April 2010 Newsletter 

April Meeting 

Location:  Juanita Community Club                    13027 ‐ 100th Ave. NE, Kirkland, WA 98034 

Time:   Friday, April 16, 2010. 7:00 p.m. 

Junior Program: The Junior Program starts at 7:00 p.m. 

Adult Program: John Meek will present Mineral Specimen Collecting in Washington.  The adult program starts at 7:30 p.m. 

Rock of the Month: Bring your favorite mineral specimens from Washington State. 

News and Minutes General News:  The diatom pits have been closed to collecting. Evidently the Bellevue club got kicked out when they went on a field trip there. Bruce Himko is working on getting permissions for his club so we'll find out what all he goes through before deciding if we want to apply for it. This will likely affect any mineral council trip planned there as well.  Regular Meeting Minutes: March 19, 2010 March Meeting- held on March 19th @ 7:30 at Juanita Community Club. The kids meeting started at 7:00 and they studied sands from all over under loupes and microscopes. This was so interesting that some adults also joined in. Normally the March meeting starts with going over the status on how the show went on the 6th & the 7th of March. The totals were not in yet from the treasurer so that will be put off for the next meeting. We started off the meeting discussing the field trip scheduled the very next day on the 20th to Kalama to look for Carnelian, Agates, Crystals and Jaspers. It sounds like we will have a great turn out for the field trip. We are to meet at exit 30 @ 8:30am. We went over what to bring and what to expect. We looked at samples dug previously from this location. Next we discussed the need to get the newsletter going again for the rock club. In order to do this we need to get people to contribute articles about various rock related topics. We had a few examples and spoke about how to go about that. We had 4- new members sign up at this meeting and pay dues. During the meeting we had a silent auction, raffle tickets and door prizes were drawn at the very end of the meeting. The majority of the meeting was spent with a guest demonstrator, Nan Hawthorne; she discussed and demonstrated her talent of painting on various types of rocks. She spoke about the paints to use and how to use various things in your self-expression of art. The meeting ended with the finalization of the raffles, auctions and the door prize winners.

We enjoyed snacks at the end of the meeting. The meeting adjourned approx. at 9:00pm Respectfully submitted, Kim Lewis Secretary

Member Submissions Field Trip to Kalama, WA: Kim Lewis Ok so last weekend I went on a field trip to Kalama, WA with my rock club East Kingco Rock Club we had lots of fun. Granted I dug for 8 hours and was exhausted by the end of it. I did get almost a whole bucket full of carnelian & various agates. I also got some crystals and jaspers. If you have not joined your local rock club yet, get to it for lots of fun and exercise. My daughter also brought a friend and they had fun playing around a creek and collecting easy finds, no digging involved. Check out a small sample of some of the things I found that day. Some of these I will sell rough in my rock shop, others I will tumble up, or bag for others to tumble, so much fun. Enjoy.

 Tucson Rock Show 2010: Kim Lewis I went to Tucson at the Beginning of February. It was a work trip, and it was fun, but it required a lot of planning. I wanted to give you some pointers if you ever plan on going. First thing you will need is a lot of money, a budget and a list of things you need or want. There are over 43 shows and many of the shows have 100-1000 vendors. You can technically do one show a day and never see it all. So don't worry you won't see it all, realize that and move on. I checked out the shows ahead of time and made a list in priority of what shows I had to see and who I wanted to check out at each one. We packed one whole suitcase with bubble wrap, flat rate boxes and wrapping tape. I shopped from morning to night, from show opening to closing. Then at the end of the day I would finally eat dinner, take a dip in the pool/Jacuzzi at the hotel. Then I would be up for hours packing what I purchased that day. I also kept an expense log, on it I put what I got where and what I spent at each vendor. In addition to the log, if I saw a vendor I wanted to purchase from in the future I took a business card & wrote on the back of the card what I liked that they had and a price range or contact name if needed. I shipped 7 boxes ahead of time, which beat me back to the shop. I realized on the third day that I needed more than the flat rate boxes would allow. I had found a fabulous large Druzy Red Amethyst with Calcite Crystals. This was way too large then the flat rate boxes. This was the day I decided to get a truck and have pallets delivered to the shop (Earthlight, Inc.) I found one of the shops that I bought a lot of merchandise from and arranged the trucking thru them. I had to pack and round up everything that I purchased for the next few

days - until the day before we left town. Then the morning we were to leave we delivered all of the other items and added them to the boxes already purchased and palletized it all for shipping. Since the money was spent and the truck was packed, we browsed around and only purchased a small amount of amber the last day, which we could carry onto the plane. We only had a couple of hours to shop around then off to the airport and back home. I was only in Arizona 6 days- next year I will try for two weeks. I just need to save up more money, and then I can stay longer and go to more shows. Fabulous. The pictures are from the trip, with my daughter and some awesome finds that we did not purchase.

Photos from the March Kalama Trip: Norma Kikkert 

  

  

  

 

Call for Submissions!  Club members are encouraged to send in photos and reports of recent activities and projects for the web site and newsletter! 

East KingCo Contact Info General Club Email: eastkingco@gmail.com Newsletter and Web Site editor: Bruce Kelley, bruce.kelley@gmail.com  Club Website: http://www.eastkingco.org/  Meetings:  Our meetings are held the 3rd Friday of the month except July, August and December, at: 

Juanita Community Club 13027 100th Ave NE Kirkland, WA 98034  

Upcoming Shows and Field Trips  

(See http://www.mineralcouncil.org/ or the club website for more details.)  

Shows:  May 1‐2, 2010 West Seattle Rock Club 44rd Annual Show “President’s Gemboree” West Seattle Alki Masonic Temple 4736 ‐ 40th Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 

 June 4‐6, 2010 Puyallup Valley Gem & Mineral Club Puyallup Valley Gem Show Fruitland Grange 112th St & 86th Ave. East, Puyallup, WA 

 

Field Trips: May 23, 2010 – Mt. Higgins     Rhodonite – Hard rock tools, tough tires     Sponsor: Washington Agate and Mineral Club     9:00 a.m. @ Oso gas store 

June 12/13, 2010 – First Creek      Thundereggs, Agate and Geodes – Dig and hard rock tools      Sponsor: Ellensburg Rock club      9:00 a.m. @ West Fork Teanaway Camp 

June 30 – July 4, 2010 – Madras, OR      Agate, Jasper, Petrified Wood, Thundereggs – Dig and light hard rock tools      Sponsor: Pow Wow Rockhounds Club      8:00 a.m. @ Jefferson Co. (OR) Fairgrounds 

July 17, 2010 – Wenatchee area      Garnets and Actinolite       Sponsor: East KingCo Rock Club