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This is an interesting article from one of our visitors, Greg, who would like to
share his experiences:
Are rock hounds born or are they made? I really don't know for sure, but I do
know that I have two of the cutest and most enthusiastic young rock hounds I've
ever seen. My girls love rocks! They've always collected small rocks (and
begged me to let them keep the bigger ones too). Any time we get out to the
lake or when we go hiking in the woods, they always come home with their
pockets stuffed full of pretty stones. I think this is normal for kids, and
their love of rocks would have probably faded away by now if not for those two
huge boxes of doom. Boxes of doom? Well, that's kind of a long story so I'll
just give you the summary....
We love garage sales, flea markets, junk stores and just about any gathering of
odd used items. Some of our favorite finds include an old bedpan, a plastic
male torso (department store underwear model), a stuffed (taxidermy) armadillo,
and of course - the two huge boxes of doom. We got the boxes at a storage
facility auction. I had never been to a storage auction before so we went to
check it out. It was very interesting, but I didn't bring any money and I was
not planning to buy anything. Three units were going up for auction when we
arrived. Two were full of your normal everyday junk sale junk - the kind of
stuff you'd expect to find in an abandoned storage unit. The third unit was
almost half empty, but stacked neatly along one side of the room were dozens
and dozens of sturdy looking boxes. We weren't supposed to touch anything in
the units, but when nobody was looking I reached in and poked one of the boxes
.... solid and HEAVY. What could it be? We didn't have to wait long to find
out. An older gentleman won the auction and rushed in to see what he had
purchased. Were the boxes full of gold bars? Or maybe stacks and stacks of
hundred dollar bills? No, the heavy box that I had poked contained a huge
amethyst geode! It had been roughly cut or broken in half and it was beautiful.
Apparently the original owner of the storage unit was a rock hound who had
stashed away his or her wonderful collection of rocks. There were boxes and
boxes of amazing stones, and even some
gold panning equipment.
I think we were more excited about all the cool stuff than the new owner was.
When he noticed my girls eagerly watching him open each box, he asked if they
would like one. "We can have a rock sir?" they asked. "No, you can each have a
BOX of rocks!" They each picked out their own box and then we helped the man
load up his trailer (ugh). The girls could not thank the kind man enough for the
wonderful gift. I think this is when the whole "rock hound" deal was sealed.
When we arrived back at the house, the girls quickly unpacked their boxes and
arranged all of their new rocks in a row along the wall of the family office.
Then they ran to the back yard to bring in all the rocks they had been
collecting over the years. At this point the office was totally littered with
rocks of all shapes, sizes and colors. We spent the next two weekends
decorating the office and turning it into our new rock room. We painted the
room in earth-tones, built some strong shelving for the stones, and we even
ordered some really neat
stacked-stone wall stickers.
The room looks awesome, and we are constantly adding to our collection. I'm
so glad the girls decided to keep the rocks in the office rather than in their
bedrooms. Now it's our special place to hang out and talk about our next rock
hunting adventure. If you're a rock hound, or if you live with one, you should
consider setting up your own rock room. Ours really rocks!
So I guess I would say that my rock hounds were born rather than made. I mean
they already had a huge pile of rocks out back, and they'd been collecting
since before they could walk. Now me on the other hand, I consider myself a
self-made rock hound. I didn't see this train coming, but I'm glad I hopped on
board with my family. Happy treasure hunting!
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