As the days went by, Bruce and I worked away. Bryan and ...

Description: As the days went by, Bruce and I worked away. Bryan and Adam both came and went and for us, life was pretty much routine. How cool is this, routine = collecting a monster crocoite crystal pocket!!! One day, while collecting cute little miniature to small cabinet-sized specimens from off of the hanging wall, Bruce and I got a BIG surprise! It was completely unexpected too! Bruce was working a batch of beautiful specimens loose with a small flat-bladed screwdriver. I was there assisting, catching everything that fell loose as the specimen was removed from off the wall. We’d been at this for awhile and really had things down when all of a sudden, everything changed! Bruce set the screwdriver and gently pried like he had a dozen times before and just like that, with a sucking, puckering sound as it cracked free, a monstrous slab of crocoites came loose, one over a meter long and nearly half that wide! Holy Estwing! We both backed right away, neither of us in a hurry to be standing underneath it! Brainstorming, we concocted a plan and then calmly set to it. First, Bruce measured the drift, then cut timbers to span the drift. Mocking these into place, Bruce next used custom-cut wooden wedges to secure the braces (Bruce called them “Toms”) one wall to the other. When placed, Bruce tested them thoroughly. They were 100% secure. As usual, Bruce had executed a perfect job!