Prospector

[gold tramp]

I’m sure sorry for the boys accident GT. They are all in my prayers. Please send me an address. I’d like to help.

Mike

Thanks Mike prayers are much needed..


Thanks all...
Gt......


Tokens from the Dale district they were givin to me.

 

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[gold tramp]

Finaly got enough cons built to get the amalgamator going, yes working with the devils mercury.
I dont know how any fine gold hardrock miner could get by without this tool in his arsenal of mining weapons, pretty much amazing stuff.

Anyways.
Were full metal millin right now. might be able to squeeze an ounce out of the last stuff kickin around here at the mill site.
Got the mill grindin, tablin pulp, amalgamating cons, its hot as heck and the ground is still shakin, just had a 4.2 quake basicaly in my front yard i called it a 5 from the feel of it sittin in my desk chair.
Will be busy for the Next couple weeks before we are ready for the final smelt and back to prospectin, the hills is callin my name.
Cant hardly wait, feelin pretty lucky as this ones for the boys !!!


Just finished mill run # 3 so about 800 lbs of ore across the table so far. 2 more mill runs we finish off the crushed ore, then move the power plant back and crush the remaining stock pile.

Having to clean the upper part of the water recirculation system. Lot of slime buildup. Starts getting to thick it fouls the main tub.
I can wash i guess 1000 lbs of ore before the whole system has to be cleaned out.
Main pond is about 900 gallons of water. Fortunately i have a well but im still a tight wad when it comes to using waters.

I live in a really dry place !

Still have to burn some metal and hard face the jaws shouldnt take but a day to weld n reassemble. Going to wait on the babbit work till my son is able, be a good project for him to help with.

Was playin with that Test pan of yeller before i dumped it into the Hg. Floated a little really fine gold for those that havnt seen before yes its floating on water.
Hope its click worthy pic, wont show the devils merc as it might get some pantys ruffled.
Cant truthfully say i ever met a miner that was against the use of mercury.

Anyways i almost had enough crumbs grubbed to buy me a dadgum gold monster, life freekin happened. Oh well maybe next time, starten a new grubstake poke.
Gt.......


About 2grms of some really fine gold.

 

[Jimoutside]

Oh wow, GT, I'm so sorry about your boy and his friend. I'm glad they are on the mend. Will pray for them right now.

I've enjoyed your account here. I'll pray you find a good claim, too. Sounds like you need one!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Had to correct a little color in that pic...is this closer to what it
looks like?

 

[gold tramp]

Things slowed down a bit we had some heavy heat come on. all the open water here at the mill just makes it too damn humid. 110 or better one can hardly breathe. So short dayin it.

No amalgamation its just to hot.

Hope youall enjoy the poor mans gold show no fancy equipment or air conditioning here, just a lot of hot heavy work always, cant say whats worse prospectin, minin or millin.

Today we got some cloud cover it will be extra humid, you might wonder why no night work i dont see very well, over the years the suns burned my eyes out.
Besides night is for sleepin.
And the heat aint that bad just have to be carefull stay hydrated, its desert hardrock minin dadgumit!
Ore has to be dug out the ground and worked to get that yeller.

If i wasnt minin id be runnin hot tar n concrete at least im on my own schedule here at the mill.

Gettin a late start have my son home and im his nurse. got the last of the grindin done, so we move the power back over to the crusher and geter run off !
Hopin j will be able to toss a few small stones in the jaw he has one good arm.

Got to get to work here comes the judge (the Sun) gonna be another long hot one, have to catch up on the last 9 buckets of pulp, run off my mid tails. Then we can get the crushin finished.
God i can hardly wait to get back into those hills.
more ramblins later.
Gt...


Just a bit warm..


Couldnt finish cleanout tooooo freekin hot !

 

[gold tramp]

Got everything run off and amalgamated finaly, took forever lot of interuptions, i gets to smeltin about 15 minutes into the smelt couldnt find my tongs so i could reach in and adjust the crucible.
Had to shut down and spend the next hour searchin for the dadgum things. Finaly found them with the garden stuff ?

Anyways got started smeltin again came inside get out of the heat started flapin my gums and forgot i was smelting, ran all the propane out, time i remembered everthing was cooled so i dont know if i had a successful melt.

Decided not to waste a crucible by breakin it open to get at the bead, being its to far back to town for more gas we do the next best thing, gather some mesquite and just do a wood burn so we can pour this dadgum bead, pain in my butt murphys bein today!

Going to just pile some rocks up make a wall hold the heat.
Add good size pile of mesquite, use the blower from the gas smelter for some air, get that wood hot enough to remelt my gold for the pour.

Waitin till it cools down for the fire, will get some pics for youall Till then heres some random mill shots get the minin juices flowin.
Gt.....


Pretty hot day

Pressed amalgam


Main Tailing pond had to shade the pump it was so dadgum hot!


Gold wheel cleaning Hg.




Last nights wood smelt ended up being nothing more than a sundown fire with ole J, hes finaly gettin around better.
Truthfully i just couldnt manage a wheel barrow full of hardwood as it takes that amount to make enough charcoal to achieve heat for full melt.

Heres the fruits of my workins, so this ends chapter 2..
Gt......



9 grm..


Yellow glass

 

[gold tramp]

Update,
had a couple bad karma trips out in the bush, lost heart and cant seem to get back into prospectins.
Just been a bad year all around here at Claudette mill.


Good time for repair work on the mill, cleanup the pond area and get ready to run the last of my cull ore thats in buckets n piles about the mill area, clutter !

Used the jackhammer to chisel out the floor stones in the arrastra, even though it was worn thin in places, the rocks are glued down tight. Good mortar job!
Little hammer work got those stubborn ones popped up, i still have much chisel work by hand to flatten out the sub floor surface, ready it for new stones.

Will have to go mine the floor rocks, got a good spot maybe geter done this week. You might be wonderin if i got any gold from the cracks in the floor of the mill. i vacuumed the powders up, will pan some out later see if its payin!

Well i did it again left the ore uncovered it rained, now its to dadgum wet to crush, jaw doesnt like to run wet material it just cloggs the whole machine makin it a waste of time tryin to keep the hopper flowin, so we wait it will be dry soon enough, hopefully i wont eat those words and it rains for next 2 months.

Anyways going to be workin here at the mill for a few weeks, while im on this side of the valley will start searchin the Bullions, Sheephole areas again. its my back yard and doesnt take 1.5 hour ride to get to.
More ramblins later my biscuits are burnin.
Gt....



Coffee n biscuits


Note thickness of old stones.


View of a new floor stone note bucket of crack sweapins.


Minin goods other than gold same hole different color.

 

[gold tramp]

Did a pan assay on that crack sweepins bucket. Have to be truthfull i didnt clean the arrastra out properly so we wont know how much was actually in the cracks.

Used 1/4 and the # 20 classifier geter down so i can work the stuff.

Ended up with about a 3rd of a bucket classified.
Will choose the spiral wheel from the arsenal to slay the yeller beast, theres not enough ore to set my table up, were just concentrating so i can amalgamate.

Anyways heres a couple pics for youall armchair guys, will run that stuff off in the spiral get the final tally on the crack sweepins. From the looks of my assay i should get a gram.
Gt....

Test pan from sweepins bucket

My pannin station pardon the mess its a minin camp

 

[gold tramp]

Last update
Due to unforseen circumstances i wont be starting up that online rock shop.
So ends the ramblins of a desert gold tramp.......

 

[delnorter]

I’m sure sorry to hear this Herb, I was looking forward to the interesting rocks and such you’ve collected and mined.
I hope all is well with you Herb. If you get up this corner of California give me a call or come on by.

All the best Herb,
Mike

 

[gold tramp]

Some desert prospectin pics get your mind off the real world for a second.
Hope you enjoy.

View attachment 1812216
Spyed some quarzt veins at the top of the dadgum mnt, they needed further investigation.
Was a God awful long walk up and back down to the rig, im gettin to old for this crap.

View attachment 1812218
Note steepness of terrain and how blue the sky is today.

View attachment 1812225
Mineralizations !

View attachment 1812227


View attachment 1812232
Quick scrape and pry some rock loose gets enough area cleaned and exposed so i can easly dig into the mineralized zone.

View attachment 1812234


View attachment 1812235
Finished prospect, yes thats a dead mans boulder, i had my eye on it.

View attachment 1812236
Just colors no gold, anyways i keep you all in the loop next couple weeks as im followin my ole buddy L O Long one more time.
Gt...

 

[gold tramp]

Last pics from the bush I'm staying home.
Doin my part keeping others safe,
I notice how with minin folks lots are always worried about the digging of gold getting you killed, or using the devil Mercury.
This flu I'm thinking is far worse, but then I'm a crazy gold prospector what do I know.
Anyways..
Folks Workin this crisis don't need more on there plate so I say just don't chance it !
If you aren't in the work force keeping things rolling your in the way.
Better to just stay home.

Here's a couple shots of where I'm pickin up after this mess is over.
If I'm still here, heck I'm a lunger, this crap could kill me.

I can still run the mill show, bore you with some milling pics, have to see what I can come up with.

View attachment 1812827
Next area of intrest a lot of quarzt up high, might be more mineralizations maybe some yeller.

View attachment 1812828



View attachment 1812829
New little trail dog in training, replaced my old honey bug she retired to mill guard.
Going to have a hard time teachin this one stay clear of the snakes.

View attachment 1812830
Last day out, rain out,
Pic of my luck charm the lucky tortoise, we give thanks to the Lord and rub the tortoise for safety.
Always kept us safe out in the bushes...

Hope this gets your mind off this bad for a minute....
Gt ......

 

[Reed Lukens]

Thanks Herb, I just sat here and read everything from the start this morning
Excellent!!!

 

[gold tramp]

Middle finger to clay diggins

 

[Clay Diggins]

Here's some candy to tide you over until you can get out again tramp.



Heavy Pans

 

[gold tramp]

Here's some candy to tide you over until you can get out again tramp.

View attachment 1816942

Heavy Pans

Is this your brand of sarcasm clay.
Gt.....

 

[Clay Diggins]

Is this your brand of sarcasm clay.
Gt.....

No - I seem to recall you like gold. Thought it might inspire you. Guess not....

Heavy Pans

 

[gold tramp]

No - I seem to recall you like gold. Thought it might inspire you. Guess not....

Heavy Pans

More sarcasm.
Your show now clay ...

 

[gold tramp]

The end.........

 

[Hard Prospector]

The end.........

The next rich vein of gold is but a "cloud burst" away from daylight. I believe the Dale is still holding secrets.