La Dolce Vita

Thursday, May 7, 2015

May is

bees buzzing

beautiful flowers

animals waking up from hibernation

freshly picked fruit

the wind blowing in my face

butterfly wings

but not leaves falling!

It’s May, we open our windows and let all the sounds of the neighborhood stream in…lawn mowers, garbage trucks, motor cycles starting up, and lots of barking going on between the neighbors dogs…Pure Gossip I’m sure.

And it is Mother’s Month….which let me just shout….. Motherhood/Grandmotherhood is the hardest physical labor, the sweatiest work, and most of all emotionally draining every single minute of every single day…And also the most rewarding job on the planet!

Even when the living room looks like this…………..

and the learning station looks like this………..

all because of this……….

What a blessing to be a Mommy and a Grandma!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Back Home…

From Sunshine …to Rain. Welcome back to Utah!

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Time to Rock Hunt

In my last blog post, I told you about the conductor of the Nevada Northern Railway….showing off her Garnet!

She made it sound easy. “You should go to Garnet Hill.” “Just drive up there, and there’s tons of garnets on the ground, and you can take them.”
“Garnets?” I asked, wide-eyed heart beating with excitement!
“Yep,” she said. “Lying right there on the ground. You just pick ’em up to take home.”
Even the sign near the entrance to Garnet Hill in Ely, Nevada said you could just “(find) them lying on the ground.”
Well…this girl was lucky! You know my dad was a rock hound and so when this adventure was introduced…I felt like Elly from Up…Adventure is out there!

Along the way I know DH is being very supportive but skeptical! He had every right to feel that way…the road is dusty, twisty, and bounces the heck out of you to put it mildly!
Here is the best part…I said a little prayer! Please, make this happen for me. I would so love to feel my dad’s spirit guiding me along! Sure enough prayers answered. Almost to the top of the hill…2 trucks stopped in front of us…One going down hill the other going up! They seem to be having a conversation about directions…so out of the truck I jump. Walking bravely up to them I say, “It looks like you are giving directions for finding the garnet???” The very friendly gentleman driving up hill says, “Well….I have some very nice specimens in my truck…follow me to the parking lot and I’ll let you have a look.” Almost skipping back to our truck…I tell DH the sales pitch!

I now not only have ….A garnet from Garnet Fields

but….drum roll…..a mineral collections as well

Now that is what I call being able to rock hunt….like camping at the Hilton!
Thank you Mr. Paul Breitrick….you made my day!
Paul also told me to find any garnets takes hours and hours which is something we just didn’t have…nor do we have the equipment to dig them from the ground!
Pictured below is a digging area….

And across the way to the south is this……..A baby Kennecott Copper Mine! Once even owned by Kennecott!

Side note…..

Garnet Hill gems are of the variety known as Almandine, named after Alabanda, an ancient town in Asia Minor. Almandine garnets are composed of iron-aluminum-silica-oxygen (chemical formula= Fe₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂), and vary from brownish-red to hyacinth-red in color. The dark color of these garnets is due their high iron content. Garnets from this locality also contain some manganese, which is the major element found in the Spessartine variety of garnets. Most of the garnets found in this area have natural flaws, although some perfect gem quality stones can be found. Flawed or not…I’m a happy rock hound!

Dirt Bag–The Train Yard Cat

Kendry was in love with Dirt Bag…but not very happy that is the given name for him.

Not very nice of them to call the cat “Dirt Bag” he said.

Very friendly and lovable cat. Mark Bassett did mention that the cat is very well taken care of….just gets a bit dirty every day!

All Aboard……Lovin’ the Nevada Northern Railway

The East Ely Station

Working on the train is a dirty job…but someone has to do it!

Conductor invited us to see the inside of the engine…

Waiting to board!

A look around the yard..

Now the fun can begin…..WHAT? Very few passengers today…we got to know lots of them!

The Crossing Guard by the side of a restored Wigwag signal. Wigwag is the nickname given to a type of railroad grade crossing signal once common in North America, named for the pendulum-like motion it used to signal the approach of a train.

Looking across the way to the yard.

Smoking….smoking……smoking some more!

Renaissance Village

Entering the tunnel….always a highlight of any train ride!

K Bear finally fell in love with the train while riding on the open air car.

The School/Church

Abandoned Mining Town…perhaps a ghost town… No one home today!

Very large mine tailings off in the distance. If you were riding that wagon to work, you probably had to get up mighty early!

Gone but not forgotten…

Don’t mess around with these folks….this unfortunate soul must not have believed them!

Road off Highway 50 to Garnet Fields….read on to find out why this is so important to me!

The conductor comes around with this raw garnet stone. Wow…my heart starts to beat quickly when she tells us you can pick them up in the hills! Really…I question and question her. So when we are close to the turn off for Garnet Fields…she points it out to me! I snap away! Before leaving for the trip I had read about finding Garnets…I said to myself very sarcastically, “Of course you can find garnets lying around!” True story if you are very lucky!

Buried mining boxes that have never been removed….wonder what is in them?

The mine tailings at Ruth are very impressive... Basically they moved a mountain to extract a lot of copper and a little of some other metals

Stephen King’s novel Desperation is a story about several people who, while traveling along the desolated Highway 50 in Nevada, get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining town of Desperation/Ruth in real life. This is the cabin that supposedly was the setting for the part of the novel!