Finally got up and running. Working the bugs out of our trommel. She likes to jam up with rocks sometimes right where the hopper chute goes into the trommel.
We tilted the angle of the trommel and it helped a great deal, though occasionally one works it’s way in there and then things get exciting. You have to try to clear the jam before burning the belts and fast enough that a bunch of material doesn’t build up and overrun the sluice after the drum starts turning again. Wish there were a way to avoid this but we haven’t found any so far.
We have been getting a little gold. A lot of overburden came down over the winter. There is gold in it, so we ran it.
The dig site is looking pretty promising. Just removed this huge rock. Started uncovering it last year. We discovered it had a halo of gold around it. Can’t wait to see what it has under it.
Bought 3 lbs of dirt and I really enjoyed it. Great for getting better at panning panning. Got some good color in every bit of it to.
So glad that you were pleased. There is something to be said about actually having gold in your pan. You can learn how it reacts and know you are doing it right in the field.
What inspired you guys to start looking for gold?
Funny story. While on our honeymoon we found a book in a gift shop called “where to mine for gold in Alaska without getting shot” By Ron Wendt. We read it and spent the rest of our honeymoon neck deep in a frozen creek. Pretty soon we realized we were spending so much money driving and paying to prospect at recreational sites that we decided to buy our own claim. We found one, hiked up there on Super Bowl Sunday in snowshoes and decided to buy it. Luckily, it did actually have gold on it, just took us a while to find it.