Off-season distraction

     The water level in the Peace River remains high which is not surprising as we are still enduring a mini-monsoon nearly every afternoon.  There are little indications, however, that my time away from the river is slowly drawing to a close, for example, a shortening of the days indicating the approach of the dry season, temperatures dipping into the 80's at night (brrr!), and see-through rain as opposed to blinding sheets of rain.
     Jack, once again, braved high water and fast current to assuage the need to dig.  He always manages to find a little something but not enough to entice me into the water...yet.  High waters in the Peace River can be dangerous and I told him that if I was his wife, I would kill him so at least it would be known where and how he died.
     I chose to engage in an off-season distraction by visiting a defunct gem mine in LaGrange, Georgia. The Hogg Mine was in operation beginning in the 30's (my info is a little sketchy as I was more into digging than listening) when only the large,  gem-producing veins were taken and the rest of the rock was discarded as refuse.  Over the intervening decades, the hills of spoil compacted and became overgrown with vegetation.  The current owners allow people to come in every other Saturday for a fee of $35 to dig in the hillsides with shovels and picks.

     I thought there might be more overlap between fossilers and gem fans but it didn't seem to be so.  Most of the other diggers were regulars and very focused on the quality of the beryl, aquamarine, and rose/smoky quartz they were finding as they planned on selling or cutting it.  I just wanted to FIND some of these stones they spoke of.  Everyone was very helpful and I followed their directions and also proceeded to move a lot of dirt and gravel as I am accustomed to doing when I fossil.
     The man who was digging next to me and giving me a lot of good info on the stones he was finding left to take a smoke break and as soon as he was gone, a clod of clay I was picking at fell away, revealing a stone with a blue glow.  I freaked!  I knew I had found something!  I was carefully digging it out when he returned and I said, "I think I found something good!"  He peered at the stone, declared, "Yes you did!" and ran off to get the owner.

     I had found a nice big chunk of an aquamarine-producing beryl crystal.  I'm hamming it up in the above photo; the crystal is still mostly buried next to my right elbow.  The guys said I could sell my rock for $200, as is, but they correctly surmised that I was just going to put it on a shelf and look at it.

     This photo shows my beryl haul for the day.  After I found the first, big chunk, I felt such a sense of contentment, I kept thinking of heading back to the hotel for a shower and a nap, but I continued to dig and found a nice representation of rose and smoky quartz (so translucent and beautiful, the rose quartz looks like pink ice cubes) and black tourmaline.

     In full appreciation of the wonderful mix of people I know, the note below was posted on FB in regards to my beryl photo that incorporates a quarter for scale:

     Serious LOL'ing for me!  I love a slightly twisted mind.  :-)

     I had a different variety of aches and pains from the ones I get in the river, mostly because I didn't have the water to support my back and cool me off.  Digging anywhere is hard work!

     I won't exchange gem mining for fossiling but I also won't miss an opportunity to go back to the Hogg Mine, if one arises.