I want my mining partner back!!!
Well I'm getting frustrated here guys. There have been some MAJOR changes at the hospital where Robi works and it's cutting into our time together as well as out at the claim. While it's a great thing for Robi on a professional level (big promotion) it's also been pretty nasty from the standpoint of the number of hours she's had to be working during this transition phase. I've gotten to see her for maybe a total of an hour all week. Between the hospital going through this buyout and having the state inspectors show up at the same time, Robi has been putting out fires for 14-16 hours a day all week.
On the other hand... It's looking like I've now got a new trainee to start teaching the mysteries of prospecting and mining to. I finally got a chance to meet the Munchkins half brother and he's expressed an interest in learning the ropes. He's at a good age (12 years old) to be able to understand much of the information and he seems to have a really good head on his young shoulders. Since he doesn't have any other male influence in his life at this time and as we all know, that's something that's important for a guy his age, I'll be taking him under my wing. Since the Munchkin is a little on the young side to be staying out at the claim with me during the summer break from school, it's looking like her brother will be spending a lot of time out there instead. While we won't be going out to the claim this weekend, we will hopefully be heading out there next weekend. This is going to be his first trip out there and I'm going to be spending a lot of time showing him the basics. If he does well on the first trip, I'll start working him up some home study materials so he can be learning some of the more advanced stuff on his own time. I won't be showing him any of the chemistry parts just yet but the geology and physics of how gold moves is going to be highly stressed. I hope by the end of the summer I can get him out there and turn him loose for a day or two (with me close by of course) and he'll be able to locate, dig and process some gold all on his own. If nothing else, it should make for a good report for the "What I did on my summer vacation" thing when school starts back up. I could think of worse ways for a kid his age to spend a summer vacation. Camping and mining should be a lot better for him than sitting in front of the T.V. watching re-runs and playing video games.....
