2021....

[Moneybox]

Congratulations on your Anniversary Phil and Sandra. They say that couples that play together, stay together.
I am loving your adventure however, surely your bad luck must end soon!
All the very best
Mackka :cake: :flowers:

Mackka, I don't think I'm having bad luck. I started with a loader that I bought well below market price knowing that it needed a lot of TLC. It's quite a good machine considering I bought it sight unseen from a far distant land. The dryblower problems have mostly been due to my ignorance and I'm learning fast. The spot I chose to start mining was just like heading out with the detector, sometimes you find and sometimes you miss. I think nearly all my lease has some gold but it's finding the rich patches that might take a bit trial and error

 

[Moneybox]

Congratulations on your anniversary Mr & Mrs MB,
After you you have ticked off Mrs M's list am imagining this will be the next venture.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1414/1617926845_beprepared.jpg

Have you spotted me returning from CueBunno after scouting for spare parts? :lol:

 

[Tathradj]

Went to Tathra Bunno and picked up a Victa 4 stroke Lawn mower only 6 months old for $5.00
Complete with Catcher. :Y: :Y:

Has a blown big end bearing. :8

Have to go back and get another one for spares under warrenty conditions and fix it. O

 

[Moneybox]

It's been raining all night. That doesn't change anything from a dryblowing point of view because Tonka is still pulled down waiting for Australia Post. I decided to take a run over to the lease to remove the riffle trays. The calico cloth caked in dust would end up setting hard so I'll hose them out and let them dry clean.

While I was there I had a little brainwave. When I started digging the earth I picked the corner of the lease where it looks like virgin ground. At least it hasn't been scrapped by machine. I think that was a mistake. I should have started out where others before me have carried out scrape & detect. They obviously did that on the patches where they've found gold. They'd have taken the nuggets but I'm looking for the fine gold they left behind and I think they have left me markers of where the gold has been found

 

[Mackka]

Hope so mate!
Mackka

 

[silver]

Remember that the nuggets dropped out first and the extra fines travelled a little further along.(maybe) :goldnugget: :goldpan:

 

[Moneybox]

Remember that the nuggets dropped out first and the extra fines travelled a little further along.(maybe) :goldnugget: :goldpan:

You may be right Silver but which way did the water flow?

There are some signs of water flow in recent times but that might not be indicative of the original lay of the land. I doubt gold travelled far because this ground is almost dead flat. Of course it wasn't always that way but the gold here was very widely spread and a lot of it laying on the surface, so my guess is that the original hills including the reefs containing gold just eroded down until everything leveled out. The bedrock is about 300mm under the surface and that might be because the top 300mm has broken down to soil.

 

[silver]

The scrape and detect mob probably followed a wide line where you are with more work put into the trail of gold... so maybe a test across the line 50 metres past where they stopped both ends, like when you cut across a hill... but the hills not there is all.... if the top soil is only 300 deep maybe you could do a modern cut across with the detectors, with no auto ground balance the fines should give a louder baseline threshhold. If you mark those spots on each walk across the line of flow you may amaze yourself with the outline of a run to follow through the scrub that has the better potential for fines.

 

[Moneybox]

The scrape and detect mob probably followed a wide line where you are with more work put into the trail of gold... so maybe a test across the line 50 metres past where they stopped both ends, like when you cut across a hill... but the hills not there is all.... if the top soil is only 300 deep maybe you could do a modern cut across with the detectors, with no auto ground balance the fines should give a louder baseline threshhold. If you mark those spots on each walk across the line of flow you may amaze yourself with the outline of a run to follow through the scrub that has the better potential for fines.

Detecting on a lot of this old ground around Cue is a painful exercise because of the remains of rusty cans, bullets and all sorts of other junk. The more the ground has been worked the worse it is to detect because the junk is buried. I think I'll just take pot luck on moving to a new spot and do my testing with a few buckets through the dryblower.

On this occasion I extracted the dirt from a patch about a acre. I won't do that next time, I'll just cut a small strip and analyse the results. I'm trying to talk Mrs M into driving Zimba (the little Cat) while I load the dryblower from the really rocky pile close to home. It's got gold but big rocks as well. I can pull the pile down with Tonka, have Mrs M pull out the big rocks with the little excavator before I scoop to dirt up and load it into the dryblower. Those really big rocks bounce off the loader and back into the dryblower causing unnecessary damage.

I've pretty much finished my plumbing job so I think we'll head for Perth on Monday to catch up with the grand kids while they are on holidays.

 

[Jaros]

Have a great time mate. Both of you.

 

[silver]

Its not the target's youd be looking for... just the change in background noise.... maybe too much foreground noise though hey
I watched a video years ago of a bloke beyond our ages listening to those noises and marking out the flow of the heavies with rock markers.... then when he ran a string along his markers he could find where the heavies were all heading too, then he made his cut below that , found his leader and followed it up.... just dreamin for ya mate.... that's all

 

[Moneybox]

Its not the target's youd be looking for... just the change in background noise.... maybe too much foreground noise though hey
I watched a video years ago of a bloke beyond our ages listening to those noises and marking out the flow of the heavies with rock markers.... then when he ran a string along his markers he could find where the heavies were all heading too, then he made his cut below that , found his leader and followed it up.... just dreamin for ya mate.... that's all

I can understand what you're saying. I guess you'd need to be really tuned in to your detector. I get that way after a few weeks in the bush. I can hear those subtle changes but to just go out there now and try I doubt it would work for me. I'm not the most patient person when it comes to prospecting. I want results NOW :lol:

 

[silver]

I'm waiting patiently to see those results of right now too.... victory to ya's ! :goldnugget: :goldnugget:

 

[Moneybox]

I had planned to head to Perth to see the grandkids while they were on holidays. I hadn't picked a time to go until they announced the pending arrival of cyclone Seroja. One look at the weather map and I could see that if we left straight away we'd have a tail wind all the way to Perth.

It took us nearly all day to pack because we hadn't been away since the last prospecting season. By the time we hit the road the cyclone was confirmed but we still had plenty of time to take advantage of the weather to give us a boost along the way. That was until we got to Mount Magnet just 80km down the road we were faced with a big Road Closed sign. There'd been no rain, no wind beyond the usual and even though the Cyclone was coming the road was clear. Anyway, we decided to do the right thing and wait until morning.

The wind was still in our favour but the damage was done. The road was covered with broken trees, some so large that they had to bring in heavy machinery to move them. We carefully picked our way through the hazards and made it to the halfway point before we were advised to park up until the road was cleared. It meant camping another night before getting to Perth but we spent the time doing a little fossicking and winding down so that by the time we got to Perth we were quite relaxed and ready for a holiday.

 

[Mackka]

Excellent, there is nothing worse than starting a holiday stressed out aye?
Cheers
Mackka

 

[Moneybox]

With Cyclone Seroja in our path we were stuck for the night on the side of the road along with a few small cars and some trucks. The wind was howling and it was very chilly.. not a pleasant stay in a little car for two adults and two tall, lanky teens I imagine. Hello warm comfy bus, hehehe. O

We were allowed to move on early next morning but not long after Paynes Find the road became scattered with most of the trees from the west side of the highway. This is a result of deforestation for farming land. There is just a thin ribbon of green left along the road edges, barely a windbreak.... and then the wind did break it and most of it has gone. Some of the farms have lost their one and only giant tree. Very sad for the land, animals and vegetation. The future erosion will be horrendous. We managed to get around it all but were stopped 40km from Wubin and advised (strongly told) not to go any further. So much for leaving and arriving early. :8

We decided to visit a disused hall we've driven past many times. After a look around at some old pianos and a harmonium Phil gave the treasure detector a run. He pulled up lots of junk (aka rusty gold... nope, junk) then a 2c, a 1950 wheat sheaf silver threepence and eventually a blue enamelled CWA spoon. Nice treasure.

The next day we eventually arrived in Wubin and had to wait yet again - along with dozens of fully-loaded trucks with goods for the north, a lot of them refrigerated. Oh dear. The highway was lined for many km on both sides and the drivers were NOT HAPPY, to say the least .
The north route was still closed but the south was now open so we smilingly waved goodbye and put up with the colourful choice words and filthy looks as we were allowed to move on. They were there another two days while the road north was being cleared of tons of trees and other debris. i heard later that there were 200+ trucks waiting. 8.(

Eventually we caught up with a friend out in the middle of nowhere (isn't it always?) and the prospecting was fun but hard work as well. The days were hot but the nights were freezing. At one point the ground collapsed under my foot and you could see there was a massive pocket of air below. Time to move on to safer ground. :argh: The gold wasn't massive or plentiful and it took 6 days to detect 14 grams.

I found a great goanna hole in a fabulous breakaway with lots of mini-caves and myriad animal spoor. We set up a trail cam and let it run for 56 hours straight hoping to catch some critters in action. When we excitedly and expectantly opened it up it had nothing.... but a message saying "Format SD card". What?! It had already been done but it spat the dummy. Unbelievable and very disappointing. Next time, hopefully. 8.(

We ordered a 200W solar panel for the trip and it turned up as a 20W. Oh boy. It was a ridiculous size but it turned out to be convenient enough to fit in the quads so we could charge our electronic thingys while out in the field. Proved to be pretty good. The biggest challenge was remembering to pick it up at the end of the day. No further comment needed, lol. layful:

 

[rustyhooks]

Wicked Photo set mate and nbice looking country!

 

[Moneybox]

Earlier in the week I finished off the dirt I had previously dug and moved the dryblower across the highway. It's a bit top heavy so I slowed to cross a sandy gully and ended up bogged.

Tonka was only a few hundred metres away so that was easily fixed. Then I went ahead a scraped a new patch.

The dryblower is belting the dirt through well now so I'd soon got through quite a bit of dirt.

However when I went to empty the riffle trays there really wasn't much dirt there. This is all I have from the four trays after the mornings work.

I think I should have more dirt left in the riffles along with the gold so after doing my usual chewing it over during the night, I'm thinking there's just too much airflow and it's blowing all the fine gold away.

The stroke on the bellows is adjustable so I pulled the covers off to find that I already had it set to the minimum travel. The bellows are designed to move 180mm and I had it set to 120mm. Well that's 120mm at the pushrod, the bellows actually travels further.

That called for new holes in the crank so now I've reduced the stroke to 80mm and we'll see how that goes. The trays also vibrate so I shouldn't need too much air to separate the gold.

I should have put a tarp down first because I then had to pick up all the swarf.

I won't know for a few days if my adjustments worked because the weather has taken a turn so there's nothing dry to blow

 

[Mackka]

Gees Phil, ya not havin much luck mate, if its not machinery malfunction its the bloody weather. I look at those photos of yours and somehow I am almost transported to there with a Billy and a few pumpkin scones to help relieve the anxiety. Chin up ol bean, onwards and upwards what!
Mackka

 

[Moneybox]

Gees Phil, ya not havin much luck mate, if its not machinery malfunction its the bloody weather. I look at those photos of yours and somehow I am almost transported to there with a Billy and a few pumpkin scones to help relieve the anxiety. Chin up ol bean, onwards and upwards what!
Mackka

I'll collect the firewood and get the fire started.... I've even got a spare detector to keep us amused until the sun shines brightly again