New Gold Miner/Dredger

[libertydave]

I've got four kids and seven grandkids, all girls except for adopted boy, Daniel, age 11. He's shown no interest in gold prospecting/mining until getting hooked last year watching TV gold shows. Seems like all we now talk about is mining basics and finding gold.

Last fall Daniel asked for 'mining equipment" for Christmas. I'm also putting together a 2" shallow water gold dredge built from old surplus garage parts...simple rig...custom sluice, new frame (no floats)....rebuilt Honda GX90/Keene pump, new hoses and suction nozzle. He'll get this in April on his 12th birthday. We now are both looking forward to this summer. His dad said he'd like to tag along. Good! Because at 78 I need a good 'mule'.

Liberty Dave

[russau]

CONGRATS to you and your wife Dave !!!!!!!!!!!!!! GREAT memories are in the making ! memories that will live forever in you and your family!!

[libertydave]

Thanks, Russ...

FYI...In forty years of gold mining and dredging and try as I did, not once could I get my wife to go mining with me. Looking back perhaps that was just as well considering all the roudy fun and crazy times we had.

LD

[Joe S (AK)]

I started with "The Sickness" a long time ago ('66) - and then along came my wife, BJ. On a trip to Colorado to visit friends she, too, contracted "The Disease" and we both mined for the yellow metal together for years and years. Over time her health faltered and she had to slowly back out of the hands on aspects of mining.

Today her age (early 70s) combined with "health conditions" mean that she has had to lay her pan and trowel down and reluctantly take an easier trail. I suspect that at 75 I'll be forced to do the same in the next few years, although I've always been like an old firehouse dog ready, at an instant, to get up and go.

So there are concessions we all have to make as we strike off into "The Great Mystery of Life".

I am often reminded of something I first heard in my youth (A long time ago) while stationed with the Air Force, in Denver. I find it to be as succinct as ever:

"Those Who Can, Do,
and
Those Who Can't Do,
Teach
Those Who Can,
To Do."

- Joe -

[libertydave]

Well stated, Joe. I should point out that it was not that my wife did not like gold...because she certainly did. Her interests in gold were in the finished products..mostly jewelry.

In retrospect I enjoyed the whole mining experience found from chasing after gold, knowledge gained, research, equipment design, exploration, discovery and recovery. I took time to enjoy the sounds of material tumbling and flowing thru a dredge's sluice box. To me it was like music. I miss that...and all of the associated experiences and adventures when I was dredging.

Most of all I miss the beauty of the wilderness, the friendships gained and the many shared stories told around a campfire. Cheers!

LD