1515Art

Ahh... I thought this thread "nut at the end of the coil" was a comment of something about us operators.

Fred, Jason...the artists are amazing and visiting their studios watching them work is a very humbling experience. It teaches you patience, I've got one friend in central China area and one of the things he carves are these 5 ton crystals from Brazil, some are flawless. He will spend sometimes 2 or 3 years just studying the stone before ever touching it with a tool, then another 5 years for a dozen carvers to cut and polish the design. The work is breath taking as are the prices these things command. the picture is one of his students carving a smaller crystal, the master carver is this cool guy who looks like a Chinese version of "Doc" from "Back to the Future" most of my photos from there a on a memory card someplace.

Wish I could narrow down where it came from a little better than just grandpa, be nice to know more about it and how it was found. The back side looks as good as the front and it probably didn't have any chips on the edge when I got it, but ship happens in the hands of an eight year old...wonder it survived my childhood abuses at all...Many a treasure was less fortunate.

Hey Terry, thanks for posting have to check that out sometime. My grandpa gave me one of those teeth when I was a kid, they are pretty cool.

Some family from China came for a visit last week and brought some rock my wife bought a while back to use for decoration in the studio and as small items for sale. Everything is all natural colors untreated chalcedony, the carvers are just real good at bringing out the design they see in the stone and using the natural features. The tempura and peanuts are all individual little pieces of different colors, the bacon is just polished a little otherwise pretty much as found.

Google is usually so helpful, only one hit... no help at all. my dogs are barkin and now my head hurts, but I looked at lucky's gold again and I feel a little better. Ahh, being cooped up all winter has got me all bar-Ken-otts, hmmm soon the snow will all melt and the bar-ken-otts will be out in their full glory, you know it's so beautiful in the mountains until all the bar-ken-otts from the city get here, possibly...can't wait to start swinging that new bar-Ken-otts over all my old patches. Damn, now my head hurts again...

Bar-ken-otts, I tried saying it really fast...didn't help.

I was planning on being there this week, but got scared off by the weather report... and from the sound of your report I made the right choice. My lil jeep is planning on taking me to play next week on Tuesday or Monday if I just can't wait, probably by better to give things until Tuesday to dry out. In all that open space I just know there is one left for me if I can just get my coil over it.

"Endless Winter" is it ever. Lucky, you out making one of those Warren Miller, (ski) metal detecting adventure snow movies... sounds like an exciting trip and an impressive bunch of gold for tough conditions, great job as you seldom if ever disappoint your loyal fans an eager students here at Steve's place. Thanks for sharing and Hope to see you out there soon as winter decides to loosen its unreasonably Icy grip our fun.

Jake, I use the same Bose sport ear buds and use them whenever conditions permit. The sound quality is excellent and they are super comfortable, although after a long day I forget they are in my ears and every once in a while pull one out thinking a bug crawled up my ear channel, then remember the buds a in there. I use mine with the gpz and wireless module on my shoulder, plug in and stuff the ear bud cord down inside my shirt. The sound quality is near as good as my black widow headphones, I mostly use the black widows when it's really windy, otherwise the ear buds suit me better.

If possible I keep track of landmarks, a distinctive ridge, or follow a wash. Entry and exit points are marked by stacking rocks, cutting bark and scraping the dirt...things like that. If I'm in forested areas wandering in brush I do all of the marking, tracking landmarks and carry gps with my vehicle location saved as a waypoint.

Ahhhh..... new guy

Could have something to do with some of the things I've been reading about BLM proposed closures in surrounding areas. Possible they are looking, searching...dreaming, anything to support added regulations and the exclusion of more area from entry.

RR those guys were just plain tough back in the good ol gold days. This article is from the amador ledger about my great great uncle, back to work in a week, I take a week off when I stub my toe...taken me a week just to clean my shorts. / Caved On. Martin Juka had a remarkable escape from death last Monday, while working in the Oneida mine. He was employed at the 1800 level, when a mass of rock, estimated at thirty tons, fell, completely covering him up. The large rocks fell in such a manner as to protect him from the full force of the falling debris. It took three or four men fully an hour to liberate him. He was severely bruised about the head, back and hands, but escaped without serious injury. No bones were broken. He was removed to his boarding house at his relative's, John Juka, where he is doing nicely, and expects to be able to return to work in a week or two. He is 18 years of age. one tough dude.

Afternoon Ashley, a few more from Tunnel Camp Nevada, Allaghney area in California and China camp California.

See...that's the great thing about this hobby, there's always hope, so many variables a tweek here, turn something else off there, or another setting and that spot I've lost hope for is born anew. I love it!

Good point on narrower tires, it's got 11.5 right now and if I went 1 to 1.5 narrower it would also throw less mud all over the outside of the jeep. I like the look of wide tires but once I hit the first mud puddle the whole outside is covered in a inch layer of mud from top to bottom. I don't mind the clean-up that much, but I always have to find a place to wash the main layer off on my way home back to Cal, or Im afraid they'll stop at the agricultural inspection station, transporting mud and plant material you'd think would concern them. im going to take it to a shop that specializes in setting up these lifts and make sure it's right and also ask about tires too.

A different set of tires would be considerably less expensive than an unlucky second trip into the guard rail, having no experience with studied tires just how much dry road can you get away with when using them for snow trips only? Could I drive from the Bay Area to snow country without tearing up the road and getting stopped all them time? I suppose I could get away with only 4 tires as long as they are the same relative size, although seeing how much different tire designs effect handling I'd need to be cautious mixing tires. this being my first jeep im still finding the limits, most of the quirks it seems are normal, but I still think the suspension adjustments are slightly off. And although I grew up driving cars with manual trannys with no syncros...I've become fat and lazy with modern technology. I had a 1960 Austin Healy, the axel was located on top of the frame and when driving down the road you had to be careful about hanging your hand out or it might drag on the street, anyway they had a tendency to oversteer, I destroyed a couple of wire wheels on that thing. This jeep is in a whole new class of sketchy and perhaps it's the same for them all. I notice that on dirt roads in the 50mph range everything is rock solid, but if I push it to the 60's and we're talking straight road, the back end will start to come around from the way the suspension resonates with the road. I'm now finding the same things on certain slick pavement situations, but of course at much lower speeds. and thank you, but I now know you are an excellent touch typeist, your writing is beyond elequent and I often marvel at the masterful use of the English language and now I'm even more impressed that you are able to do all of this and find incredible hordes of gold with the burden of very poor eye sight, my condolences. Having recently turned the ripe old age of 64, I've decided I now no longer have the burden of giving a (insert favorite additive here) about looks, it's too late...lm old and even if I didn't earn it I'm still hear and I find it very refreshing. everytime I drive back into the Bay Area I wonder why...

Thanks everyone for the great comments the words of encouragement are worth far more than the gold. So...my luck held for another day, if it wasn't tempting fate I would head back to the placers. The morning Holden tournament aka; give the ice time to melt, scored win number two! But only two tables and 18 players as most people headed out earlier, so not much to brag about and the prize pool barely covered the room that night and my breakfast. All in all lots of little lucky streaks, so good start for 2017 my gold total was a paultry (kidding, I'm happy when I find a flake) 3.66g the largest coming in at slightly over 1.5g the next around 1.3 and .7g for the little one.

Depends on how profound we're talkin about...adding a one ounce nugget would also be profound and I'm more than happy to add one of those to my jeep. Really, who am I kidding, I've already proven I'm willing to work long hours for next to almost nothing, so I guess as long as I'm having fun a bit more patina is unavoidable as I've no intention of keeping this thing parked in the garage. Interestingly enough, while having my hands full trying to keep my jeep in one piece I kept thinking and chuckling to myself while everything was in slow motion, I hope this is only "a little character."

Thanks Steve, interesting about your jeep stories and some comfort in knowing they are all like that, if I needed to drive ice all the time I'd have to find a better set-up. It's been a little sketchy on gravel too if I let the speed creep up, I'm thinking when the lift was installed they might have set the tracking bars off a degree or two and possibly some other critical adjustments may be off for my lift and tire combo, but I'm going to take it to someone who knows what to do and tame this thing down a little.

I should add, the driver of the mini van was fine except for front body damage to his car and was also getting ready to get back on the road himself, he passed me again about 10 minutes later.

I've been chomping at the bit to get outdoors, like everyone...so, after a few delays, my wife was sick (better not go yet) and so on and so forth I finally made it out on the road at 3am Wednesday morning (insert happy face here). The road was empty and conditions were clear, the drive up to lovelock was easy as 6 hour drives go and the gnawing pain on the left side of my lower back was tolerable. I checked into the casino at 9 in the morning and they had a room ready right away, things are going well...a good sign. I was doing a little research over the winter and came across this travel blog with listings for all the ghost towns in Nevada as a google earth overlay, the link is to a google earth KMZ file Http://www.forgottennevada.org if you have not seen this it's great information complete with history, gps cords, directions and photographs. So the first day I did a little touring around the towns of Tunnel, Mazuma and Seven Troughs, really interesting seeing the old relics in Tunnel and the canyon where the town of Mazuma was washed away in the 1912 flash flood. Thursday the weather was really nice, there was a little breeze, but low down in the washes the conditions were perfect. Later towards the end of the day I managed to hit a little section where the soil had eroded down about 6 inches to bedrock and within a fairly short span hit 3 little nuggets all sweet high/low with a slight warble, lodged in the bedrock shale and under a trickle of water. the first nut being the largest and my first piece of chevron gold the second piece slightly smaller and the last one was the baby (nice little happy gold family). Friday was perfect weather and only a slight breeze, I headed back to the same area, but couldn't repeat my previous days success. Saturday I hunted a different spot and it was pretty much a bust as the wind was really blowing. I took a drive up on top of the mountain (should have headed home) just for a look around and the wind was blowing so strong it was difficult to even walk. Sunday morning I headed home west on i80, light snow in lovelock and by the time the highway started to climb conditions were deteriorating and the road was getting slick. I kept finding my self dropping my speed down to about 35 and cars were blasting past me doing their best to get as close to the speed limit as they could, feeling bad I picked my pace up to 45 and (foolishly) set the c control at 40 as I was feeling like I was obstructing traffic and felt I was being overly cautious. One mini van passed me doing at least 60 and I thought to my self I'd probably be seeing his car again later down the road. High wind advisory was in effect and just as I crested the hill a really strong wind gust hit me from the right and i80 downhill was all ice...there it is and right away you know this is not going to end well. The back end of the jeep kicks around hard and I let off the gas, steer into it and s&!t, the damn c control kicks in I forgot that I'd set it earlier and my jeep is powering into the counter steer on ice downhill. Jab the brake zig zagging several times and the damn wind is blowing me across from the slow to the fast lane and I'm running out of room. One more zag and my backend slams into the guard rail hard, in my mind I can see the rear fender/bumper askew at an odd angle mentally I'm considering the replacement of parts. The one thing I'm thankful for is the impact gave me an opportunity, it stopped my zig zag death spiral...knocking me straight, no need to stop as I'm back in the right direction, jeep driving fine and nothing I can do about it now. I keep looking in my mirrors and can't see any damage, no clanking flapping things shouting to passing vehicles of my adventure, hmmm. 5 minutes passes and traffic slows to a stop, the guy behind me pulls along side to ask if I'm OK, I thank him give a shrug and a thumbs up just as the truck in front of me moves just enough to reveal the mini van that had passed earlier, blocking all lanes after careening front end off same said guard rail. As I slowly passed the unfortunate driver, the front end of the mini van struggled a small wave of acknowledgement, my jeep rolled silently past ignoring the gesture. I80 was closed and my nerves were slightly on edge all other routes home were closed as well, so I resolved to spend the night in Reno and checked into the el dorado. After finding a parking spot I began checking my jeep for damage, don't see any...fenders are fine bumper is where it was last time I looked at it. No bent metal anywhere...except the bottom right corner of the rear license plate is bent, the plastic plate holder is fine as it sprang back into normal shape after impact, a little dirt smudge on the rear plastic fender and smudge on the rear left Micky Thompson, but no permanent marks. The alignment seems fine and everything works normal, I'll have to inspect everything more, but all seems well...teflon coated. just bent the license plate, I could straighten it, but I'm thinking that might be bad luck and it adds "character." Things were supposed to improve on i80 late in the afternoon the following day. Monday trying to kill time until the roads open up I joined the morning Holden tournament and won first place, paying for my road trip. Feeling lucky I jump in the jeep as Truckie residents are being allowed through and my lucks on a roll so might as well see what happens, long story short I'm gonna play the morning Holden tournament tomorrow and see if I can repeat. After hitting the roadblock and giving cal trans my best poker face "Truckie sir" at state line my bluff was to no avail and they turned all the sinners around at the Donner road exit. I didn't bring a scale so I'll weigh my 3 little treasures and update when I get back.

We had heavy rain and strong wind pass through the Santa Cruz mountains yesterday, power went out in my area yesterday morning when a couple of large trees took down a half dozen power poles and dropped them in the middle of the main road into town. Poles are still laying in the street and light fading, so looks like it's going to be a while before the powers back. Minor inconvience compared to those dealing with flooding. My niece lives in Morgan hill not far from coyote creek and it looks like their neighborhood is flooding again. Hope everyone is doing ok and looking forward to blue sky and getting out...

So...your bark was worse than your frost bite? Sorry, I got to get out soon!