Playin' in the Dirt

I think that one of the requirements to be part of our family is that you must love rocks. You must look for rocks, clean rocks, place rocks in your yard, and share rocks. This all began when my oldest  grandson was small. He loved rocks, therefore I loved rocks. Now there are five grandsons and they all love rocks, so their moms and dads grew to love rocks, too! I'm sure their moms found many a rock in their jeans pockets. That being said, spending a gorgeous spring day digging in red dirt looking for crystals was the perfect outing for all of us. We did give Mr. H a pass, he really doesn't even like rocks, but we'll let him be part of our family if he allows us to keep as many rocks as we want!!

In the first photo we're in an old military truck getting ready to tour the Ron Coleman Mine near Jesseville, Arkansas. 

The tour begins at the top of the mine pit.

As we descended about 250 foot to the pit bottom there were crystals everywhere. You could see white veins of crystals in the side of the mountain and crystals beside the road or stacked on other rocks. It's hard to see the depth of the mine, but if you look closely on the left one-third of the picture toward the bottom, you can see an orange piece of excavation equipment. It was big! They have been mining near the pool of muddy water on the right third of the picture. 

The area we were able to dig in was on the other side of the white truck. You walk under the excavator to get to the piles of dirt and stones we dug in. Arkansas is know for having the world's finest quartz crystals. One particular area named The Quartz Belt is know to be the single largest quartz deposit in the world.

The temperature was mild the day we were there, so we were able to mine right out in sunshine for several hours.

One of the attractions at the mine is a zip line. Some of our family loves zip lining. On the left side of the picture is my grandsons, Jake, Drew, and Aaron, after they put on the necessary gear. The top right picture is Drew and Aaron zipping along and the bottom picture is Aimee (my daughter-in-law) and Jake. The 1/4 mile zip line crosses the mine pit. Our guide mentioned that you can sail across the pit going up to 30 miles per hour! 

I must give credit to my daughter and daughter-in-law for the above pictures. My old, small camera that I took wouldn't take a decent picture that far away.

Here are some of the crystals I brought home. I wasn't fortunate enough to find a large clear quartz crystal point, but I found several small ones. The white quartz crystals are more abundant. I was fascinated by how the crystals were layered in the sandstone rock.

My favorite find was a sandstone rock about the size of a baseball. The top was covered in crystal points. I think the best find in our family was made by my grandson, Aaron. He found a gorgeous clear quartz point. He took it to the front desk, where they congratulated him and then weighed it. It weighed almost a quarter of a pound. He also took it over to the table full of crystals for sale and found one similar. It was selling for $100. Needless to say, he was very proud of his find.

I never knew it could be so much fun to just did in the dirt, but it was! It was a day where the mindless act of digging and the time spend with family took away all my troubles. We honestly had the best time!!

Celebrate the Colors of Spring

Seven full days of sunshine!

That's all we've had since January 1st!

I'm not saying we haven't seen sunshine

on other days, we have, 

but those days were mostly cloudy or partly cloudy.

Only seven full days of sunshine in over two months . . . .

no wonder my Vitamin D level is low!!

I'm saying that to explain why my sister, sister-in-law and I made the trip to Garvan Woodland Gardens on a misty, overcast day. We wanted to see the daffodils before they were frozen by the way-below-normal-temperatures in the forecast.

There are several paths you can take through the garden. We came for the daffodils, so we headed that way first.

On our way we spotted some pretty red tulips that were just beginning to bloom. We'll need to go back in a few weeks to see all the tulips in full bloom.

On the way to Daffodil Hill we pasted by thousands of hyacinths. I don't remember ever seeing the darker purple ones before.

We ventured down the Camellia Trail to see if there were any blossoms left and there were! Some very pretty ones.

Finally we came to Daffodil Hill! This is only a very small portion of the daffodils scattered across the hill. No matter which way you turn on this small hill, you can see daffodils.

As I mentioned before there are several paths you can take through the garden. We didn't take this one. It looked much to slippery, not to mention very steep. We sure didn't want to chance a fall!

A new addition to the garden this year is the tree house in the Evans Children's Adventure Garden. This pictures doesn't begin to show how large it is. I should have asked my sister and sister-in-law to go up in the tree house and wave at me! The 500 square foot structure is 28 foot tall. Adults can stand on the first two levels with no problem at all! The third level, well we didn't go that far. You have to climb a rope net to the crow's nest. A small area that gives you a bird's-eye view of the woods. Josh Siebert, the architect, describes the idea behind this modern looking tree house by saying "Our concept was a tree house in the woods and amongst the woods. It floats, it's mysterious, but it's also modern." I'll admit when I first saw it, I wasn't impressed. I'm not real keen on modern architecture, but the beauty for me was on the inside.

  

I love the repetition of the yellow pine ribs and the spectacular views. 

As you leave the tree house, there are some really cool mirrors set in the railing. They reminded me of fun house mirrors at carnivals. They each made you look a little different and sometimes silly. I avoided the one that made me look short and rather plump!!

We wandered back to the front of the garden to eat lunch at the Chipmunk Cafe. As we waited for our food, we watched three very friendly, not-scared-of-people peacocks. Or I guess I should say one peacock and two peahens. Last year there was only the peacock. Maybe with the addition of two peahens, little pea chicks may be in the future.

You have to be patient, but they will eventually show off their feathers.

Despite the damp, chilly air we enjoyed our day out. This day was also a celebration for me. I am one year cancer free. It's been a long year, sometimes difficult, but I feel like I've passed a milestone!