SUDDEN SHOWERS...Huh?

The sun came up again this morning, with another  hot, uncomfortable, day predicted.  I made the decision to have my first cup of the day with the windows open, BEFORE things heat up; Get some fresh air and enjoy the morning while I still can...
About one sip into my coffee I heard a sound...NO! It can't be...I was just outside and not a cloud in the sky but...IT'S RAINING... First a little, then a full bored GULLEYWASHER(as we call it here)...I had to run out and  close the windows on my pickup truck. In the middle of an ARIZONA summer, we can, usually, only dream of rain.

Believe it or not, at such a time as this, I can only look up and say....THANK YOU! At a time like this,  don't ask, just be thankful...Forget the weatherman and enjoy a brief blessing...

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...

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...

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...

Last Night, it rained...

Here in the desert, unless the wind moves something, it pretty well stays in place for a long time...UNLESS it rains! After a long, hot, dry Summer, we are starting to get some rain and the temperatures are slowly coming down. Last night...the rain came down HARD. Out for a walk in the fresh morning air, I walked along a wash that runs along beside the path and noticed where last night's torrential flow had passed and guess what I saw? It had washed down far enough to take off the overburden from times passed, and exposed a nice streak of BLACK SAND(Magnetite), which is a GOOD sign if your looking for GOLD? Who knows? I might be living across the road from a lot of gold?
I might just have to grab a 5 gallon bucket and bring back a sample for my Gold Buddy to work on. Never know...