Kathy Spalding:  

After leaving Poolesville for a short stint at an Ohio college, I came back to MD and got married in 1976, (living happily ever after ever since). Left Rockville MD in 1982 for a 6 month Australian opal mining adventure (Coober Pedy) and ended up finding enough to keep us there for 3 1/2 years. Great place, people & times! Returned to the US & finally settled on 60 acres in mid-TN "wilderness" in 1986. Beautiful area. Finally got around to having kids in 1997 and 1999 - two lovely, humorous boys. Moved from TN to southeast FL suberbia in 2000 to be close to my parents & help out. Good schools, too-hot weather. Looking forward to retiring up north! Have worked in a variety of jobs, but the most fun one (aside from being a mom) was being a "picker" on a "noodling machine" in Coober Pedy. (A noodling machine goes through opal mines' tailings, and eventually sends rocks on a conveyor belt through a dark room with a black light, which makes opal fluoresce. My job was picking up al...Expand for more