What are YOU doing right NOW

[loner]

Trying to warm up in Ballarat .

 

[fwdoz]

Trying to warm up in Ballarat . View attachment 14120

Yep, it was very cold. I opened up the door to go to work & a Polar Bear was trying to get inside.

 

[loner]

Yep, it was very cold. I opened up the door to go to work & a Polar Bear was trying to get inside.

All 7 of my cars started frosting over at 7pm last night. 12 hours later there was a sea of white from Enfield to Ballarat.Maccas advertised last night that if the temp was under 6 degrees at 7am, their coffee was free. I took up their kind offer.

 

[fwdoz]

All 7 of my cars started frosting over at 7pm last night. 12 hours later there was a sea of white from Enfield to Ballarat.Maccas advertised last night that if the temp was under 6 degrees at 7am, their coffee was free. I took up their kind offer.

It wasnt far off that sea of white being snow. Reminds me of a time we camped at a place called Indi bridge at the top of the Murray River. Beautiful spot & we woke to -6C; I had 5 layers on in bed plus a beanie so my ears didnt get frostbite!

 

[sand surfer]

that's why i relocated up here nearly 40 years ago
it can get below zero (coldest night spent on the cane loco was -6) but unless a westerly/south westerly is blowing we are nice and toasty by 10 am with a nice 20 to 25 degree day

good to sit there in the sun in the morning with a coffee and thaw out after a cold night shift

 

[Hawkear]

Lunch today.

 

[Bully1]

Lunch today.
View attachment 14257

English Pie Floater. My detector friends in the UK keep telling me its better than drowned in tomato sauce. Yeah....nah...we Aussies got better.

 

[Bully1]

Made marinated in Cornwell's Relish Lancashire sauce bbq lamb chops.
Veg, with Irish Full Cream. Kerrygold Butter over it all.

 

[Moneybox]

I just came inside after checking over the truck for another rush trip to Capel. I'll leave in the morning and hopefully get to my brother's place in Busselton, 900km down the road, by dinner time tomorrow night. I did a trip last week towing the enclosed trailer and returned with both loaded in a three day turnaround.


Today I finished putting the bus back together since I broke it on the recent trip north.



We were travelling across country and I attempted to follow the Mercedes G300 through a steep gully where I ended up hung up on both front and rear. I knew I couldn't cross the gully there but you know, boys and their toys (and Mrs M was not there to stop me). The front CV joint shattered and jammed the steering on full RH lock. I had to pull it apart right there and remove all the broken bits so that I could steer it again. From then on it was 2WD but it's all fixed now.

There's a nasty little noise down the back too so I might have a rear diff problem and I'm heading for Queensland in a week or so meanwhile I'm rushing off to Capel to return with another load. We've sold a property there and it has to be cleaned out after occupying it for 25 years.

 

[Mackka]

Safe travels Phil.

 

[Phil8303]

I packed most of my gear in the 4WD and hope to be in WA's goldfields later today, even if it is raining when I get there.

 

[grubstake]

I packed most of my gear in the 4WD and hope to be in WA's goldfields later today, even if it is raining when I get there.

I'm told it's pretty wet out there lately.
Good luck with the gold, mate.

 

[Moneybox]

I packed most of my gear in the 4WD and hope to be in WA's goldfields later today, even if it is raining when I get there.

Phil I guess it depends on where you go.



We left on the day the first of the rain hit. Now there’s water everywhere and I wouldn’t attempt to go off-road.

I packed most of my gear in the 4WD and hope to be in WA's goldfields later today, even if it is raining when I get there.

 

[Moneybox]

I'm stalled waiting for my reordered Isuzu diff parts to arrive.



On my recent prospecting trip I left the cook at home and took a lot of frozen meals she prepared. We don't usually have a microwave but this time I took it and found it great to heat the precooked meals. So today I took on the job of building a cupboard so that I can mount the microwave on the top.



The inside has all the slide out drawers that were previously in this position but never really mounted. Without this the microwave used kitchen space but now I've actually created more space so I think Mrs M should be pleased

 

[Moneybox]

I just had this insistent knocking on the back door so I got up from the computer and opened the laundry door but the knocking was so loud and continuous I wondered if it was safe to open it

As I walked past the front loader I realized the noise was behind me. Mrs M had loaded the washing machine and then shot off to work and it had gone off balance in the spin cycle. I took a fresh breath and left the laundry, it can sort it's self out

 

[Hawkear]

Today I am recovering from serious over-estimation of the physical capabilities of my aging body.
Gina has a much more balanced life than me, and not able to accompany me as often as I would like on gold prospecting trips to the GT,
I decided a tent would be a good idea for me to do quick and cheap solo getaway for a day or two without bothering to drag and set up the caravan for such short trips. After all that was how I used to do it when much younger, why not again?
Saw on marketplace a nice used instant cabin style tent and stretcher bed package for sale for $150 in a small town some travelling distance away, but close to the GT.
Got me thinking that I could justify the expense of travelling to pick it up if I kept going and camped overnight in the GT. Would give me maybe a day and a half detecting time to find enough gold to cover the outlay for the tent.
Rang the seller and, even better, they accepted my starting offer of $120 without hesitation. That would only be a gram of gold that I would need to find. With a break in the wet and dreary weather coming up, organised with the seller to pick it up early the next day.
With Gina's blessing (maybe relief), headed off early, picked up the tent as arranged and proceeded up to Dunolly arriving around mid-morning.
After a quick detect and a pie and coffee for lunch at the Dunolly bakery, I decided on my camping spot and headed out for a detect there. I managed 5 small bits for the day before calling a halt to ensure that I had enough daylight left to pitch the tent and cook up some dinner.
Had a restless night being unused to my new stretcher but was up early for breakfast and to pack away the tent and gear as was rearing to get to work with a full day detecting ahead of me.
The morning was relatively disappointing with lots of shotgun pellets and only a few small bits to show for all the targets I had dug.
With everything loaded in the car, I decided to move to a new spot after lunch.
The second spot seemed to be just a continuation of the mornings results with more and more pellets. However, as I gradually worked around the edges of the spot small bits of gold started turning up among the many pellets still being dug. Now it was just a slog to just keep finding and digging targets hoping that every now and again one would turn out to be a small nugget emerging from their clay and mud coating.
In the end with approaching darkness and my back, arm and legs nearly at collapse point, I was happy to call it quits.
Sitting in the back in the car, I counted up 17 bits of gold and though very small was happy with the haul. I had left my scales at home so had to wait another 2 hours before arriving home to find they weighed 1.14 gr. I had covered the cost of the tent and stretcher after all.
A day later however and I am still paying the price for a serious over-estimation of my physical ability with my now not so youthful old aching bones.

 

[Mackka]

Great story and hope you recover quickly. Mackka

 

[Hawkear]

Thanks for the good wishes. Reckon a few days inside learning to drive my new toy wirelessly from inside the warm house and hoping for some clear night skies won’t do any harm.

 

[grubstake]

Today I am recovering from serious over-estimation of the physical capabilities of my aging body.

That intro sentence had me worried that this story was going to have a sad ending with something like, "I am writing this post from the Intensive Care Unit at Ballarat Hospital"! But fortunately, it all came good at the end:

Sitting in the back in the car, I counted up 17 bits of gold and though very small was happy with the haul. A day later however and I am still paying the price for a serious over-estimation of my physical ability with my now not so youthful old aching bones.

Mate, you're still out there with hope in your heart and a glint in your eye, having adventures and finding treasure in the bush - who could ask for more in 2024?

Well done, I say - you're a bloody good example to us all.

 

[Moneybox]

Today I am recovering from serious over-estimation of the physical capabilities of my aging body.
Gina has a much more balanced life than me, and not able to accompany me as often as I would like on gold prospecting trips to the GT,
I decided a tent would be a good idea for me to do quick and cheap solo getaway for a day or two without bothering to drag and set up the caravan for such short trips. After all that was how I used to do it when much younger, why not again?
Saw on marketplace a nice used instant cabin style tent and stretcher bed package for sale for $150 in a small town some travelling distance away, but close to the GT.
Got me thinking that I could justify the expense of travelling to pick it up if I kept going and camped overnight in the GT. Would give me maybe a day and a half detecting time to find enough gold to cover the outlay for the tent.
Rang the seller and, even better, they accepted my starting offer of $120 without hesitation. That would only be a gram of gold that I would need to find. With a break in the wet and dreary weather coming up, organised with the seller to pick it up early the next day.
With Gina's blessing (maybe relief), headed off early, picked up the tent as arranged and proceeded up to Dunolly arriving around mid-morning.
After a quick detect and a pie and coffee for lunch at the Dunolly bakery, I decided on my camping spot and headed out for a detect there. I managed 5 small bits for the day before calling a halt to ensure that I had enough daylight left to pitch the tent and cook up some dinner.
Had a restless night being unused to my new stretcher but was up early for breakfast and to pack away the tent and gear as was rearing to get to work with a full day detecting ahead of me.
The morning was relatively disappointing with lots of shotgun pellets and only a few small bits to show for all the targets I had dug.
With everything loaded in the car, I decided to move to a new spot after lunch.
The second spot seemed to be just a continuation of the mornings results with more and more pellets. However, as I gradually worked around the edges of the spot small bits of gold started turning up among the many pellets still being dug. Now it was just a slog to just keep finding and digging targets hoping that every now and again one would turn out to be a small nugget emerging from their clay and mud coating.
In the end with approaching darkness and my back, arm and legs nearly at collapse point, I was happy to call it quits.
Sitting in the back in the car, I counted up 17 bits of gold and though very small was happy with the haul. I had left my scales at home so had to wait another 2 hours before arriving home to find they weighed 1.14 gr. I had covered the cost of the tent and stretcher after all.
A day later however and I am still paying the price for a serious over-estimation of my physical ability with my now not so youthful old aching bones.
View attachment 14349

I have the same situation with Mrs M preferring to tinker with the rusty gold in her job. I like the real stuff so I need to get out there a little more often but I don't have your courage. I built the little Hyundai iLoad into a quite comfortable camper for one that was I don't have to give up too many creature comforts. On this last trip south to Capel we both stayed several nights in the Hyundai but that was difficult, it's just too small for two.

Most of what's in there is from our first purple bus, the Mazda T3000 that took us around the country a couple of times. When I scrapped it I kept the upright fridge, sink/stove and DCtoDC solar controller that went into this one. It made the camper cheap and quick to put together. It's not flash but I added a projection TV, a LH swivel seat base a big solar panel and a new mattress and it's comfortable enough for a few weeks away for one.

I tow the quad trailer so that I can get about when I get there because these days you have to try get further away from the busy detecting areas. The Honda E2000 generator is getting heavier each time too so I lashed out while se was at work and ordered a little one



I googled the difference in the Yamaha and the Honda and settled for this one. I don't know if it was a wise choice but it runs for a lot longer on a tank of juice otherwise there doesn't seem to be much between them. It usually rains if I'm out there so solar has let me down a few times and the I feel more comfortable with the generator for backup.