i'm gonna fill in the details on that piece and then i have to give over the pc to the AM (he's got some stuff to do too).... ok, the boot is smooth with some jagged spots on it. it is granular looking and has some pitting going on. haven't done the knife or glass test yet but can't scratch it with my nail. it has light and dark grey spots on it. i've had it for over 16 years and can't remember if i found it in a gravel road or what. it appears to be the same on both sides although on one side the "ankle" is smooth and the other is bumpy. what is interesting, besides the symmetry, is the indentation where the achilles is over he back of the foot and before the beginning of the calf. if this was nature made, it's amazing. it never occurred to me that it could be a petrified dolls foot. and now i've got to go. thanks for your help marcia and for spurring on my interest! oh, and i've still got to find a jeweler's glass and a black light. tried a black light bulb but it wasn't the same.

Thanks Wolfie for the interesting posts...like a treasure hunt. More on the doll's foot tomorrow, then?! I'll be here.

:-) Hey, this was real fun reading! You two will get the Indiana-Jones-Treasure-Hunters-Award for this one! Those stones are interesting. I got a box full which my parents collected, there are amethysts between and garnet and other stuff. My sisters lives at the north sea and always finds these precious ambers...I never had the luck to find something worthy at the shores...

me either!

Make that three of us...I found broken stuff in the Atlantic as a child, and out here there is more different stuff because of being in coral reef territory, but there is still no amber or anything close to it washing up around me. Hi Isabel! Happy you enjoyed our little fun evening of detective work. I really had a great time with it! Thanks again, Wolfie...time to get to the little foot again?

yeah! and i found a couple other interesting rocks mixed with my earliest collection of land shells. let's do one rock at a time! so what is your theory on my boot?

Does it seem like it is old eroded porcelain or does it seem hard enough to be stone? If it is stone it could be almost anything, but it could also be part of a figurine. I am still opting for the doll foot.

i have no idea about eroded porcelain.

How hard is it? Try your knife and window again

1. scratches glass 2. knife scratches rock

Huh! hmmm....does it seem to be of some sort of glass, as well?

Can you see light through it? (get out that flashlight again!)

i don't know! the residue from scratching with the knife made me think of sand and the scratch left a white mark.

as to the light, no, it's opaque...

Hmmm...turn over a coffee mug or plate and find where it is not glazed. Does that scratch whichever?

it didn't leave a discernable mark, but did draw on it (like chalk). the unglazed portion of the mug left a white mark on the boot.

..engraved white mark on the boot?...that means it is harder than the boot. Unglazed porcelain is hard - about 7... so it is used as a diagnostic for streak (Do you have some polished hematite which has a dark metallic luster and is often made into beads? Try that on your unglazed porcelain.)Do you have a stee life handy? Try that...it is 6 1/2.

that's what i used, a steel knife....i have a polished black stone ring but am not sure if it's hematite. actually, the white mark is gone now after i rubbed my finger over it.

the scratch from the knife is still there, i can feel the indentation with my nail.

I'm guessing it is just slightly harder than glass but enough to scratch it. Pure forms of silica would react like that but would be clear and without inclusions. Thinking.... Do you recall from whence this little footie came?

Ok softer than 5 1/2 so likely not glass or silica of any form. (Your black stone is probably onyx if it does not have a metallic luster) Try a penny - which scratches which and how much (I am guessing it will scratch the penny which is 2 1/2.)

the black stone is in the form of a ring--it's not onyx....ok, now to find a penny...is my little boot gonna get all ruined from all these experiments?

ok, it scratched the penny, but we expected that, right?

(back to the ring, i think it is hematite....it's black with a silvery lustre and very smooth.)

ok, i tried the hematite and boot scratching thing and neither scratched the other.....

No, find something tiny and unglazed to use on the underside of your stone ring (it will scratch your ring, so use it on the inside.) If you don't wish to do this I will tell you what happens. (I have a pair of them and wear them as guards on a jade or carnelian ring made the same way)

Put that boot somewhere in a safe place until I can think of other things to try. I am having to look through my texts now to see what it might be.

are you talking about using the boot on the inside of the ring? i did and no marks.

ooohh, making marcia do some deep research!! thanks, girl, for your help and patience with me and my rocks!

'night! *hugs*

Break a dish or somethiing really badly chipped. Take the bigest piece you can slip into the inside of your ring and see what color streak it scrapes off...just the tiniest scratch will suffice. If you do not wish to do that I will tell you in the morning what your results would have been and why. Meanwhile hitting the books for boot ID, and downloading lava pix for Travel/Hawaii ... G'night, Wolfie! *hugs*

Don't know quite where to put this little story but it IS a rock we are talking about and not old enough for Paleo... Woman Carries 'Fossil' Fetus for 49 Years TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan doctors operating on a 76-year old woman discovered a ``fossilized'' fetus in her abdomen conceived 49 years ago a phenomenon recorded only three times in history, hospital sources said Wednesday. The Veterans General Hospital said doctors on December 31 found a 20 gram (0.7 ounce) lithopaedion, the rocklike remains of a fetus hardened by calcium buildup, in the abdominal cavity of a woman surnamed Wu. The baby appeared to have died in the 20th week of Wu's pregnancy when the fetus moved from her womb to her abdomen. The hospital said their research yielded only three known lithopaedions, and the earliest case dated back to 1582, when a 28-year old fetus was found in French woman.

(Wolfie is not going to be happy with me as this is linked to her collecting conference, but it IS a rock...)

it is an interesting rock to say the least. how could she not have known?

Some people are dead from the neck up, I think! No sense, no feeling and all those old adages must be true!

Don't think I'll put one of those on my wish list...Yeesh!

euw! well, on the subject of rocks, i received my mom's package with the photo albums and guess what was in there? the mysterious kansas rock pictures. yup, tomorrow i'll scan and post them for you to marvel over. yes, am gonna keep you in suspense! :)

Yes! I remember. Big'uns, if I recall correctly...! Waiting patiently...well...as patiently as I can...*sigh*....Yippee!

ok, here's the link to the mysterious kansas rock formations: http://www.spring.net/~bayou/rocks.gif

For the time being it is http://206.97.234.70//~bayou/rocks.gif except for the fortunate few who can still get in the old way... Oh my! They look like fossilized butter rolls which you peel to eat (I cannot think of their real name...) They are just sitting around like that with all those layers? Never thought they'd look like that in Iowa! Thanks, Wolfie!

iowa? kansas, marcia! *heehee* they're absolutely huge. we climbed on some of them. can't even remember what the site was called. a bunch were perfectly round and others were flatter. they all had that butter roll look though.

Absolutely amazing! Funny thing I can never remember the midwest because whenever I flew over it the states were not painted different colors like on my map and I could not tell where I was. They could have at least painted the edges a different color...*sigh*

the midwest looks like a patchwork quilt to me....(check out my post in linens)

I did...and noted that I am to "talk" to Terry which I shall do straight away. *hugs*

Talk to me, talk to me.

Wolfie and I would like an Arts and Crafts Conference, unless you think it is too much and would be more properly a Topic in another conference. This would be handmade things from crocheting and knitting to doll-making, teddy bear making and tapestry to name a few. Pottery, woodworking and glassblowing also come to mind. Or should this be under the Art Conference? Not all of it is art however...sewing of clothes and design of same...lots of cross-overs to be linked if it is a separate conference. Let s know. Thanks! When you have, time, of course! *hugs*

...or just plain CRAFTS would probably be better...

yeah, cuz then it wouldn't be confused with the arts and if we run across topics that would serve a purpose (and it's ok with ree ree) we could link them up. i've got a bunch of ideas for a crafts topic! (and terry, i want to send something to help with the bills but it will have to wait until payday. always tell myself that i'm gonna do that and i forget, so maybe this way, i'll be more apt to remember *grin*) speaking of rocks, i saw a show today on emerald mining. how tempting it must be for those miners to want to walk off with something. guards were all over the place (i think they were in mexico or someplace else where they speak spanish)--no offense but i can't remember where they were. they were 300 feet below the surface and air had to be blown in. i'd be so scared!

oh, thanks terry *smoooooooch* (and to you, marcia for taking the ball and running with it)

Museum Sues Indians Over Meteorite Ownership NEW YORK (Reuters) - The American Museum of Natural History sued an American Indian group Monday to block its claim to the 15.5-ton Willamette Meteorite, one of the museum's oldest treasures and a centerpiece of its newly opened planetarium. The suit seeks a court ruling that the museum is the rightful owner of the largest meteorite ever found in the United States. It also seeks a ruling that it does not have to repatriate the extraterrestrial object to an Oregon Indian group that alleges that the gigantic meteorite is a holy tribal object that brought messages from the spirit world long before the arrival of white men. The museum's lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court a little over a week after the much touted opening of its sleek $210 million Rose Center for Earth and Space on Manhattan's upper West Side. The metallic iron meteorite, which is believed to have fallen to earth 10,000 years ago from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, holds a place of honor on the main floor in the planetarium's astrophysics hall. It has been viewed by countless scientists, teachers and schoolchildren for nearly a century. The lawsuit alleged that the meteorite's ownership history dates back to at least 1855 when various Indian tribes voluntarily ceded the meteorite, which was once located in the upper Willamette Valley in Oregon, to the United States in exchange for reservation land and other considerations. In 1905, the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon ruled that the meteorite belonged to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company as owner of the land on which the object was found. The company sold the meteorite to the American Museum of Natural History the next year for $20,600. Almost immediately after its purchase, the museum began to study the object and it has been on almost continuous display since 1906. According to the lawsuit, the current ownership dispute began during the fall of 1999 when representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon visited the museum. The federally recognized group consists of a number of tribes from the Upper Willamette Valley, including the Clackamas which ceded the meteorite in 1855, the suit said. At the end of their visit, the representatives submitted a written claim for repatriation to the museum stating that the meteorite is a sacred object. It filed its claim under the federal law known at the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. The law was written for the preservation and repatriation of Native American cultural and religious artifacts. To obtain repatriation of a sacred object, a tribe must show that it is a sacred object, that the tribe owned or controlled it and that the museum does not have a right of possession, the suit said. The museum alleged that the Oregon Indian group did not meet these requirements.

Gee, perhaps I was not talking loud enough in the post before last...?!

are we people sue happy or what? who can own a meteorite? sheesh!

I'd sure like to have one, but I must not! They belong to everyone as far as I am concerned! Greed once again rears its ugly head...!

Of course, all of the famous legendary swords were forged out of meteroitic iron. Iron from the gods made them invincible - and we still remember the names today - as in Excalibur...

well, it's one thing if you happened across a piece, kinda like the berlin wall, but to sue for ownership? this world has become quite greedy. i'd love to just see one in person (already landed and no damage done safely inside a scientific museum) *knock on wood*

*lol* Me too!!! Exhibit A....

(Sometime, when I am not cooking supper, remind me to tell you why you knock on wood!)

it's from an old myth, right? anyway, i don't like tempting fate, God, or whatever....

you guys are just eating supper? and you're still posting?

Nope - I took off about 15 minutes to eat and another 10 to clean up the dishes and kitchen...and I am back at it. As I write itis 5:36pm and we watched the local evening news while consuming my homemade pisghetti.

I think I only just missed you! It's 4 am here and I'm working already.

You so not sleep much. It is almost 5am and I have kept you from doing anything constructive =) It is just going on 7pm yesterday here!

(shh I went back to bed for a while afterwards ;-) but I'm back working again now - it's 7.50 am and I've got a meeting at 9.30 which I'm not ready for! My sleep patterns are all over the place just now. I napped yesterday afternoon which I don't usually do)

(Shhh...so are ours. R wanders in the night and ends up in the back bedroom if he does not start there...I just get up and read.)

(I'm really gonna have a problem when I move my desk back in - won't be able to get up at night and work!)

That is currently my problem. He built my computer station into the corner of the bedroom...and when he is in here trying to sleep for the night, I cannot be on the computer. Maybe I should leave him in the back bedroom....=)

ok, so tell me the story about the knocking on wood (i think i've heard it but right now, can't remember a thing)

What is the story of knocking on wood? It's one of those things you hear and don't really pay attention to, one of those old bromides.

Well, it all has to do with the world tree and the Celts who gave it to the Norse. The roots reached to the gods of the underworld and the branches reached into the heavens. By knocking on the tree, you are praying for the gods of both to heed your comments and help you!

Ygsdrill or something like that...(gotta look that up, too...)

Funny thing about old bromides and nursery rhymes and folk tales. Somewhere, way back..there was real meaning behind the words...