Interesting discovery today

[goldenIrishman]

Well we got hammered pretty hard by the monsoons here last night and this morning I went out to check the washes. I went to check the area I had just started testing to find that it had all been filled back in and the pile of rocks I had stacked up to get them out of the way had been washed downstream.

Being a inquisitive type I followed the wash down stream into an area that I had not been into before and low and behold what do I find? Someone at some time in the past had taken rocks and cement and dammed the wash! The dam wasn't all that high being all of maybe three feet tall but it has rock and sand backed up for about 40 feet! Talk about a great gold trap! There was a little water flowing over the dam so I got out my trowel and backpacker pan which I always take with me and started testing right next to the dam. First pan showed a little color as well as some of the largest Garnets I've found in the wash here to date.

Since I only had limited tools to work with today, I did what I could before I had to get back to the homestead and do the "Munchkin Wrangling" thing. Since tomorrow is Saturday and I know what to expect, I'll be hauling out some equipment that is better suited for the task at hand. I'm thinking that if I can get the built up sand and rocks classified and out of the way, water should fill it back in for a bit and give me plenty to run the recirc sluice without having to haul H2O from the house. It should also help to keep any more gold that washes down from "flat boarding" as it will have water there already that is level and deeper then the channel upstream thus allowing the gold to drop out of the flow.

As to the dam I can tell it's been there for a very long time by the condition of the cement holding the rocks in place. I'm thinking that it was setup for watering cattle some time in the past as it's range land and range cattle are all over it. Filled in as it is it's not doing the cattle any good so I can see no reason that anyone should complain about me clearing it out. If all that sand just happens to be processed at the same time......

 

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[Jeff95531]

Sushi for Salmon here is a chunk of Herring hooked just behind a chrome APEX. Diver/flasher in front of that. Got this bad boy yesterday. 20.2 pounds, personal best Caught a 5 pound Ling Cod too, going in the deep fryer today.

 

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[goldenIrishman]

I LOVE Ling Cod! That's one of the best eating fish you can get! Great for fish tacos.

BTW.... Check out the ad that Discovery Channel is running for this years shark week. So sick it's funny!

 

[Jeff95531]

LOL! You mean this one?

I laughed out loud the first time I saw it and Karen gave me "the look"
BTW, I eat plenty of meat in my tacos, but never fish! It's like chicken on pizza, some things just aren't meant to be mixed!

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

wow...gold in douglas?

 

[goldenIrishman]

yup... That's the one Grasshopper! BTW I've eaten things in Tacos that most people would never think of. Fish is just one of the more agreeable ones out of the lot.

SC Yes there's gold here in our corner of the state. It's not much but it's there. Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee gets quite a bit as a by-product of their copper mining operations. Next to the Warren area of Bisbee is "gold Gulch". There's also Dos Cabezas mountain and the placers near Elfrida, AZ to the north of us. So far I know I'm not going to get rich of what's around here but it's enough to keep me busy, in shape and out of trouble.

 

[russau]

i used to have a web addy that showed what mines had as a #1/#4 product from their mine. it had all the states listed in a different file. you would be suprised at the results were! for an example, iron mines and lead mines here in Missouri,a lot of the had gold/silver as their number 3 & 4 product. they dont advertise this info a lot.most all of my wifes family used to work in the lead mines in southeast Missouri and they said that in the 1930s, gold was found at the 2000 ft. level.another story was that up around KC Missouri there was a gold mine. so you never know!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Agreed! Like the old saying goes... "Gold is where ya find it!"

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well we moved a lot of sand today! We moved the digging to the start of the flats right before the dam. Dug down to the bedrock and will start following it back towards the dam once I hit the bottom of the channel. Brought back 10 gallons of materials to run and Robi grabbed another 2 gallons from some rocks that were right in the turn. Already ran Robis' materials and got a lot of large garnets and lots of black sands sitting on the mats. Need to clean them out before I and render a full report. I stashed the materials I brought back in one of my bins and will go back in the morning to keep digging towards that channel in the bedrock. Lots of fractures in the bedrock and I'm cleaning them out as I come to them. Really am wishing I had a vac system as that would make life a lot easier when doing those cracks!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Temp Sidelining

Well I don't know what it was I got into, but something has made me break out in hives in the worst way. It's got to be something I"m allergic to and didn't know about. It's not Poison Oak, Ivy etc because we just don't have it in this particular area. Been trying to keep from scratching myself raw and needless to say I"ve not been able to go out and do any mining.

WIll let everyone know when I'm back at it.

 

[KevinInColorado]

If you can tolerate it, a double dose of Benadryl with some caffeine to keep the Benadryl from putting you to sleep might beat that rash back

Good luck and remember how much we like seeing the gold pics on here!

 

[Jeff95531]

Hey all..Just wanted to follow up (brag) about my latest fishing trip. We got our limit of 6 for 3 people. The seas were a little rough but a front was coming in fast so it was now or wait a week. Bryan, friend Dave and I got out on the water about 5:45. It took a long time to get the last two as everyone but me was busy catching/losing fish. Looking back, I now think herring can get so bad it can repel strikes! Several fish were lost in our mission, but two were noteworthy. As I’m looking out to see what the other boats are doing, I hear a CRACK! I turn and see Dave standing and staring at Bryan’s rod… loose…with the reel upside down, caught on the back rail. The rod holder snapped off! Dave grabs the rod and saves it but never got the chance to see what was on the other end. We are thinking a Sea Lion was right behind the fish when he got hooked. The second was on my line. Once he saw the boat, it was a straight drag burning run down about 50 feet. Suddenly back up he comes and spits out the hook. As I sat muttering to myself…But I did nothing wrong! Nothing wrong!, I still need to get one more so we have our limit. We start a last troll towards the harbor and Dave reminds me that coming in with 5 of a 6 fish limit is like getting a 7 out of 10. Finally my rod bends, Bryan throws it into neutral and Dave reels in the other two lines. 10 minutes later, Bryan nets my fish. It’s the biggest King Salmon for the boat and a new personal best of 23.45 pounds @ 35 inches long!





The day before we went fishing, Karen I went to a spot where an old homestead used to be to try a little MD'ing. Here was where I going to detect.

Instead this is what we found all around the site...

Turns out, CA and the Feds have decided to build new bridges and demolish the old ones. So Karen, who grew up here, is pi**ed they are tearing out one lane bridges you can see from, Vs the superhighway bridge with no view. I am pi**ed off cuz I had no back up plan, couldn't detect there and yet they can come in a destroy everything in their path in this pursuit of building and spending money.

A silver lining shows up tho. Dave, who knew about the bridge projects, said he knows a guy who panned some of the tons of dirt being moved and found good gold.
Also, all the workers are off Sunday. Muuuuhahahaaaa



Sorry to hear about the crud GI, must have picked it up at your new sight? Do you have a Geiger counter? Do you know what the government does in the desert? Get better soon and show us the gold.

Since the winds are still up, going to do my best to finish up the sluice and get it dialed in this week.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well this crud has me itching like nobodys' business still but it's getting better. I'm going to finish sluicing down the materials we've brought back so far and then pan down the cons and see what I find. We had more rain yesterday, (wait a minute... Isn't this the desert?) and I'm pretty sure that the holes I"d dug out are now filled back in. Might take a walk out to the site and check just to be sure though.

Looks like ya had a pretty good time fishing there Grasshopper! If I was closer to ya I'd be more than happy to fill out your boat crew to four. I haven't done any salmon fishing in decades. I used to go out at least a couple times a week during the summer when I was in San Diego and go for Tuna with a bass rod. Now THAT'S a fight!

Kevin... I've been doing the double Benidryl thing and it's been helping to some extent. Made me sleep like a log on the first dose but now it doesn't even phase me in that way. I've also been applying Caladryl lotion but there's places I just can't use it. No... I was talking about in my hair, not down there which so far is unaffected. I just want to know what it was that caused this reaction so I know what to avoid in the future!!!! I don't have time to be out of action!!! I've got gold to find!!!!!

 

[goldenIrishman]

BTW..... There's a good chance that Robi and I might be relocating due to her job. If things pan out we may be going up to ALASKA!!!!! There are positions available for both of us that pay enough to make it worth my time to go back to a regular job. Now if my siblings manage to get off their a$$e$ and buy me out of the California property that would be some major icing on the cake.

 

[Jeff95531]

BTW..... There's a good chance that Robi and I might be relocating due to her job. If things pan out we may be going up to ALASKA!!!!! There are positions available for both of us that pay enough to make it worth my time to go back to a regular job. Now if my siblings manage to get off their a$$e$ and buy me out of the California property that would be some major icing on the cake.

That's way cool Jeff. You sound like me, always moving to extremes. I've found my temperature and environmentally friendly spot of paradise here but have lots of memories of AK from 1983 thru 1999. My only regret is I wasn't into prospecting back then. You can still have it all and AK can give you that and usually more.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin... I've been doing the double Benidryl thing and it's been helping to some extent. Made me sleep like a log on the first dose but now it doesn't even phase me in that way. I've also been applying Caladryl lotion but there's places I just can't use it. No... I was talking about in my hair, not down there which so far is unaffected. I just want to know what it was that caused this reaction so I know what to avoid in the future!!!! I don't have time to be out of action!!! I've got gold to find!!!!!

Glad to hear its helping My wife calls me a jr pharmacist ...you might want to check with a real one for more ideas tho

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well Robi works in a hospital so that's no problem Kev. The Benidryl is keeping me sane and this crud is slowly clearing up. I've been practicing herbal medicine for over 30 years now but have yet to learn of any herbal treatment for this kind of crud. I'm not a big fan of western medicine because they treat the symptom instead of the cause. I've got an ex-sister-in-law that is a licensed acupuncturist and know many a chiropractor. I've got a couple of shelves worth of different herbal medicine books that I've built up over the years as well as plant I.D. guides for different areas.

With a last name like mine (Kildare) I HAVE to know something about medicine. That darn show from years ago is still haunting my family! I decided to go the natural route since I couldn't afford to go to med school and become a Brain Surgeon like Jethro Bodine. And never trust anyone that has a job that is called a "Practice". That only tell me they're still learning and don't have it down yet. This includes Doctors, Lawyers etc.

 

[DizzyDigger]

With as dry as it gets in Az, I know my skin would be driving me batty, too..

Could be a part of your issue, as that over-dry skin can itch just as bad as eczema.
Best thing I could suggest is getting a jar of Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream (not lotion)
and as soon as you step out of the shower put a good coating on legs, arms, etc.
That stuff is awesome, and even though I do have eczema, I don't use hardly any of
the steroid creams anymore as it keeps the skin from drying and itching.

Jeff: Another awesome piggy...

Our Coho run won't be here for about 2 1/2 months yet, but when they do there's
always a pile of them hanging out and resting in the deep hole behind my place. Got the
cedar plank out already, just waiting for that first fish.

BTW, try some Folbe rod holders. Nuthin' better, and I used them for years on
driftboats for everything from Steelhead to Kings. Huge benefit over the "Fish On" brand
is that Folbe's have a unique release system that makes it very solid, but also easy to remove
the rod no matter how hard that fish hits.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

Could be almost anything, but I wouldn't suspect your location. You might have suddenly developed a reaction to the laundry detergent used. Eat anything out of the ordinary? Nuts, fish, dairy? What about the sunscreen/bug spray you used?

On top of that, it could be a combination. Maybe the clothes didn't get rinsed very well, and with the sunscreen and sweat from all the hard work you got reaction.

Shampoo, soap, even aspirin can set off some people.

 

[goldenIrishman]

JC... I know what ya mean. Trying to figure out exactly what it was that set this off isn't going to be easy. I haven't eaten anything new or changed anything around the house. Of course the monsoons have brought out a bunch of bugs that I've never been around before so that could be part of it. Saw my first "Red Velvet Mite" right after the rains hit and thought it was some kind of mutant tick or something. Things are almost an inch long and I had always thought mites were these little tiny things.

Dizzy... Not a dry skin problem. Of that I"m sure. Has to be either plant or varmit.

The good news is that it's clearing up and I may be able to get back out to the site if the weather allows me to.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Well Robi works in a hospital so that's no problem Kev. The Benidryl is keeping me sane and this crud is slowly clearing up. I've been practicing herbal medicine for over 30 years now but have yet to learn of any herbal treatment for this kind of crud. I'm not a big fan of western medicine because they treat the symptom instead of the cause. I've got an ex-sister-in-law that is a licensed acupuncturist and know many a chiropractor. I've got a couple of shelves worth of different herbal medicine books that I've built up over the years as well as plant I.D. guides for different areas.

With a last name like mine (Kildare) I HAVE to know something about medicine. That darn show from years ago is still haunting my family! I decided to go the natural route since I couldn't afford to go to med school and become a Brain Surgeon like Jethro Bodine. And never trust anyone that has a job that is called a "Practice". That only tell me they're still learning and don't have it down yet. This includes Doctors, Lawyers etc.

So glad to hear you are getting better...and have better care than just me from afar! Looking forward to a pic of you with a smile on your face and newly found gold in hand!