elder-miner

Get well soon, we need as many seasoned old hands around, as possible. Few months back went through a Carotid Endarterectomy after having a TIA. Came though it with flying colors & hope you do the same. http://www.vascularweb.org/vascularhealth/Pages/carotid-endarterectomy.aspx

With nuggets like that there. I would sell my soul, to get a Cat 225 Excavator and/or Big cat bulldozer to reopen & expose that kind of paydirt. . Years back in the Sierra Nevada’s near the Feather river I found old drift mine placer workings high up, near the top of a Mtn. Old blue & red iron oxide cemented gravel channel was buried under about 60 to 120 feet of lava cap hard rock. Erosion had exposed the old channel in a few small spots here & there. Anywhere it was exposed, there were hand stacked cobble piles from the gold rush era, where old timers worked the exposed gravels. Recovery methods were poor, as the was no water there, that high up. Several large cobble dumps I would judge by their size went into the old channel gravel 100 feet. Sadly every portal area was sloughed in or caved. Found an old wagon trail that was so overgrown, you could barely recognize it. It led to a small creek at a lower elevation that was the nearest running water. Apparently, old timers hauled dry pay dirt type gravel to the creek to wash it. Found a few “coyote” holes dug into the hillside from depression era hand mining. There was a lot of fine gold in the tailings. Enough to get me excited anyway. My schedule ran me out of there, as I had other business to take care of. Told a metal detecting guy about the place, he went next spring & found a handful of little “pickers” in the dry wash ravines. But the hike up to it was to much for his age & condition, so he only made that one trip Always wanted to go back & do some serious exploration there. Sadly, the way things are in California, I gave up on the idea. As trying to permit any heavy equipment work there, would take longer than the time I have left.

Lucky assie dog http://screen.yahoo.com/amateur-finds-300-000-gold-004007483.html

I can’t tell you who slid the language into the Texas legislators lap, for sneaky submission into the legislation. But I can NOW tell you (PROOF POSITIVE) who signed off on it, allowing BLM to do it, the illegal way it was. That is none other than....... drum roll................... Marcilynn A. Burke, Acting Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management. http://www.doi.gov/whoweare/Marcilynn-A-Burke.cfm It was right in front of my face all along, I just didn't see it.

I was given my dog, when he was so small he fit in my hand. So small I had to bottle feed & wean him. He’s been with me ever since & weighs in around 100 lbs of cast iron hard muscle. As a pup, he tagged along at my side prospecting 1000’s of creeks with a pan, screens & shovel. He had his “nose” in it all, trying to figure out what I was looking for. By the time he was 2 years old, he could prospect a creek better than most peaple with his nose. If he stopped, sniffed & then dug. You could bet your boots, there was “black sand” & usually gold wherever he dug. He can also smell out sulfides in surface float or vein outcrops. Just takes the “right” dog & a lot of learning, by example.