The Agatelady: Adventures and Events

Friday, August 9, 2013

Mineral Art

Things have been busy, as usual for this time of year. So for today's blog posting I took a few pictures at the museum last night of some of the agate windows, as well as of the new Polychrome Jasper and Labadorite that I have for sale. Once I finish this update, I'm heading to my out building to organize items for the yard sale I'm having this festival weekend. My friend's grandson is getting a percentage of the sales to manage the yard sale outside the museum.

First, the tower lamp and table lamp...

Labadorite....

Polychrome jasper....

Agate windows...

The sunset glow...

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Rockhounding Class

I must say that the demands of the summer season are getting to me a bit. The work days are a little longer due to the fact that I have had a lot of people wanting to hire me to conduct the rockhounding class. I am averaging at lest a couple of classes a week. The class runs almost three hours, followed by the museum for seven hours. As most of you know, I don't mind working hard for long hours. However, the effort it takes to work the museum is more demanding than the effort required to make mineral art, write books, or design online classes. But I'm getting through the summer.......

Yesterday, the Thoemke family from St. Peter, Minnesota hired me to conduct the rockhounding class. Here are some photos I took during the beach segment of the class. The participants split into teams to collect specified specimens in a friendly competition. Everyone gets the same prize (a free agate they select when we get back to the museum), but I select a winning team based on the quality of the specimens collected as well as the way they are displayed and presented. The winning team gets to select their free agates first.

Seagulls appeared to be checking out what we were doing...

Someone built a tree fort on the beach. When we were kids, we built some incredible forts as well.

Team A with its specimens...

Team B with its specimens...

The pac-man rock...

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Songbird Trail in Marquette

YEA! I finally have a working computer again. Although I did pick up my new computer in Marquette on Friday -- there were some issues with transferring files from my old laptop to the new one. The company (906 Technologies) made it right and now I am back in the saddle.

The Ishpeming show last Saturday went so-so. I realized after the show was over that I never got a chance to walk around and take pictures. Usually Jill and Gerald have their booth right next to mine, which allows Jill to work double duty in both booths so that I can have a little flexibility. However, this year they were assigned a spot across the parking lot.

On Sunday, I went hiking northwest of Marquette with my friend, Helen. We hiked the Songbird Trail near the mouth of the Little Presque Isle River. It was a short trail, so we did it a couple of times plus hiked some of the North Country Trail.

Looking either way from the foot bridge...

The mouth of the Little Presque .....

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Lake Superior Beach and more

I purchased and had shipped a cooling pad for my laptop, which I'm using right now to post this blog update. The fan in the pad is keeping my computer cool enough for temporary use. Tomorrow I am leaving for Marquette to purchase my new computer and have the technician transfer all of my files from this computer to my new one. Since I'll be busy with packing the car, and then with the Ishpeming show, I won't get a chance to post another blog update until Sunday.

For today's posting, here are a few pictures I took down the beach when I conducted a rockhounding/agate class for a family the other day.

Looking west...

Looking east...

Speaking of east, a woman came in the museum who found the item shown below on the beach east of town. She has shown a few people around town, but so far no one knows what the item may be. It is around 14 inches long and is made of iron. Any ideas?