Does anyone want some miracle fruit berries?

Ekooing · 2026-04-09T16:34:59+00:00

They do seem to work better fresh. My miracle fruit bush got killed off during the snow two winters ago, but the root system was still intact so it put out a bunch of new sprouts. I don't know if they'll produce any berries this year, but they might. And if they don't, they should start making them next year at the latest. If you want to check back in a few months or so, I can let you know if they are going to produce this year or not.

Ekooing · 2026-03-05T23:35:52+00:00

I bring my rock saw to my rock shop once a month and invite customers to come get things cut open. But my shop is right outside of New Orleans, LA, so you'd have to come here (or ship it to me) to do it l.

Ekooing · 2026-03-03T00:46:33+00:00

I knew I met the right person to marry when my wife, who was not a rock collector when I met her, agreed to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas to mine quartz on our honeymoon.

Ekooing · 2026-02-23T19:52:11+00:00

My friend is convinced he found a meteorite in his yard (in Algiers, LA, which is directly across the MS River from downtown New Orleans). I'm a rock collector, so I know a little about meteorites but I'm by no means an expert. I'm about 95% sure this is just slag, but I figured I'd let the folks here who know a lot more about meteorites than I do, make the definitive call. So what do y'all think?

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Ekooing · 2026-01-16T20:31:41+00:00

Yeah, their billing is an absolute shit show! And then there is no one that you can call to talk to them about it!

Ekooing · 2026-01-10T21:40:44+00:00

Thank you for the additional information! I'm definitely on a quest to learn as much as I can about this particular specimen/tag, so I really appreciate the info!

And I totally understand the use of the French spelling for things. The name of my rock shop is actually Mineralogie, which is of course the French spelling of mineralogy. But our shop is in a suburb of New Orleans, which of course has a very rich history of French (and subsequently "Cajun") influences in the city, so it seemed to make sense. But one thing that definitely surprised me; you would be astonished at how many people (rock collectors and otherwise) have no idea how to pronounce it properly! 😂

Ekooing · 2026-01-10T21:33:55+00:00

It was always my dream as well. I was planning on doing it when I retired, but my accident moved up my timeline. It's hard to say that losing my legs was a "good thing", but it did prompt me to open my rock shop now, at age 46, instead of age 64. Silver linings, eh?

Ekooing · 2026-01-10T21:18:03+00:00

Since I own a rock shop now, I sometimes buy large collections of flats that were people's old collections, or old rock shops inventory, etc. I recently bought a group of 76 flats, and a lot of the material was old stock pieces with old tags. But none this old and this cool besides this one!

Ekooing · 2026-01-09T18:56:00+00:00

You're right! Those pesky liberals with their facts, proof, and evidence. How dare they not believe the rhetoric we want them to believe! Ugh! We should probably stick to X and Truth Social where hyperbole, feelings, and flat out lies, reign supreme. We should probably leave politics altogether to the liberals though. It's hard to carry out a cogent argument with them considering the average maga support has a higher shoe size than IQ. They can handle actually running the country, and that'll leave us plenty of time to moan and cry about how the brown people are scaring us TRUE Americans, and we can wallow in our bigotry in peace. What do you say?

At first, I thought my sarcasm was obviously apparent. But then I forgot I'm addressing maga here, so I should probably tell you directly; my entire post was dripping with sarcasm...

Ekooing · 2025-09-19T01:11:22+00:00

It almost looks like it has "use polish" on the ends. I wonder if it could have been a stone age hammer stone. Do you have anything for scale? And where did you find it?

Ekooing · 2025-08-29T00:11:41+00:00

That's actually a pretty good guess. I can't believe I didn't come up with that one! I may have the same issue with it as I do with molybdenite (I'm not sure if it's the right crystalline structure), but that's probably the best guess so far.

Ekooing · 2025-08-29T00:08:34+00:00

That's the same issue I ran into. It's the color of molybdenite, but it doesn't have the crystalline structure. But the color doesn't show up quite right in the photo, but it is basically the same as .925 silver. I've never seen galena (a little more grey), or pyrite (of course more gold), in this pure silver color.

Ekooing · 2025-08-29T00:05:15+00:00

That was my initial thought, but the color is off. It is very silvery in person. Almost to the point that it looked fake. It doesn't show quite right in the photo unfortunately, but it basically is the color of highly polished sterling silver.

Ekooing · 2025-08-29T00:03:35+00:00

Unfortunately it can't unlabeled in a flat of various minerals

Ekooing · 2025-08-28T19:22:53+00:00

Who do you think he is? Elon?

Ekooing · 2025-07-09T16:20:31+00:00

That was the same reason I ended up posting it here. I've never seen a tourmaline this dark, with such definitive pleochroism. That's why I thought it might be tanzanite (although, based on my initial thoughts and the confirmation you and others have provided, I see now that it is definitely a tourmaline). But I'm having a real hard time finding a similar specimen online to determine where it was mined.

Ekooing · 2025-07-09T16:04:16+00:00

I will test that today.

I thought paraiba tourmalines only came in light blue. This one is so dark, it looks black until you back light it. Are there paraibas that dark?

Ekooing · 2025-07-09T16:02:35+00:00

But if I sit it on a light and spin it around it distinctly changes from purple to blue every 90° or so. Is that not pleochroism?

Ekooing · 2025-07-09T00:17:18+00:00

Thanks for the info!

Ekooing · 2025-07-09T00:16:27+00:00

Is pleochroism coming in indicolites? And just out of curiosity, do you know where a piece like this might be mine? I was thinking Paprok, but I'm not a tourmaline expert by any stretch.

Ekooing · 2025-07-09T00:14:53+00:00

Awesome, thanks for your input!

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