From our friends James and Donna Madej at www.dragonsayeauctions.com

For some reason these two have just decided that November is a going to be a great month for people seeking outstanding lapidary material from the good ole US of A. Throughout the month you will find all sorts of great stones at prices that are just as awesome as striking the motherlode yourself. Take a look at some of the material you will find at Dragonsayeauctions.com this month!

Amethyst Sage, Picasso Marble, Willow Creek Jasper, Regency Rose Agate, Graveyard Plume Agate, Davis Creek Rainbow Obsidian,Snake River Picture Jasper *NEW* from Utah, Prismatic Jasper

*NEW*, Hidden Valley Jasper, Texas Dendritic Opalite, Petrified wood, Palm Wood, Horn Coral, St. Johns Flowering Agate, Red Lace Gold Sheen Obsidian, Burns Green Obsidian, Rio Grande River Agate,Youngite,

Oyhee Jasper, Antelope Junction Moss Agate, Arco Black Tube Agate, Bruneau Jasper, Rocky Butte Jasper, Chrysocolla cuprite & tinnerite composition from Arizona, Medicine Bow Agate, Mushroom Jasper, Birdseye Serpentine,

Arizona Picture Wood, Prudent Man Agate, ChinaDendritic Jasper, Polka Dot Agate, Piaute Picture Agate, Old Stock Biggs Jasper, Stone Canyon Breciated Jasper and much more

James also says "If you cannot find what you want at my store check out all the other stores on Dragonsaye Auctions"

THANKS James and Donna. This sale leaves little wonder why you are fast becoming the number one lapidary trade center on the internet. I've got to cut this note short so I can get over there and check out some of those beauties myself!

FIRST HUNT FOR A 7 YEAR OLD - THE ADVENTURE OF GETTING ONE ROCKHOUND STARTED

Haylynnes First Hunt:

Over the years the most frequent question I have been asked is how to get a child started in a rock and gem hunting hobby. I've offered a lot of advice on the issue but it was pretty muchly "cooked" information. Not having children, I had never had any first hand experience in getting a young one started -- until a few weeks ago.

My current roommate is a single mom who has custody of her 7 year old girl for two weeks each month. I had dropped some rocks in the driveway after picking through my cache from a hunt I had gone on to the area West of Owyhee Reservoir a few weeks earlier. Before I knew it Haylynne was rummaging through the driveway picking all of them up. I showed her the ones I had kept from the hunt and decided that it might be fun for her to take her first hunt out. She'd been camping, but never rock hunting before.

The night before we went on our hunt I showed her again the type of rocks we would be hunting for on our trip and then got onto google and showed her what that type of rock looked like when it was cabbed and polished. While she had been interested in the rocks themselves, a first hand view of what could be made from the agates really got her going. She was extremely excited the next morning when we set out for Graveyard Point at the Idaho/Oregon border - a 40 mile trip, but endless drive to a 7 year old girl I soon found out.

Upon arriving at our destination, I found that there were plenty of surface agates as well as many holes that had been filled in but had many rocks on and around to sort through. At first I was worried about whether a 7 year old's stamina would allow for hunting uphill but found that being absorbed in looking at the ground and picking up possible specimens, she really didn't notice the climb much.

For the first half hour she walked just a few feet from me and we would discuss what she would pick up each time. After a time I drifted over further from her and let her go it on her own. At one point she decided her pack was getting to heavy and decided to sort a few of her less interesting finds out of the pack. I really wasn't watching this process, and wish that I had been more attentive having arrived back at the house to find that she had tossed a few of her better finds. I know now that the next time out I'll want to help her make such decisions.

Hunting through her finds for the day I thought that she didn't do too bad for a first time out but might have done a bit better with just a bit more coaching. This is an independent child and she liked hunting on her own, though, so it may have been a good trade to allow her to pick up a few not so great specimens rather than dampen her enthusiasm by "mothering" her too much in the field. A few times I picked up a specimen and looked it over and teased her "oops, you missed on this one". That is easy to do out here as sometimes things shine in the field in a way that allows you to mistake what you are picking up if you don't examine it very closely. The same is true that many things that are actually quite nice can be passed up if not carefully inspected. I once almost threw out a very nice moss because it looked like just another shiny black rock but, thinking twice for some reason I lifted it to the sun before I tossed it and found it to be green moss rather than solid black.

So now comes the finishing touch that will make the trip out one that she will remember a lifetime although I think she would have anyway nonetheless. Today I am choosing one or two of her finds to send to James Madej of www.dragonsayeauctions.com who has offered to cut a cab or two for her from her collection. She is extremely excited about having her own finds cut into the pretty stones like the ones we saw on the computer the night before we went out. I'll be sure we get those before and after pictures in one of the next few newsletters for you to see so you can share her excitement.

For those of you who write in and wonder about how you get a young one started rockhounding, that is how I managed with this little rock enthusiast. While each of us can expect to have a different experience depending how skilled we are as hunters ourselves, going along on a child's first time out has proven to me to be quite an awesome experience. For those of you who are not experienced hunters, I would suggest getting together on your first hunt with a member of a local rock and gem club or going to a fee dig where the staff can give you pointers on what to look for and how to find it. At this point in time, however, after having had the actual experience I have so often been asked about, I have to say it is one great time out for you and a life changing event for the little one.

PETRIFIED GAS STATION

A pal of mine is a professional flea market vendor and his job takes him wandering all over the US. Recently while cavorting around Texas he came across something you just don't see everyday and he thought my viewers might enjoy taking a tour of the place, too, and sent us a video of the place.

Thanks Allen - that was pretty special. Allen loves being a flea market vendor because he'd rather be out doing things like taking video's of petrified gas stations than working during the weekdays. If that sounds like your cup of tea, Allen's got a guide that lays all the steps out for you to get started without a lot of years of trial and error. You can find that guide at: www.makemoneyatfleamarkets.com

ROAD TIPS FOR HUNTERS

Klondyke 1849

I thought that some information on roads in areas I've been through might be a good idea for those out catching some last minute rockhounding.

Windy Peak - N. Washington -- this area is probably being snowed in as I type, but for those of you planning a trip to that area, please note that you will probably have to walk in the last several miles as those roads are being closed indefinitely and very possibly permanently. The terrain is medium, there is a lot of wildlife including bears. Be prepared. Weather can become turbulent very fast in the region as well.

Whiskey Dick Road above Ginkgo State Park, WA. Again too washed out to get up the first hill in my rig. It was too hot to hike up with Munchie having a heart illness so I'm not sure if that road gets any better after that. You could make it in a very heavy duty rig or ATV despite. The ruts are very deep and there isn't much room to maneuver around them. The road into that area from the East a mile or two is closed to traffic to the west. You might find some decent specimens in the canyon and there is a drivable 4WD path that will place you so you can walk into the canyon on a flat hike.

Ellensburg, WA - North of town in the Ellensburg Blue areas - Green Canyon is closed off from all directions. The only way into the canyon is on foot from above. The Ranch at the entrance to the canyon is being sold and no one was available to give me passage to hunt while I was there. Whether new owners will be giving passage or charging a fee for passage is something we will all have to wait and see. Be ready for a very steep trip. Until snowfall (be sure to check that before taking the trip out) roads are not all that bad out that way. Many are traversable by car, however, as always 4WD is suggested. Most road closures in that area are due to private property rather than impassible roads.

Succor Creek Reservoir, ID - Not the park, the reservoir out on the Idaho side of I-95. Unless you have a very high test rig you are going to find yourself walking into this region as well as a flood early this year tore up the roads pretty badly. I wasn't able to get up the first hill from State Line Road in my little rig. There is a huge trench in the road at the top of the hill heading into the reservoir. That's as far as I got and had to back down a rough road for a ways to be able to turn around again. Not recommended for others with light weight rigs - even 4WD. The Cow Creek road route to the reservoir is also washed in areas and not recommended for anything less than a high test vehicle or ATV.

Jordon Valley Road, off of Succor Creek Road, OR-- the first road to your right will take you in a mile at the most. Where the road begins a steep decline the road is washed out . You would need an ATV to get through that area this year. It is still clear of snow but there's no guarantee how long that will last. Wear bright clothes out in that area as there are quite a few deer hunters in the area at the time. That's probably a good idea for anywhere you are wandering around at the time.

Spring Creek Road South of the recreation area - the road south of the recreation area becomes quite rough once you get past the flat land area. I had to turn around when the road started going uphill. A heavy duty rig might have been able to get through. Material on the side of the roads in that area was disappointing but gave clues there might be some pockets of nicer find here and there.

If you have information about road closures or washouts in hunting areas, please drop me an email so we can let people know what they need to expect if they are planning to go out.

After posting the three year quake statistics pdf, I decided to put off watching quakes for a year or so and see if there is any change again in 2010. The climate is going into a cooling phase and with sunspots being way behind schedule, resulting in cooling, I thought that by 2010 trends in quakes might just change a bit. Here is is around 10 months past our watch (and I do take occasional peeks) and suddenly we get a month of frequent and very hard shaking. So I had to follow that month a bit closer.

It appears that this year might just be a heavier year for quakes than we have experienced lately - but not by that much. The average number of quakes of 5 and 7 mags had been lower than post 1990 averages since 2006 anyway. There was one stretch of time that we had a string of 8 mag quakes, which was an unprecedented number since we have been able to track in remote regions. Of course, those quakes might have been going on semi regularly for some time, but we now can track them so can keep more accurate information than we were once able to obtain. Still - to our knowledge, that string of 8 mag quakes was unprecedented in frequency and a bit unsettling.

As of the times between September 20, 2009 and October 2009, the earth went through another quite heavy spasm, that I felt deserved a bit of attention. Below are the figures of what went on during that month. You will see from the figures exactly how strongly the earth shook during the end of September and most of October. The average for these quakes is the post 1990 official average. If you would like to see the 2006,07.08 three year average, it is in the pdf report which you will find at the bottom of this quake report.

9/20 - 10/18

8 mags - we had 1. This quake brings us to the high level of the current annual average, which is 1 if any.
7 mags - there were 4. The current yearly average is 17. We have been under for 3 years running and are only 3 away from the average this year. Had all other months been as heavy as the one featured here, we would be looking at 48 per year.

6 mags - there were 24. The usual frequency of these quakes is posted as 134 per year. If the rate of quakes during the Sept/Oct observation here were continuous for 12 months we would be seeing 288, or over double the normal amount.

5 mags - The post 1990 average for these quakes was 1319 per year. Our 9/20 - 10/18 total was 197! If these shakers continued this frequency on a month by month basis, we would experience almost double the amount of these strong quakes as well.

At this point of time there is no way to tell if these types of frequencies will become more prevalent during cooling. We also have no way of knowing for a fact whether cooling would be a/the trigger if frequency does pick up. With extreme colds predicted this winter, many features of earth could be effected. We will be keeping our eyes open over the last few months of 2009 for more periods of increased shaking. On January 1st, 2010, we will resume our daily watch.

If you missed the free three year report of earthquake statistics - here it is:

3yearQuakes report

You might also find good use of the earthquake safety report, which is also a free report, just click and read:

Free Quake Safety Report

EARTHWATCH UPDATE:

EARTH WATCH - PLANET IN CRISIS SERIES:

THE STATE OF THE PLANET

Global Rainfall 2009-05:

Water/Drought

Worldwide precipitation has quelled many drought areas in recent months. It appears that crops for most countries have a good outlook for next harvest season baring future weather disasters. One such disaster area is in India where major floods have wiped out millions of dollars worth crops, killing people (around 250 as of mid October) and displacing millions. Government agencies there are predicting imminent food shortages in the country.

One country is not yet experiencing a relief of drought. That country is Iraq where over 100,00 people have already relocated due to drought and another 36,000 are expected to do so soon. The drought and excessive well pumping over the last four years is collapsing the underground aqueducts. Of 683 systems only 116 are now in operation. Each karez (as the aqueducts are called) provides water for 1,440 households (8,640 people) and whole communities are migrating in areas where karez systems have collapsed. Lack of water is also leaving thousands of hectacres of usually irrigated land barren of crops. Plans have been made to rebuild the aqueducts, but without water to pump, the land remains barren and the people will continue to migrate. Water shortages also threaten food stability in Iraq. If food is not available, people will not come back.

Global distribution of Flora 2009-08

WHAT ARE SCIENTISTS SAYING?

Nasa has just put together a program called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). It is a monitor of earth on a global grid which looks at the ecosystems of the planet. What they are seeing isn't making them real comfortable. MA has evaluated 24 categories of ecosystem health and found that over half are being degraded at rates that cannot be sustained.

The scientists are now able to monitor on a global scale what only special interest groups were monitoring on regional scales. There has been much dissent between different factions of special interests. Human organizations express anger with conservation interests for not valuing human life, while ecological concerns insist that humans have got to let up on dwindling resources. For the first time a monitoring system is in place that has found that eco-health is directly linked to human health and well being. We cannot allow further degradation of the ecology without the human population suffering as well.

What is the most pressing problem we have to face? Desertification. Dry lands make up 41% of the earth's land surface. Desertification is the spread of dry land that is unable to be used for crops. One third of the human population now lives in dry land areas and the fragile ecosystems are being destroyed. Soil degradation, loss of flood control, loss of water purification systems, and loss of pollinating insects are just a few of the problems scientists brought into view as very prevalent problems for dry land populations and the earth in general. In consideration that most of population of dry lands are already poverty stricken, further degradation of these dry lands will be a shattering, and possibly the final, blow to human well being for those populations.

Other dangers to the planet that are reaching emergency proportions are over-fishing which is devastating fish supply. While populations in many areas rely on fishing for their livelihood, allowing over-fishing to continue will only result in eliminating a food supply, as well as livelihoods, as populations continue to grow. Deforestation and habitat fragmentation from logging and human sprawl are much more detrimental than realized and scientists are now taking into account the cost to human economic and health issues which are linked to these repercussions of human activity. We cannot sustain continued degradation of our forest lands.

How to resolve the problems that we face as a result of high levels of population disseminating ecosystems that are being found to have more connection to human well being than ever previously supposed is not a problem that can readily be answered, even though we need the answers now.

Artic ice cap.

EARTHWATCH THUMBS UP To: A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS (listed below)

Who have just released a study stating that CO2 has nothing to do with the warming of the planet, but rather the tilt and rotation resulting in the amount of sunlight which hits the planet and how it hits is the cause of warming. (GEE, do ya think they might have been reading RHS1 Earth Watch for the last couple years?).

During their analysis of 6,000 dates, locations, and ice sheets the team confirmed a 50 year old theory that cited ice ages were triggered by changes in the Earth's rotation, but they were also able to add gravitational influences of other planets on the earth's rotation and tilt as contributing to the changes. They claim to be able to calculate changes as far back as 50 million years using their technique.

While the team claims changes take place slowly, and speak in terms of a thousand years, they have stated that we are now moving into a global cooling after a 10,000 year warm period.

While they still maintain that greenhouse gases caused rapid warming over the last two hundred years, they attribute the trigger of warming to the sun and maintain that greenhouse gases follow warming rather than causing it.

It can only be speculated whether politicians will refrain from levying Carbon taxes in light of this study.

You can read this and other full papers at Science for a fee.

You can read the abstract of this paper online at:

Science 7 August 2009: Vol. 325. no. 5941, pp. 710 -714 DOI: 10.1126/science.1172873

Research Articles

The Last Glacial Maximum

Peter U. Clark,1,* Arthur S. Dyke,2 Jeremy D. Shakun,1 Anders E. Carlson,3 Jorie Clark,1 Barbara Wohlfarth,4 Jerry X. Mitrovica,5 Steven W. Hostetler,6 A. Marshall McCabe7

1 Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.

2 Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8, Canada.

3 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.

4 Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden.

5 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

6 U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.

7 School of Environmental Science, University of Ulster, Coleraine, County Londonderry, BT52 1SA, UK.

Sally Taylor...RHS1 Earthwatch.

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ARCHAEOLOGY/PALEONTOLOGY IMPORTANT

Facts For You to Consider About The Scientific Community.

Image and info credits for this edition:

Wikipedia: Odyssey Marine Exploration:

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