In 2024, my wife, Kimberly, and I got seriously into rocks.  It was after our daughter and only child graduated from high school and joined the US Navy and left home.  As empty nesters, we picked up rockhounding and lapidary together as a common hobby and built out a complete lapidary shop with a couple of slab saws, cabbing machines for each of us, and a trim saw as well as other equipment.  In our free time, we travel all over hunting rocks and when home, we cut and polish rocks together.  I started making cabochons and in June of 2025, I picked up silversmithing to make those cabochons into jewelry.