1515Art

not just the traction control... none of the sound system works, gps is out, ABS is out with the traction control, both side mirrors el fritzo, back seat won't fold permanent cargo style and the price of Mercedes parts are about 10 times what the car is worth, but it still runs good and I can beat the holy heck out of it and not give a rats tail what happens to it as long as I get home.

Paul, no, no, no... i called you my hero!!! let me set this straight right away, I would be stupid to take my 14 year old 210,000. mile SUV out into the Nevada outback, in the dead of winter when the traction control is on the fritz and whenever i get stuck on something it has the nasty habit of shifting itself into reverse, it did this climbing out of the nastiest road out of the American river I've ever been on almost sending me over the edge of the road.

Hi Everybody, Ive been in my studio working on clay and firing my big kiln with a load of large pieces that have a lot of detail, the firing went perfect i think, but i won't know until it cools enough to crack the door tomorrow. I also was throwing some tall clay on the wheel until 1AM and my body feels like I was in a bar fight and the clay won. Paul, you are my hero... I don't mind the cold and in fact i prefer it to be on the cool side, i drug out all my ski gear and have it loaded in my car all ready to go. That is, until I saw those pictures, you are one tough son of a gun cause that looks hmmm epic and way to cold to be fun for a cupcake like me. Steve, "I am amazed how bad the roads in backcountry Nevada get when wet." those roads a scary even when they are dry, the drive out to the blue wing mountain area past the seven troughs has some high mountain off camber curves that feel like they are paved with marbles, no way id want to be out there when its wet. Chris, that would be a bad place to break down any time but i guess it would be a long while till you saw some help come wandering randomly by in the winter time. Every time I go out there I feel just a little uneasy looking around at all that solitude, it's thrilling and a little scary too. I guess it's about time to venture out to Arizona, Nevada is just to dang cold and most of the places I'd want to look at, it would be just plane stupid this time of year to wander that far out and risk getting stuck. These are pictures of the green pieces i fired last knight, glaze is next...

I've been hitting the parks and having some fun, taking Steve's advice about loving the hunt and forgetting about target goals has actually improved my results and put more joy and patience in my game. What Im really wanting is to just get away for a few days away from all the distractions and have the opportunity to be at one with my ZED and see a flash of yellow in my scoop if I'm lucky enough, still the hunt will have to wait until the beginning of the new year and this is good giving me time for some research of ground to explore. I have a few options to satisfy my need for a little adventure, but this being the first winter I've been at this (and a wet one at that) I'm not really sure what would work best, Southern California, northern Nevada or taking the long drive to Arizona? If I can catch a week of dry weather is n. Nevada doable? or am i better off taking the drive out to Arizona although I've never hunted there and have no knowledge of the areas?

Having never held the DEUS Im only guessing, but it seems to also have the advantage of being the least obvious detector to pack around in the car or truck and transport around to the various hunt locations. in the interest of being as invisible as possible and leaving no impact on the environment are casual observers less likely to be offended by someone carrying the DEUS around in a city park?

info and some event dates from our friends at Roaring Camp...

got this from Roaring Camp, I've found some nice little gold in their pay piles, never tried this but thought it was worth posting the info.

such beautiful gold and i'm so jealous to be out detecting, amazing work and more good luck out there!!

Wow, really cool tools those are so great!

SOMEBODY will - and if Apple's success in China is any guide, it might not be a low ball outfit - whether Chinese or otherwise. After checking with my friends it seems selling metal detectors in China might not be such a great market after all, they are a little touchy about their antiquities and all metal detecting type stuff is controlled by the government. Not to say there isn't a market, but not for the average person in the general population.

Congratulations Paul, we haven't met yet , but I'm certain Steve could not have picked a better guy.

"Guess who will sell 10 million high quality metal detectors there? SOMEBODY will - and if Apple's success in China is any guide, it might not be a low ball outfit - whether Chinese or otherwise. The last big prize for detector sellers - who will win?" funny, i was talking to my wife a couple of days ago about an idea i had of having our friend with all the mountain property inviting a group of hunters over to China to do some detecting on his property and having another friend who manages a cctv station in Shanghai film the whole operation for Chinese TV. Putting together something that sounded like a fun adventure and getting some publicity for jade mountain and the old temples and such that are on the mountain land, I didn't really think about the possibility of generating interest in metal detecting "IN" China, i just kind of assumed they already were?

bookmarked all of them, thanks Steve course, now I have to read em

nice find paul, congrats

nice hunting and great photos, thanks for posting!

the photos one of the protesters vs the one of the traders was a powerful contrast so different in their world and culture, yet the passion in their expressions fighting for survival each a universe apart, but somehow still very similar.

WOW, mind boggling find!!!!!

beautiful nugget and great video of the z in action.

thanks, Steve

compared to the MXT, I've been wondering what if anything for the areas I've been hunting (old sierra trash areas and parks) would i want to be able to do with my vlf that i can't. it is the only vlf I've every used so i have nothing to compare it to, and so few were sold that very little information is available from other users, I'm talking about the Whites SST one of their mystery detectors made for the western states and never marketed, with almost nothing to adjust, but set for hot soil and fast recovery. i don't mind the all metal hear everything other than that performance is the question, if I had the mxt just for comparison would i likely just run it the same as my SST anyway for gold country?

Cabelafella, instead of trying to take a close up photo another approach that works well is to just take as clear of a regular picture and then use the crop feature in your photo editor and you will get a much more clear close up of the object you are photographing. you can experiment with just how close or far from the object with the camera gets the best results in your picture.

my wife was telling our friend a story about some ceramic art I was working on when I walked into the kitchen at the studio and showed her the picture of that giant rock, as soon as her eyes hit on it she was struck speechless for a few seconds while mentally calculating how she could fit it onto her finger in a ring. I told her not to worry, if that one wouldn't work out they found two more just a little bit smaller, for a second i thought this just might be trouble... luckily she was able to regain her composure.

It's a great cover

good pay dirt!!!

the riverside inn, not the creekside inn thats the place, creekside inn was in the santa cruz mountains my memory is getting fuzzy must be breathing to many kiln fumes. Mike and Nancy run the place they are a really nice couple and its always nice to share a cup of coffee with Mike in the morning before heading up the hill. i'll bet there is some pretty rich ground under a bunch of those old buildings in Downieville, the old stories talk of ounces of gold being swept from the floors that was dropped for various reasons by the old timers when gold was a plenty.