Mike Furness

And you left us hanging here GhostMiner! 😔😟🙃

R.I.P. Jim ... the pain is gone and life goes on here on Earth. My condolences to Linda for the extremely difficult but loving decision she made for Jim.

I'd like to reopen this post. Any chance that a few more donations could be made to bring is up to $10,000.00. It is at about $8100.00 right now. A Big Thanks to all who have already donated. Here is the link address: https://www.gofundme.com/f/skip-phagan-fire-relief Thank you again for any and all donations.

Many of you here on this forum know him or have hunted with him or have purchased handmade gold jewelry from him. My friend Steve Wandt passed away this past Monday evening. I don't know the full details of his death or arrangements. He was a good friend and fellow prospector as well as a highly skilled metallurgist/fine jewelry maker. He was also a patriot and an Army combat veteran from the Vietnam era. If I hear more details from his wife Dee I will pass them along. R.I.P. my friend!

Imagine having your house burn down with most of your possessions inside and little to no insurance to cover the loss. Well we have such a member who has lost his house and possessions to an electrical fire with no insurance to cover it. Skipper Phagan, aka Skip aka AuSeeker(on another forum) aka GoldSeeker has lost his house to fire. Most of you know him as a long time contributor to this forum. One of his friends back home has started a GoFundMe for him to cover the cost of demolition and initial restart to his life. The goal on the fund is $25000 to which I think about 7K has been raised. Would you all be so generous as to add to the fund in whatever amount you can afford. Believe me it will be gratefully accepted and appreciated by Skip. I know he is too proud a person to ask of this for himself but I also know he has a lot of friends who are always willing to help. So if you can donate here is the link to the original fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/skip-phagan-fire-relief Thank you.

Hope Jim makes it back 100% ... sending wellness thoughts and prayer.

Thanks for the warning GhostMiner! LOL Have a fun time!

Best wishes Jim for a great outcome and speedy recovery!

One of my first bikes back in the day was an old 441 Victor. I swear that if I had tried it would have scaled a straight vertical wall! That bike was full of torque!

GhostMiner ... Please don't abandon the story line ... I look forward to reading it daily and disappointed when I don't see additional info. Sorry you had a run in with Steve. Hope you both can somehow over come the differences.

For ticks I have stumbled on to a product called YaYa thanks to a friend that spends a lot of time in brush and high grass. It works well. Just spray it were ever you have open seams ... bottom of your trousers, sleeves, button line, neck line and hat. I don't spray directly to my skin intentionally but I have experienced a little over spray without any reaction to my skin. Ticks literally run away from the stuff. A little over spray hit the grass around a fence post. The ticks ran up the post to get away from the grass! Laughed when I saw that. Yup ... stuff works!

For those of you who knew him my friend Jimmy Doc Parsons passed away yesterday leaving Micah his wife of the last 9 years. If you are on Facebook you can get a little more information from Micah's post.

Not surprised that sheriff Dan did not immediately go to the aid of the mining crew. In fact after the neighboring miner got to town and reported the gun fight it was probably all over and nothing to be done until daylight. Sorry to hear 3 of the the remaining crew were gunned down but the organized '40' gunmen were way to much for the crew. Actually surprised Jacob was somehow spared being shot. It was a good crew but out gunned in the end. I would be interested to see any follow up reports on the investigation. With that many men involved someone is bound to brag. The crew certainly had enough enemies and other men just plain jealous of their success.

I see no good coming from this!😟

nice group of nuggets LL! I missed the winter season in AZ by moving back to NH last July. Hoping this coming winter I will be able to take a month and go hunt ... maybe January to kick the new year off.

GhostMiner I for one would not blame you in the least if that became reality. Not sure our 'civilized' society, at least in today's world, is worth much consideration.

Mitchel ... Fishing has been hot and cold. Last tournament I only scored one bass. Have another one this Saturday and hoping after pre-fishing the last day allowed (Sunday) that this tourney will be much better. At least it is on water that I have fished many times before with good results so we will see.

My only experience with what I will assume were Africanized bees happened in 2004 or 2005. I parked my rental car in a wash (don't do that) and headed 'up stream' at LSD (Little San Domingo Wash). I wasn't far up when I had a couple stray bees bop me on the head ... but didn't sting me. What I did notice is that they all headed back in the same direction as I was. It wasn't long when I heard a very low buzzing sound. I walked a little farther being a bit naïve and inquisitive. Soon the buzzing got louder as I stepped up another level of the wash. I could see the hive about 35 to 40 feet away. I could also see a gathering of bees headed in my direction. I turned tail and ran for my car that fortunately was only a short distance away. I jumped in and within a few seconds hundreds of bees were covering my car. I started the engine and high tailed it out of there with the bees slowly blowing off. By the time I got out to Castle Hot Springs Road I think they are all gone. No stings. I think those couple of bees that bopped me on the head went back to the hive and rounded up the troops and then followed the pheremone trail left by the scouts right back to me. Situation made me well aware of bees in the desert.

... Or maybe set some trip wires that alert the day crew so they can continue to work. In any event ALL crew members must be armed and ready to defend at any time night or day. The plot thickens as the old movie saying goes.

Not worth losing your life that's for sure. But you must now be very vigilant as the hooligans could strike at any time. Probably have to post a guard at the pump daily which also means one less digger ... and then there is the camp security! What a mess!

IF they come back they may very well be armed. I hope they are smart enough to leave it alone and find another playground! Time will tell!

I just wanted to let people on this forum know who I am ... I have posted on other forums over the years. I have been prospecting and mining since 2003 when I got my first gold detector ... I have had treasure detectors since about 1989 I think it was ... I moved to AZ when I retired from my real estate career on the seacoast of NH in 2011 and lived there until last July when I moved back to NH at the request of family. Family thinks a 74 year old man 🙃 is incapable of living far from the 'group'! 🤣 Anyway I became very involved with gold prospecting a met a bunch of great people along the way. I've found what I consider my fair share of gold with various detectors ... GP3000, GPX4500 & 5000, GPZ7000, SDC2300, Equinox800, GM1000 Milabs and a few other brands from Fisher and Whites. I even taught folks how to use them for awhile while affiliated with a couple Minelab dealerships. But mostly I just enjoyed camping and hunting down specks of gold and sharing a meal and a couple beers with great like minded folks. My other love is tournament bass fishing out of a kayak ... but that will have to be a story for another day. I use my real name on the forums so people know who I am if and when we meet in person. That's part of my story ... and I'm sticking to it! 😁

Sounds like a great title for a series.

That my friend is an understatement! My metal detecting for gold habit took me through 7 or 8 detectors over about a 15 year period. The most expensive was $10,000. Or more precisely $9,999.00. My least expensive was $599. Most were in the 4 figure range especially for the GPZ and GPX's. The good thing about that is that all paid for themselves over time. And then there is tournament fishing from my kayak! Fishing is supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable right with small investments of rod reel, hooks, line and baits! LOL! 14 rods later and reels of course and a continuing need for line, hooks, sinkers and a myriad of baits. Oh and a $3000 pedal kayak, spare paddle and quality PFD! All told I bet my 'hobby' fishing has about $10000.00 tied up in it. And then there is all of the tournament fees just to enter in the range of $50 to $300 per tournament! Monetary winnings for the tournaments ... well ... not so much! 🤣 But dreams are made to be followed ... Never give up on dreams!

Relatively new to this forum but was a member years ago and only dropped out because I didn't have time with my work schedule to contribute much. Now I am retired and glad to be back. I think your plan is excellent and will do the job.