At 6:15, junior rockhounds began with a lesson on the layers of our earth followed by a chance to cut open thunder eggs and geodes on a saw! The younger kids were helped at the saw but the older kids could cut on their own, with full safety gear, of course! These locally connected thunder…

This was a great one! At junior rockhounds, Jo taught the kids about how to best display rocks in a display cabinet for the upcoming September show. The main event included a hands-on tutorial from Leslie for making gemstone wire wrapped rings! Even kids got to participate with the adults in making their rings. The…

Colton demonstrated the flat lap to the junior rockhounds. They each got a chance to try it out and learned about switching out the wheels to finer grit levels. Then they got to paint rocks during the general meeting. The general meeting had the usual refreshments, awesome raffle prizes, and great silent auction options. They…

Junior Rockhounds and Pebble Pups received their first certificates, patches, and backpacks!  Jeff Bissely presented on meteorites with an excellent presentation and collection.

A great showing for both the junior rockhounds program and the general program! In junior rockhounds, the kids learned about the three types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Then they learned about mineral identification: the Mohs scale, a scratch test on tile, and an acid test (which didn’t fizz as much as we hoped…

Junior rockhounds is taking off! We had nine kids join the second meeting, where they learned about jaspers and piezoelectricity m quartz. The general meeting, which was packed,  included a special presentation from the O.G. rockhound, Jim Mills, “Rockhound Nostalgia.” We had the awesome silent auction and the raffle. Join us! Everyone is welcome!

Today we held the very first (of many) junior rockhound programs at 6:15 pm before the general meeting! Kim led with an intro to quartz. The kids got to keep specimens in their newly gifted rock boxes. This may have been the very first meeting, but a good number of families showed up. All the…

Some great options on the silent auction table! Today was a day for show and tell. Many members brought in cool finds and things they needed help identifying! There was petrified whale bone from Santa Barbara county, Benitoite (California’s state gemstone) from Benito County, lots of quartz, UV rocks, and more! The first junior rockhound…

The club met early at 6pm with an incredible potluck spread. After chatting and chowing down, it was time to pick a rock themed gift from the pile. Anyone who brought a gift could grab one and then could trade at the end. Who knew we had so many members!?! After eating and gifts it…

We had a great showing for the meeting this month, which included volunteering people for elected positions within the club. Kim and Mary have been wearing too many hats for years and were ready to hand over the reins. Dan signed up for CFMS liaison. Mary continues as show chair. Kim will cover meeting planning,…