[meteorite-list] Hunting in West, Texas - thanks to Mike Farmer and his team!
Hi Jim, Thanks for sharing! It sounds like it was a great time and I, like so many other list members, wish I could have been there. Thanks again and best regards, Charley Well, squids don't work. Hey! Let's try elephants ! Hannibal Message: 18 Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 01:20:11 -0500 (EST) From: jbaxter...@pol.net Subject: [meteorite-list] Hunting in West, Texas - thanks to Mike Farmer and his team! To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Message-ID: 48596.10.250.10.1.1235974811.squir...@webmail.medscape.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Hi Folks, A few thoughts and a BIG thanks to Mike and his team regarding my first and only meteorite hunt this past Thursday. As I was reading on the list, early this past week, about everyone's adventures hunting in Texas I realized I had a day and a half off work at the end of the week. On a whim checked out Southwest's prices to Texas and saw to my surprise that I could get out there and back for about $200. It seemed like too great an opportunity to miss; a fresh U.S. fall! I was especially motivated by Mike's earlier observation that with ploughing imminent many of the stones not found in the near future will be gone forever. I e-mailed Mike Farmer and asked if I could join his team for a day to which he kindly responded, I'd welcome that. I arrived at the search site around 8:45 just as Mike Cottingham's son, Christopher, found a gorgeous oriented complete stone. Good omen, I thought! I was so psyched I launched into hunting without changing out of my street shoes, to the amusement of the pro's. Mike took me under his wing and gave me a quick tutorial and off I went, eyes to the ground. I was getting a picture from Mike as we walked about how they had gone about their hunt in the past ten days. We were in flat open fields with lots of clumps of taller grass with more open areas in between with shorter grass. Surely many fine stones were hidden way beyond sight within the taller clumps- no way to find them at this point. The stones were there, though, some peeping through the shorter grass, some just sitting on the surface. I saw Mike Farmer, Greg Hupe, and McCartney Taylor find stones. The stones were, however, very widely dispersed. I'd say the ratio of pitch-black, roughly meteorite shaped 30 gram hunks of fresh animal dung to meteorites was about 1000 to one. The four finds I witnessed were hundreds of yards apart from each other. McCartney showed me how he grids an area adjacent to a find to try to systematically look for other pieces(many thanks, MT). I walked continuously except for a couple of 5 minute water breaks from about 8:45 am until sunset. I'm sure I walked at least 20 miles. Alas no stone for me! Mike was kind enough to stick with me and keep looking as the sun was setting. He was rewarded by finding a stone in the dying light( I think his third of the day). It was really disappointing not to find my own stone but it was an amazing experience nonetheless. I had talked to several 'pro's' who had had days with zero meteorites found so I knew up front that getting 'skunked' was a possibility. On the plus side, I got to meet Mike Cottingham and his son, Christopher, Eric Wichman and his wife, and Greg Hupe. McCartney and Robert Ward who I knew from Tucson were there in the field. At one point in the day, Mike, McCartney, Greg and I talked to the lady who owned the property and who was kind enough to give us permission to hunt there. She gave a great account of hearing a house-rattling explosion and going out to see a smoke cloud overhead with spirals extending from it. Overall a super educational experience. In the fading light I shook Mike's hand and thanked him for his generosity in letting me join them in the hunt for a day. I was sad not to have found one but felt the experience itself was well worth the effort and money spent. I would recommend it to anyone if there is a fall anywhere near you. I was shocked when Mike reached over and handed me a bag containing a 5.9 gram gorgeous fully crusted meteorite he had found earlier and said, Here, I can't let you leave here without a meteorite. I couldn't believe his generosity. As I told him in an email thanking him again, based on both the experience of hunting and the good heartedness of his gift, if bad times arrive and I have to sell off every other meteorite I own, that one will definitely stay with me. Best wishes to all, Jim Baxter p.s. I now really have a visceral understanding about pricing on these stones. In a strewnfield like this where they are small, well hidden, and widely dispersed a full days hard work may just yield a few grams and many days yield none. A realistic price would have to be at a minimum, to just break even, the cost of travel, lodging and vehicles divided by grams found. And here the denominator is small leading
[meteorite-list] Hunting in West, Texas - thanks to Mike Farmer and his team!
Hi Folks, A few thoughts and a BIG thanks to Mike and his team regarding my first and only meteorite hunt this past Thursday. As I was reading on the list, early this past week, about everyone's adventures hunting in Texas I realized I had a day and a half off work at the end of the week. On a whim checked out Southwest's prices to Texas and saw to my surprise that I could get out there and back for about $200. It seemed like too great an opportunity to miss; a fresh U.S. fall! I was especially motivated by Mike's earlier observation that with ploughing imminent many of the stones not found in the near future will be gone forever. I e-mailed Mike Farmer and asked if I could join his team for a day to which he kindly responded, I'd welcome that. I arrived at the search site around 8:45 just as Mike Cottingham's son, Christopher, found a gorgeous oriented complete stone. Good omen, I thought! I was so psyched I launched into hunting without changing out of my street shoes, to the amusement of the pro's. Mike took me under his wing and gave me a quick tutorial and off I went, eyes to the ground. I was getting a picture from Mike as we walked about how they had gone about their hunt in the past ten days. We were in flat open fields with lots of clumps of taller grass with more open areas in between with shorter grass. Surely many fine stones were hidden way beyond sight within the taller clumps- no way to find them at this point. The stones were there, though, some peeping through the shorter grass, some just sitting on the surface. I saw Mike Farmer, Greg Hupe, and McCartney Taylor find stones. The stones were, however, very widely dispersed. I'd say the ratio of pitch-black, roughly meteorite shaped 30 gram hunks of fresh animal dung to meteorites was about 1000 to one. The four finds I witnessed were hundreds of yards apart from each other. McCartney showed me how he grids an area adjacent to a find to try to systematically look for other pieces(many thanks, MT). I walked continuously except for a couple of 5 minute water breaks from about 8:45 am until sunset. I'm sure I walked at least 20 miles. Alas no stone for me! Mike was kind enough to stick with me and keep looking as the sun was setting. He was rewarded by finding a stone in the dying light( I think his third of the day). It was really disappointing not to find my own stone but it was an amazing experience nonetheless. I had talked to several 'pro's' who had had days with zero meteorites found so I knew up front that getting 'skunked' was a possibility. On the plus side, I got to meet Mike Cottingham and his son, Christopher, Eric Wichman and his wife, and Greg Hupe. McCartney and Robert Ward who I knew from Tucson were there in the field. At one point in the day, Mike, McCartney, Greg and I talked to the lady who owned the property and who was kind enough to give us permission to hunt there. She gave a great account of hearing a house-rattling explosion and going out to see a smoke cloud overhead with spirals extending from it. Overall a super educational experience. In the fading light I shook Mike's hand and thanked him for his generosity in letting me join them in the hunt for a day. I was sad not to have found one but felt the experience itself was well worth the effort and money spent. I would recommend it to anyone if there is a fall anywhere near you. I was shocked when Mike reached over and handed me a bag containing a 5.9 gram gorgeous fully crusted meteorite he had found earlier and said, Here, I can't let you leave here without a meteorite. I couldn't believe his generosity. As I told him in an email thanking him again, based on both the experience of hunting and the good heartedness of his gift, if bad times arrive and I have to sell off every other meteorite I own, that one will definitely stay with me. Best wishes to all, Jim Baxter p.s. I now really have a visceral understanding about pricing on these stones. In a strewnfield like this where they are small, well hidden, and widely dispersed a full days hard work may just yield a few grams and many days yield none. A realistic price would have to be at a minimum, to just break even, the cost of travel, lodging and vehicles divided by grams found. And here the denominator is small leading to a high price by most ordinary chondrite standards. If these guys were scooping up bushels of them the price would be quite low but that's sadly not the case. Too bad because the interior of this one has fabulous fine brecciation and, as I learned here, there is nothing to compare to the texture of the crust of a just-fallen meteorite. p.p.s I've posted a few images: Stones as found before being moved: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/CaneySprings/?action=viewcurrent=MikeFarmersstonefoundinthemorming.jpg http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/CaneySprings/?action=viewcurrent=GregHupesstoneinsitu.jpg
Re: [meteorite-list] Hunting in West, Texas - thanks to Mike Farmer and his team!
Hi Jim, Thanks for the excellent report. As a novice collector and never having gone on a hunt, your account was inspiring. Greg Lindh - Original Message - From: jbaxter...@pol.net To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 11:20 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Hunting in West,Texas - thanks to Mike Farmer and his team! Hi Folks, A few thoughts and a BIG thanks to Mike and his team regarding my first and only meteorite hunt this past Thursday. As I was reading on the list, early this past week, about everyone's adventures hunting in Texas I realized I had a day and a half off work at the end of the week. On a whim checked out Southwest's prices to Texas and saw to my surprise that I could get out there and back for about $200. It seemed like too great an opportunity to miss; a fresh U.S. fall! I was especially motivated by Mike's earlier observation that with ploughing imminent many of the stones not found in the near future will be gone forever. I e-mailed Mike Farmer and asked if I could join his team for a day to which he kindly responded, I'd welcome that. I arrived at the search site around 8:45 just as Mike Cottingham's son, Christopher, found a gorgeous oriented complete stone. Good omen, I thought! I was so psyched I launched into hunting without changing out of my street shoes, to the amusement of the pro's. Mike took me under his wing and gave me a quick tutorial and off I went, eyes to the ground. I was getting a picture from Mike as we walked about how they had gone about their hunt in the past ten days. We were in flat open fields with lots of clumps of taller grass with more open areas in between with shorter grass. Surely many fine stones were hidden way beyond sight within the taller clumps- no way to find them at this point. The stones were there, though, some peeping through the shorter grass, some just sitting on the surface. I saw Mike Farmer, Greg Hupe, and McCartney Taylor find stones. The stones were, however, very widely dispersed. I'd say the ratio of pitch-black, roughly meteorite shaped 30 gram hunks of fresh animal dung to meteorites was about 1000 to one. The four finds I witnessed were hundreds of yards apart from each other. McCartney showed me how he grids an area adjacent to a find to try to systematically look for other pieces(many thanks, MT). I walked continuously except for a couple of 5 minute water breaks from about 8:45 am until sunset. I'm sure I walked at least 20 miles. Alas no stone for me! Mike was kind enough to stick with me and keep looking as the sun was setting. He was rewarded by finding a stone in the dying light( I think his third of the day). It was really disappointing not to find my own stone but it was an amazing experience nonetheless. I had talked to several 'pro's' who had had days with zero meteorites found so I knew up front that getting 'skunked' was a possibility. On the plus side, I got to meet Mike Cottingham and his son, Christopher, Eric Wichman and his wife, and Greg Hupe. McCartney and Robert Ward who I knew from Tucson were there in the field. At one point in the day, Mike, McCartney, Greg and I talked to the lady who owned the property and who was kind enough to give us permission to hunt there. She gave a great account of hearing a house-rattling explosion and going out to see a smoke cloud overhead with spirals extending from it. Overall a super educational experience. In the fading light I shook Mike's hand and thanked him for his generosity in letting me join them in the hunt for a day. I was sad not to have found one but felt the experience itself was well worth the effort and money spent. I would recommend it to anyone if there is a fall anywhere near you. I was shocked when Mike reached over and handed me a bag containing a 5.9 gram gorgeous fully crusted meteorite he had found earlier and said, Here, I can't let you leave here without a meteorite. I couldn't believe his generosity. As I told him in an email thanking him again, based on both the experience of hunting and the good heartedness of his gift, if bad times arrive and I have to sell off every other meteorite I own, that one will definitely stay with me. Best wishes to all, Jim Baxter p.s. I now really have a visceral understanding about pricing on these stones. In a strewnfield like this where they are small, well hidden, and widely dispersed a full days hard work may just yield a few grams and many days yield none. A realistic price would have to be at a minimum, to just break even, the cost of travel, lodging and vehicles divided by grams found. And here the denominator is small leading to a high price by most ordinary chondrite standards. If these guys were scooping up bushels of them the price would be quite low but that's sadly not the case. Too bad because the interior of this one has fabulous fine brecciation and, as I learned here,
