Another season in Arizona...

Well, it's another drywashing season in Arizona and sofar the weather has been great and I found a new spot that seems to be producing enough gold to make it worth the effort. Maybe, due to the bad economy, there are more and more people out digging this year and with the price of gold so high, its no wonder. All predictions(IF you can believe them)are for an unusually warm and dry winter for the southwestern US, so we will keep digging as long as we can...

Gold is great...BUT...

I love prospecting for gold and occasionally finding some, or for that matter, finding something long hidden and new to my world. It is not so much the finding, but the thrill of the chase(search) and looking forward to something new and exciting. I guess we all just need a change to the everyday boredom of our lives, sometimes. Sometimes, if I don't make it out of town I might just do something silly, like, go to a big parking lot somewhere in town. Early morning is the best time, when the sun is just coming up in the east. I park to the far side of the parking lot(like a Walmart lot...or anything big) and walk slowly toward the east. If there is a coin or something shiny laying about, the sunlight reflects and makes it easier to find. Yahhhh! I just found a penny. Not much in the way of monetary value, but at least its a find. IF it's a real GOOD day...You MIGHT find a quarter??? Never know what you will find..AND it's good excercise. Nothing spectacular, but an adventure, none the less...

How did it get where it's at...

When I go to my drywashing spot, indicated in the photo, I have found several pickers(ones you're able to pick up with your fingers), But last trip I moved on up the wash farther to see what else I could find. I had assumed that IF the gold moved from the top of the wash(downhill) to where I found the pickers, I would, most likely, find something bigger farther up. Guess again! For some strange reason there seem to be even less farther up the wash??? Huh?? How in the world did it get where it is, IF it came down that hill? Makes me wonder if maybe it didn't come in from a different direction? Since this all happened, probably, a million years ago, I guess we never know for sure. One thing that is for sure is that Gold is WHERE you find it, NOT where it SHOULD be...

My new Gold Buddy(Dry Washer)...

After I moved to Arizona and learned what a dry washer was and that, here, it's the only way to go, to find gold, I have been using my PUFFER type dry washer. While the puffer is a very light-weight machine and easy to get around with, it is slow and just does not handle enough gravel(which is to say, GOLD). I thought long and hard about it and finally I gave in and bought the larger model of Gold Buddy dry washers. I managed to get a few good days in before the desert heated up too much and I couldn't believe how fast and how much dirt this new machine will run in such a short time. This Gold Buddy(listed as Vibro static concentrator)can run, shake and concentrate the gravel as fast as I can shovel it. It runs off a leaf blower motor and keeps things going and is almost a two man operation. One to shovel in and one to keep shoveling away the tailings pile. I am happy to report that my new machine has already paid for itself. Oh Man! Do I love the feeling and the sight of all those little pieces of gold when I pan my concentrates...

Our desert, at night...

As scheduled by the Creator, the Arizona desert is once again much too hot to be wandering around and looking for gold. The gold is still there, but so are a lot of other things that one doesn't want to meet in the middle of the night...Like Rattlesnakes, with a bad temper and very toxic venom. If I should venture out during the day(usually very early in morning)I always watch where I am walking but once it's hot snakes and other little critters will find a shady spot under a rock or in a hole, but when the sun goes down and the air cools, they come out to hunt and whatever...It is not a good idea to be wandering around out there at night, even if it is cooler and there might just be a full moon. A mistake like that can easily prove fatal. For now, we, like the snakes, find a shady spot(in town), polish up our equipment and wait a couple more months go scoop up the yeller gold...