Today was the first day of the Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Society’s 2008 show in Ontario, Oregon. I thought this would be a great event for the family so we loaded up the car and headed to Ontario.

We arrived at the show just after it opened. Right away we could tell that this show was larger than the local shows we had attend before. It wasn’t long and we started running in to friends. The first people we ran into were the Stringers from Nampa, Idaho; they actually had a booth at the show. As I was talking with Bill Stringer along came Bill Henn and John Howell from the Owyhee Gem and Mineral Society. We had a good talk about the field trip that is scheduled for tomorrow.

There are a lot of dealer at the show. We spent almost three hours looking at what they had to offer and talking about rocks. After that my wife and son were getting quite tired and wanted to leave. We started heading to the exit but I couldn’t help myself, I had to stop at the silent auction and bid on a few rocks. As we continued to the gate I noticed a few dealers that we hadn’t visited yet so once again I had to stop.

The last dealer we talked to was Emory Coons form Burns, Oregon. He had many arrowheads and blades that he knapped from obsidian and jasper. My wife actually had won a large arrowhead that he made earlier in the day when a gentleman at the show decided he wanted her to spin the wheel of fortune and bought her a couple of spins. It was good to meet the artist that created the arrowhead. I had a good talk with Emory. He explained a lot about working with obsidian and where to find it at Glass Butte which is near Burns.

Once we finally left the show we headed into Ontario looking for a place to eat. We ended up at a restaurant named DJ’s Family Restaurant. The food was very well prepared with quality ingredients and priced right. The waitress also provided excellent service. I normally wouldn’t plug a restaurant on this site but after eating eight to ten meals in restaurants over the past week and having mediocre food and service at best I just have to point out a business doing it right.

The Gallery below shows a little bit of what you will see at the show if you are going.

Last weekend my family went to Twin Falls, Idaho to celebrate father’s day. I had been looking forward to this trip because Twin Falls is not far from the Nevada border and I wanted to go to Texas Springs. When it was time to go to Texas Springs I wasn’t feeling good so I decided to cancel my plans.

After sitting around for a while I decided I would go to a rock shop in Jerome, Idaho since it was less than 10 miles away. When I arrived at the shop I found it closed with a sign saying to call a cell phone for service. I looked in the windows of the shop and did not see anything that I wanted to take a closer look at. There may have something to look at in the store but I wasn’t going to call the number unless I know there was a chance that I would buy something.

As I got into my car to head back to Twin Falls I remembered reading online about a rock dealer on the north side of Shoshone, Idaho. Since I really didn’t want to go back and sit around at my parent’s house I decide to go looking for it. I didn’t find the shop but that was no big deal. I once had a lot of family in the town and lived there when I was small child so going to Shoshone brings back many good memories.

Since I didn’t find a rock shop in Shoshone I continued north. I drove past Jonny’s Country Store and remembered stopping there with my grandfather when we would go fishing. I loved that place as a kid because they had an Indian wearing a neck tie mounted to a post in the store. If you pulled the Indian’s tie he would spit at you.

I continued going north until I came to the Shoshone Ice Caves. This was another memory spot that I remembered stopping at with my grandfather. The big Indian and the caveman riding a dinosaur were just as I remembered them. There was also a small museum that I remember going to as a kid but I didn’t remember the exhibits at all. When I went in I found that it was mostly minerals and lapidary items. I spent about fifteen minutes looking everything over. Then I started looking over the items for sale and found that there was basically a rock shop at the building where people paid to tour the caves. I picked out some rocks and a couple of antique bottles. The prices were very good.

When I left the Ice caves I continued heading north because I wanted to photo graph the lava flows in the area. I made my way to the turn off for Magic Reservoir and stopped at rest area where there was some example s of rock sculptures created by erosion. I took a few more pictures of the landscapes then headed back to Twin Falls.

It has been a couple of week since the field trip to Juntura Oregon to collect petrified wood. This was a smaller group for the Owyhee Gem and Mineral Society, a little over 20 people. I am guessing the distance had something to do with the low turnout. With the price of gas being so high I would bet that there will be lower numbers on many of the trips this year.

This trip started out a bit earlier than most. The group met at O’Conner Field House in Caldwell, Idaho around 6:30 A.M. and headed out by 7:00 A.M. About an hour later we stopped in Vale, Oregon for a pit stop. I really enjoy going through this small town because there are many murals painted on the buildings.

After our brief stop we continue to Juntura and then went about 12 miles past the town to the petrified wood collecting area.

Once we arrived at the location everybody got out of the vehicles and immediately started finding small pieces of petrified wood. As we wandered around the area mud began to build up on our shoes. The soil was wet from rain the day before and had a very sticky quality to it; I still have it stuck to my car today. As I collected some rocks I felt that my feet were getting just as heavy as my collecting bucket. After I filled my bucket I returned to my car and spent about ten minutes scraping the mud from my shoes. The rest of the time spent at this location I tried to explore locations that were a little drier. It wasn’t long before everybody had their limit of petrified wood so the group went to Warn Springs Lake to look for agate.

The area around the reservoir did have some small pieces of agate but I didn’t find anything that exciting. I did find a few curious rocks and a large Apache tear (small obsidian nodule). After about an hour I decided to head home.On the way back I stopped again at the petrified wood location. By this time it had dried enough that the mud didn’t stick to my shoes. As the group looked for Agate at the reservoir many said that bigger pieces of petrified wood could be found the farther you went from the road so this time I walked quite a ways out. I did find many bigger pieces and collected a few before I left.

As I continued back to Juntura I came across a vulture eating something in the middle of the road. This was exciting because I had never seen a wild vulture before. I tried to photograph it but as soon as I opened the car door it took off. I did manage to get a few photos but not as detailed as I wanted.

When I made it back to Vale I stopped at Margaret Stallknecht’s rock shop. I purchased one rock from her because it seemed really different to me. I was not sure if it was a thunder egg or not but Margaret said that she would allow me to exchange it if I was not satisfied with the center. I still have not cut it and am not sure I want to cut it. The photos below are of the rock I purchased. If anybody knows what this is please leave a comment.

A couple of week ago after Jason and I returned from collecting thunder eggs Jason asked if he could cut a few of his eggs before he left for home. After each egg that he cut Jason would stop and show me what was inside. That day the cuts were very rough and with each egg the cuts seemed to be getting worse. I knew Jason knew how to use the saw so this was really disturbing to see. I then cut one of my eggs and the cutting vibration was so bad that the egg shattered before I was done cutting.

I have been having some problems with the saw all spring. I even replaced the blade and could see that there was a quite large wobble even with the new blade. Over the past couple of months this wobble caused the blade to warp. On that day that we were cutting the thunder eggs the blade reached the end of its cutting life. I took the saw apart and could see that the shaft that the blade attached to seamed to be wobbling. The blade also wobbled like Jello as I shook it in my hand.

A few days later I had my fried, Bill Solt, take a look at the bearing and shaft assembly. He took the assembly apart and sure enough the shaft was bent. Using his metal lathe and some gauges he was able to determine exactly where the bend was and straighten the shaft using a hammer. This process took a while to complete because after each hit with the hammer the shaft needed to be measured again to determine where and how hard to hit it next. After straightening the shaft Bill then cleaned up the treads and ends where the metal was bulging out from earlier repair attempts done before I purchased the saw.

After repairing the shaft the bearings needed to be replaced. One of the bearings was damaged while disassembling the saw which was no big deal since the bearings didn’t match in the first place. Bill suggested a few companies where I could purchase new bearings. Since it was late evening I would have to wait to until the next day.

The next day I purchase new bearings from McGuire Bearing Company in Boise Idaho for $16.00. (The costumer service was excellent and I also found that they sell pulleys and motors.) That evening I attempted to reassemble the saw but ran into more problems. I could not get the shaft and new bearings to go back together correctly. After I accidentally shoved one of the bearings deep into the housing that held them I knew I needed some expert help.

A week and a half later I gathered up all the saw parts and headed back to Bill’s for more help. On the way I also stopped and purchased a new diamond blade. Bill was able to get the bearing back out of the assembly undamaged. He then said the reason this happened was due to a design flaw in the housing. There was no lip or anything to hold the barring in place. To fix this issue he created an insert that would keep the bearings in place and parallel to each other. Afterwards we reassemble the saw and installed the new blade. We then powered up the saw and could see that everything was running smooth and most of all, the wobble was gone.

When I returned home I could not wait to test the saw. I chose a fairly large piece of petrified wood to do a test cut. The test was going very well with no vibrations. At the half way point of the cut I took off the pressure and left the rock sitting on the table. It stood perfectly still as the blade continued to rotate without any resistance. I continued to cut some more rocks without any problems.

Thank you for all your help, Bill.