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| Over the course of
a few excursions into the western United States, the four year old and
I have developed a taste for rock hunting. Early during our
first trip to the southwest in 1999, we would pocket an occasional
stone of beauty, but would bristle at the thought of being... well
actual... rock collectors. The further we progressed on our
trip... the fuller our pockets became with multiple stones of
interest... until, at last, we were carrying plastic bags to fill with
the treasures. By the time we had ended a couple of nights stay
at Rock Hound State Park in New Mexico, it finally dawned on us that
we were... well, addicted... that we had unknowingly joined the ranks
of the "rock hounds".
We kept piling the plastic bags of rocks in the RV during our trip, until one day I said to the four year old, "If we keep collecting at this rate, we may never make it back across the Continental Divide." But we did... keep collecting, that is... and we did make it back across the Continental Divide. During our countless trips since, out and about in the RV, we have accumulated many treasured rocks. They have been displayed in various ways at the Farm, some in plastic cylinders, some in trays attached to the wall on the lower deck of the Barn, and some in the special beds between paths in the Labyrinth. |
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One day while Cheri and I were walking in the Labyrinth, and gazing at some of our rock displays, I had a vision... what if we created a giant map on the ground like the Labyrinth, and outlined the states with bricks. Then we could collect rocks from each state and display them in our map. |
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Let me tell you... like many other projects we have undertaken at the Farm... this one didn't take long to get started. It was almost no time at all until we had an 80' x 150' rectangle staked out in the grass next to the Labyrinth, had a ground cover laid, and over 100 cubic yards of mulch spread. |
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We started the layout of the states by acquiring a map of the United States which we placed on a solid wooden table in the center of the rectangle. We multiplied each dimension on the map by 50 times, strung a tape measure at the proper angles, and started setting flags for the corners of the states. The next task was to dig a trench in the mulch and lay several thousand bricks to form the state boundaries. |
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| NOW, WE NEED YOUR HELP... |
| We plan to keep
picking up the rock prizes anywhere we can find them and place them
for display in the Map, but alas... by ourselves we may not live long
enough to complete this daunting task... and we need your help.
If you have laying around your house, or if you chance upon an unusual rock out in the wilds of nature, and you know which state it came from... please donate it or them to us for display in the Map. Your name is added to the appropriate display picture in the pages to follow, and your rock/s will find a happy home for all to see and appreciate in the Farm's Rock Map. You may even want to visit your rock/s from time to time, by first clicking on A Visit to the Farm, and then by simply establishing a time. |
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THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE DONATED |
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