The Bar 2014 Edition

[MyDearFriend]

Thanks, Patsh, for the lovely image.

Okay and back to bed.

[AntiM]

Morning, all. When you get here.

Up early because Larry and another driver spent the night here, had to be up early to walk back down to the trucks.

Get up? Meh. Soon though.

[VultureChow]

Good Morning! Woke up to snow. Again. Just another 3-6 inches or so. New Jersey is officially out of salt, so the roads are not great.

If anyone from out west wants to come by and pick up a truckload, we'll even load it for you. Hurry, though. Fifty degree weather and rain is expected by Friday, so it will all soon be flooding our neighborhoods.

ETA: Big news!!! The giant icicle at my parents' house that we've been monitoring has finally connected to the ground (or rather the snow) beneath it. It's a magical day.

[FIGJAM]

85 yesterday, 81 today.

COLD SNAP!!!!!

[fernley1]

Morning all.
It was a wonderful weekend here in northern Nevada, except for some wind on Saturday.
My family and I spent Monday exploring the east side of Winnemucca lake, the long dry lake/ playa just north of pyramid lake
that we all drive by on the way to burning man.
So peaceful out there, temp around 60 degrees, perfect day for hiking.

[unjonharley]

Morning,,Wind alert here 10 to 4 today.. Wind 30-35 gust to 50. We have a shit load of big trees in our yard..Think cat and I will stay in the north end of the house.. No open roads for the van ether.. more

[ygmir]

*wanders in, makes tea*
ha! my lungs seem to be clearing, just in time for allergies to start. stuff is blooming, and, I note "that feeling" in the sinus, that means "it's close"...........
ah well.

Fernley1: did you find any nice rock? IIRC, we picked up some nice agate over there. Also some petroglyphs. It's been years since I was there, and came up from Lovelock.

careful in the wind there UJH!! if it feels like you're going to blow away, grab an big feather and stick it in your ass so you can steer!!
you're welcome.
hahaa

[Aurelia]

Good Morning All !

The beauty of Olympic fervor has motivated me forward..I promise today to decrease my sugary crave and increase my sweaty moves

Happy Day to you

xoA.

[fernley1]

Ygmir, happy you are starting to feel better.
Yes, we always pick up lots of rock when out in the desert, all of our pockets were full with lots of colorful rocks.
And yes, saw many petroglyphs around many of the cave shelters in the area. Last Saterday it was super windy here in Northern Nevada. We were out near Fallon in the Stillwater range, checking out some old mining areas. We called it a day when we could not see the mountains from a mile away becouse of all the dust blowing off the carson sink.

[^Rhino!]

Good Morning All !

The beauty of Olympic fervor has motivated me forward..I promise today to decrease my sugary crave and increase my sweaty moves

Happy Day to you

xoA.

Good morning and Happy Day to you, too!

Start mine off just right with my Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee from home. I put it in my thermos to enjoy while working.


I drink mine with Splenda and just a teaspoon of vanilla.

Now, the Olympics:

Who won the Chinese Downhill?

I know it wasn't the Chinese this time.

[ygmir]

Ygmir, happy you are starting to feel better.
Yes, we always pick up lots of rock when out in the desert, all of our pockets were full with lots of colorful rocks.
And yes, saw many petroglyphs around many of the cave shelters in the area. Last Saterday it was super windy here in Northern Nevada. We were out near Fallon in the Stillwater range, checking out some old mining areas. We called it a day when we could not see the mountains from a mile away becouse of all the dust blowing off the carson sink.

ah yeah, the still waters have some good fossils. Also Buffalo canyon, beyond. Some of the best fossils I've found around Fallon are in the Dead Camel mountains, near "Maggies Nipple/Tit". Fish in Wonder stone (which they say should not be possible), as well as other creatures in a very nice hard host like wonder stone, except just a flat beige in color. I've got one, with what I swear is a small bird with teeth.

Great agate nodules and some thunder eggs, just south and east of the end of the bombing range.......head for the "scheelite mines" on the road just before you get to what was "Frenchmans Station", to till you see a dumptruck body with a "7" painted on it, and turn east, skirting the range. As you get into the tallus/foothills of the mountains, start looking, they'll be in patches all over.

[^Rhino!]

Ygmir, happy you are starting to feel better.
Yes, we always pick up lots of rock when out in the desert, all of our pockets were full with lots of colorful rocks.
And yes, saw many petroglyphs around many of the cave shelters in the area. Last Saterday it was super windy here in Northern Nevada. We were out near Fallon in the Stillwater range, checking out some old mining areas. We called it a day when we could not see the mountains from a mile away becouse of all the dust blowing off the carson sink.

ah yeah, the still waters have some good fossils. Also Buffalo canyon, beyond. Some of the best fossils I've found around Fallon are in the Dead Camel mountains, near "Maggies Nipple/Tit". Fish in Wonder stone (which they say should not be possible), as well as other creatures in a very nice hard host like wonder stone, except just a flat beige in color. I've got one, with what I swear is a small bird with teeth.

Great agate nodules and some thunder eggs, just south and east of the end of the bombing range.......head for the "scheelite mines" on the road just before you get to what was "Frenchmans Station", to till you see a dumptruck body with a "7" painted on it, and turn east, skirting the range. As you get into the tallus/foothills of the mountains, start looking, they'll be in patches all over.

Dead Camel Mountains - Did the 'Camel Cavalry " lend this the name when they released the animals into the wild in 1858? Or is this near the site of the last camel charge that scattered Modoc Indians hither and yon from being terrified of animals that taveled twice as fast as horses and were coming straight at them? Just curious.

Hmmm...scheelite mines. You can get good specimens of scheelite from hunting AT NIGHT for it with a portable UV lamp. Don't worry about scorpions, because they fluoresce, too!

Fish....is this an outlier or an equivalent of the Green River Formation, from which they get the fine fish fossils up near Kemmerer, WY? It's Eocene in age (34-59 millions of years ago). I wouldn't doubt the 'bird' fossil, either. Older rocks with similar lithologies in Germany (in particular, the Muschelkalk limestone in Germany, part of their subdivision of the Jurassic period) produced that wonderful skeleton of Archeopteyx that we hear referred to from the quarries in the Solenhofen Limestone.

Good posts, yggy and fernley1!

[FIGJAM]

Sort of like your fist trip to the playa???

[media]

[VultureChow]

There was a lot more fear in my reaction. I still feel it. That nagging little twinge in your gut. I like to think it's my primordial self, saying, "What the fuck are you doing here? There's no water or shade. You are going to die."

[unjonharley]

I've got my rocks all over this country

[^Rhino!]

I've got my rocks all over this country

I have rocks from all over the country, too. Plus a few 'choice' samples that were gifts, given, or I collected myself.

I have jade from China.

I have a sidewall core sample from Saudi Arabia taken in the 60's at a depth of over two miles down.

I have turquoise and opals from Nevada.

I even have the very first fossil I ever found in Tennessee when I was 8 - a snail called Ophileta,6 mm across. I prize it because it's part of my life.

The only reason to collect anything is that it pleases you to do so. It occupies the mind, and lets the imagination out to roam.

[unjonharley]

My prized stones are a pestle and mortar from ancient native americans..

[fernley1]

Hunting for rocky treasures is a lot of fun.
Hunting for rocky treasures with your family on a sunny, nice day, priceless.

Rhino, I think the dead camel mountains were named becouse they kinda dull brown and humpy.
No, the leaf fossils at buffalo canyon are @ 12- 15 myo.
I dont believe that the green river formation comes into this part of Nevada.
Most of the fish fossils I found around Fernley are not that old, and mostly are in a vary soft matrix of slitstone.
Going to check out the places Ygmir wrote about.
My favorite rock I have is a chunk of Gniss, @ 1byo from the Farmington formation in Farmington canyon, Utah.

[ygmir]

*wanders in, makes tea*
well off for a load of granite today, just waiting on Looneytunes to show up. I like taking a co-pilot if possible on a long drive.

Yeah Rhino, the "bird with teeth" fossil is pretty small, maybe 3" or so dia. But it looks like a long narrow beak, with teeth in it........possible feathers and bones, sort of mashed. The stone with fossils in the Dead Camels (I don't know the origin of the name), are in a quite hard, solid mother stone, and as said, some in wonder stone, even. As I understand "wonder stone" it's a metamorphic, brightly colored and quite hard........so, well, did the fossils survive the baking? I'll bring some to TTITD this year, and see what you think. Well, unless you make a trip out west ever.......

and yeah, fernley1: one approach to the fossils is taking the powerline road after you cross Lahontan dam off 50, and when you gut "on top" a road takes off northeast, and crosses several what looks like uplift faults, in some areas of these, the rock produces fossils. it's the brownish, hard rock, and the uplifts are about 10' high. You then continue on and will come out and the edge of the mountains, pretty much south of Fallon, above Sheckler reservoir. the road will actually dive off their and come out at Sheckler.......but it's a steep bastard, and impossible to go back "up", and just a controlled slide, on the way down (ask me how I know this, we started down, couldn't back up,so, had to just "go for it", like an 8K lbs bobsled). Fossils and wonderstone at the bottom, too. Or, you can approach the bottom from Sheckler, and hunt the talus. Also found what sort of looks like bamboo in some of it.

*heads to ROS*

[AntiM]

When Larry drove for the UP, he'd bring home hunks of rock full of shell fossils picked up from along the rails, or the sidings. In Utah, it is illegal to hunt fossils with vertebrae on public lands, but shell and plant fossils are fine. Private UP land, no one cares.

Last rock hunting I did was picking up two red/pink/black quartz river rocks from the parking strip at the commissary on base. I magpie pretty stones all the time from urban settings.

[VultureChow]

So... I'm inspired now. There's a brook not too far from me that's known for having an unusually high volume of fossils. Mostly shark teeth and invertebrates, but some other things too. Just dig and sift.

So as soon as it thaws and it's safe to go, (I'm assuming we're going to have some epic spring floods) I'll make myself a sifting box and give it a go. I love shark teeth.

[^Rhino!]

Hunting for rocky treasures is a lot of fun.
Hunting for rocky treasures with your family on a sunny, nice day, priceless.

Rhino, I think the dead camel mountains were named becouse they kinda dull brown and humpy.
No, the leaf fossils at buffalo canyon are @ 12- 15 myo.
I dont believe that the green river formation comes into this part of Nevada.
Most of the fish fossils I found around Fernley are not that old, and mostly are in a vary soft matrix of slitstone.
Going to check out the places Ygmir wrote about.
My favorite rock I have is a chunk of Gniss, @ 1byo from the Farmington formation in Farmington canyon, Utah.

Buffalo Canyon's fossils are from the middle part of the Miocene epoch of the Tertiary period. With the age, I'm assuming that they could have been suddenly buried when the supervolcano that is now Yellowstone blew up during that time. At that time, the supervolcano 'hot spot' was under present-day Idaho. The subsequent ash fall spread far and wide....in fact, it buried prehistoric rhinos in North America that were living in Nebraska at the time. You can see their fossils at Ash Fall Fossil Beds State Historic site. Find that on the web at: http://ashfall.unl.edu/

Been there.



The predominant rhino genera there, Teleoceras, is known also from the Gray Fossil site in eastern Tennessee, but those fossils are Oligiocene (older) in age, the same as the fossils of the badlands of South Dakota. Been there, too.

[Agaton]

Today I need forgiveness for what I have done elsewhere on ePlaya. I will try to make amends, somehow, my way.

[Ugly Dougly]

Welcome, Agaton! Here at the bar, we drink to forget, and with forgetfulness, comes forgiveness.
So what are you pouring?

[VultureChow]

If you're atoning for the comment at the top of the board, then let me be the first to buy you a drink.

[Agaton]

Thank you. Sheeps-Blood(y) Mary is my drink.

[robbidobbs]

<RobbiDobbs wanders in, drops off a box of Sierra Nevada behind the bar. Pops one and plops down on the dusty couch>

Greetings Kids!
I got my taxes done today. Money going straight into savings. Sarah let me sleep last night so I'm feeling pretty chipper today.
How y'all doin'?

[unjonharley]

Hi Rob-a-Dob

[theCryptofishist]

I don't know where the best place to post this is, but I figure we should acknowledge it somehow. Of course, it's probably been in JRS and I look li ke a fool to mention it...

[robbidobbs]

<words...words...probably important...drink> Howdy Fishy and unjon.
I'm at the end of my run here. I gotta go feed the cat.
My peas and lettuce are coming up. Drought is going to be a bitch this year, being on a well and all.
I got one bite from Spark, need to respond while she's all atwitter.

Good luck!