Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Lanny... I just finished reading your poems to the wife. Words don't do justice to the depth and beauty of your material. Just wonderful... Many thanks ... we wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year ...

Jim & Joanne

Jim,

Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year to you and Joanne as well!

Thanks so much for your kind, heartfelt words. I'm glad you enjoyed the prospecting poetry.

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[EagleDown]

I can't believe the size of these gold nuggets, nor can I believe what they're doing to them!! You have to see this to believe how uneducated they must be about the true value of large gold nuggets, or how desperate they must be to be doing what they're doing!

It would make me break down and cry to do something like that as well (one of the comments about the video).

All the best,

Lanny

Halito Lanny,

I was sent a documentary 5 or 6 years ago, before I knew enough about computers to download
and save. I'm not sure, but I think it was from the Discovery Channel, but, maybe not.
Too long ago.

I seem to remember that they had formed a "co-op" where all shared equally in anything found.
So, big chunks like this (and there were a lot of them) were found, they cut them up into "equal"
shares. It seemed crazy to me at first, but then I realised that they probably had no way of
advertising on the internet, (or whatever).

Frankly, it would have made more sense to me to smelt the gold then pour it into a crucible, so
that all pieces would be the same size. I know that there's plenty of clay there as I have some
that came stuck to my opals. A little ingenuity would have led me to scoop out a
spoon sized hole in the clay ground and pour the molten gold into the hole. Really not an involved
process.

In any case, They wanted their gold, while WE want all that we can get for our gold.

You might have seen this video, but if not, enjoy it anyway.

Eagle

 

[Lanny in AB]

Eagle,

I sure enjoyed those two videos. What's not to love?!! Right?!

Here's some more eye candy viewing of a massive nugget, from the same region of the world as the earlier post I placed on the nugget cutters:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hspoJAakQBU&feature=endscreen&NR=1[/youtube]


You have to look quick, but right at the beginning, there's another big nugget on the ground beside the monster, but he doesn't even bother to show it off!!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[EagleDown]

Eagle,

I sure enjoyed those two videos. What's not to love?!! Right?!

Here's some more eye candy viewing of a massive nugget, from the same region of the world as the earlier post I placed on the nugget cutters:

You have to look quick, but right at the beginning, there's another big nugget on the ground beside the monster, but he doesn't even bother to show it off!!

All the best,

Lanny

That's what I imagined the nuggets that were found in "Poor Mans Creek" in 1849 looked like.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi there,

If you haven't been over to Eagle's site to see what he's giving away now about how to find gold, you really need to get over there and have a look--fantastic stuff!!

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,325842.500.html

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Hefty1]

Lanny

Just dropped in to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year.

Hefty and Wifey

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hefty--a very merry Christmas to you and your wife as well!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

A wonderful merry Christmas, and a happy new year to everyone this season--thanks for dropping in!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[delnorter]

Merry Christmas to you too Lanny and all the rest of you gold hounds.

Lanny, you send us little gifts all year long. I look forward to your writings of adventure and experience each time I log onto the gold forums.

All the best, to all of you this next year.

Mike, (in the heart of redwood country)

 

[Lanny in AB]

Mike,

Thanks so much for your kind words!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

To the Rookies;

Well, it's time to discuss, and possibly bust, the myth that the Chinese miners got it all.

I'm not sure how many times I've been detecting an area cleaned by the Chinese (sheets of bedrock rimmed with neat, hand-stacked walls of cobbles and larger rock) only to have someone shout out to me (I detect with headphones) in some like manner or another, "Hey! Don't you know you're working an area the Chinese already mined out? You're wasting your time--they got it all. They were very meticulous those Chinese were. . . ."

Of course, those aren't their exact words, but they're mighty close, because those types of comments have been directed my way far too many times, by far too many people, and they've been uttered by well-meaning, but clearly, uninformed, individuals.

Why do I say this is so when so many authors echo the same words? Well, let's just take a minute and turn back the hands of time and look at what went on.

Most of you are probably aware that the Chinese were often not allowed to hold claims at the beginning of the gold rushes (racial prejudice was rife in society at the time). They were most often relegated to menial jobs in the camps, unless they were working for a wealthy Tong that had purchased some good ground, and then, once again, they were basically working as indentured laborers until their contract with the Tong was up--if that ever came to pass.

So, most of the Chinese had to wait patiently until there was another gold strike somewhere else. Why? Well, the vast majority of the other miners were "shallow diggin's" miners. They'd rush in to an area, work down maybe six feet or so to get to bedrock, work it in a fast and furious manner to get the obvious concentrations of gold (often doing a very sloppy or haphazard job of cleaning the bedrock), and once they'd retrieved the "easy" gold (I've since learned by my own work that there is very rarely ever any such thing as "easy" gold!), they were ready to bolt to the next rush that was announced.

Therefore, when they abandoned their "worked out" claims, the Chinese then had opportunities to buy or claim the ground that was abandoned or ground that was in the process of being abandoned.

Were the Chinese meticulous miners? Well, some of them were exceptionally so, without a doubt. I've seen their workings, and examined their techniques. They even used tar on the end of specially cut, thin little sticks to get way down into stingy, narrow crevices to pull out the reluctant, obstinate contents of those clever gold traps. As well, they designed steel and iron crevicing tools of a most ingenious nature. Moreover, they often used wire brushes to scrub the bedrock to get the gold that was trapped in the dirt and clay, clinging to the irregularities of the mother rock. (These bits of wire brush are a genuine nuisance when you're detecting.) Furthermore, they often broke the bedrock down to a greater depth, past where the original miners had done so.

Well, if the foregoing is the case, what's the point of working ground the Chinese worked? In one word--technology. No matter how carefully they eye-balled a particular patch of bedrock, they couldn't see inside the rock, nor could they envision a cemented crevice that was the exact same color and consistency as the mother rock.

I guess where I'm going with this is that no matter how good the old-time technology was, today's technology can find gold that even the Chinese missed. I'm going to repeat that again in order to bust the myth: No matter how good the old-time technology was, today's technology can find gold that even the Chinese missed.

To wander in to the realm of metaphors for a moment, it's like today's electronic technology is a that of the finely tuned nose of a blood-hound being compared to the nose of a mutt (old school Chinese methods that were admittedly, very, very good). Both canine's olfactory organs are infinitely more highly tuned than the nose of some other inferior creature, like that of the mongrel miner in a rush, but the blood-hound's nose will always beat the nose of the mutt (the old technology), simply because it's more refined, and is especially designed for the modern purpose.

So, if you're in an area and you see those very tell-tale signs of Chinese diggin's (extremely well-ordered, hand-stacked walls of rock), take your shiny new detector and get in there! I've found gold far too many times in Chinese workings with my detectors not to detect where the Chinese worked. I've even found crevices (working with hand tools while gathering dirt for panning) that they missed.

To understand how those oriental masters may have missed gold with their old-time technology--understand human nature first and foremost. W

For instance, were all of those miners of days gone by completely motivated day in and day out? Absolutely not! Were they always healthy? Were all of them happy to be there? Of course not. Were any of them lazy? We are talking about human nature here, aren't we?

I think you get the picture.

Now, to move to a different point, I find--proportionally--more nuggets in areas that were worked by regular miners that were in a rush. This is a given. But, I've found some beautiful sassy nuggets in "worked-out" Chinese diggin's, and I've done it far too often to not at least give the areas they worked an honest effort.

Now, go find some gold in some hammered Chinese area and put a huge smile on your face.

All the best to all of you, and a Happy New Year,

Lanny

(And yes, I'm still working on my book, since so many of you continue to kindly ask.)

 

[EagleDown]

Halito Lanny,

Impeccable advice, as usual. I could only add a couple of hints to your post:

The cracks that the Chinese cleaned so well, probably became a "new" gold trap as errosion
is a continuing process. Couple that to the fact that 'at least' 90% of the Earths' gold has
never been recovered, then it's very possible that those cleaned cracks/crevasses have
had their gold replenished.

Also, over the years, it's been my experience that those "neatly stacked" walls of rock in the
streams and washes are worthwhile for checking UNDER. As you mentioned, the
"Old Timers" were in a hurry to get rich. So, they 'high-graded', primarily by following the
lowest part of the bed-rock in the streams and washes, while neatly stacking the rocks along
the sides of their workings. (I should add), they didn't stack them neatly for cosmetic purposes.
Neatly stacking the rocks gave them the ability to stack them higher (safely), thereby freeing
more of the bed-rock up for cleaning.

But, it seems that, regardless of how rich the stream or wash was, few of them had the
inclination to go back and clean the "Virgin Ground" under the wall(s).

Note: Even if the bed-rock was bare when the rocks were stacked, the gaps and
voids under and among them could have allowed new gold to be trapped during heavy rains
and/or run-offs.

To quote (or para-phrase) a well known homely: "Let no stone go unturned"!!

Wishing you ALL a great New Year, with plenty of gold!!

Love and Respect,

Eagle

 

[Lanny in AB]

Excellent comments as usual Eagle. I've always been intrigued by neat hand-stacked walls, but in one of the areas I'm currently working, the leaseholder considers Chinese walls a historic feature, and therefore, we have to leave them as they are. However, I do know other sites where they're not under restrictions, and I may have to give it a go.

I did find a spot this summer where the Chinese had worked and then suddenly stopped. They'd been working up a little gulch, and widening their workings as they went. So, I proceeded up the gulch above where they'd stopped, dug down to bedrock, and found what they'd been looking for. There were nice little sub-gram nuggets, and large flakes of gold, lodged right in the bedrock. There was no pay above the bedrock (the material that was tight on the bedrock was a clay run and solidly packed), for the gold was only down in the friable (vertical sheets) of bedrock. It was good consistent dirt, running 7-9 pieces of gold to the pan. So good in fact, that a fellow miner I notified of the find, got an option to work that piece of ground with his cat and washplant--he got some nice gold, and he had a lot of fun working that little piece of ground.

On a different note, a lot of the ground that I search that the Chinese have worked is located on ancient, high, bench deposits. So, there's no current stream action, but as Eagle stated, I have found irregularities in the bedrock that have trapped gold that's been washed in after heavy rains. That material is not tightly packed in the crevices, but the gold has made its required stop there. However, the crevices that were missed (they are usually perfectly camouflaged--that's how they were looked over), the ones that really get your blood pumping, are the ones that are tightly packed, filled with little river stones and sand, all running with clay, chunks of pyrite, and magnetite or hematite--those are the ones that can fill your bottle with gold.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

It’s just not possible.

I clearly remember last summer. It was hot. The mosquitoes were thickly pursuing their bloodthirsty ways. To make things worse, there was no wind. Nonetheless, my partner and I were driving from the crest of a thickly timbered peak in the Rocky Mountains down to shoot some nuggets on a highly fractured sheet of ancient bedrock. The mother rock was newly exposed, and it was resting on a bench well above the river, situated at the base of some old hydraulic workings. But, we were a bit sluggish in our determination to detect that ground, as we knew of the ferocious nature of the bugs, and of the hot, sticky, windless nature of the afternoon. Nevertheless, we were obliquely determined to work that piece of ground, as it had been mined earlier in the summer, but it was now open to detecting as the miners were finished cleaning up the area, and they’d given us permission to snoop around for stray nuggets. We were cautiously optimistic, as the large-scale placer operation had recovered some nice gold from that section of paydirt.

In fact, I remembered earlier in the summer when I’d visited those same workings and the miners were shut down, doing some welding and fabrication repairs on their wash-plant. In spite of the fact that I was on my way to detect some old workings, I stopped to say hello and see how their season was going. After a friendly conversation, they invited me to have a peek in the sluice boxes. Well, there was bright gold clearly visible at the top of the three large sluices—lots of sassy gram and sub-gram nuggets were winking at me as they tanned in the warm sunshine, nestled in two of the boxes that were set up for coarse gold. As I scanned those boxes, the gold got smaller as it proceeded down-slope, until there was no longer any visible gold below the top third of the boxes. The other sluice was set up for fine gold, and at the end of it, the contents had been funneled into a large centrifuge, designed to spin out the finer stuff.

But, I’m wandering off topic, as usual, and I need to get back to my detecting story. To continue, we were bouncing along in the 4X4 over the unsorted gravel covering the roadbed, descending the slope at a moderate pace. As we bumped along the rough mountain route (I can still hear the picks, shovels, and pry-bars clanging loudly, their metallic voices complaining from the bed of the truck box), we saw that a large trailer was parked off to the side of the main road on a bit of a flat,somewhat down-slope from us, positioned beside some old workings. Being the curious types that we are, we pulled off the main road and went over to see who this new miner was. Well, it turned out to be an eager rookie that was on a bit of a vacation. He was new to the adventure of chasing the gold, and he’d been working over some abandoned bedrock for nearly a week. He was very friendly, and right motivated to show us his gold.

He pulled out a small vial, and it held some flake gold and several small crystalline pieces of the noble metal. He’d recovered his treasures while working an old site where the ground was mined by hand in the 1860’s. It was a bench deposit, and he was lugging his dirt in 20-litre pails down the mountainside to his truck, putting them in his truck to transfer them to the stream for processing. It was hard labor without the prison sentence! He’d become his own jailer. Moreover, he’d pretty much earned convict wages in his endeavor to boot. (But, hey--I’ve been there more than once myself.) Well, he asked us a few questions and wondered what we were up to. We told him where we were heading, and that we were going to do some detecting. He asked to see our machines, and we were both packing that day. We had our Minelab 5000’s with us. He said he’d read up on those machines, and he wondered if they could really find gold all that well.

Now, he had with him a little low-end machine that he’d been fooling around with on some cap-rock, and he’d got some signals out of the layer of cemented material. He asked me if I’d check it out with my machine. So, I fired up the 5000, with the little Joey attached, and I scanned his workings. The detector identified the signals as hotrocks--no doubt. That’s what was creating the racket for sure. However, above where he was working, I spotted a ledge where someone had gone along the bottom of some old workings, cutting back about eight inches into the base of those tailings, extending along the perimeter for about fifteen feet. (This is a common technique. A nugget shooter will find an old area that slumps onto bedrock, remove the overburden while cutting down to the bedrock, and then cut back into the hill, or deposit, hoping to find some gold that was missed anciently, or to find gold that’s since slumped down from higher up, trapping itself on the bedrock.) I decided that I’d hop up there and give the area a scan, as a lot of material had been disturbed while cutting the ledge.

Well, after maybe a minute of swinging, I got a nice, soft signal. I called to the Cheechako and told him I had a signal that sounded good—definitely not a hotrock--and it was non-magnetic to boot. I worked out where the signal was coming from, captured it in the scoop, and ran the works over the coil. There was a nice, sharp signal in the scoop. I shook out portions until only a small bit of dirt remained that was surrounding the signal. I carefully shook that tiny portion onto the coil and heard the plop and ensuing growl of snarling metal as it contacted the coil. I pushed the material around on the coil until I’d isolated the piece generating the signal. As I picked it up, I was pretty sure by its weight that it was gold, but it was covered in gray clay. Moreover, I had the rookie hold out his hand, and I dropped it in his palm.

Well, he really thought we were messing with him—it wasn’t a gold color, and after all, anyone could see that it was an ugly gray. So, I took it back, used a little saliva (the prospector’s ever-ready cleaning solution) for polish, and rubbed that clay layer off. Well, a nice, sassy nugget was winking back at me. Now, that Cheechako’s jaw dropped so fast it just about hit the toes of his boots. But he sure believed it was gold when I put it in his bottle and told him to take it home! He absolutely couldn’t believe I’d given it to him, or that it was so much bigger than anything he'd found, or that I’d found a nugget that fast. And, to be very honest, I couldn’t believe it either. I mean since when do you break out your detector and then find a nugget on cue?

Well, maybe you do it all the time, but not me. I usually have to invest a ton of time digging worthless trash before I hit a nugget. But in this case, I didn’t dig a single piece of trash, and the only good target dug was that little nugget. There’s no way things like that happen to me, well there’s no way it’s ever happened before, that’s for sure.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[nuggy]

Thanks for the story Lanny. Sounds like you got out and about quite a bit over your summer. That newbie will be perked right up by you finding that little nugget for him, probably a guaranteed way to pass the addiction along, lol.
We have that hot muggy weather here now, and the blood sucking insects are on the hunt. Can't wait to hear more of your summer adventures. Nuggy

 

[Lanny in AB]

Nuggy,

So great to hear from you again. Sorry to hear about your vampire-like bugs--I don't miss ours one bit this time of year--I genuinely appreciate the break.

As far as the Rookie goes, he did get a glorious case of gold fever, and I fully expect to see him again next summer.

Keep us updated on your gold-hunting exploits in one of the world's most beautiful countries.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Pop over and check out Eagle's last post, on his last page. It's on dry prospecting--a very interesting read. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,325842.500.html

All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi There Lanny,
How have you been? How's the weather up your way? I've been working a handyman job in Santa Cruz, that's California, as well as looking for a full time job BUT my mind is currently wandering back to the mountains and prospecting. I've an interview today in a few hours and two other companies I'm working on getting hired at so we will see what happens.

I've been considering purchasing a Keene Highbanker attachment for my Keene A52 or 54, do you have any experience with these? Do you think the pump and motor from a Keene 2" backpackable dredge will yield enough water flow to power the highbanker washer and the sluice?? I also plan on having a new chain saw for cutting plenty of camp firewood. I've been looking at Stihl saws but I wonder how the Husqvarna saws compare to the Stihl class of saw in a 37 through 48 cc engine size. Do you have any experience with these saw brands?

I received a phone call from a fellow who's really sick, sounds almost like he could kick off any time. He's sick with gold fever and needed some help with medications, namely he wanted to know which prospecting detector to purchase. I gave him comments on three machines: GMT, Gold Bug 2, AT Gold. What other machines, in the under a $1,000 U.S. price range, do you feel he should be looking at?

Hope all is well...........63bkpkr

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi There Lanny,
How have you been? How's the weather up your way? I've been working a handyman job in Santa Cruz, that's California, as well as looking for a full time job BUT my mind is currently wandering back to the mountains and prospecting. I've an interview today in a few hours and two other companies I'm working on getting hired at so we will see what happens.

I've been considering purchasing a Keene Highbanker attachment for my Keene A52 or 54, do you have any experience with these? Do you think the pump and motor from a Keene 2" backpackable dredge will yield enough water flow to power the highbanker washer and the sluice?? I also plan on having a new chain saw for cutting plenty of camp firewood. I've been looking at Stihl saws but I wonder how the Husqvarna saws compare to the Stihl class of saw in a 37 through 48 cc engine size. Do you have any experience with these saw brands?

I received a phone call from a fellow who's really sick, sounds almost like he could kick off any time. He's sick with gold fever and needed some help with medications, namely he wanted to know which prospecting detector to purchase. I gave him comments on three machines: GMT, Gold Bug 2, AT Gold. What other machines, in the under a $1,000 U.S. price range, do you feel he should be looking at?

Hope all is well...........63bkpkr

All is well, thanks. Great to hear from you again--thanks for the update.

I hope you find work that rewards you handsomely for your efforts--you deserve it.

I've never been a highbanker guy--I've used them briefly, and I may yet get one, but I've focused my attentions on dredging, metal detecting, and washplants.

A 2" is a pretty small flow, but by testing you'll know, unless someone else has already tried it (feel welcome to please jump in and inform).

I hear you about missing the mountains and prospecting--I miss it terribly myself.

I love Stihl--I know fallers (lumberjacks) that use both types. Some prefer one, some the other. The overall industry standard, I'm not aware of.

I use the Stihl MS260 and I have always been extremely impressed by its performance. It doesn't wear you out packing it around, but it seriously gets to work in a hurry and does an outstanding job.

In addition to the machines you've mentioned, the Minelab Eureka Gold gets quite a bit of good press. If he can find a used Minelab 2100 for around a thousand bucks he'll never go wrong for an incredible gold finding machine--the little sniper coils they have now make it even deadlier. I've still got mine, and I'll probably always have it as my main backup. The 5000 is a fantastic machine, but well out of his price range, but its blood-lines run back to the 2000 and 2100.

Oh, I forgot--I have the little Minelab X-Terra 705--it's a great little machine, but I need to get the little sniper coil for it before I'll post about its performance as a nugget finding machine (other people claim they like it for that purpose--I know it's a great little coin machine, but until I get it to produce some gold, I'll reserve my judgement, and I won't be getting that coil for a bit yet.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Again Lanny,
I think your 260 must have been a 50 cc engine and it would be a fine wood cutting/structure building unit tipping the scales at about 11.5 pounds. As the price for this bottom of the pro line saws is a bit much for my pocket I suspect I will end up with the 211 C-BE a 35 cc unit costing $320 or $140 less than the 261 and about 1.5 pounds lighter. For a guy who does not have a job with some serious student loans to pay off even $320 is a lot of money but I believe it would be well spent. Otherwise I would Rather purchase the 261 as it is an obvious step above all the occasional and mid range use saws Stihl offers. Then the filing fixture is another $129 but is absolutely brings the teeth back to stock angles and sharpness! Living is just expensive but then so is not living.

I've also posted in the Highbanker section and the fellas are starting to come up with some Good info.

So what is a good lifting or pulling unit for moving boulders of all sizes? The Harbor Freight 4 ton puller I'm not sure about as their 2 ton unit started breaking down in just one trip worth of using it.

And now it is time for me to head back to Santa Cruz and maybe detect the yard before going to sleep..........63bkpkr