[meteorite-list] Hunting in West, Texas - thanks to Mike Farmer and his team!

[Charley]

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: <jbaxter112 at pol.net>

> Subject: [meteorite-list] Hunting in West, Texas - thanks to Mike

> Farmer and his team!

> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>

> Message-ID:

> <48596.10.250.10.1.1235974811.squirrel at 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 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=view&current=MikeFarmersstonefoundinthemorming.jpg

>

> http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/CaneySprings/?action=view&current=GregHupesstoneinsitu.jpg

>

> http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/CaneySprings/?action=view&current=MikeFarmersstonefoundnearsunset.jpg

>

> Mike Farmer photographing Greg Hupe's stone:

>

> http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/CaneySprings/?action=view&current=MikeFarmerphotographingGregHupessto.jpg

>

> and videos:

>

> Christopher Cottingham moments after finding a gorgeous oriented

> stone:

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbOkrUhxv-w

>

> One of many meteorwrongs:

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw8McUss7pc

>

> sunset near West Texas:

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD1d6gpnang