Site really dead

[russau]

Yep I also visit the site several times a day and sometimes I get a little long winded BUT a old guy has to do something to earn his Geritol dosage each day !

[Joe S (AK)]

Yeah - pretty quiet - but just wait -- should be some activity after we flatten the curve. Was it 2 weeks or 2 years, it's been so long now that I forget?

I also monitor and contribute to 3 other gold forums and yes, it's pretty obvious that we're in a world wide drought for postings right now.

Hey Russ - got any good recipes? How 'bout you, Jim? Leonard? Micropedes or anyone else?

How about handy tips? We can ALWAYS use those.

Doc over at Gold Hog has a new mini folding sluice. His brand new video just came out yesterday, introducing it. (He looks just the same as always). THAT should get your heart pumping and your muscles twitching.

Joe

[russau]

2 weeks , 2 years 2 to long! I think this virus will be with us for a long time but maybe NOT as bad ! Probly a shot every year ! So far so good here and my place. EXCEPT for the shootings ! Last night about 2:30 AM I heard another 2 shots from close by ! I'm almost used to it now and I didn't even spill any of my coffee !

[libertydave]

I still check out the site daily and occasionally write a post on gold and mining subjects. Like many of you I also miss the past days with the volume of chatter on so many subjects that provided useful info and also some smiles. Seems also like many no longer are involved in mining and dredging prohibitions and I know that age and declining health has made it difficult for most of us to enjoy something that we once highly valued.
As for me I'm now 78 and no longer near as capable of hiking into remote places and packing in my dredge. After a heart attack and a couple surgeries I am just blessed to be around but I do realize that my days of working a larger dredge nozzle are long over. That said I still built a 2" suction dredge to share with two of my grandkids this summer the thrill of finding gold. Both are good in the water so they will be doing the shallow underwater work. Matt, hats off toe you! Your piece on gold in the Umpqua and Similameen Rviers was very well done.
I also have enjoyed the recent advances in mining and recovery technologies. I gutted my dredge sluice which is now lined with something called "Dream Mat". This urethane matting really works good at retaining small and fine gold. Run your dredge all day and make just one cleanup. I also use this in my home gold concentrator.
Reading thru this post I can also recall the many people who once were a part of my daily internet mining. I miss them and there stories. That said I send each of them (and you) my best wishes and thanks for all of the years of shared knowledge and entertainment. Maybe we'll see each some distant campfire and toast the good old days with a cold beer. Cheers.

Liberty Dave

[Jim_Alaska]

Here's a recipe for ya Joe. I love these.

Yummy Pork Chops

In a Large deep sided skillet with cover

Begin heating ¼” of oil in the skillet on high heat.

Pour some flour in a bowl

Slice a large RED onion in about ¼” thick slices

Wash pork chops in clear water, do not drain them

Season pork chops with Johnny’s seasoning and garlic powder

Dredge pork chops in the flour, cover them well with flour

Shake off excess flour and brown the chops well

Remove chops from pan, turn fire down to low (number three on my stove)

Line the bottom of the pan with whole slices of red onion

Place pork chops on the onion, turn up heat until the chops start to cook again

Pour in one cup of hot water, cover pan and turn down the heat to low again

It should just barely simmer, cook covered for 30 minutes

When done, remove pork chops and wrap in foil or Saran Wrap and refrigerate

The next day, take out the chops and onion and heat in microwave

Serve with favorite veggies.

[Joe S (AK)]

Yeah, Jim, but get you started and you go on forever (same with me, right?).

As with anything else, in time things will swing back the other way, and even though WE will probably be ancient when that happens it's the young crowd that'll take over for bigger and better things down the road.

As for me - I look for folks with a spark of interest and help fan it where I can. Sometimes a little tip or two, sometimes helping out with a pan for those too young to be able to afford one, sometimes a little panning lesson ...... it all adds up.

***************************************************

I remember the last time I went to Chicken Gold Camp with my wife. We camped for a weekend and the night before we returned to Trapper Creek I was down at "The Panning Trough" and got to talking to a tourist guy from Philadelphia. He mentioned that his wife REALLY had been wanting to learn how to pan on this trip (and find even one tiny speck of Gold) and that throughout their entire trip she had been disappointed. Place after place everyone was 'too busy' to help her. I told him to go back to the camper and drag her over, we had some panning to do. A few minutes latter there she was - grinning from ear to ear and ready to go bear hunting.

She had been trying to find anybody who could show (and explain to her) how to use a pan. WELL!, off we went to go a pannin' in the trough. We all know that 'stuff' brought from the stream bed has Gold in it - but we also know that tourists do loose tons of Gold in the trough through haste and inexperience. She didn't know that.

Well, the hubby was standing there really happy that someone was finally helping his wife - and so he continued watching and listening because, of course, he was interested, too.

There were, of course, the basics to start off with and she hung onto every word. After 30 seconds (maybe a minute) I thought "'Nuff a Dat" and thrust the pan into her hands. Slowly, awkwardly and shakily she started in while I grabbed my spare pan to show her what she should do. She kept up with me and was learning fast. We started by working down a 1/4 pan full all the way down to the very last of the concentrates and sure enough there were 2 tiny Gold bits staring up at her. She was thrilled in her accomplishment and she carefully put those 2 colors in a vial that I had given her. Then, again, a second pan, and a third and then, about that time, I stopped her so she could catch her breath and let the knowledge soak in. She was beaming and her husband had a big-ol-smile, too.

Then we shifted into high gear. As all beginners do, she was spending 1/4 of her time getting rid of the lights and very slowly agonizing over carefully working down the small amount of cons left in the pan - searching for the glimmer of a color or two. Now I got her attention by stopping her 1/4 of the way into her cycle when she was down to just black sands. The look of wide eyed horror on her face when I put some more gravel pile material into the pan on top of her concentrates was amazing to see. She was ready to claw my eyes out when I did that to her pan. I reassured her that nothing had happened to her first pan's worth of Gold sparkles and to just start all over again to work the lighter gravel out of her pan. In 2 minutes I did the same thing again and the hubby silently grinned --- he saw what I was doing. When she continued down to just the Gold she was shocked to see all the gold from all 3 pans worth of gravel - and in much less time, too.

She had been panning gravel from the pile next to the trough and just having a ball. We did this all over a second time but while she was fixated on her working her first installment down I shamelessly managed to grab a FULL Garrett Super Sluice pan of the trough material, doing my best to blindly get some from the very bottom with my trowel. While she agonized over every grain of black sand in her first pan I quickly shook down that big pan's worth and did it again and snuck a peek at the results. As luck would have it there was a nice picker in there - and I slowly showed it to the hubby behind her back.

Quickly I covered my tracks by putting some of the pile dirt in my pan over the concentrates and when it was time to add more to her pan --- in it all went! Hubby was about to explode - but to his credit he "maintained".

After a couple more additions, the Mrs. was ready to process down her "super pan" of concentrates. We all watched as she slowly back washed her final pan in the diminishing light. We waited, we waited and we waited some more as she carefully worked the black sand away from the hot spot in her pan as midnight's failing light slowly left.

First she found a bunch of tiny colors on the side and she Oohed and Aahhed and squeaked her way through that nice little showing. She continued on, ever so slowly, until something caught her eye - it was the picker. Not huge, but the largest bit she had seen in her pan - and she didn't have to look hard at all to see it. Yes, she squealed and laughed and cried while her hubby just beamed - and mouthed "Thank You!" to me.

Since it was almost dark we called it for the day - Hubby, I and the happiest girl in 100 miles.

I bet she is still panning away somewhere even today --- and all that just because someone spent a little time lighting her fuse.

Makes a guy feel good.

- Joe -

[russau]

Thankyou Joe for your efforts in keeping the dream alive !

[Joe S (AK)]

Jim, just to keep the forum bumping along until Gold Stuff shows back again ------

*************************** Joe's Pokke Chopz ***************************

My favorite pork chop recipe is similar to yours -- NOT.

Pork Chops into large skillet with 3/4 to 1" of water. Medium heat, uncovered.

Simmer until the water is almost gone, add a little cooking oil and continue until the chops start to brown. Flip the chops for the other side to brown and turn down the heat a little.

Add 1/4" water with cinnamon, ginger, garlic powder and either minced or powdered onion (I suppose you COULD use sliced onion). Cover to stop loosing steam.

Simmer for a longish while.

Just before dinner time add a little apple juice (or cider) with some brown sugar (now, of course, I have to use Splenda) and then, JUST before it's served, add Apple Sauce with a tiny bit of sweetener mixed in and a shake or two of cinnamon on top.

STAND WELL AWAY FROM THE CHOPS because the neighbors who have smelled "things" cooking all afternoon will stampede in and circle around in a shark frenzy.

Lead the procession to the dinner table (they'll follow, OH, will they follow!) and chow down.

Share if you've a mind to.

[Grivy]

Screenshot_20230305-021641.png (276.39 KiB) Viewed 5153 times

still here waiting for y'all to get back

[golden optimist]

Boy, that was a long time ago. Sure was a nice trip though'. I miss Russ but he kept having computer problems.
Leonard