Recovery...for the Backyard

Last year, I ranted about my backyard wildflower garden being buried under rocks and soil during renovations.  Now renamed the "Remembrance Garden", it has been rebuilt as shown in this photo from a few weeks ago.  As are all of my approximately 200 feet of rock walls, they are all "dry stack". 

This photo (from a different angle than above) shows the mess from last year, after it was partially cleaned up.  At the time, I had no idea what would survive and what wouldn't, if I ever got it cleaned up.  I was a bit demoralized, to say the least. 

As is mis-understood by those who are not artists, it is hard to classify something such as this as ever being completely "finished".  My supply of flat stones has been largely used up and with the sour economy, there has not been as much construction going on (plus "No Trespassing" signs (which I do not violate) are more prevalent than ever at construction sites), so work has slowed.

Just a few in-progress photos of work from last year.

More photos will be posted in later articles, as Spring reveals what has survived the burial and the Winter.  Included also will be photos of the other backyard walls, constructed of flat stones that were used in the front yard, prior to renovations.

Eagle Mts., Texas 1978...Intro

So many stories to tell about that summer. 

Late, late on a Saturday night.  Can't sleep.  Posted this photo of East Mill, Eagle Mts., Texas on Facebook and began to reminisce.  Even in normal daylight hours, my kids (daughter 26, married with two little boys and is too busy and my 18 year-old son, trying to get out of high school and into some sort of job) are not yet interested in my Field Geology "war stories".  Other Geologists and Southwestern outdoor-enthusiasts identify with the "desert solitude" and experiences of Trans-Pecos mountain ranges and the surrounding flats (or bolsons).  The swapping of such stories is best done over one or more beers, but time, distance, and money prevent such reunions (in their proper context, they would have to be in El Paso).  So while I wind down this temporary Saturday night insomnia, I will write a little.  For my little bit of cyber-posterity and in the hopes that someone will find these tales interesting.  [I did write a bit about the Eagle Mts. and this photo in a prior blogpost a couple of years ago.]

I spent 10 weeks during the Summer of 1978 in the Eagle Mts., of Hudspeth County, Texas.  The purpose was to work on a Master's Thesis project, along with 3 other UTEP grad students, Dan, Mike, and Bob.  We were each supposed to do a quandrant of the mountains.  Dan and I worked on the southern "half" of the mountains in my 1976 Jeep 4x4 pickup (with a camper shell), while Bob and Mike worked on the northern "half" - I think they may have used university vehicles. 

Mike (NE quad) and I (SE quad) each got burned out later (personal stuff) and didn't finish our projects, but each of us helped our field partners get theirs finished.  A doctoral student later did his dissertation on the eastern "half" of the mountains, that we didn't finish.  Mike and I each finished our Master's Theses on separate subjects - in other areas - a few years later.

Basically, the Eagle Mountains are largely composed of caldera-deposits superimposed over "Chihuahua Tectonic Belt" thrust sheets, similar in some ways to the Quitman Mountains to the northwest and other calderas related to the "ignimbrite flareup" of the Tertiary period in Trans-Pecos Texas, New Mexico, and elsewhere in the southwestern United States.  Without searching through files for maps, essentially this view is ENE, towards the vicinity of Van Horn, Texas.  The hills in the near-background are Cretaceous carbonates and clastics (Wyche Ridge) that formed part of the rim of the caldera.  In the far-background are various mountain ranges including rocks from Proterozoic metamorphics to Oligocene volcanics.

Just a few of the headings/subjects/memories to be covered in this series include (as the spirit moves me):

Welcome to the Eagle Mountains

Adventures at East Mill

Adventures at South Mill (or whatever it was called)

4x4 Adventures in Driving

Weather Events

Critters Great and Small

A Few Beer Cans

Back to Town for Supplies

A return visit to the Eagle Mountains is on my Personal Geo-Bucket List under "wanted, but unlikely", as I would first need a good 4x4 and permission from land-owners.  And time and money. 

So, please come back and check on the progress.

Accretionary Wedge #54 - Geology and Adult Beverages

Looking for Detachment's post is about Great Basin Brewing Co.'s Ichthyosaur "Icky" IPA.  You can learn more about it at the brewpub's website. I haven't had any beer yet, from Nevada.  Hope this will be my first one.  The only two other untried states are North Dakota and South Dakota.

I purloined this photo from Looking for Detachment's post.  Hope Silver Fox will forgive me.  I wish I had photographed the Deschutes Obsidian Stout bottle, while I still had it.

Meagan Hogg tweets about The Big One IPA, brewed in Vancouver, BC.

Will add some more a little later.

Just had an idea for a couple of brands from a Hawaiian brewery - Pahoehoe Pilsener and AA Ale.  Don't know if anyone is using these names, yet. 

A retired brand from Dogfish Head Brewing Co. (Milton, DE) is Pangaea, a strong Belgian Ale in 750 ml bottles.  Did not get to try this one.

Accretionary Wedge #54 - Geology and Beer...

Two of my favorite things.  Unfortunately, I don't have photos of all of the cans mentioned, you will just have to take my word on their connections to Geology as intended in the Glacial Till post.

Rolling Rock was one of the beers already mentioned in other posts.  Actually, a 7 oz. Rolling Rock can was the first can in my collection in 1974.  The 12 oz. conetop pictured above is from the early 1950s.  My collection peaked in the mid-1990s at 5,000+ cans, then along came the realities of kids and bills.  (Actually, my two grandsons now are my favorites.)

Anyway, a few of the Geology-themed cans that have passed through my collection (or have been seen at collectors' shows) include Oxbow Beer, a tab-top can from Walter Brewing Co. of Pueblo, CO., cans with glacial themes including Matterhorn Beer (Hamm's), Köl Beer (numerous diff. breweries) and Hynne Beer (Walter).  (I am not 100% sure of the definition of these German terms, but I think they are glacial features.)

An attractive silver cone-top is Rocky Mountain Beer, from Anaconda Brewing Co., Anaconda, MT.  Also from Montana were Butte Beer cone tops and flat tops.

A Wisconsin cone top was Mineral Spring Beer, from Mineral Point, WI.  Spring-water is referenced on the labels of numerous beers, past and present.  Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. (a Miller subsidiary in Chippewa Falls, WI) currently has a line of high-gravity seasonal ales named after the Big Eddy Springs, fed by the same aquifer tapped by their wells.

A high-value cone top ($1000+, when in excellent condition) is Gold Age Beer, from El Rey Brewing Co. of San Francisco depicts a gold miner and his pan. 

Some more common cone tops and flat tops depicting various mountain peaks are shown on Sierra Beer (Reno, NV), Cascade Beer (Portland, OR) and Mount Rainier is shown on numerous cans from Rainier Brewing Co. (Seattle).

As for some other Geologic/Geographic features, they include Atlantic Beer, Pacific Beer, Great Lakes Beer, and Piedmont Beer (bottles only).

Fast forward to today's craft breweries, a few in California include Caldera Brewing Co., of Ashland, OR, Gold Hill Brewing Co. and Placerville Brewing Co. of Placerville, CA, Lassen Ale Works, of Susanville, CA, and - most noteworthy - Mammoth Brewing Co., of Mammoth Lakes, CA (located within the Long Valley Caldera).   Mammoth Brewing Co. does produce cans of several of their varieties. 

In Oregon, there is the Deschutes Brewing Co., brewers of Obsidian Stout and Black Butte Porter. 

Balcones Fault Red Granite Ale from early microbrewery in the Austin, TX area has been reborn by the Great Grains Brewing Co. of Dallas, TX.

A few more include Glacier Brewing Co. of Polson, MT, Quarry Brewing Co. of Butte, MT, Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co., of Billings, MT, Grand Canyon Brewing Co., of Williams, AZ, Granite Mountain Brewing Co., of Prescott, AZ,...the list goes on and on. 

With as many microbreweries and brewpubs as there are these days, there are probably other Geology-themed breweries and individual beers, including those named after rivers and river valleys, coastal features, bays, harbors, islands,...

Accretionary Wedge #50 Field Camp Memories...Getting Yelled at...

From 35 years ago (Gasp!)...

He was a true character.  I have other stories to tell about Dr. Earl M. P. Lovejoy, but those will have to wait.

Rule Number 1 for Dr. Lovejoy's UTEP Field Camp - Everyone got yelled at along the way.  Just part of the deal.  Usually it was over our perceived lack of plane table and alidade skills or something else that didn't meet with his approval.  Usually the statement was; "This map is terrible.  Why are you in Geology?  Why aren't you in Sociology?"

[A little background, as an undergrad at Georgia Southern, in the second quarter there - Spring of 1973, due to a late registration time, Historical Geology was closed out and I was forced to get Sociology as a class.  To shorten the story, I partied too much and flunked the course.  Failing Freshman Sociology.  Oh well.]

When it came my time to be yelled at (with the standard line), I turned to Dr. Lovejoy and yelled back "Well, I flunked Sociology, what the hell was I supposed to do?"  Reportedly, almost no one ever rendered Dr. Lovejoy speechless, but I did (and became sort of a folk hero for doing so).  He shook his head and walked away, probably chuckling about it later.

Here are a couple of previous posts about UTEP Field Camp.   Photos and More Stories.

Accretionary Wedge #45 - the Geo-Pilgrimage

The Geologic Pilgrimage...and where we would go is the subject of the current Accretionary Wedge.

The Burgess Shale comes to mind, but I am in no way ready for any sort of tough Rocky Mountain hike and since they wouldn't let me collect anything - why bother?  Just one trilobite from that locality would satisfy me, but that ain't likely to happen.

I know that an extended road trip around the Western U.S. would not fit the strict definition of a pilgrimage, but it is what I would do. 

In the Summer of 1974, after my Sophomore year, my then-roommate (Dave) and I went on a cross-country trip.  Basically, I had a Sophomore's knowledge of Geology and a Kodak Instamatic camera.  Our version of the Conestoga wagon was a 1968 Pontiac Catalina wagon, with the rear seats removed and replaced with plywood, with storage spaces beneath.  It was a 4,000 lb. "lead sled".

I would love the opportunity to retake this trip with my present knowledge, a couple of digital cameras, a small camcorder, and a laptop to record my travels.  The thought of doing a 40th anniversary trip in 2014 with Dave comes to mind, but as he is a lawyer, he wouldn't enjoy my frequent geology stops.  Nor would my wife.  [Would have to find a way to bribe her.]

Briefly, stops would include:

1) Any outcrops of interest on I-70 in Kansas/Eastern Colorado;
2) Stuff around Denver/Boulder;
3) Roadside geology along I-25 to Cheyenne, I-80 to Rawlins, then on to Lander,...
4) Yellowstone...need I say more?  This time, I would make the short side trip to say that I had been to Montana, maybe I might extend that to a beer run to Bozeman;
5) On to Salt Lake City, need lots of photos of the Great Salt Lake and the surrounding area;
6) Back up to Twin Falls, ID for photos of the Snake River Plain/Columbia Plateau and the Snake River Gorge;
7) Find my way over to southeastern Oregon, the south on U.S. Hwy 395 into California - sidetrip to Chico for Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. - then south towards Reno, NV - to find some Nevada beer - then back into California;
8) This time, skip San Francisco downtown to spend more time in coastal and interior California - back to Redwood National Park, John Muir Woods, Yosemite, Sequoia, pan gold at Placerville/Coloma & new stops at Mammoth Lakes/Bishop area - lots of volcanic feature photos;
9) Through the Las Vegas area for more photos, then on to Flagstaff.  This time, I would skip the Grand Canyon (been there 4 times - last time in 2003) and spend more time at Sunset Crater/San Francisco Peaks area;
10) Skip Phoenix/Tucson area - branch off from the 1974 route - head for Monument Valley, then up to Canyonlands/Arches, then over to Durango/Silverton/Ouray, CO areas, then over to Clayton/Raton volcanic field, then south on I-25 through Santa Fe and Albuquerque - another side trip to Grants to photo basalt flows along I-40, then back to I-25;
11) Socorro, Las Cruces, El Paso geology, photos, brewpubs, old friends and surviving profs, and Mexican food - for several days.  Include Aden/Afton Basalt flows, Alamogordo, White Sands, Sacramento Mts., Carrizozo basalt flows.  Maybe take a short charter plane ride to photo Kilbournes Hole from the air, as well as other Potrillo Volcanic field features.  Back to El Paso - and to the 1974 route - and on to the Carlsbad, NM area;
12) On through Dallas, TX area - geology photos - not much geology left in the remaining 1974 route, so will branch off  for good - north to the Arbuckle Mts. in Oklahoma for structural photos and trilobite hunting;
13) Ozark Mts. - stops and photos - and going back to the Crater of Diamonds is on my "bucket list".  On my first trip there - in 1973 - I found a 37 point diamond (.37 carats), but after our last family move or during recent renovations, it is nowhere to be found.  When I was there in 1978, I provided a positive ID (the park office was closed) for a brown, 4 carat, classic octahedral diamond - found by a couple from Dallas.  A 4 carat diamond and I got to hold it and tell the folks "Yep, that's a diamond alright!.  Way cool.

There were numerous "in between" stops, when Dave would agree.  Somewhere in southeast Oregon, I found a small, white clay roadcut (probably volcanic ash) with an isolated lens of rounded gravels, then overlain by more ash.  I found a small slab of gray shale in northern Utah with some nice graptolites.  Would like to find those places again, if ever I get the chance.

Accretionary Wedge #45 - On the Way

The called for subject relates to where you would go on a "Geologic Pilgrimage", if time and money permitted.

Much to ponder with final exams looming.