Rodents

[Plumas]

I know it hard to not just sit there and admire my outstanding camo. paint job but check out the damage rodents did to my floats last winter while stored on the claim. Rough winter, they musta got real hungry.

The jet flare I'm sure I can seal up with some silicone, the floats I'm thinking fiberglass for the repair.

Anybody have any tips, suggestions or better ideas?

Plumas

Floats3.jpg (50.48 KiB) Viewed 5022 times

Floats4.jpg (53.59 KiB) Viewed 5022 times

[russau]

those darned ole squirles have been at it again. my trash cans and the storage box i have on my patio look the same way for them raskels!

[Hoser John]

DAMN RATS it looks to me. Them wax impregnated floats are a pain to fix. Underground fiber optic cable utilizes a black peel and patch material. Like a black flexible patch that I have used on many dredges for over 20 years and still holds water whilst being on the very bottom of the pontoons and getting beat,scraped and mangled bigtime. Tried many MANY options and nothing ever lasted. Bummer coming to work in the am to a submarine---err on the side a caution for awhile. The materials used to be available at Home depot for sealing underground wiring joints also. tons a au 2 u 2 -John

[CalGoldDredger]

Yup, learned myself to keep the dredges out of the reach of all the local wildlife. Rats, you should see what happens when the bears get curious and playful.

hangem' high

[Grivy]

Tips or suggestions ???

Get off the wallet buy some new pontoons a new flare and keepum away from the rodents,,, how simple is that ? we all know trying to make anything stick to plastic is just a waste of time,,,,,

[Hoser John]

NOT PLASTIC and fixable and why sacrafice cash to critters again. Kalif ratz eat through anything out here. Ate the wiring outta my brothers GEO,the hard black rubber seal on the garage door AND the dual thermopane window frames right out of his garage. He was cleaning the outside and the windows fell out and onto the garage floor and busted as FRAMES EATEN--ifn' ya could just figure out how to put all that destructive energy to work for ya??? Hope ya find tons a au 2-John PS--Ain't this a pain gettn' dredges ready when we used to be about ready to store'm for a long winters nap

[Ornery Cuss]

Why why would a critter do that other than grinding teeth, makes no sense.....

[Hoser John]

trained insurgents trained by the environutz to destroy all the mining equipment in the world---oops better make that OBAMA as we now blame him for everything wrong on the planet anyhow John

[Plumas]

OC.

It's easy for me to imagine. The dredge frame and floats winter hanging from a large spike pounded into a tree a good eight feet above the ground. It's then all wrapped tight with roofing tin to protect it from the bears.

We had a lot of snow up there last winter and I suspect my pontoons were one of few things sticking out above the maybe eight-ten feet of snow. (They ate the pontoons on top) I think it was hunger pure and simple. Not only did they hit my floats but they also chewed the paint off several of my yellow Federal Mining Claim signs. One of those signs is now nearly round as they even ate the aluminum it was printed on. I can only imagine a critter so hungry that it would chew up metal just to have something in it's belly.

Have been storing the dredge up there this way since 2004 and have never had any kind of problem. But It has been a long time since that area had seen that much snow pack.

But then again, maybe Hoser has it right.

Plumas

[Hoser John]

WOW damn good insight,never thought a that one?? The Donner party folks had a mix like thisn'-eat what ya got just to keep a lil'sumthin' n' the belly-BUMMER-John