The Big Sikhote-Alin Meteorite Sold!
The large Sikhote-Alin Meteorite I arranged to have Geoffrey Notkin of Aerolite Meteorites (he's also one half of the "Meteorite Men" duo on the Science Channel) sell for me finally sold this past week.
It first went on the market around the time of the 2009 Tucson Show where it it made its U.S. show debut after being purchased from David Richter of Rocks & Relics at the 2002 Munich Show who in turn sold it to me back in 2004.
We sold it for over three times what I paid for it with Notkin receiving a reasonable commission per our consignment arrangement.
This meteorite almost certainly would have sold much sooner were the economy not so bad this year.
However, I am grateful it fetched the price it did as well as when it did as it could have remained unsold for quite some time.
Notkin handled this entire matter with the utmost professionalism and courtesy and with due diligence and thus we highly recommend him to anybody. He's also a really nice guy, as well.
By the way, he has a fascinating and informative blog entitled Meteorwritings on Geology.com.
Tomorrow I drive up to Willits to get Krissa and bring her back down to Atascadero so she can spend her Summer break with me to which I'm greatly looking forward. She has a dentist appointment in the morning so she had to wait until then before coming down despite her last day of class being on May 21st.
This evening Krissa turned 21 years of age during the 7 PM hour but she won't be doing any barhopping I can assure you.
The third anniversary of when we first met is on June 6th meaning, yes, we met on 6/6/06.
That also means I first met her a mere week after she turned 18. Ack!
I did not see her as anything other than a friend until early in 2007.
I did notice how much weight she lost between the first time I met her in June 2006 and the second time I met her later that year in September 2006 or thereabouts and noticed she had a nice figure but then proceeded to ignore that fact.
I must say I was initially quite uncomfortable with our age difference while she could care less from the get-go.
However, in time, I got used to it and accepted it and now don't think much about it.
We established the friendship first with no hormonal or emotional storms to cloud our judgement which is important and I'm glad.
Now, here we are about three years later and still friends and speaking to one another.
This past week was my third week working two days a week for Steve and so far so good.
I like working for the guy and we get a lot of work done all the while entertaining each other as we share several common interests and numerous viewpoints about the world. All the while I"m paying bills which until this job I had been falling behind on due to slow shows this year. I'm also learning skills I can use down the road when I have my own farm situation.
This past week we escalated the promotional efforts relating to San Luis Obispo Gem & Mineral Club's 49th Annual June Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show.
Fliers began going out to businesses and I belatedly sent some to each of our dealers.
From now on I will give the dealers at our two shows a year the fliers for the next show about half a year later.
We have already busy promoting this show over the internet for some time now which will continue right up until and through the show.
This coming week will see even more activity with banners going up and fliers going out en mass and a newspaper add being purchased in the New Times and possibly The Cambrian newspaper. Furthermore, I will be writing an article about the show to be offered to any local newspaper that will receive it for purposes of free publicity in exchange for free content.
By the way, my part-time employer Steve will be in that show selling his showcases and such.
Krissa and I shall be in this show this coming weekend, Friday through Sunday, June 5th through 7th, 10 AM to 5 PM, on the campus of Pierce College.
For additional info check HERE.
We will be in this show for the first time ever and are grateful to get into it and excited about its potential.
However, we are a bit wary given how many shows this year that we were excited about which failed to live up to our expectations.
We have not seen much online promotion of this show which is not to say it has not been promoted well online.
Consequently, we are slightly concerned the Rockatomics Gem & Mineral Society is not promoting it as well as it could be and needs to be promoted.
We hope our concerns are unfounded in fact.
As of now we plan on conducting a multi-family yard sale here at my house here in Atascadero on Friday and Saturday, June 19th and 20th, 2009, 7 AM to 2 PM and invite the world to show up and lighten our load and fill our wallets. We will give out more details closer to the time if our plan holds together. Today, I and one of my roommates conducted a dry run of sorts yard sale with little promotion to just work out a system to make the real deal go smoother in a few weeks. We did get a few people coming by who saw our lone advertisement on Craigslist that was only up about day prior or so.
Nothing much has happened for us on this front for quite some time.
Actually, the only rockhounding I've done this month was at the ranch of that guy we met at the Superior California Show earlier this month who invited us to join him at his place to look at the geology there and tell him what we could read of what we saw as well as to do a little gold panning (we found nothing).
It first went on the market around the time of the 2009 Tucson Show where it it made its U.S. show debut after being purchased from David Richter of Rocks & Relics at the 2002 Munich Show who in turn sold it to me back in 2004.
We sold it for over three times what I paid for it with Notkin receiving a reasonable commission per our consignment arrangement.
This meteorite almost certainly would have sold much sooner were the economy not so bad this year.
However, I am grateful it fetched the price it did as well as when it did as it could have remained unsold for quite some time.
Notkin handled this entire matter with the utmost professionalism and courtesy and with due diligence and thus we highly recommend him to anybody. He's also a really nice guy, as well.
By the way, he has a fascinating and informative blog entitled Meteorwritings on Geology.com.
Krissa is Coming!
Tomorrow I drive up to Willits to get Krissa and bring her back down to Atascadero so she can spend her Summer break with me to which I'm greatly looking forward. She has a dentist appointment in the morning so she had to wait until then before coming down despite her last day of class being on May 21st.
Krissa is 21!
This evening Krissa turned 21 years of age during the 7 PM hour but she won't be doing any barhopping I can assure you.
The third anniversary of when we first met is on June 6th meaning, yes, we met on 6/6/06.
That also means I first met her a mere week after she turned 18. Ack!
I did not see her as anything other than a friend until early in 2007.
I did notice how much weight she lost between the first time I met her in June 2006 and the second time I met her later that year in September 2006 or thereabouts and noticed she had a nice figure but then proceeded to ignore that fact.
I must say I was initially quite uncomfortable with our age difference while she could care less from the get-go.
However, in time, I got used to it and accepted it and now don't think much about it.
We established the friendship first with no hormonal or emotional storms to cloud our judgement which is important and I'm glad.
Now, here we are about three years later and still friends and speaking to one another.
On the Employment Front
This past week was my third week working two days a week for Steve and so far so good.
I like working for the guy and we get a lot of work done all the while entertaining each other as we share several common interests and numerous viewpoints about the world. All the while I"m paying bills which until this job I had been falling behind on due to slow shows this year. I'm also learning skills I can use down the road when I have my own farm situation.
49th Annual Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show
This past week we escalated the promotional efforts relating to San Luis Obispo Gem & Mineral Club's 49th Annual June Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show.
Fliers began going out to businesses and I belatedly sent some to each of our dealers.
From now on I will give the dealers at our two shows a year the fliers for the next show about half a year later.
We have already busy promoting this show over the internet for some time now which will continue right up until and through the show.
This coming week will see even more activity with banners going up and fliers going out en mass and a newspaper add being purchased in the New Times and possibly The Cambrian newspaper. Furthermore, I will be writing an article about the show to be offered to any local newspaper that will receive it for purposes of free publicity in exchange for free content.
By the way, my part-time employer Steve will be in that show selling his showcases and such.
Rockatomics Rockhound Roundup 2009
Krissa and I shall be in this show this coming weekend, Friday through Sunday, June 5th through 7th, 10 AM to 5 PM, on the campus of Pierce College.
For additional info check HERE.
We will be in this show for the first time ever and are grateful to get into it and excited about its potential.
However, we are a bit wary given how many shows this year that we were excited about which failed to live up to our expectations.
We have not seen much online promotion of this show which is not to say it has not been promoted well online.
Consequently, we are slightly concerned the Rockatomics Gem & Mineral Society is not promoting it as well as it could be and needs to be promoted.
We hope our concerns are unfounded in fact.
K&K Earthwerks June Yard Sale
As of now we plan on conducting a multi-family yard sale here at my house here in Atascadero on Friday and Saturday, June 19th and 20th, 2009, 7 AM to 2 PM and invite the world to show up and lighten our load and fill our wallets. We will give out more details closer to the time if our plan holds together. Today, I and one of my roommates conducted a dry run of sorts yard sale with little promotion to just work out a system to make the real deal go smoother in a few weeks. We did get a few people coming by who saw our lone advertisement on Craigslist that was only up about day prior or so.
On the Rockhounding Front
Nothing much has happened for us on this front for quite some time.
Actually, the only rockhounding I've done this month was at the ranch of that guy we met at the Superior California Show earlier this month who invited us to join him at his place to look at the geology there and tell him what we could read of what we saw as well as to do a little gold panning (we found nothing).
Weather Notes
May is over and so is climatological Spring in California and earlier so this year than "normal" whatever that means anymore.
It seems California is a month or more ahead of schedule this Spring when it comes to seasonal benchmarks. We've effectively been in fire season all month whereas in a normal year the fire season doesn't get significantly going until June and even later in the North State.
Early this month we experienced the Jesusita Fire in Santa Barbara County.
We've also seen significant monsoonal moisture and convective activity (thunderstorms) over much of California over the past week with resulting wildfires. Typically, we don't start seeing this until June at the earliest and some years even later.
This does not bode well for what we may expect this year over the course of California's annual fire season.
Four Things I've Noticed About Recent Fire Seasons In California
Four big changes I've noted in recent years when it comes to fire patterns in California are as follows:
1) Fires are getting BIGGER in California (and Arizona) despite better technology and knowledge of fire behavior.
2) Fire sieges now occur in BOTH halves of California in the same year as opposed to alternating year to year or even less frequently.
3) Fires now occur year-around in California and with near-regularity as opposed to every now and then as in the past.
4) Fire sieges in Southern California related to Santa Ana Wind Events now happen nearly every year as opposed to every several years or so as in the past.
Santa Barbara Area Fire History
This subject came up on my California Disasters Yahoo group recently and I compiled this list which I posted there for purposes of comparison and identifying patterns of when fires happen over the course of a calendar year. Here is the list for your edification:
Refugio Fire ~ September, 1955
Coyote Fire ~ September, 1964
Wellman Fire ~ June, 1966
Romero Fire ~ October, 1971
Sycamore Fire ~ July, 1977
Honda Canyon Fire ~ December, 1977
Eagle Canyon Fire ~ September, 1979
Wheeler Fire ~ July, 1985
Painted Cave Fire ~ June, 1990
Marre Fire ~ September, 1993
Harris Fire ~ September, 2000
Gaviota Fire ~ June, 2004
Zaca Fire ~ July, 2007
Gap Fire ~ July, 2008
Tea Fire ~ November, 2008
Jesusita Fire ~ May, 2009
Note: Some of these are a bit further away from Santa Barbara but in the general vicinity in any case.
Also note: the above list does not include the following fires which burned along the Highway 166 corridor in far northern Santa Barbara County near the San Luis Obispo County line:
Spanish Ranch Fire ~ August, 1979
Spanish Ranch Fire ~ July, 2000
Perkins Fire ~ June, 2006
Kimmer
