http://www.parchedearthopals.com Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:36:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en You are dealing with a split personality here on this website. One half is Barbara McCondra, writer, lecturer, a kind of opal evangelist, and cyber vendor. The other half is Eskimo Nell, opal miner and adventure hound. You can’t always tell which one is doing the talking but both are ... http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2008/05/23/who-is-us-yes-us/ Nope not just my cookbook or Fire in a Plain brown Wrapper but my personal collection of opal books. Write me at mccondra@parchedearthopals.com and tell me which one you are looking for. I will be moving again and i just do not want to cart them about or store them ... http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2008/05/07/opal-books-for-sale/ Hi all. Got the book. Read it straightaway. Then went back through and skimmed my favourite stories again, just to set them in my mind. And this left me with a feeling of "yep - that must be what it's REALLY like..." to be an opal miner. Most other things ... http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2008/04/28/review-of-smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-lightning-ridge-opal-field-cookbook/ www.outbackgems.com   This is my son Ron Vil's site (formerly known as one of the Yankee brothers in Lightning Ridge)His Ebay store link will take you to where you can can purchase my cookbook. http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2008/04/27/to-buy-smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-cookbook-go/ check out my new old town life http://parchedearthopals.blogspot.com/ and this site www.bigbugstation.com  http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2008/02/22/i-am-blogging-at-httpparchedearthopalsblogspotcom/ http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2007/07/14/no-more-prepublish-sale-smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-is-published/ Author and illustrator, Barbara McCondra, worked in the oilfields of Prudhoe Bay Alaska before heading Down Under to buy a black opal. Twenty five years later she still hunkers down around campfires  with miners fevered of eye and wild of heart who share their secrets, dream their dreams, and laugh ... http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2007/04/17/smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-a-lightning-ridge-opal-field-cookbook/       http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2007/04/10/gypsy-yowah-and-koroit-opal-truth/ First two frames show the sand tit as hangs from ironstone seam band. Last frame is of a sandtit that has been contour plished and cut into an opal stone. Arrows show the opalized split of the tit away from the ironstone biscuit band seam. http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2007/04/08/yowah-sand-tit-opal-formation-photo/ Sand tits form attached to an ironstone biscuit band. The biscuit band is a seam of ironstone  laying in the sandstone and clay levels. The ironstone sometimes has opal lines and pools within it. The brown ferruginous sandstone formations look like little miniature stalactites hanging from an ironstone biscuit band in ... http://www.parchedearthopals.com/2007/04/07/sand-tits-a-form-of-yowah-ironstone-opal/