ANOTHER PROSPECTOR IN THE MAKING

I spent all of Thursday at a friend's house. He asked me a few days before if I could come over and help him go through some dirt that he got off of a old placer claim. The dirt came off of his family land. It was at one time a "working" placer claim. 

So, I loaded up our truck and drove over to his place. I brought along screens of several different mesh sizes, various gold pans, snuffer bottles, a wash tub to pan in, a blue bowl for running concentrates through to get the gold, and several other things for prospecting. When I got to his place, he was outside waiting for me with a BIG smile on his face.

I figured he had maybe one 5-gallon bucket of dirt to go through and that we would be able to use the screens and classify it down to some concentrates. I could show him how to pan and get some color. Nope; he had six buckets of dirt. We set things up, added some water to the wash tub, added a little Jet Dry to the water to break the surface tension of the water. (Some times gold flakes will float if they are real fine.) 

We took a empty bucket and placed a screen on it, shoveled some dirt in it, and shook it until there was nothing but stones about the size of your little fingernail or bigger in the screen. We managed to get one bucket done and took a break for a bite of lunch. Later, after lunch, I showed him another screen with smaller mesh, and had him sift a couple of shovelfuls of dirt through it. It took him some time to get through it. 

We then had some dirt that we could pan. It took about 20 minutes to show him and go through one pan. There was no gold. The next pan, we had about three little flakes of color, about the size of a gnat's butt. (If you have ever seen a gnat's butt, you have better sight than Superman.) I mean they were tiny. And then it happened.

He got bit by the gold bug. He had gold fever just from three itty bitty flakes. When I left to come home, he was setting outside with the screen I loaned him, sifting like a mad man. I wonder how many buckets of dirt he will go through before his wife hollers that she is going to lock him out of the house if he doesn't stop and come in and go to bed. I doubt that he will do any more panning until I can get back over to his place and show him how to run the blue bowl for the gold recovery of the fine gold.

It was a good day spent with friends, with lots of talk and laughter. To be able to show someone new some of the ropes to becoming a weekend prospector was great. He also started talking about metal detecting. I just might have created a prospecting monster.
    

DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know that there was a board game originally called Lexiko?
                                              
It is now called...Scrabble.

And now you know.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind."
--Antoine de Saint - Exupery French writer and aviator

IT'S ABOUT TIME FOR SOME GHOST STORIES!

It's about time for some ghost stories or weird events. How about some of you out there in blog land. Write some goose-bumpy stories. And I will do the same.

I know a few. Some are true, and some are just stories to make you check under your bed before you retire for the night or before you go to check on that noise in the basement.

Let me know if you believe in ghosts and things that go bump in the night. 

Quote of the Week: October 13, 2014

“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” 
Jim Bishop, Author

DID YOU KNOW? FEED YOUR FACE

Did you know that in 1928 Kellogg's brought out a new cereal? It was Rice Krispies. 

In 1939, two ladies created Rice Krispies Marshmallow Treats. They came up with the recipe as part of a fundraiser for the Campfire Girls. 

Then in the 1930's, Kellogg's introduced Snap! Crackle! And Pop! as mascots for Rice Krispies.

So, now that you know, make some Rice Krispie treats for yourself and family and FEED YOUR FACE.

WHY CAN'T YOU

Just for fun, I went and looked at some new vehicles the other day. What a let down. They sure don't make them like they used to. It used to be that if you needed to buy a new car or truck, you were able to pick out what you wanted. You can still pick what color you want, but that is about all you can do.

Used to be that you could pick what options you wanted. Things like if you wanted cloth or vinyl seats, mats or carpet. You could also pick what color interior you wanted. Did you want it with AC or without? Power windows, or crank windows? What size motor did you want, V6 or V8? You could have it with or without power steering, standard transmission or automatic.

With today's vehicles you can pick what color you want, but you can't pick the options you want. All of the vehicles I looked at had black or dark gray interiors. They all have cameras for when you back up. They have sound systems, that I would have loved to have when I was a kid. Butt warmer seats, heated side mirrors, head lights that follow the curve of the road, GPS, and all kinds of other crap that I don't want or need.

They even have vehicles that park themselves. I mean, are we to the point that we can't turn our heads to look to see how we park or to back out of the driveway? So what if your butt gets cold while you drive! It helps keep you more alert when driving. And why do you need a idiot light to tell you that one of your tires is low on air? Can't you see when one of them is low? Used to be that you would walk around your car and take note if a tire was low or if you had a light out.

They don't even make them like they used to. Plastic and fiber glass -- that's what you get. Give me a vehicle made of good old Detroit steel. Something that has some heft to it instead of this stuff that's like riding in a aluminum beer can  

When I'm ready to get a new vehicle, it would be nice to tell them what options I want. I don't need all of this other crap. It's just more stuff to go wrong or break. And, you sure as hell can't fix anything on them yourself anymore. The days of the shade tree mechanic are dead and gone, unless you're lucky enough to have a old clunker that you can tinker with.

Yep, them new wheels, if you buy one, are pretty expensive. Now, for the price of a new car, you could make a down payment on a house or pay off some of your kids' college. I want to be different than others. Why drive something like everyone else has? Bring back options for your ride! 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 10/6/14

"You must do the thing you think you can not do."
--Eleanor Roosevelt, Former U. S. First Lady