Hi y’all!  It’s Fall, and with the cooler weather comes opportunities to hunt for agate and other collectible rocks in the Big Bend Region.

In a “normal” year I’d be attaching a schedule of my field trips to this email.  But 2021 is not a normal year.  COVID is still with us, and it’s still killing people.   And we have no clue to what the long-term aftereffects of even a mild case may be.

I came out to California in May.  Here in California there’s a mask mandate, and the rate of COVID infection is 25 people per 100k.  In Texas, it’s 56 people per 100k.  Since my #1 goal this year is not getting COVID, it makes sense for me to stay where the infection rate is much lower.  So as of now I’ll stay out here.  I’ll check in the middle of October whether the rate in Texas has gone down, and then decide if I’m coming  back for November.

So while I may get back to Texas in time to lead field trips in November, it’s also possible that I won’t come back this Fall and Winter at all. 

By the way, the photo above is from Patrick’s Point State Park in California, where they encourage you to pick up the agate and jade you find on the beach and take it with you. But you have to hike back up a cliff with it, so you end up being quite selective.

Until then, please consider Aaron Thomas’ field trips to the 06 Ranch, the Larremore Ranch, and Needle Peak.  They are wonderful.  I’ve attached his schedule to the bottom of this email and will put it on my website.

I’ll also be selling rocks when I get back there.  I have 400 or so buckets yet to sell or sort through to pick out the best material to sell.   I hope to make several more sorted Singleton buckets and Walker Ranch buckets out of the things I have left.  Then I’ll sort and sell some smaller lots of things and perhaps special individual rocks, and the equipment I decide not to take with me to California.

I hope all of you are healthy and doing well in this unsettled year.   I’ve done some rock hunting in California, and had fun, but a lot of the places I’ve wanted to go have been closed due to the wildfires or the concern that new wildfires could break out and there would be no firefighters left to put them out.  The largest fire, the Dixie fire, is almost a million acres, and has been burning for over two months.

I miss seeing a lot of you and keeping up on what’s going on in your lives, going out with y’all to the beautiful ranches, and getting to see the lovely things you find. But when COVID recedes and we can gather in groups again without concern, the rocks will still be out there, waiting to be discovered.  I look forward to that day. 

Regards,
Teri

Here’s Aaron’s Schedule: