Thank you Keith, Oak and 49er. Oak: Yes, I drove down there in April
and November of last year.
Ken was always pushing me to quit smoking, sleep normal hours (I'm
generally up and night), and to just "get healthier". Somehow he felt
I could overcome the Meniere's this way. What he didn't understand
was that I live a very stress free life, and he lived in the high-speed,
anxiety filled chaos of So. Cal.
Couple months back he and I were talking about our "gold goals" for
this year, and the goal I'd set for myself was 5 grams of the local flood
gold. Doesn't seem like much to some, but I only average about
1-2 10ths of a gram per trip, so getting 5 grams of that will take some
work. Some guys can work hard all day long, but I'm only good for 4-5
hours, start to finish, and the more tired I get the less balance I have,
so there comes a point where, like it or not, it's time to pack up and
head home.
Don't know if I'll make it, but as of today
I'm increasing my 2014 goal
to 10 grams. My wife is leaving on Sunday to help out her elderly parents
who live near Chicago, so for the next 2-3 months I'm batchin' it, and all I
officially have to do is take care of the house/yard and keep the cats fed
and happy. Other than that, I can prospect/mine every day if I feel up to it.
*****************************************************************
Time to get the journal caught up with the most recent trips:
Monday, May 12th
Got out to the Longhorn about 0930, spent 15 min. getting all the
gear set up and then went to work digging and classifying. As you can
see from the pic, below, the ground here is just a bit on the rocky side,
so getting 15 gal. of -1/8" material meant I had to wash bucket after
bucket of material:
Just two days before the water level had been 2 ft. lower, so I worked
the best ground available, and that was down close to the water line.
Felt good that day, and had my goal of 15 gal. of -1/8 in about 90 min,
so I took a break for a sandwich (Liverwurst..

) and then
got set to start feeding the Cube.
Ran all the material I had, and thought about trying to classify up
another tub of material, but it was getting pretty warm so I packed
it in about 1:30. Truth is, no one else will be working this area so
whatever is here ain't going nowhere, and I can come back any time
I please to dig some more.
Cleaned it all up that evening, and was surprised to see 8 flakes
that were larger than #30 mesh, and then balance of it running
from -30 to -100.
