ADVENTURE'S DOWNUNDER OR FARMING IN PARADISE:An Old Rams view.

[dragonlaurel]

Carrying the rifle tonight sounds like a good idea.
What kind of dog is Tess?
You take good pictures. I just saw your woodpile- up top on the POW.

 

[~gd]

DL well they mine that stuff somewhere, I have several of the white stones (I am a knife nut,) old style carbon steel takes a very nice edge from the white or the grey novaculite. My brother in MO managed to get a dressed black slab about 3/4 wide by 3" long by 3/8 thick. I have no idea of the price but I value it so highly that I keep it in my Gem strong box along with my black opals that were dug out of Lighting Ridge in Australia a good while back. The black opal used to be fairly cheap because it was widely beleived to be a bad luck stone ( something about a stone presented to Queen Victoria just before her death ) The crystal black has very good flashes of all colors of "fire". It has become very pricey because it has about been mined out. and as TOR can tell you the preservationists were able to get a rule passed that they must refil their holes when the heat drives them off the ridge during the summer which means they have to remove all that stone rubble before they can start mining for 'pay stones' when they return in the fall. I don't know if it is true but I have been told that blasting or the use of heavy equipment has been banned to prevent damage to these very brittle gems.

To Ram tell Jenny that her dog Tess is just too POSH for words. A coat for lieing around on a pad INSIDE!!? Next you will be telling me that plaid is the old family Tartan? ~gd (I hope she has a sense of Humour.)

 

[dragonlaurel]

When they where drawing up the boundaries for the national park, they went around some places that were privately owned. The mountain by me is all "park" but the next ones over have good whetstone too.

I absolutely love opals, but have a suspicion that the bad luck rumor was started by jewelers that were frustrated with working the opals ... I'd love to try mining some one day.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Gang,firstly,its such a "thrill" to be a POW,I mentioned recently that someone had asked if it was OK,but I did not think it would "really" happen.

Today was such a "funny" day,got a nearly start to do some more spraying,but by the time I got to the site the wind had got up somewhat.After nearly 3 hours I just "gave up".After lunch it came over all dark and stormy looking and then down it came along with a wind of about 90/100 kms,we even got a "snow shower",then as quick as it began it stopped....Picked up the dogs and we went back over to yesterdays paddock(I never did get to go out last night ,I fell asleep in front of the TV again).Anyway as soon as I let the dogs off ,away they went back and forth across the slope looking to pick up a fresh scent,but they had no luck today.......Oh, I almost forgot ,while I was spraying I almost fell over a BLACK snake,he was only a small one (about 3ft or so),shiny black and "fire engine red" on the belly,he slipped away into the grass quick smart.......Tonight its so "cold again ,last night it was plus 9C overnight and tonight it's going to be 0C.

this is how it looked this "arvo".

Q & A:Jenny had a "huge" smile when she read your post,that photo was taken on a cold morning though and that was the reason for her still having her coat on.She is a type of Mini Foxie,they call her type a Tenterfield Terrier.There is a funny history about My familys coming to Australia, originally the family had a "title",but my Grandad left under a "cloud",something to do with the "troubles" anyway he settled up in the hills in South Australia and was distilling illegal Whiskey.(LOL)well that's what my dad told me anyway..............I think DL could be right about the Opals though,its so easy to lose the color when "grinding the raw stone".I have never been out to the Ridge,but I know for sure it's "damm" hot,cause everybody lives underground. ......Funny about the knife thing I collect Cooks knives and have got quite a collection now from all over the world.Jenny uses a short Analon blade for all of her cooking work now after I sharpened it and gave her a try.

Well ,enough for tonight ,hope to see you all back again next time ,regards .T.O.R........................

 

[dragonlaurel]

Yikes! Don't fall on your black snakes. That would be a really bad day.

Your Grandad might have fit right in with some of my hubby's relatives. They were pretty interesting people.

We have lots of quartz crystals here, and I've done alright collecting them. I went to the diamond mine once. I didn't find any diamonds but got lots of jasper or agate.

I finally got hold of the Ag dept livestock guy today. He knows of 2 farms locally that have sheep. 1 hair type and 1 wool type. I asked about the grasses too, but no surprises there.

 

[~gd]

Ok, I think I have managed to read all the old posts that I missed while I was up North, but the references to POW have got me stumped unless it stands for Pile Of Wood? Wool? Just as I cant figure out what seeds you were looking for to market to ex-pat Americans. Yes I suspected you were trying to "have a lend of you about that snake, but the term that I couldnt recall was winding me up
Funny thing about the highlanders from our mutual old home country, they get off the ship, head for the hills to settle and a year or so later have a still set up to make their own Whiskey! Moonshine is the local product since this area was settled by highlanders. A couple of bottles of brandy strength spirits followed me home that never saw a still. The Germans that settled the COLD part of NY always crush part of their apple crop and put a few barrels in the cellar to see them through the winter Funny how it always ferments into cider and sees them through the harsh winters in a very merry state. If the barrels havent burst It is traditionally tapped on December 10 th. to get the Christmas season started! They often move a couple of barrels onto the back porch once the daytime tempeture gets around 0C to preserve it. The freezing every night with a partial thaw separates the alcohol which is drawn off as Applejack. The bottles I have are from the winter of 08-09 which was supposed to be one of the best winters for high quality Applejack. I intend to taste it with caution because hard cider gives me extreme headaches. The porch cider isnt wasted; they just use the remainder to make apple cider vinegar.
You are right about grinding through the color on opal, I tried on a bit of red fire opal and when I quit grinding it was a beauty but it needed to be polished to remove the grinding starches and when I polished it. It was gone! My favorite stone was said to be hand done by a (Abo is this PC?) Aboriginal who was said to have a skill. It has some hills on the top rather than being smooth, and each hill has a bit of very fine fire in it that really catches and throws the light.
Another thing we have in common, we both collect knives! I used to collect gentlemens pen knives those fancy small knives that men had on the other end of their watch chains. I soon learned that these were all show and no go, how do you get silver or gold blades to take an edge? Just about then I found a firm that had found a warehouse of German cooking knives that were seized at the start of WWI They wanted $2-3 each for famous name carbon steel knives that were double tapered and forged with ebony or rosewood handles. Sure some had minor rust and they all needed a good polish but boy would they hold an edge! The only things that will beat them are the laminated knives of Japan but I cant get used to having only one side of the blade that is sharpened and they dont slice the same for that reason.
~gd

 

[dragonlaurel]

POW = picture of the week
Jicama seeds- it makes a mild tasting, crunchy tuber that's good in salads and stuff.
Those redbellied black snakes are real. and toxic. :/
You're caught up now.

I'd like to try a bit of that applejack. I was from Ohio, but moved down South when I was too young to drink it. I made friends with Jack (Daniels) and Jim (Beam) in my younger days, but haven't had much 'shine.

Ooooh- That red opal sounds great. I have a few pretty opal cabs and 1 opal that could probably be faceted nicely if I knew somebody with the talent for it. The prettiest opal I ever saw was a round faceted white opal that had a lot of fire. I still wish I'd bought it and designed a ring it would be perfect in. Maybe someday . . .

I hope TOR doesn't mind us borrowing his journal for a minute there.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Gang and welcome back.Today has been a "special" day for The Old Ram,as today I joined the 69 er's(hang on you lot ,I mean the "age group" not THE CLUB.(but come to think about it)Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ,better not go there .(LOL)

What a time I have had tonight getting on,Google chrome would not connect me,who knows why not,anyway I got on through Firefox.I hope chrome is going to be up tomorrow ,half my life is stored on that "cloud".

So today was another work day in spite of the occasion,got another trailer load of "stuff" for Jenny's new garden.Went down and checked the lambs and filled up the waters ,in the "arvo" spent another 2 hours spraying Thistles and Briar Rose...When we were shopping last week I picked up a book at the charity shop,its about "systems thinking,changing agriculture".I'm only a couple of chapters in ,but what a thought provoking read!..............I came across this quote"I find it easier to be a result of the past,than the cause of the future"...................As I read I'm finding that I have been using quite a bit of this "stuff" without even knowing it....Its a lot to do with decision making,based on the whole ,rather than just the object of the decision...EG;what will be the effect on the whole farm of a change to a segment or the whole of a livestock operation?...............It makes you examine all of the consequences of a decision ,before you make it.......Its great to understand why I have made some decisions in the past.

Q & A:~gd. I did not think"winding me up" was a Aussie thing,we thought it was a US term.Our lot were Irish(hence the comment about the "troubles"),When I was in my late teens an old Irish lady who owned a shop,confided in me that our people were "deep" in the IRA back home...When our youngest daughter was traveling abroad after Uni ,she visited Ireland ,she commented about the peoples reaction to her name and the way it was "spell t".Your lot sound like they came from Scotland?

You are old enough to remember a TV series called "the Galloping Gourmet",it was the fore-runner of all modern TV cooking shows.Their was an old cutlery firm in Sheffield ,who made Cooks Knifes for the show ,and I was lucky to pick one up once(its got to be 50 yrs old and had almost "no" use.)...I also got 2 Japanese knifes recently ,which I cannot find anything about,it's stamped with a "fish" in a circle and has a wooden handle (I will try to get a pic and post it),also in the collection are Spanish steel,Portuguese steel German,Japanese and some excellent Chinese one's as well..I don't know about the Aboriginal story and the Opal though,I think someone might have "been having a lend of you"(LOL).Your experience with polishing Opals is not unusual.

DL:.Glad to hear Hubby is OK,I'm sure he will wear you out waiting on him "hand and foot".That's good news about the Sheep farms close by.They have a name for that white opal(potch, I think?),but its nowhere as valuable as the "black stuff".Thanks for filling in the "gaps" for ~gd.Have you ever been lucky enough to find an Agate Egg uncut?

Well I think that will do for tonight ,so till we chat again,best wishes from..T.O.R......................

 

[~gd]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Welcome to the 69 age group, I am senior to you since I joined up 9/6 BTW. Talking about making decisions I used to keep a sign in my office I use BAD to decide people would ask what BAD was, and usually I would have a wise crack answer that I would make before explaining that BAD stood for Best Available Data. I picked that up from the Naval Academy Prep School which I attended briefly. They would give a very fast case history and expected a very fast decision based only on what they had told you. Their point was that often you would be forced to make fast decisions and a BAD decision was usually better than no decision. History will always point out faulty decisions like Monday quarterbacks but they have data that might not have been known by the history makers.
Re Winding me up I first heard it from the Aussie duck lady so I thought it was an Aussie expression.
About the Aboriginal opal story, you know I dont remember any big gem purchase I ever made where the seller didnt have some story about the origin or the cutting of the stone to spin while I was looking at the stone. The purpose is to get you to remember the stone after you have moved on to look at other stones. I was taught how to buy gems by a pair of charming gay males that would get me into shows that were open to professionals only; one was a cutter with a moderate reputation in the cutter world while his partner was a designer and metal smith whose mark on jewelry adds to the value. The boys built three rings to my commission. The one I wear for everyday use has very good story that I will save for a latter novel The dress ring they made for me is just a bit fem. for my taste we were planning to replace the diamonds with cognac colored diamonds from the Argyle mine in Western Australia but while we were searching for six color matched stones the metal smith died of AIDS. The cutter returned to California to die, and I lost interest in gems.
I THINK the question about the agate egg was directed to DL and I wonder if Ram was thinking of geodes which are hollow with quartz crystals (hopefully) inside which may be found along with the other quartz in her area. The prime source of agate eggs is the shores of Lake Superior which is the most westerly of the great lakes chain that form the border between USA and Canada. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Superior_agate these color banded stones are often picked up on the beaches where they have been naturally polished by the action of the waves and the sand. It is now my market time so I will close and restock my refrig ~gd.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Happy Birthday! Hope you had a nice celebration later. With any kind of celebration you and Jenny like.

I'm not getting much of my normal stuff done, but that's to be expected. He hates feeling needy, but he's being pretty sweet to the "nurse". Smart.

Those agate geodes would be a nice find, but I don't have any of them. I got one nice Keokuk geode, but it has gray quartz crystals inside. I bought it from the miner. The front part of his house was a rock shop and the dig was his back yard.

I haven't broken the agate rocks I found at Crater of Diamonds- but I doubt they are geodes. I just didn't want to go home empty handed after spending all day at that mine- so I filled a small bucket with the prettier agate and jasper rocks I saw. Most probably aren't worth making cabs from.
One guy found a nice big diamond that day but we didn't know him.