Author: Alan Molineux

The
bulletin
Newsletter of the
victor valley
Gem and
mineral club
Ph. (760) 243-2330
July 2011

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Your officers for 2011
2011 Executive Committee
President……………………...Cyndy Mandell….…………..244-7169
1st V.P (Membership)..Sheryl Grenell….…………..242-7602
2nd V.P (Education)…….Lois Papner…………………...244-7169
3rd V.P (Gem & Mineral Show chairman)
Jonathan Van DerLoop..245-2313
Recording Secretary….Alan Molineux……………….951-7064
Treasurer…………………….Carole Mc Michael.……….961-7659
Corresponding Secretary..Lynn Hallock…………...951-1736
All ‘Phone Numbers Board Members
have an area code Don Pomerenke………….….868-5264
of (760) unless Jim Fosse……...………….…..245-8644
shown otherwise. Carole Mc Michael…..…..961-7659
Gayland Graves……...…….902-3249
Past President……………..Gil Gilbert………………….….868-6900
CFMS Representative...Pat Estes ………….…..…….948-7324
Standing Committee Chairpersons
Wagon Master…………..Blaine Witte…………………….244-8211
Historian…………………….Jonathan Vanderloop…….245-2313
Maintenance……………...Ed Deren……..………………….252-7009
Librarian………………….…Lois Papner…….………………..244-7169
Newsletter…………...…..Alan Molineux…….…………...951-7064
Sunshine Lady…………..Bobbie Kaufman.………….….868-5120
Displays………….………….Andrew Turner………………..962-0095
Raffles……………………...Ed Deren……..…...……………..252-7009
Scholarships……………..Andrew Turner….…………...962-0095
Photography………….....Alan Molineux…………………..951-7064
Hospitality………………..Mike Stafford………………..248-7404
Webmaster……………….Jim Fosse…………………………245-8644
Tailgate……….…………….Brett Ward………………………948-1232
Jonathan VanderLoop…….245-2313
Training Coordinator..Lloyd Guilliam…………………962-6844
Instructors
Ed Deren, Jim Fosse, Gil Gilbert, Virgil Melton, Ed Skidmore, Pat Estes, Gayland Graves, Don Pomerenke,
Charles Toles, Cyndy Mandell, and Lloyd Guilliam, Terry Booth and John Hill. Club Website—www.vvgmc.org

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The Victor Valley Gem and Mineral Club
was organized in 1947 and has been the focal point of High Desert rock hounds for the past 64 years. The club takes active roles in various civic activities. Membership is open to all persons interested in the gem and mineral hobby and lapidary arts. Meetings are held at the clubhouse located at 15056-B, 7th Street (behind Kaman Bearing) in the center of Victorville. Visitors are always welcome.
For further information,
call (760) 243-2330.
Meeting dates
Our June General Meeting was held on Tuesday, 28th at 7:00p.m. and the July General Meeting will be on Tuesday the 26th.
On The Front Cover
Jim Fosse does many things for the club—particularly he has created the club website and keeps it up to date. Recently there was a CFMS competition to judge club websites and we came in second—Oxnard gem & mineral club was first. To commemorate this auspicious event I’ve put the CFMS certificate on the front cover of this issue of the Bulletin. Great work, Jim! The club website can be seen at www.vvgmc.org

Club Education Nights
As we all know, Education night is held at the clubhouse on the third Tuesday of each month. I always feature it in the club calendar.
Education night Tuesday, June 21st featured Lois Papner, our own 2nd Vice President speaking on tortoises. Lois has long been involved with studying the desert tortoises and its habits. She has a tortoise reserve in her back yard with 10 pampered adults, juveniles, and babies. She spoke about their nutrition needs, the current diseases affecting them, and current threats to their habitats. The program begins at 7:00 p.m.
Robert Lopez an artist will speak at our Tuesday, July 19 education meeting. He will be showing his very original work and discussing etching, finishes, fusing, Argentium silver and a little about his work.
Eric Scott the Curator of Paleontology for the San Bernardino County Museum will be our speaker for education night August 16th. His talk will be on The Pleistocene Epoch - the "Ice Ages". North America was populated by an amazing variety of large mammals, including mammoths, ground sloths, giant lions, horses, camels and bison. In the southwest, fossils of these animals are well known and one of the richest sites in the region is located practically in our backyard Las Vegas, Nevada! The deserts around Las Vegas have long been explored for ancient fossil remains, but recent studies by the San Bernardino County Museum have changed how we view the Ice Ages in this region. What animals once lived and died here? Do we know why these ancient behemoths went extinct? Did early humans once coexist with these great beasts? Join Eric Scott, Curator of Paleontology for the San Bernardino County Museum, for an evening talk that will explore the evidence and search for answers to these intriguing questions.

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June Board
Minutes
Terry Booth and John Hill were appointed instructors.
Corey Beck brought concerns from the recent general meeting to the board.
The painting has begun on the Kaman Building but the price has increased by 7% due to increases in labor and materials.
Lynne Hallock is checking with Shiloh Roofing re reroofing the clubhouse to see if that bid will remain the same.
Burrtec assures us that they will pay for repairs to the Kaman power pole and the check is in the mail.
The hillside behind the club is due to be repaired on club clean up day on Saturday, 25th of June.
Johnathan Vanderloop is checking to see if the Lyon’s Park in Apple Valley is available for a Fall tailgate.
A committee will be formed to examine the viability of reducing the scholarship amount from $2,000 to $1,000.
We will be getting an online version of Quick books to store our club financial records.
John Printz asked to extend the meeting times of the Petrified Pups to 9—2p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month.

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May General Meeting
Minutes
Carole Mc Michael was made a club LTM.
Crey Beck is doing a club display for June.
It was decided to give out (3) scholarships at $750 each. The winners were Molly Thompson of Cal State Stanislaw, Ian Penn of Cal State Sonoma and Alec Dotzer of Cal State Fullerton.
We will once again be having rock carving in Whittier.
We reached a lot of members of the public at the recent San Bernardino County Fair.
It was successfully voted on to have the Kaman Building repainted and the roof of the clubhouse resurfaced.
Bob Arias was successfully voted on for LTM.
Virgil spoke of his recent CFMS trip to Anderson, CA.
Andrew Turner brought up the issue of retaining the old saws. It was motioned, seconded and voted on the resume the saw auction.

Junior Member’s Guidelines
Junior members are 10—18 years of age.
From age (10) through age (13), the Junior member must be with (right next to) a sponsor* while working with the equipment.
From age (14) through age (17) the Junior member must be certified on the equipment he is using—and the sponsor* has to be in the club house while the Junior member is using the equipment.
At age (18) the Junior member can become an adult member of the club by going through the regular membership procedures.
No Junior member will be allowed to use the silver processing, wax casting, burn out ovens, and the mold making equipment.
* A sponsor is a club member (usually a relative of the Junior Member) that is certified on the equipment that the Junior member is using.
San Bernardino County Fair
Victor Valley Gem and Mineral Fair Demonstration Booth
Once again the club participated in the San Bernardino County Fair by having a demonstration booth in the Community Building. Our booth was one of the largest club booths at the fair for the fifth year in a row.
Many children and adults had the opportunity to actually select and cut a rock on our tile saw. They were also able to grind it on the glass grinder and were allowed to keep it as a gift from the club. Over 200 newsletters were handed out along with applications and web information. Many attendees were very interested in joining the club with their children.
I would like to thank all who volunteered to sit and demonstrate at the booth including: Sheryl and Rheiane Grenell, Neil and Clayton Davis, Barbara Minard (who sat everyday, all day), John and Chieko Printz, Ed and Taeko Deren, Ed and Debbie Deresford, Faith, Tina and Jesse LeBau, Jonathan VanDerLoop (who closed every night), Kalib and Tom Rector, Don and Marilyn Pomerenke, Alan and Kerri Molineux, Barbara Sausser, Barbara Burbeck, Terry Booth (who demonstrated knapping for the first time at our booth), Andrew and Natalie Turner, Curtis and Marilyn Pierson, Virgil Melton, Pat Estes, Megan and Michelle Miller, Christian Boston, Michael S. and Michael E. Groomes and Tyler and Scott Lafond.
A special thanks to Pat Estes, Virgil Melton, Curtis and Marilyn Pierson, Terry Booth, Cyndy Mandell, Don Pomerenke, and the Petrified Pups for their display boxes. The boxes gave the public a very good idea of the work that can be done at the club.
Club President—Cyndy Mandell

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July 2011

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1	2 Wkshp—12noon-5pm / Petrified Pups-9—2pm
3 Workshop / 12 noon—5p.m.	4	5 Instructor’s Meeting 6pm / Board Meeting 7pm	6 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	7 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	8	9 Workshop / 12 noon—5p.m.
10 Workshop / 12 noon—5p.m.	11	12	13 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	14 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	15	16 Wkshp—12noon-5pm / Petrified Pups-9—2pm
17 Workshop / 12 noon—5p.m.	18	19 Education/Demonstration Night 7pm	20 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	21 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	22	23 Workshop / 12 noon—5p.m.
24 Workshop / 12 noon—5p.m.	25	26 Pot Luck 6:30pm / Mnthly Genl. Mtg 7:30p.m	27 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	28 Workshop / 1—9p.m.	29	30 Wkshp-12noon-5p.m. / Club clean up 9am-till it ends
31 Workshop / 12 noon—5p.m.

Deadline for the August issue of the Bulletin is Monday, July, 18th. Ph.(760) 951-7064 or email amolineux@gmail.com

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Wanted—Rocks, Lapidary,
Materials & Equipment.
Call Charles Toles.
Home (760) 951-0372 Cell (760) 220-6748.

White Buffalo & other turquoise—from various states. Priced per piece
Contact Virgil Melton (760) 900-0507

Up to 25% off retail—
See the Sports Memorabilia Man
Jonathan Vanderloop at (760) 245-2313
We specialize in hard to find teams!
NBA, NASCAR, NFL, UFC
NHRA, COLLEGE, & NHL
sportsmemman@yahoo.com

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Our recent Field Trip
By Blaine Witte
On June 11th seven club members, four potential members and a guest gathered at the Burger King at Kramer Junction to visit nearby sites looking for jasper, agate, opalite, and petrified palm.
First we headed back a little south on the 395 and entered a small road on the east side of the road. Taking the road a few miles in we passed several old fenced abandoned mine shafts and came to a hill with an out cropping of jasper at least a couple of hundred feet wide.
It’s is a lesser known site and new to me. The quality of the material was mixed but with a little selectiveness one could come up with plenty of material. Some of the nicer material came in red with gold moss running through it.
Float material was in plenty but for the hardy there were larger pieces to be had by chisel and hammer. One the way out we came across a fairly good sized desert turtle about to cross the road. We stopped while Judy got out and stood guard while the rest of use passed carefully and left him behind undisturbed.

(Our Recent Field Trip—continued)
After this we went back out to the 395 and headed back towards the junction. At the telephone lines we turned east again and went in a couple of miles then turned south to two more well known sites. At the first of these sites we stopped at material was scattered densely in float.
Agate and jasper in red green and orange, some with moss. Also there was green opalite. The pit that produces the green opalite was partially reburied by the last rains and no one had the energy or interest to rally go after it. Some of the smaller pits produced an opalite with orange agate in it.
At the last site, not to far from away, we collected palm wood and root. Again, the material was in float and dense. Most of it was sort of a brownish root beer color but the patterns of the fiber and root were great. Also, one could find an accessional dendritic agate.
(Future field trips will be continued on the next page….Ed)

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Future Field Trips - Blaine Witte
Typically we haven’t had field trips in July and August due to the risk of heat related problems such as heat exhaustion. I was hoping to get around that by scouting out a couple of locations in friendlier climates. I’m not too exited about what I have scouted out so far.
I scouted out a couple locations near Wrightwood for actinolite. Actinolite is a green metamorphic material that can come in mass or in crystal. The most common material has a fibrous appearance and is brittle. It can’t be worked but makes good yard rock and looks good in a mineral display. Occasionally you can find some that is solid enough to work and looks a lot like jade when it is. More rarely one can find faceting grade crystals of actinolite. One of the actinolite sites is easily accessible and is along Hwy. 2 near the closure going towards L.A. A road cut has exposed a huge deposit of actinolite on one of the mountain sides. There is no end to the material but most of it is the fibrous fragile material.
Maybe, you might find some solid enough to work especially if have the know how to stabilize fragile rock. There is another site not to far from there as the crow flies but it is down a rouged forest road behind the Mountain High ski lifts. When I scouted this out earlier this week I found the road to be closed the last mile and a half or so. I think it is closed due to damage caused by last years fire. The road has signs of recent work and may be opening soon. This is were one might be more likely to find the faceting grade crystals of actinolite. Hiking may be restricted at this point and it is pretty tough grade to go.
Another possibility I checked out is the Santa Monica Mountains. There are a few sites just off the 101 Fwy that have been exposed by the road cuts. You can park along the road, get out and pick up agate at your feet. The material isn’t that plentiful nor is it that interesting. Larger pieces can be found in the road cut itself but getting to it can be risky. I can attest to that myself. Ouch! There is supposed to be nicer material back in the hills. You have to hike in and I didn’t have time to explore this. C.F.M.S. went on this trip last Spring, so I figure there must be something worth it out there somewhere.
The last place I have considered but not had the time to check out myself is the Palos Verde barite. This is right on the beach next to the old Marineland. There is a county park there and its an easy walk down a path to the rock beach below. I’ve seen pictures on crystal found here that are quite spectacular. Could be a fun outing.
If any one has interest in these let me know at the next meeting or call me at 760-985-9633.

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Girl Scout Geology Camp
by Cyndy Mandell
We flew to Sacramento Friday afternoon with the Women In Mining group to put on a geology seminar for the girl scouts. We spent the night at a hotel and then went to help with the Girl Scout Geology Camp. This event helps the girls earn a badge in geology. The Women In Mining helped in setting up six stations where the girls could rotate around every 45 minutes and do an activity. Lois and I had "cookie mining" the idea was to take apart a chocolate cookie and collect the chips for which they were paid $2.00. Before they could do that they had to go to the "store" and buy their tools: toothpicks, paper clip, and a cookie. After mining their cookie, without using their hands, they had to reclaim their land back into the hole they dug, a circle on their graft paper, and add up their expenses and income to see if they had made any money. Most of them lost money and it was really hard to mine the gold thereby linking the experience the miners faced.
Another station had them make toothpaste from scratch using calcium carbonate which is a ground up mineral. The rocks were available for them to see and touch. They had to add baking soda and then taste -- YUK! After the taste test they could add favoring, sugar, and food coloring then it tasted OK.
Pretty neat stuff, huh? I wish we had those activities when I was a kid. The event went from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and then we had to return the rented car and return to the airport. A full day and I subbed on Friday so I was exhausted. We didn't get up Sunday until noon!! I don't think I will try doing that again it was too draining, but the kids loved it and thanked us over and over.
CFMS Field Trip
Cub President, Cyndy Mandell and 2nd V.P Lois Papner went on a CFMS field trip to Bend, Oregon. At he end of May—unfortunately they encountered some bad weather.

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Snail
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Another
bulletin
Expressly for

Victor Valley Gem & Mineral Club
15056-B Seventh Street
Victorville, CA 92395-3811.
bulletin is the official monthly newsletter published by victor valley gem & mineral club and is distributed free of charge to both members and non members.
Views expressed by authors in the articles which appear in the bulletin do not necessarily reflect those of victor valley gem & mineral club. Responsibility is taken by the editor alone.
Articles from this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part in other lapidary news-letters if proper credit is given to the author and the bulletin.

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