Rocks rock!

Well, I've had a rock tumbler on my wish list for a couple of years now, but I just couldn't quite justify buying one yet. I have held onto a collection of rocks I got from one of those tourist attraction "mine for gems!" stands while on vacation with my parents as a kid once in the Smokey Mtns. Who knows where the things came from, but in my bag of stuff I "panned" at their stand, there are several stones they told me are ruby, sapphire, and garnet. Also a bag of misc., mostly trash rocks. (Plus one rock they gaped at and said "Uhhh, lemme go study this one in the back...." and then came back out with something ELSE they gave me back instead. Geeze, it must have been something nice that accidentally ended up in my bag of rocks. I feel so cheated!) Well, we weren't interested in having them turn any of it into jewelry, so I took my shinies home and have hoarded them along with the rest of my treasures for all these years. Until now!

I got the opportunity to go out prospecting last weekend for the first time, and I brought home a heap of stuff to tumble, amongst it a nice heap of garnets! I can't wait to go back and get more stuff. I have a tumbler on its way in the mail now. LOL

So, I thought I'd start myself a blog here so I can keep a "web log" of what I find out of my treasures, if anything. I'm not exactly a geologist, so it's hit or miss at this point, LOL. I have gotten myself a magnifier to examine the rocks' surfaces, another book to hopefully help me ID stuff better, and I will try to assemble a field identification guide in case I run across some minerals.