Thursday, September 24, 2009
Winter Wonderland
We have 5-8 inches of snow on the ground, and a hard freeze last night. It's been wonderful breaking down the camp in wet snow (not!). We have a beautiful morning sunrise; the sky is sketched by a breakfast pallet of colorful strokes and all the spruce tress are sprinkled with sugary snow. It's clear and calm, and maybe we can fly out today after all? I have a spearfishing date tomorrow on the Chatanika to go to! More later...
Saturday, September 19, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
exonerated!
9/9/09
We have another two to four days of mining left. The water is going to dry up soon, and our small tailings ponds are too full of silt and clay that it keeps clogging the water pump. Alongside that, we’re losing some fine gold due to the murky water, but nevertheless we pull an average of 4 ounces per hour and we should make the 500 oz target before everything comes to a halt. It’s getting slowly colder and darker, but since the first of September we’ve had an incredible Indian Summer. It’s been in the 60’s during the day and 40’s at night – wonderful for this time of year! The fall colors have faded. They are starting to look like shag carpets from the 70s, in bland shades of orange and yellow and brown. The other day I was up on the “Eneveloe” prospect, on a saddle south of Little Squaw Peak. I was investigating a soil anomaly and dug a four foot pit, took some samples (two buckets of dirt) and managed to pan out about one hundred little flyspecks of gold. Anyway, after hauling the samples down from the talus slope, I was bit knackered, and decided to lay down on the moss carpet. It was wonderful! I lay there, sunk a few inches into the soft turf, and just looked up at the sky. Peaceful.
My plans for the coming months have somewhat solidified, at last. Deborah is coming at the end of this month and we are going to caretake together here at Chandalar during the month of October. We’ve got a Polaris 550 but I don’t know if it will get enough snow here for that, or the ice fishing I’d like to do. I’m going to town to gather a few supplies for a week soon, and then back here. On 1st of November, I’ll leave for Dar es Salaam and starting exploration/development of another placer gold deposit in Tanzania. That should be fun and interesting! So I will be in Florida next during December, for Christmas at my sister’s place in Jacksonville! Then, I’m still considering Sydney for a Masters in Mine Management, but I’ve started reconsidering again about doing a proper Mine Engineering degree for four years in New Mexico, Vancouver, or Johannesberg. I’ll reappraise the costs of all of those, and New Mexico will probably be the cheapest. I love it there anyway! So that’s a small question for now; I’m just glad work will continue, I’ll get some peace out here on my own for a while, get some quality time with my girlfriend, and continue my career with Tanzania. I do love gold mining, although this project in Chandalar would not meet my criteria for “sustainable mining”. More about that later, but I’ll just say that I do think that is possible. Reading this blog on the computer you are connected to over thirty large mines located all around the world. If we have to do it, we should do it right, and keep mining in line with environmental and social well-being. In Alaska, we’re blessed with both! Ok, there goes another day. Bright stars and aurora tonight, yes.
9/12/09
VINDICATED!
Dick found 60ounces of gold in a bread pan the other day. It was gold that Jim (the head geo and mine director) placed there almost two weeks ago. At the time, while the company executives (and my current and future bosses) were here visiting, they took the gold out one night to weigh it all up. I had calculated that we should have 300 ounces, after which they issued a press release to raise attention to the fact. Well, I was somewhat scolded the next morning when it was discovered there was only 240 ounces, and we concluded that we had “double-counted” somewhere. It was pretty disappointing to everyone, but I really got on myself for two days. Of course, I never went into the storage room to double-check, and all along the gold had been there and my calculations had been right! Well, I was so happy it was found again (not just because it’s $60,000 worth of gold!) and I am vindicated.
We are now past 500, and we’ve reached our target. We’ll stop tomorrow and I’ll do a full and thorough final clean-up of the entire sluice. I’ll start cleaning up all my equipment and machinery will go to storage. I’ll help break down camp with my good friend Josh and Brent Sass, a great musher….
We have another two to four days of mining left. The water is going to dry up soon, and our small tailings ponds are too full of silt and clay that it keeps clogging the water pump. Alongside that, we’re losing some fine gold due to the murky water, but nevertheless we pull an average of 4 ounces per hour and we should make the 500 oz target before everything comes to a halt. It’s getting slowly colder and darker, but since the first of September we’ve had an incredible Indian Summer. It’s been in the 60’s during the day and 40’s at night – wonderful for this time of year! The fall colors have faded. They are starting to look like shag carpets from the 70s, in bland shades of orange and yellow and brown. The other day I was up on the “Eneveloe” prospect, on a saddle south of Little Squaw Peak. I was investigating a soil anomaly and dug a four foot pit, took some samples (two buckets of dirt) and managed to pan out about one hundred little flyspecks of gold. Anyway, after hauling the samples down from the talus slope, I was bit knackered, and decided to lay down on the moss carpet. It was wonderful! I lay there, sunk a few inches into the soft turf, and just looked up at the sky. Peaceful.
My plans for the coming months have somewhat solidified, at last. Deborah is coming at the end of this month and we are going to caretake together here at Chandalar during the month of October. We’ve got a Polaris 550 but I don’t know if it will get enough snow here for that, or the ice fishing I’d like to do. I’m going to town to gather a few supplies for a week soon, and then back here. On 1st of November, I’ll leave for Dar es Salaam and starting exploration/development of another placer gold deposit in Tanzania. That should be fun and interesting! So I will be in Florida next during December, for Christmas at my sister’s place in Jacksonville! Then, I’m still considering Sydney for a Masters in Mine Management, but I’ve started reconsidering again about doing a proper Mine Engineering degree for four years in New Mexico, Vancouver, or Johannesberg. I’ll reappraise the costs of all of those, and New Mexico will probably be the cheapest. I love it there anyway! So that’s a small question for now; I’m just glad work will continue, I’ll get some peace out here on my own for a while, get some quality time with my girlfriend, and continue my career with Tanzania. I do love gold mining, although this project in Chandalar would not meet my criteria for “sustainable mining”. More about that later, but I’ll just say that I do think that is possible. Reading this blog on the computer you are connected to over thirty large mines located all around the world. If we have to do it, we should do it right, and keep mining in line with environmental and social well-being. In Alaska, we’re blessed with both! Ok, there goes another day. Bright stars and aurora tonight, yes.
9/12/09
VINDICATED!
Dick found 60ounces of gold in a bread pan the other day. It was gold that Jim (the head geo and mine director) placed there almost two weeks ago. At the time, while the company executives (and my current and future bosses) were here visiting, they took the gold out one night to weigh it all up. I had calculated that we should have 300 ounces, after which they issued a press release to raise attention to the fact. Well, I was somewhat scolded the next morning when it was discovered there was only 240 ounces, and we concluded that we had “double-counted” somewhere. It was pretty disappointing to everyone, but I really got on myself for two days. Of course, I never went into the storage room to double-check, and all along the gold had been there and my calculations had been right! Well, I was so happy it was found again (not just because it’s $60,000 worth of gold!) and I am vindicated.
We are now past 500, and we’ve reached our target. We’ll stop tomorrow and I’ll do a full and thorough final clean-up of the entire sluice. I’ll start cleaning up all my equipment and machinery will go to storage. I’ll help break down camp with my good friend Josh and Brent Sass, a great musher….
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Frosted Candy
Yesterday morning I opened the tent and a low ceiling of clouds hung down to the valley floor. A blanket of white covered my view - a couple inches of snow splashed all around us during the night, covering the yellow, orange and red alders and willows. It looked like sugar coated candy for as far as the eye could see. Chandalar is beautiful.
Today I travelled up to St. Mary's Creek to take a few soil samples. There is snow on the ridgetops that does not melt, although it's a few degrees warmer in the valley. I've been offered a job "caretaking" during the winter season here, to protect the equipment and property from hunters and snowmachiners. I've put it to my girlfriend Deborah, but the prospect of being in close quarters for a long, dark winters in a place known to get -80 F (COLD!) may not be the right incentive for a loving relationship! Nevertheless, I'm considering it. I've missed the winters in Alaska dearly now for many years, and I would like to take up skiing, ice fishing, and learn how to trap marten, fox, rabbit, lynx and wolverine. Internet would be available and that would open the possibility of taking correspondence classes.
Anyway, the operation here is looking towards closure. I think we have about a fortnight left of operation, and then we'll be frozen or broken down or worn out beyond repair. The company seems to be doing well, and selling more shares and pleasing investors and shareholders. This may turn into the large scale, low grade, bulk placer mining operation they envision.
I will be prospecting in Tanzania for two weeks in October. It may carry over into a small mining operation, but more information later. I'd still like to do a masters in Mine Management in Sydney beginning February, but I don't think I'll make the budget to do that, so I'm looking at other options meanwhile. All the best from Chandalar,
Dylan
Today I travelled up to St. Mary's Creek to take a few soil samples. There is snow on the ridgetops that does not melt, although it's a few degrees warmer in the valley. I've been offered a job "caretaking" during the winter season here, to protect the equipment and property from hunters and snowmachiners. I've put it to my girlfriend Deborah, but the prospect of being in close quarters for a long, dark winters in a place known to get -80 F (COLD!) may not be the right incentive for a loving relationship! Nevertheless, I'm considering it. I've missed the winters in Alaska dearly now for many years, and I would like to take up skiing, ice fishing, and learn how to trap marten, fox, rabbit, lynx and wolverine. Internet would be available and that would open the possibility of taking correspondence classes.
Anyway, the operation here is looking towards closure. I think we have about a fortnight left of operation, and then we'll be frozen or broken down or worn out beyond repair. The company seems to be doing well, and selling more shares and pleasing investors and shareholders. This may turn into the large scale, low grade, bulk placer mining operation they envision.
I will be prospecting in Tanzania for two weeks in October. It may carry over into a small mining operation, but more information later. I'd still like to do a masters in Mine Management in Sydney beginning February, but I don't think I'll make the budget to do that, so I'm looking at other options meanwhile. All the best from Chandalar,
Dylan
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