Post by jeffu on Jan 23, 2016 19:49:49 GMT 10
Took 2 of my grandsons out to Stewarts Crossing today and met up with Steven Dangaard for a days dirt digging.
All started good, got out there about 8.15 and searched for a spot to set up. Steven arrived a bit before 8.30. We unloaded all the gear and set up the 2 highbankers, laid out the hose's and then the disasters began.
Disaster no.1, Steve said "where's the reducer/splitter", ummmmm, it's at home, bloody forgot the most important part,
Decided to drive back to Canberra and get it, 240km round trip. How convenient, I won't be back until way after 12.30 is what I thought, bugger.
Got about 5 minutes down the dirt track and checked my phone reception, rang the missus and she met me at Bungendore with the hose, saved me an hour and a half. That God for fantastic better halves.
Finally got the big pump working and ......
Disaster no.2 became extremely apparent, 2 large holes, adjacent to each other had blown through the 4" pump hose, water jets shot about 20 meters into the sky, luckily, they didn't effect the water supply to the highbankers and we decided to just start digging.
Disaster no. 3, appointed grandson No. 1 as the official team photographer, gave him my iPhone6 and said take some photo's of the working sluices. He took one photo and the phone automatically turned itself off, had a look at the phone and found that I must have cracked the case when trying to get the pump sorted out, water got inside and it's shot. So, sorry people, NO photos for today.
Disaster no.4, pulled my very expensive watch out of my pocket to check the time and dropped onto a large boulder, smashed the glass and broke the band.
Disaster no.5, quite obviously should have stayed home, by far my worst EVER gold catch since I started using a pan in the early 1960's. Probably 50 little flakes for the day, pretty poor.
NOW, after all that, it was still a very enjoyable day. I'm sure that Steven had a good day, the grandkids had a great day and I enjoyed the outing despite all the crap.
Jeff
All started good, got out there about 8.15 and searched for a spot to set up. Steven arrived a bit before 8.30. We unloaded all the gear and set up the 2 highbankers, laid out the hose's and then the disasters began.
Disaster no.1, Steve said "where's the reducer/splitter", ummmmm, it's at home, bloody forgot the most important part,
Decided to drive back to Canberra and get it, 240km round trip. How convenient, I won't be back until way after 12.30 is what I thought, bugger.
Got about 5 minutes down the dirt track and checked my phone reception, rang the missus and she met me at Bungendore with the hose, saved me an hour and a half. That God for fantastic better halves.
Finally got the big pump working and ......
Disaster no.2 became extremely apparent, 2 large holes, adjacent to each other had blown through the 4" pump hose, water jets shot about 20 meters into the sky, luckily, they didn't effect the water supply to the highbankers and we decided to just start digging.
Disaster no. 3, appointed grandson No. 1 as the official team photographer, gave him my iPhone6 and said take some photo's of the working sluices. He took one photo and the phone automatically turned itself off, had a look at the phone and found that I must have cracked the case when trying to get the pump sorted out, water got inside and it's shot. So, sorry people, NO photos for today.
Disaster no.4, pulled my very expensive watch out of my pocket to check the time and dropped onto a large boulder, smashed the glass and broke the band.
Disaster no.5, quite obviously should have stayed home, by far my worst EVER gold catch since I started using a pan in the early 1960's. Probably 50 little flakes for the day, pretty poor.
NOW, after all that, it was still a very enjoyable day. I'm sure that Steven had a good day, the grandkids had a great day and I enjoyed the outing despite all the crap.
Jeff
<<< that's all I have to say