School is back in... Time to work!!!!!

Jeff95531 said:
I knew it! You've been talking to the Discover Channel! Just stick it on a tri-pod, turn it on and get back to work!
You are SO getting a call from me today! LOL
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Guess it's a good thing my cell is out of funds! LOL

Actually the Discovery Channel couldn't afford me for several reason.

A. I know what I'm doing and how to get on the gold
B. I don't work for no stinking $10 a yard!
C. I won't go on camera because it would ruin my cover in the WITLESS protection program.
D. They wouldn't allow me to do advertising for W.A.M.M.. PLP or WMA Guess they're a bit too green to handle that.
E. The camera men for Discovery though very good at their job, couldn't be trusted not to bail on us to go cool their heels in Tucson during the summer heat. We tried telling them... "It's a DRY HEAT!" but they wouldn't listen.

So that my friend is the reason the world is stuck watching Todd Hoffman stumbling around the world in a vain effort to find gold instead of yours truly.
 

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AzViper said:
Garrett you must have missed this photo. I do have what your talking about in place to slow the slurry down and give it a good washing. <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=954915"/>
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Keith,
I must've missed it. Glad to see it. I surely am glad to see I'm not the only one to think that. I was thinking about a dimpled type of material might work as well. Still got to get my hopper finished. Pools keep getting in the way. Lol.
Oh, and now my sons telling me to get my boat finished. Plus I've got to finish running my material prior to going to Jeff's outing.
 

Am I the only one getting Parse errors everytime I post a message?
 

I haven't been getting errors, but it has been double posting on me. In my case I think it's the mouse button is fixing to give up the ghost. This trackball is only about 12 years old. I'd say I got my moneys worth out of it.
 

We came... We saw... We worked our butts off!!!!

Well Robi, the Munchkin and I made it out to the claim to get some materials and had a pretty good time of it. The materials at the very bottom of the wash were still wet from the rain last week and it made for some tough classifying even at 1/2". Still we persisted and with some "help" from the Munchkin we managed to get just over 100Gals screened and brought back to the homestead.

The wind out there was HOWLING and shaking the tent for most of the night which made sleep a rare thing for all of us. At one point before we actually laid down we were playing a game of Yhatzee with the munchkin and a Screech Owl decided to start sounding off just up the hill from us. Scared the Munchkin pretty bad as she'd never heard one before.

Now I've got to spend the next week Munchkin Wrangling, running the materials we brought back and getting everything cleaned and packed back up for the nine day trip out there starting next weekend. By the time I get back from that I should be feeling like "Road Kill"!!!
 

Got 50 gallons of the materials run yesterday. Found a few "finger pickers" and a lot of nice little pieces. I hope to get the rest run between today and tomorrow and then start packing things up for the trip next week.

As it stands right now, the plan is to get the majority of the buckets filled up early and stockpiled. I'll keep enough buckets free to haul materials for sluicing during the week, holding cons, and hauling tailings. Then when Robi comes back out to haul my tired, beaten body home, all I'll have to do is load up those few buckets. This will give Robi a chance to do some field sluicing on Saturday or maybe some panning. By that time I should be about "panned out"!!!
 

Sounds like you got it all figured out. Hope you find some bigger stuff as you get deeper out there.
 

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Tanks Dan.

Got another 20 gallons run today. Had to take a break and chance the water in the recirc system. It was starting to look a lot like Robis' chocolate milk! Managed to run about 70 gallons total run before I had to change it. It wasn't pristine when I started so I figure I can run about 80 gallons worth of materials before I have to do a cleaning. I wouldn't try running that long on the Kentucky Camp materials, but this stuff has a lot less clay in it so I don't end up with a ton of stuff in suspension.

More gold today but no finger pickers like yesterday. Still have about 30-35 gallons to run tomorrow so there's alawys a chance for more pickers. While I'm out there next week I'm going to go back over the area we've done so far with a vacuum to really clean out the cracks. This material will go into a single bucket (or two) so I can show "The Boss" what we've been missing. If I'm right, we've only gotten about half the gold in those cracks. Getting the other half in only a couple of buckets will go a long way towards getting my operating budget increased to a point I can get the parts to make a crack vac ala Keith. It's not supposed to rain again so everything should be nice and dry again.

Well time to get dinner going here. Promised Robi something diferent tonight.

Chief Chef and Rock Washer
 

Finished up running the rest of the materials yesterday and was more than a little disappointed in the amount of gold recovered. Then I sat down and gave it some thought. What I decided is that we really need to get the Munchkin trained better when it comes to digging in a wash like that. I was hauling the materials from the wash up to the truck and Robi was letting her "help" with the digging. The only answer I could come up with was that she wasn't scraping the bottom of the cracks out! Well she's young and prone to not listening to or following instructions at times. She'll get better at it in time.

How can I be sure that this was the problem you ask? We use a very simple way of telling where each bucket came from by numbering the buckets and filling them in order. I then run them in the order that they were filled in. So since the Munchkin helped fill the last four buckets, it makes sense that they would be the ones with very little gold in them because of her lack of really getting down into the cracks.

On the other hand... At least the overburden is out of the way and I'll be able to get in there and really clean out the cracks next week! We should have a couple of different vacuums out there and I plan on spending some time going back over the areas we scraped but didn't vacuum out. It should be interesting to see just how much we missed by not having a vacuum to do a really good clean out.

It's looking like it's going to be busy next week out at the claim. With several other people coming out to dig for a day or two spread out over the length of the stay. It's looking like Chris and i will be joined by Garret and his "crew" for a couple of days, Tucson Ted, Scottsdale Shane, and maybe even Keith will make it out. Rumor has it that we may even get a visit from our resident guru Clay Diggens! Looking forward to being able to meet all of you and be able to put a face to the names!
 

Wish I could make it out there next week, but work is blowing up, so I'll have to reschedule my vacation days, and come see you a little later. Hopefully soon before it gets too hot out there.
 

HOT? What hot? I was working out in that area all of last summer and it didn't bother me a bit. Then again it could just be proof that the old saying is right.

No brain... No pain!!!!
 

AzViper said:
I am coming down on Saturday. Will bring lots of buckets (30) and six full barrels of water.
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GREAT!!!!!! Shane is bringing a 55 gallon drum of water mid-week as well. If the offer of use of one of your vacuums is still open it would make life much easier than what Chris came up with. Will be great to be able to put a face to the name and voice on the phone! (Even if it IS a "Poker Face")
 

goldenIrishman said:
GREAT!!!!!! Shane is bringing a 55 gallon drum of water mid-week as well. If the offer of use of one of your vacuums is still open it would make life much easier than what Chris came up with. Will be great to be able to put a face to the name and voice on the phone! (Even if it IS a "Poker Face")
Click to expand...

I am bringing my Vac. I will leave it with you, I will need to pick it back up either next Friday or Saturday as I will be working another area. You need to remember to place the Vac up-wind of where your working so dust is not filtering into the intake. You might what to clean the air filter in the evening so its ready the following day. Do you have a way to syphon gas from your truck? Being a 2 stroke you will need to mix oil with gas, I only use Echo Power BlendX 2 stroke oil. The small 2.6oz. is good for 1 gallon of gas. The bottle is 16oz. and has a measuring cup built into the bottle.

T269.jpg
 

Hummmmm.... Where can I pick it up at? I've got some 2 stroke oil here but if you only want the Echo brand oil used it shouldn't be any problem as long as I know where to get it on the way out to the claim. I've got several gas cans that are currently empty. Think a 2-1/2 gallon one would get me through the week? My plan is to remove overburden before hitting the cracks. I've got about 25 feet of exposed bedrock to clean up already.

Edit: BTW... Nice avatar on the computer screen in the pic. ;)
 

goldenIrishman said:
Hummmmm.... Where can I pick it up at? I've got some 2 stroke oil here but if you only want the Echo brand oil used it shouldn't be any problem as long as I know where to get it on the way out to the claim. I've got several gas cans that are currently empty. Think a 2-1/2 gallon one would get me through the week? My plan is to remove overburden before hitting the cracks. I've got about 25 feet of exposed bedrock to clean up already.

Edit: BTW... Nice avatar on the computer screen in the pic. ;)
Click to expand...

I got you covered. I have a 5 gallon can ready to go for you with 3 gallons of fuel already mixed. That should be more than enough fuel. I will give it a run on Saturday morning and see what we recover.
 

Well all. Greaterville trip is coming up. I'll be meeting Jeff up there Monday evening, unless I'm going to get too late a start. I'd hate to take a wrong turn up there. Lol.
So staying till Wednesday. If others want to come along I'd be happy to lead the way. If not this trip. I'll be heading back towards Stanton two weeks from now. Unless I go next week.
I do have another spot I want to hit, but it's sure hard to go elsewhere when I know a good location. Plus others were working the spot, so I'm going to really tackle that area while the visitors are gone.
PM me if interested on going out. My trip days will be Thursday/Friday. Doing pools weekly now so weekends will be out till it cools down again. It's bittersweet. More money and work, less prospecting time. Ughhhhh!!!
 

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