Gem Mining

While we were in NC, the youth group decided to do a little gem mining in Boon. Seeing as how it is not the most toddler friendly activity, Daniel kept Zachariah back at the retreat center and I got to go hang out with the kids WITHOUT a toddler! It was so refreshing to be able to have adult conversations with other counselors there without having to throw in a "Do you have a poopy diaper?"


So here I am... mining for gems. Except you don't really mine. They give you a big bucket of dirt, and you scoop a pile or two into your sifter. Then you put your sifter in a water trough and sift away all of the dirt. Then you decide what rock like objects you want to keep and you put them in a bucket.



Here I am, scooping my dirt, hoping for some massive diamonds or something.



No diamonds were found, but check out this massive rock I found. Its called a geode. You can get it cut open and there are crystals inside of it. Its pretty cool, except their machine was too small the cut mine open. Boo.

Oh, and you see how nasty my hands and fingernails are??? Yeah. That water was MUDDY. It was gross.

I don't like getting dirty. Just ask my parents. I am a real wimp about certain things, and dirt is definitely high up on the list.



Here are my rock findings! I kept A LOT of the rock like objects I found. Just in case they ended up being something important.



Here is a nifty little chart that they give you. This guy put the rocks in their appropriate places on the chart, then used some heavy duty packing tape to seal them in place.



And here is my finished chart! I had a good bit of emeralds and garnet. The rose quartz and amethyst were my favorite though! Oh, and look closely at the top right hand box. That stone is one of the three rarest to find. And woohoo! I found it. I don't know why, but I was pretty excited about that.

It apparently doesn't take much to entertain me. Just give me some dirt and rocks and I will be happy.

Anyway, the nifty thing is you can have the stones cut and set, making some beautiful jewelry! I am sooo looking forward to that. One day. You know, when we have money to spare. When I decide to have the stones cut, I will probably mail them back to this place in NC, because they do it for CHEAP.

So yeah.., that concludes my gem mining experience. I had a TON of fun and would love to do it again one day!