Mytimetoshine

[mytimetoshine]

Well to each there own I guess. You must be doing some major heavy duty work to those buckets to go through 2 a week.

I'll rephrase..my buckets seem to last forever..

 

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[mikep691]

Here's a thought: Firehouse Subs sells there red pickle buckets for $1 each and that dollar goes to help injured firefighters. cheaper than Ace or Lowe's and you know the money goes to a good cause.

 

[utah mason]

Well to each there own I guess. You must be doing some major heavy duty work to those buckets to go through 2 a week.

I'll rephrase..my buckets seem to last forever..

Unfortunately for me, yes I do some heavy duty work : ). They get dropped down off scaffolding a lot and if there's a little mortar still in bottom it splits bucket. Some days you can go thru half a dozen. Some days you pull up and someone has walked off with them all. I almost always have 3 or 4 in truck. But yes for average person would probably only go thru a couple a year.

 

[mikep691]

Unfortunately for me, yes I do some heavy duty work : ). They get dropped down off scaffolding a lot and if there's a little mortar still in bottom it splits bucket. Some days you can go thru half a dozen. Some days you pull up and someone has walked off with them all. I almost always have 3 or 4 in truck. But yes for average person would probably only go thru a couple a year.

I believe the confusion is your buckets are being used for work as a mason. We miners carry rocks and gravels to the sluice with our buckets. I've had tools stolen from my claim, but the free buckets are still there.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Enough about buckets...let's get some gold!

Saturday was an awesome day. I took my daughter out with me for some fun in the sun. I brought my Prospector and my mini Rocker for Ava to use. I noticed Ava still stuggling to actually dig dirt so I filled a 2g bucket and plopped the paydirt next to the rocker for her. Then I started running buckets through my Bazooka. When I checked on her progress she had made it about halfway through the dirt and then was done with it and just playing and talking to some other people that were there. I look at the rocker and the matting is completely clogged. It takes about a dozen or so pumps/rocks to get the side to side water action that moves the material and she wasn't able to really get the rythym down. So I moved it through for her and then decided to finish off the pile. I cleaned it out and low and behold she had like 5 nice flakes! That gave me hope for my cleanout. I didn't really keep track of time in fact I left my cell in the truck and I wasn't counting buckets but I aproximate I worked from about 9-2. My production was probably about half normal because I'm keeping an eye on Ava and having to holler at her now and then to stop doing certain stuff and I wastd a bunch of time trying to remove a rock that turned out to be bedrock...lol. Ava loves people and had made friends with an older gentleman and his daughter who was probably college age. They were very nice to her but I got a little irratedted because while they were trying to pan out there cons she was all up in the way and peppering them with conversation..I'm like give them some space girl lol..

So I did not see anything on the slick plate but I had the water ripping so that probably why. Now I'm panning the cons when Ava had a small rock fall on her hand and got a little gash, but she is a trooper and was tuff ing it out while I got all our stuff ready. Then some ground gave way on me and I fell hard...enough that Ava was scared but it wasn't really serious. I was struggling to get my rocker bunjied to my frame pack as it has to go on a specific way because of its awkward shape and weight distribution and since I haven't used it in a while I just couldn't get it right so I take Ava and everything else to the truck and come back to mess with the rocker. When I get back the water has risen and my pack and rocker are now in the water a little. Irratated I set my keys down (cause I have no pockets ) and move everything to higher ground. Finally get it strapped and ready to go when I realize I don't have my keys..... a quick frantic search locates them in the nick of time about 8 inches underwater...Phew! That was a close one! And yes! The clicker still works! Lol.

Anyways we had a lot of fun and even got some color. I gave Ava her cut of course!

Found a half dozen pieces of lead shot, a .22 bullet and old nail (not square though!) And what at first glance appeared to be some sort of pendant...but no just a really stealthy fishing weight! Haha never seen one like this before cool idea.

The gold was super dirty. Lots of merc coated bits and small iron and gold pieces.

 

[utah mason]

A good place to get buckets is construction sites. Find new subdivision there will be plenty of houses in different stages of development. Look for either jobs where stucco finish color coat was just applied. They take a little bit to clean. My favorite are paint buckets. Especially if they are still fresh, you can turn them over set them on the ground for a day then just peel paint out(most of time comes out in one piece ). A quick scrub with some dishsoap and ready to go. I use buckets everyday for hauling mortar around, but nothing I buy comes in a bucket. So there like gold for me. There are very few things I would jump in a dumpster for, but a bucket seems to be #1. I may have 10 or so on each job and 50 or so at shop. But I still look in every dumpster first thing when I pull up to new job. And the buckets you'll find on site will be the heavy duty buckets. Plus now your taking plastic out of land fill. Free, less garbage = win win for everyone

I really don't mean this to be rude but I thought my first post was pretty clear I use them on job. Yes I realize YOU MINERS haul gravels to sluice, because I use them for that also. Even though I only do it when I have extra time, which isn't as much as I would like. Running small business and two small kids takes most of my time. Sorry started this reply a while ago but got side tracked ok no more buckets thanks for sharing your pics

 

[mikep691]

Sorry for any misinterpretation. I think I flew over that post. we rescue them for a short while, but even miner's buckets return to the landfill, as do your work buckets.

Sorry Erik, buckets are done now.

 

[utah mason]

Enough about buckets...let's get some gold!

Saturday was an awesome day. I took my daughter out with me for some fun in the sun. I brought my Prospector and my mini Rocker for Ava to use. I noticed Ava still stuggling to actually dig dirt so I filled a 2g bucket and plopped the paydirt next to the rocker for her. Then I started running buckets through my Bazooka. When I checked on her progress she had made it about halfway through the dirt and then was done with it and just playing and talking to some other people that were there. I look at the rocker and the matting is completely clogged. It takes about a dozen or so pumps/rocks to get the side to side water action that moves the material and she wasn't able to really get the rythym down. So I moved it through for her and then decided to finish off the pile. I cleaned it out and low and behold she had like 5 nice flakes! That gave me hope for my cleanout. I didn't really keep track of time in fact I left my cell in the truck and I wasn't counting buckets but I aproximate I worked from about 9-2. My production was probably about half normal because I'm keeping an eye on Ava and having to holler at her now and then to stop doing certain stuff and I wastd a bunch of time trying to remove a rock that turned out to be bedrock...lol. Ava loves people and had made friends with an older gentleman and his daughter who was probably college age. They were very nice to her but I got a little irratedted because while they were trying to pan out there cons she was all up in the way and peppering them with conversation..I'm like give them some space girl lol..

So I did not see anything on the slick plate but I had the water ripping so that probably why. Now I'm panning the cons when Ava had a small rock fall on her hand and got a little gash, but she is a trooper and was tuff ing it out while I got all our stuff ready. Then some ground gave way on me and I fell hard...enough that Ava was scared but it wasn't really serious. I was struggling to get my rocker bunjied to my frame pack as it has to go on a specific way because of its awkward shape and weight distribution and since I haven't used it in a while I just couldn't get it right so I take Ava and everything else to the truck and come back to mess with the rocker. When I get back the water has risen and my pack and rocker are now in the water a little. Irratated I set my keys down (cause I have no pockets ) and move everything to higher ground. Finally get it strapped and ready to go when I realize I don't have my keys..... a quick frantic search locates them in the nick of time about 8 inches underwater...Phew! That was a close one! And yes! The clicker still works! Lol.

Anyways we had a lot of fun and even got some color. I gave Ava her cut of course!

Found a half dozen pieces of lead shot, a .22 bullet and old nail (not square though!) And what at first glance appeared to be some sort of pendant...but no just a really stealthy fishing weight! Haha never seen one like this before cool idea.

The gold was super dirty. Lots of merc coated bits and small iron and gold pieces.

Fun story glad your fall wasn't serious, and daughters hand was fine. I feel for you on packing equipment, I can't wait for my son to get older so he can help pack some of the tools ; )

 

[mytimetoshine]

Still getting it while the getting good. Tuesday after work 90 minutes. 15 2g buckets through the Prospector.

Happy with the take and even....dare..i..say..a ..picker? Only half the weight of the piece I got with Mike the other weekend, but it's the biggest I've got on my own and the weight is light cause it's half quartz. And even more interesting it has NOT traveled far. I wish I had my usb microscope but the one I bought had bad mac sodtware...can some one recommend one that works with Mac?

 

[mytimetoshine]

Wednesday:

Got to the spot 30 min earlier then Tuesday hoping to get more material ran but for some reason I struggled to get my Prospector set up right. Probably killed 20 minutes...

Luckily nobody was kind enough to refill my hole that I had to clear this time though. 16 2 gallon buckets in 90 minutes or so. Just about the same take weight wise but no picker

I did find a larger caliber rifle round that hung up on the grizzlies. Then dropped it into the tailings where I wasted another 5 min recovering it. Only to lose it again packing up! Well I tried....that lead was destined for the river I guess.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Well Saturday was a dissapointment. I didn't get skunked but almost. Been wanting to go back to a stretch of river I worked with Schoolofhardknocks. When we went he was shoveling unclassified into a metal riffle sluice and I think he got -- .4 in a couple hours. For the last 2 months I've been wanting to go back with my Bazooka.Well Saturday was the day. Woke up a bit late but was still at the river set up by 9. Basically shoveling river bed material right off a large outcropping of huge boulders. After the first layer of cobble the digging was easy. A lot of sand/black sand but still a lot of intersting gravel.

The water rips through here during water releases so any wing dam that used to be there is no longer. It didn't take me long to get something together. Set up what I thought was perfect. Perfectly level with good flow, threw a hand full of rock on the plate and it looked good. Unfortunately once i started running buckets it ended up with not enough flow. Rather then tare down the damn which was made of relatively small cobble I decided to just deal with it and rake everything through..only saw one flake on the plate with a slow flow so I knew it wasn't gonna be good.

When the water came I finally had the perfect flow! it shredded a 2g bucket in 5 sec. Then before I could get another bucket it was 6 inches under water. dumped it in the 5g and in 10 minutes my dam was obliterated.

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

Well Saturday was a dissapointment. I didn't get skunked but almost. Been wanting to go back to a stretch of river I worked with Schoolofhardknocks. When we went he was shoveling unclassified into a metal riffle sluice and I think he got -- .4 in a couple hours. For the last 2 months I've been wanting to go back with my Bazooka.Well Saturday was the day. Woke up a bit late but was still at the river set up by 9. Basically shoveling river bed material right off a large outcropping of huge boulders. After the first layer of cobble the digging was easy. A lot of sand/black sand but still a lot of intersting gravel.

The water rips through here during water releases so any wing dam that used to be there is no longer. It didn't take me long to get something together. Set up what I thought was perfect. Perfectly level with good flow, threw a hand full of rock on the plate and it looked good. Unfortunately once i started running buckets it ended up with not enough flow. Rather then tare down the damn which was made of relatively small cobble I decided to just deal with it and rake everything through..only saw one flake on the plate with a slow flow so I knew it wasn't gonna be good.

When the water came I finally had the perfect flow! it shredded a 2g bucket in 5 sec. Then before I could get another bucket it was 6 inches under water. dumped it in the 5g and in 10 minutes my dam was obliterated.

Whats up dawg, still going camping next week with my fam and my girlfriends family at the place i told you about. Roll through with your daughter if you would like, hit me up if you're free..

 

[mytimetoshine]

That sounds good but idk if Ava will be up for it since I took her out last time she was here.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Recap of last weeks after work diggins. The days are getting short! Sun sets 5 min earlier every week. Barely enough light to make it worth while. Luckily I found a close spot with decent gold. It's a bit of a bucket haul but it's working. 1 hr and 1/2 tues, we'd, Thursday. 35 2 gallon buckets total.

I should ad that the material goes through my DIY bucket grizzlies first ( old barbecue grill) I think the slots are 1/2 inch but the longer rocks go through so there are some decent size rocks in the bucket. I actually think this is about the perfect size for "easy" classification. You don't need to use water or kill your self shaking it. For the most part I can usually set the bucket up on a small mound to give it some angle Most rocks just roll off. Probably flip the rocks off every 3 shovels or hand fills. Works quite well. I'm not worried about losing gold off the rocks. I think that really only applies in certain hard pack material. My rocks only have sand attached to them, never really noticed any gold that was sticking to them.

Look at all that toxic scrap metal I pulled from the river, using no chemicals and at no cost to the taxpayer!

Good gold all be it dirty and tons of lead. I also got my first square nail! Only took 2 years! Lmao.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Played hooky from work on Wednesday. Slept in and got to the spot at 10am. Worked till about 3 where I strained my wrist chucking cobbles and called it quits. Plus that hole was done so it was good timing. 33 2 gal buckets through the Prospector.

1 square nail
1 round nail
Couple fishing weights
Couple bullets and some lead shot
.34 grams of half merc coated gold.

Almost every piece has merc which makes it a PAIN to separate all the small lead out of it. Have to go through it with a loupe...why can't lead be magnetic?! Is it like some cruel joke?..

I also saw a small California King snake. Just chilling in the sun on a sandy path. To bad the picture came out bad. I rushed the shot and didn't let the camera on my cell focus.

 

[Asmbandits]

Yesterday truly was your time to shine! Had a blast with you and Joe and found some new ground as well, couldn't ask for more..

 

[Aufisher]

Looks like your hitting it hard and the gold is stacking up! Awesome King snake photo too!

 

[goldenmojo]

Yesterday truly was your time to shine! Had a blast with you and Joe and found some new ground as well, couldn't ask for more..

Definitely was a great day with you and MyTime and hope we can get out again soon. Just waiting for MT to get that pan cleaned up and post a shot.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Saturday pretty much rocked!

Went on a little prospecting trip with GoldonMojo and Asmbandits. So I get these suggestions for hiking trails once a month from this app I have called Alltrails. Last month's suggestion had me intrigued. Fairly easy trail with plenty of history and relics in the area.

I had it all planned out. I'm sending the guys a bunch of maps and stuff just so I could lead them to the wrong trail...lol. about 10 minutes in I realize we are on the wrong side of the river.. How do you end up on the wrong side!!!! Anyways since this trail went right along the river with access as well we just kept going all be it with no plan as the original one had to be scrapped.

We pick a spot and make our way down to the river. It's beautiful.. crystal clear water and smooth granite boulders. As we are climbing down Mojo spots some stacked rocks and claims it a good luck sign. He was right! Right away we start poking around. First pan of sandy bank material. GOLD!. several pieces of fly poop. Mojo heads up the bank to work under a large suspended boulder with small cobble under and is getting color. Bandits heads up even further and is cleaning out larger cracks and is getting color.

My strategy when working new ground is to take samples of every differnt type of dirt as you can. I'm definitely no gold snob. In fact halfway through the day my biggest piece and best pan had came from loose bank gravel that looks worthless. I tested in the water out of the water up the bank down the bank. I worked a large crack that looked like it would be amazing and got only one speck and a new lincoln penny.. I scratched at some obviously super compact old looking material in a very thin vertical bedrock crack. Put my pan under it but is usually typical 95 percent of the material would miss the pan. But I did do a quick check of the pinch of material that made the pan and it had fly poop. But I just kept moving. Then I investigated a section of boulders that seemed to be in a depression area with some smaller cobble mixed in. I moved the cobble and got into some great looking stuff but came up with nothing.

I didn't have a lot of gold in my snuffer but I had some, new the area had potential and was happy with what I had. Went to go see what Bandits was doing. Cleaning out these high bank bedrock cracks. He uses a plastic bottle with the top cut off. You can squeeze it and it makes the perfect shape it brush material out of a crack and be able to actually collect it. This actually works very well and if you haven't tried it you should. Then the light bulb goes off and I steal one of Mojo's Gate raid bottles and his knife, pop the top off and go back to that vertical crack I scratched at eariler. I position the bottle at the bottom best I could and go to work. Now the bottle isn't catching everything but closer to 75 of what's coming out. The vertical crack came down at about 75 degree angle then horizontal for about 3-4 inches and then straight down to the water. Most of the material cam out of the flat spot. Did my first pan when the bottle was about half full. I sit down next to Mojo and we're panning. I mention how dirty the material was. Turned the pan water the color of chocolate milk with orange juice mixed in. Best I could describe lol.

As soon as I could get the water clear enough to see what I had I saw gold. Kept working it down and then said "uh, hey Mojo I think you need to look at this"..:sly:

..then we all collect around the crack and try to figure it out. I think Mojo was right, there is a smooth bedrock slop that is almost like a burm. The water would come up the ramp and then angled down right on this crack. I went back and got another pan same size same cleanout. Went back for a 3rd but she was done. I washed it out real good and then cleaned up the area around the bottle and got the rest.

We called it a day and headed back. As we walked we took guess of the weight. All though my guess was closest I wish there were cause they were higher! Ha! Anyways it is beautiful stuff. All rosey yellow with NO merc. In fact I didn't find a single piece of lead all day

I want to thank GoldonMojo and Asmbandits for a great day. If you ever get the chance to go out with these guys you should take it!

 

[goldenmojo]

Saturday pretty much rocked!

Went on a little prospecting trip with GoldonMojo and Asmbandits. So I get these suggestions for hiking trails once a month from this app I have called Alltrails. Last month's suggestion had me intrigued. Fairly easy trail with plenty of history and relics in the area.

I had it all planned out. I'm sending the guys a bunch of maps and stuff just so I could lead them to the wrong trail...lol. about 10 minutes in I realize we are on the wrong side of the river.. How do you end up on the wrong side!!!! Anyways since this trail went right along the river with access as well we just kept going all be it with no plan as the original one had to be scrapped.

We pick a spot and make our way down to the river. It's beautiful.. crystal clear water and smooth granite boulders. As we are climbing down Mojo spots some stacked rocks and claims it a good luck sign. He was right! Right away we start poking around. First pan of sandy bank material. GOLD!. several pieces of fly poop. Mojo heads up the bank to work under a large suspended boulder with small cobble under and is getting color. Bandits heads up even further and is cleaning out larger cracks and is getting color.

My strategy when working new ground is to take samples of every differnt type of dirt as you can. I'm definitely no gold snob. In fact halfway through the day my biggest piece and best pan had came from loose bank gravel that looks worthless. I tested in the water out of the water up the bank down the bank. I worked a large crack that looked like it would be amazing and got only one speck and a new lincoln penny.. I scratched at some obviously super compact old looking material in a very thin vertical bedrock crack. Put my pan under it but is usually typical 95 percent of the material would miss the pan. But I did do a quick check of the pinch of material that made the pan and it had fly poop. But I just kept moving. Then I investigated a section of boulders that seemed to be in a depression area with some smaller cobble mixed in. I moved the cobble and got into some great looking stuff but came up with nothing.

I didn't have a lot of gold in my snuffer but I had some, new the area had potential and was happy with what I had. Went to go see what Bandits was doing. Cleaning out these high bank bedrock cracks. He uses a plastic bottle with the top cut off. You can squeeze it and it makes the perfect shape it brush material out of a crack and be able to actually collect it. This actually works very well and if you haven't tried it you should. Then the light bulb goes off and I steal one of Mojo's Gate raid bottles and his knife, pop the top off and go back to that vertical crack I scratched at eariler. I position the bottle at the bottom best I could and go to work. Now the bottle isn't catching everything but closer to 75 of what's coming out. The vertical crack came down at about 75 degree angle then horizontal for about 3-4 inches and then straight down to the water. Most of the material cam out of the flat spot. Did my first pan when the bottle was about half full. I sit down next to Mojo and we're panning. I mention how dirty the material was. Turned the pan water the color of chocolate milk with orange juice mixed in. Best I could describe lol.

As soon as I could get the water clear enough to see what I had I saw gold. Kept working it down and then said "uh, hey Mojo I think you need to look at this"..:sly:

..then we all collect around the crack and try to figure it out. I think Mojo was right, there is a smooth bedrock slop that is almost like a burm. The water would come up the ramp and then angled down right on this crack. I went back and got another pan same size same cleanout. Went back for a 3rd but she was done. I washed it out real good and then cleaned up the area around the bottle and got the rest.

We called it a day and headed back. As we walked we took guess of the weight. All though my guess was closest I wish there were cause they were higher! Ha! Anyways it is beautiful stuff. All rosey yellow with NO merc. In fact I didn't find a single piece of lead all day

I want to thank GoldonMojo and Asmbandits for a great day. If you ever get the chance to go out with these guys you should take it!

That first pan was a beautiful thing! Along with the second, third and fourth..... thanks for the trail suggestion as it made the hike easier and made for great day of prospecting with you and Bandits. Always ready for more.