my online store http://stores.ebay.com/EarthWealth.    I'll be posting more about those in the future, too.  I will be opening both EarthWealth and Soaring Eagle Designs in Quartzsite at Rice Ranch space C11-12 sometime next week, and I will be there until sometime in March.

Throughout the past year I have paddled, hiked, climbed, canyoneered, and done all sorts of other types of outdoorsy-type stuff as much as is humanly possible, in between everything else I have been doing.  I'll be posting some highlights of that stuff in the future, as well.

I am still completely solar-powered, and I have added a small wind turbine to my system.  Last year at this time I was having challenges with my inverter, but since then I have gotten a new one, and a new fridge that runs on 5amps and can be run completely by my 12volt battery system.  Since I am completely solar and wind powered, I can live for indefinate periods of time out on BLM land, National Forest land, or wherever else with all the power I need.  Right now I am living in a canyon in NE Utah writing this blog post and listening to my CD player. It's a good central location for all the places I wanted to go in this area. The only problem I have is that my wifi signal is rather slow- but hey- that probably has something to do with the fact that I'm in a canyon.

So that's what's up with me.  I will be a better Blogger from now on, I promise.  I will be posting so much stuff you will probably get tired of hearing from me... well, I hope not.  Meanwhile, you can follow me on Twitter @EarthWealth, or Friend me on Facebook at Jedidiah Free, or Like my EarthWealth page, or Like my Soaring Eagle Designs page
...or do all of that- and then I won't need to bother you with my blogs.  I can bother you with all the other social media stuff instead.