Tumbling my way through Life

     I've started tumbling rocks again, after a very long hiatus. I'm glad I did, it's an interesting way to mark the passage of time.

     I used to marvel at how fast the weeks and months went by in terms of my work. I was the Activity Director at a nursing home, so my life revolved around the calendar, the holidays and seasons, religious practices, and everyday events. The point is, the weeks flew by.        Since I've been out of work, the weeks still fly by, but the time is dragging at the same time. If it wasn't for all the TV I've been watching, it would be hard to tell what day it is. On Saturday and Sunday it seems like a novelty because different shows are on. And now we have football on Sundays. 

      Getting back to my rock tumbler, it seems like a month is a long time to work on any project. But the first week is already done (I think it was actually six days, to be honest. I will have to go back and check.)

     There is a timer on the tumbler, and this next round is supposed to be 7 to 8 days on medium speed. So at 4:00 next Saturday I will examine the rocks again, and if they need more time, I can put them back for another day. If anything, it seems like they might need less time. As you will see in the photos, A lot happened in the first week!

Because of the metal grit and the ground stone in the water, you can't just dump the water in the sink. I had to bring the tumbler barrel outside, and I had a container of water and poured rocks into the provided strainer. Slurry goes into the container for safe disposal.

There is still a lot of sludge on the rocks.

I was very pleased by how nicely they are coming along-all the rough edges are gone. When they were wet, I was convinced they didn't need any more tumbling! I was wrong, of course. Once they dried, it was clear that they need a little more fine tumbling and polishing, of course.

You can probably tell these are a few "ordinary" rocks I had collected from home, and from our new back yard to make sure there was enough in the tumbler. The barrel is supposed to be half to 2/3 full of rocks and water. These rocks were smaller than the "good" stones, so I did not include them in the second round. If I did, they would grind down to pebbles! To make up the difference I put plastic beads in the tumbler, which it told to do in the instructions. You can also use ceramic pellets. I don't have those yet.

Back in the tumbler they go for another week!

When all this is done, it will be well into October. That's a sobering thought. If you know me, you know how I feel about losing my daylight! But somehow I always manage to survive it. Hopefully, this little hobby will make it a little more fun.