'Leanne. Come out here.'
'Hhmmm. He's found one, and has put it on the ground for me to 'find' (since I hadn't found anything this time)' I thought to myself as I went out the door.
'Hold out your hand.'
'I thought you'd put it on the ground for me to find.'
'You wouldn't miss this one!'
As I held out my hand he place a big black rock on my palm. Wow! I held it up to the light and twisted it around. It wasn't clear like the first one, and there seemed to be a crack, but as I turned it this way and that, colour was coming right through. It didn't seem like a bomb.It was about 3:30 on Friday afternoon. 'We have to go in to town and show the cutter. She might not be there tomorrow.' So vegies were left half cut and we raced in to town. The cutter called us a name that, roughly translates as 'lucky pigs'. It was almost 50 carats. One end definitely has some cracking but the other end looked okay, with some imperfections that may cook out. We won't know until it's cut how big it will turn out, but of course the imagination has been running wild!
On Sunday afternoon he had time for one last speck. Once again my name was called from outside the van, and this time I was pointed in the direction of the road. I had a look around, walked past it and then turned around to see a very obvious sapphire just behind me. This one was the smallest of the three, but will still probably cut a very nice stone. We decided not to take this one in to be cut just yet, but show it off to a few people first. 
Now we're at the weir just south of Barcaldine (the photo is what's become of the dead 'Tree of Knowledge'), waiting for Mum & Dad to arrive. Apparently you don't have to be a Dickson to have things go wrong with your van - travelling with them, or just intending to travel with them seems sufficient! While packing the van on the planned departure day the door lock broke and they had to wait for a part, putting them a day behind. Hopefully all the breakages are behind us now!