A familiar prospector, Amanda Fudge, had a birthday Saturday. She stayed home to clean but her mom, Alice of the Five Loaves stopped by and she was loaded up with treats for the kids to celebrate her birthday and treasures for Amanda.

     Amanda’s kids, Asia, Gabby, Nathanial, and Ellie each got a geode bag to bash. A mineral card of Montana stones shined out for their home schooling bit. A sapphire card was to wish her Happy Birthday and a green necklace for her to make in her down time.  Ha ha with a mother of 5. Oh, my.

    Rock gift are always a perfect choice to brighten anyone’s day. They are great to cherish for a long time. You too can find gifts at our Central Montana Prospectors booth.

     There are generations of family that come to check in and see what we have. The stories of where and what is happening with people we all know comes into play when you hock rocks. It’s fun to catch up on everyone, artists from the night before to Tianna Ford getting a new house! Yeah, for our community and the Great Falls Farmer’s Market for making action happen.

     The Great Falls Farmer’s Market is way better than Billings’ as we have more than produce, have longer season and represent vendors of a wide variety. In other cities prospecting news would not be available like here in Great Falls.

     People look forward to what they can find at the Market and it is always something new. Visitors to our city know to come to the market to find treasures. It’s great.

     Many people enjoyed the adventure of having Gary take a hammer to their newly purchased geode to whack in the back of our Central Montana Prospectors booth. All marveled at the beauty inside which ranged from black and white to sparkling silver shinies. Each person loved their little muslin baggies to store their rock treasures in from stopping at our booth.

     We asked many, “Have you ever had the opportunity to whack a geode?” Only here and only the adventurous at heart took us up on it. Many of the most unsuspecting people found it fun to do and were engaged in our booth frivolity.

     Even Barb Lassiter, Market Manager, took her whack at it. Our safety glasses from the Opal Mines just across the border in Idaho, proved handy to have in the car.

     Some geodes were accommodating, others were not. Some took 3 whacks, others as much as 13. Gary got a work out, had fun and wanted to do more. You would think he was a carnie enticing people into a fair booth. He’s good at verbal advertising with the public and cracking jokes. The endorphins release with his sense of humor lasted for hours as our sides were splitting for hours. Whacking geodes has a lot of fodder for joking.

     Prospecting often refers to gathering money in the form of gold in the ground as pay dirt. At the market there is a pattern for pay dirt and that is the first of the month and involving a holiday as well.

     People found opportunity to buy all kinds of things at our booth: bottle rock toppers, make your own rock necklace, sapphire and garnet gravel bags, kids panning kits, Montana mineral cards, sapphire gift cards especially for birthdays as the sapphire is the gemstone for September, Montana magnets, garnet cards, and some had their initials put on rocks. It was rock frenzy for many and busy for our booth.

     Our coffers were flush but we shared lots of prospecting stories and resources plus strips of website addresses. Our phrase is, “Would you like to see a great website about prospecting?” Almost everyone takes an address and says yes. They are on the lookout for prospecting information. We have it for them at our Farmer’s Market booth.

     With the advent of rock whacking many kids want to get involved. It is always fun for families to have something unique to do for entertainment with kids on the weekend. Certainly activities with rocks fills that bill. Parents like to buy something for their kids at the market as well. The dialogue is heard of which one do you want. You can get a panning kit or you can get a gravel bag, “Which will it be?” The choice is always interesting. Some spend all of their allowance at our booth.

     Each go home with a rock treasure as the earth give happiness all around. Many gifts fly across the US, but some have even landed in South Africa already. Montana stones rule! We are the Treasure State! For all ages too!