Jimoutside
Jr. Member
I don't know how far this will go, or how often I will have anything to tell here. It could end up being more human interest (or disinterest) than anything else. I'll try to keep coming back to gold, and prospecting. Or else you'll all (all y'all, for the southerners) will get very bored and move on.
I'm 41 years old, and have a wife and 7 kids, barely making it financially, but we don't need to discuss that in depth. Suffice it to say that I can't spend a lot of money on my new hobby--gold prospecting.
In fact, it could be argued that I wasn't wise to spend what I've already spent in the last three days, on something with such dubious returns. But hey, I could have a hobby with even more dubious returns, and higher expenses--like golf, horseback riding, or skydiving.
Being a guy still in possession of my proverbial man-card, I do have a few tools lying around. I have some of the standard mechanic's and carpenter's tools, as well as garden tools. Of the three, the garden tools probably get the most use, because I actually do garden. Which reminds me, I need to dig some potatoes tomorrow, to sell to the restaurant. Tomorrow? Well, I mean, today. Later. When I wake up. because I'm a nocturnal animal--I work and do my best thinking and quiet time (like this right here) at night. Then I sleep by day. Weird, I know. Not sure if it's sustainable.
By the time I'm done, I may conclude I should have just stuck to potatoes and not bothered with gold prospecting.
Regardless, I somehow accidentally started watching prospecting videos on You-Tube sporadically, a few years back. Maybe I've even seen some of "you guys" (that's the New England in me, coming out) on there. Those prospecting videos looked like so much fun. Then I learned that South Carolina, where I live, actually has some gold in it. Unlike where I grew up in Maine, where gold was not a well-known phenomenon.
So I probably shouldn't admit it, but I started getting a burning sensation in the back of my head, that I ought to go check out the creek near I live. Now--I live in a rural area, and I am also aware of the laws about trespassing and permission. Not knowing the people who owned the land on both sides of the creek, and not wanting to advertise to anyone what I was about, I thought I would just do a little test-panning surreptitiously--but not really on anyone's property. But where could I go? Well, it may have been against the law, technically, but I think it's a bit of a gray area--I went down below the bridge. So technically I was in the right of way, right? but no one could see me (but God, of course). Now maybe it's against the law to pan for gold under a bridge in the public right of way, I'm not sure. I figured I wasn't going to make a habit of it. Just wanted to scratch the itch and see if there was any gold. If I found any, I could go to the trouble to find some property owners along the creek, and get permission to pan on their property.
Well, what I know was against the law, was borrowing my wife's stainless steel kitchen bowl. She still doesn't know about that yet.... I may have to confess that to her and get it off my chest. So I put the bowl, a trowel, and a few other toys I thought could be useful, in my packpack and sneaked nonchalantly down the road--waited until there were no cars nearby, and went down under the bridge.
I found a wood piling under there, that had been cut off. Possibly part of an earlier bridge that had been there, or something. So I got some gravel from downstream of the piling and panned it. After four pans or so, I deduced that not only was there no gold, there was scarcely any black sand. I tried a couple other spots, but nothing, of course, so I packed back up and sloshed back to the house. Maybe my wife wondered how I got my jeans so wet. She and the kids were gone that day...she probably thought it was sweat from working in the garden. I hung them up to dry in the bathroom. Then I had to go to bed, because it was the middle of the day, and high time for me to be sleeping.
So, feeling a little guilty for sneaking around under the public bridge, I decided I probably better not do that anymore. Better keep it on the level. So I contacted a couple friends I know who actually have streams in the area. Both of them said I could come and pan, but of course both of them wanted to try it with me. Because of course, gold. And fun. And it is their land, after all.
So...tentatively, I'm supposed to go panning with one friend Saturday. Don't know when I'll be able to meet up with the second friend--he has a very busy schedule and is out of state right now.
And the family and I are going to be taking a road trip next week, going up to New York state, across to Indiana, and down to Western Kentucky, and back home. We will be seeing a bunch of friends and relatives. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a chance to pan with the kids in New York, and almost certainly in Kentucky. But as you may know, neither of those places particularly places high for placers.
What do I want out of prospecting? I guess I mostly want to have fun, find a little gold sometimes. But my gold bucket list is to try to pan (legally) for gold in ever state, or as many as I can, before I die, and maybe in as many foreign countries as possible. I would love to go back to Australia. When I was there, 21 years ago, I wasn't interested in gold. I'm sure if I had been, somebody could have hooked me up with an opportunity. I just didn't seek it.
Oh, those supplies I bought in the last 3 days? Came to a total of $23.17. I tell myself, I can't spend any more on it until I find that much gold. Roughly half a gram. Wonder if I'll stick to that rule
You might want to place bets. LOL.
All for now--the sun will rise soon, and I must go to bed.
Jim
I'm 41 years old, and have a wife and 7 kids, barely making it financially, but we don't need to discuss that in depth. Suffice it to say that I can't spend a lot of money on my new hobby--gold prospecting.
In fact, it could be argued that I wasn't wise to spend what I've already spent in the last three days, on something with such dubious returns. But hey, I could have a hobby with even more dubious returns, and higher expenses--like golf, horseback riding, or skydiving.
Being a guy still in possession of my proverbial man-card, I do have a few tools lying around. I have some of the standard mechanic's and carpenter's tools, as well as garden tools. Of the three, the garden tools probably get the most use, because I actually do garden. Which reminds me, I need to dig some potatoes tomorrow, to sell to the restaurant. Tomorrow? Well, I mean, today. Later. When I wake up. because I'm a nocturnal animal--I work and do my best thinking and quiet time (like this right here) at night. Then I sleep by day. Weird, I know. Not sure if it's sustainable.
By the time I'm done, I may conclude I should have just stuck to potatoes and not bothered with gold prospecting.
Regardless, I somehow accidentally started watching prospecting videos on You-Tube sporadically, a few years back. Maybe I've even seen some of "you guys" (that's the New England in me, coming out) on there. Those prospecting videos looked like so much fun. Then I learned that South Carolina, where I live, actually has some gold in it. Unlike where I grew up in Maine, where gold was not a well-known phenomenon.
So I probably shouldn't admit it, but I started getting a burning sensation in the back of my head, that I ought to go check out the creek near I live. Now--I live in a rural area, and I am also aware of the laws about trespassing and permission. Not knowing the people who owned the land on both sides of the creek, and not wanting to advertise to anyone what I was about, I thought I would just do a little test-panning surreptitiously--but not really on anyone's property. But where could I go? Well, it may have been against the law, technically, but I think it's a bit of a gray area--I went down below the bridge. So technically I was in the right of way, right? but no one could see me (but God, of course). Now maybe it's against the law to pan for gold under a bridge in the public right of way, I'm not sure. I figured I wasn't going to make a habit of it. Just wanted to scratch the itch and see if there was any gold. If I found any, I could go to the trouble to find some property owners along the creek, and get permission to pan on their property.
Well, what I know was against the law, was borrowing my wife's stainless steel kitchen bowl. She still doesn't know about that yet.... I may have to confess that to her and get it off my chest. So I put the bowl, a trowel, and a few other toys I thought could be useful, in my packpack and sneaked nonchalantly down the road--waited until there were no cars nearby, and went down under the bridge.
I found a wood piling under there, that had been cut off. Possibly part of an earlier bridge that had been there, or something. So I got some gravel from downstream of the piling and panned it. After four pans or so, I deduced that not only was there no gold, there was scarcely any black sand. I tried a couple other spots, but nothing, of course, so I packed back up and sloshed back to the house. Maybe my wife wondered how I got my jeans so wet. She and the kids were gone that day...she probably thought it was sweat from working in the garden. I hung them up to dry in the bathroom. Then I had to go to bed, because it was the middle of the day, and high time for me to be sleeping.
So, feeling a little guilty for sneaking around under the public bridge, I decided I probably better not do that anymore. Better keep it on the level. So I contacted a couple friends I know who actually have streams in the area. Both of them said I could come and pan, but of course both of them wanted to try it with me. Because of course, gold. And fun. And it is their land, after all.
So...tentatively, I'm supposed to go panning with one friend Saturday. Don't know when I'll be able to meet up with the second friend--he has a very busy schedule and is out of state right now.
And the family and I are going to be taking a road trip next week, going up to New York state, across to Indiana, and down to Western Kentucky, and back home. We will be seeing a bunch of friends and relatives. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a chance to pan with the kids in New York, and almost certainly in Kentucky. But as you may know, neither of those places particularly places high for placers.
What do I want out of prospecting? I guess I mostly want to have fun, find a little gold sometimes. But my gold bucket list is to try to pan (legally) for gold in ever state, or as many as I can, before I die, and maybe in as many foreign countries as possible. I would love to go back to Australia. When I was there, 21 years ago, I wasn't interested in gold.
I'm sure if I had been, somebody could have hooked me up with an opportunity. I just didn't seek it. Oh, those supplies I bought in the last 3 days? Came to a total of $23.17. I tell myself, I can't spend any more on it until I find that much gold. Roughly half a gram. Wonder if I'll stick to that rule
You might want to place bets. LOL.All for now--the sun will rise soon, and I must go to bed.
Jim
Besides that, what kid doesn't like to play in water and mud?
We just had our 47th on the 18th and also like you, have a son's birthday in just a couple days. 
