Here in california we are in a state of either spring type weather or lows in the 30's at night, we have not had rain for months, serious drought here, and no fog which is really weird but theres no moisture to make fog, we is dry and we are really gonna be hurting if we dont get some. I see weather in other areas of country are severe and its just what we need here, ..
I lost my gold dredge in a forest fire last summer so i recently bought a newer used dredge, and i will be hitting our gold claims again this summer, last summer was really bad on our new claims we spent time prospecting our creek we then got my dredge down to the water which is an all day task, then we started test sampling, dredge broke down I spent $700 on new pump and motor, we got the dredge running for several hours planned on going back following weekend and the fire struck and 5 weeks later when we got back in my dredge was incinerated, melted to the ground and it was to late in the season to get another one, so i've waited until i found the perfect dredge and finally I have, we call her TANK she has a 4 inch round hose 15 feet long that sucks up material in the creek like a vacumm cleaner and then theres a sluice box on top of the floating dredge, thats a $3,200 dredge that i got for $1,500, 6.5 hp honda motor and a special pump and even an air compressor so we can scuba dive with that under water for long periods as long as motor runs you can breathe under water, this has been my hobbie for the last 8 years, in 2009 california out lawed it but hell with them, state is breaking federal congressional laws and we have federal mining claims that those federal laws protect so we are fighting this is courts system, I already got cited last year for doing it and beat it in local court, i could be cited again but that just makes it that much more fun, we're like the bootlegger out laws now :)
-- Edited by BigV on Monday 13th of January 2014 10:11:59 PM
LOL...fun post.
It sounds pretty expensive...after all is said and done are you making any money,
or is a fun hobby that you enjoy, so its no big deal if you don't.
I'm in it for fun and to possibly pay the gas at least so far i'm in the hole $$$$$ LOL but i have to say i have had memorable times, mostly pretty bad in the learning stages which lasted about 5 years now i have it down pretty much its just hard to find pay streaks, and its gotten harder to do now that we have to be more stealth like. Its actually harder work then my real job, painting is my gold mine and it comes first, its my living so summers i dont get out much due to work schedules and the winter, well its almost to darn cold in the hills.
I used to lift weights a lot but my bodys just to worn out and i used to fish a lot, to boring, once bitten by gold fever its hard to turn away, pay streak might be right around the bend, so to speak. I hang with a great bunch of guys, all clean cut all american boys who dont do things in excess, pretty adventuresome bunch, so the company is good.
I have always loved geology and this is a big part of the game, understanding rock formation, how mountains formed, types of mineralizations. I have always loved the water and the out doors, by the way gold is every where so get yourself a pan, go to river, creek, ocean even, pan some sand or materials, you might get bitten :)
