Closing Up

18th of September 2009
It’s eleven o’clock and I decided to work an hour extra tonight, after everyone went to sleep. I am listening to a song called “Division” by the group Moby; it’s only two minutes long but it is moving and powerful. I heard it for the first time on my ipod while I was panning across the hillside at an old shaft. It was the first day it snowed here, about the middle of August. The light flakes filling the mountains and valleys, together with the slow crescendos of the orchestra took it out of me for a while. I stopped, and looked around at my surroundings, and I breathed. I feel the same way now.
Today was an interesting day. I managed (for the first time) to take the entire day (almost) inside a building. What a rare idea! I sieved and cleaned over half a million dollars of gold. I looked through hundreds of gold nuggets, and selected the best ones prime for jewelry or specimens. There are some fine specimens here, beautiful pieces! About midday however, the fluorescent lights were giving way above me, and I got up to change one. Before I could take it off, one of the long tubes came crashing down, shattering into a million flecks all over computers, tables, and the beakers, bottles, and bread pans full of gold. What a mess! Ironically, a song was playing called “All Fall Down” about the world crashing down – hahaha! It was like a reality check by God – working/playing with gold all morning was too much fun!
Anyway, I’ve got some panning to do around the pit, sampling for the next direction the mine will take. However, talking with Cy and Dick tonight it seems maybe this place (less a mine than an amazing ‘place’ really is the case) has more potential in tourism than it does as a gold producing mine. There’s over 420acres of patented ground, meaning it’s private land which can be developed however the company chooses. An interesting situation since building infrastructure for a mine out here would be problematic at best. Federal regulations can wreck havoc on a small wannabe mining company which Goldrich/Little Squaw is, and probably will be forever. I’ve gotten to know Dick Walters better, and like him so much more after things have relaxed. We booze a little bit every night, which is unlike anything I would expect out here; a little wine, a couple beers, JD, and even some Bacardi the last two nights! He tells me I should move to Argentina and live it up. Another interesting idea.
Deborah shall be here in about ten days. Though we’ve not been on good terms for a long while now, I think (and hope, and pray!) that this month together alone in the wilderness will be pleasant. I’ve been collecting and planning some things for a sauna, which will be my primary project during the first couple of days (I may even start it before I leave for town). We’ll be living in two “wanagans” down by the airstrip and Spring Creek, lower than where the current camp is up on Mello Bench. It’s colder but also forested, and the creek runs all winter long. The plan is to have the sauna next to a large pool in the creek, just large enough to be designated as the “plunging pool” a short trip from the hot and steamy spruce sauna! The idea is that it will relieve some tension built up in our relationship! Our main occupations seem to be arranging and arguing, since we’re never in the same place for long. She’s just accepted a pHd/teaching four-year contract in Zurich, Switzerland. I don’t think I’ll ever have any heart for Zurich; when I was there in January my disposition was firmly set against the city. Everything is controlled, including society, and everything must run perfectly, OR ELSE! When I returned to Glasgow after our trip there (to be educated about “sustainability”) I was never so relieved to see rubbish and a little disorder! Anyway, I have strong feelings about it all, and we’re in what on the sandlot you’d call a “pickle”.
Well, I should shut off the generator, brush my fangs, and hit the sack. Lots of people I miss out there, don’t know when I’ll have the chance to see you all, but I think of you often. And I miss Imogen.

This morning (19th) coming down the two miles to the ‘internet café’ was cold and dark. The knuckles on my hands felt the change in weather pattern, which started with a front from the North, over Mount Contemplation. Usually weather comes from the South, but when it comes from the North (over the Brooks Range) that means it usually is here to stay. At least it wasn’t from the West, which is usually stormy weather! Therefore, the mountaintops are again white with snow, although it only drizzled down here – what an amazing Indian Summer! Also on the way down here, a small Arctic Hare did about 8 zig-zags across the road before darting into the bushes. I’m seeing more and more along the roads, and they’ve all got their white coats crawling up their legs at the moment, ready for what soon will be approaching. It’s obvious in the mornings and evenings. We lose about 10 minutes each day, cutting the light out of our 6am wake up call, and the 7pm supper time. It seems very dark today with low clouds, but I think it will still be pleasant.
A few days ago my bunkmate Gerhart (he’s a mechanic) took me up in his Cessna 180B. It’s a small aircrafts, but has great visibility and we toured around the Chandalar district looking down at sheep, and a great bull moose eating grass in a pond. There’s been a few hunters flying in (usually on floats to Big Squaw Lake) to hunt mountain sheep.