Gold Is Where You Find It.

I made some cookies with the help of Cutter, kitchen dog extraordinaire.  The recipe is on the back of the package. I reduced the sugar, added some wheat germ and baked them. They were really good, if I do say so myself.
"Excellent" said the Prospector. Then, as if to make the whole day better, we went to look for GOLD.
The day was beautiful and cool. I can't tell you where we went, but we drove half way to a place were we could leave the car and then hiked to a dry river bed.

This is an old mining road that is filled with history. 

I always expect to see a ghost on a donkey coming toward us on the path. There is history here. It is in the wind and under the fallen leaves. It's a feeling... a connection with the past.
Then we come to "The place were the ferns grow". It is where one, small creek flows down into a bigger one.
Now, before the rains, there is no water. But an abundant amount of ferns tells us that there is a lot of moisture under the surface.

This is the time of the year to dig the bedrock, in the creek below. This is the time that comes before the rains and after the rattlers have gone back into their dens. Without water we have to carry buckets of dirt back with us or use a dry washer. Because we are quite far from the truck, it would be an huge effort to bring the equipment out here. The Prospector usually fills buckets and bring them back home on his ATV but today was different.Today he wanted to show me the new place that he has been digging.
I kind of knew where this place was but not the exact spot. These small claims are secrets. Areas of "don't ask, don't tell" and only shared with trustworthy friends... and (sometimes) wives. Prospectors are very closed mouth people when it comes to finding gold. They love to show you the nuggets but they will never tell you where they found them.
We turn and hike down  the hillside to the larger creek below. It's a tough climb down but the Prospector has made a trail, of sorts, that helps the descent. Finally we get to the creek and the beautiful BEDROCK. For more information  about why bedrock is so important in gold recovery take a look at this site. This guy really knows what he is talking about.
Even aside from the fact that gold is now at $1723.20 an ounce, it's beautiful and you can still find it sitting in the bottom of streams and rivers here in California. And, you get to be in some of the most lovely places on earth.

Bedrock is ancient. It's beautiful and it's not going anywhere. It's always in some beautiful place that makes me want to pitch a tent and live, as Thoreau said, "deliberately".

This is where the wild things live.

 Where bears and wildcats come to find water and solace with the creatures of the night.

Where rock and tree root tangle together for support.

And the mosses wait for the moisture of the first rains.

A Buckeye waits to become a tree,

And the only sound in the quiet stream bed is my husband's trowel scooping dirt and a red winged hawk over head.
We will never become rich doing this but the fun of looking for the gold and the beautiful peace of this place will bring us happiness beyond riches. As Robert Service wrote in one of  his poems .

"There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting; 
It's luring me on as of old; 
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting 
So much as just finding the gold. 
It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder, 
It's the forests where silence has lease; 
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder, 
It's the stillness that fills me with peace."

 
 

Spring Morning after the Rain

"Where an I going? I don't quite know.
Down to the stream where the king-caps grow....

Up on the hill where the pine-trees blow,
Anywhere, anywhere. I don't know.

Where am I going? The high rooks call:
It's awful fun to be born at all.

 Where am I going? The ring-doves coo: 
We do have beautiful things to do.

If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You'd lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You'd say to the wind when it took you away:
"That's where I wanted to go today."

 Where I'm I going? I don't quite know.
What does it matter where people go?
Down to the wood where the [buttercups] grow.

 Anywhere, anywhere. I don't know.

~from When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne~
********************


The rain continues. This morning, when there was a break in the weather, I pulled on my boots and grabbed my camera.

and walked up and over to an old mining area in the hills behind us. It was cold, wet and windy. I love being a part of the storm.
It was a sloshy walk but I was able to ford the creek and takes some nice photos of what we call "the place of old mining memories". I always expect to see a ghost or two but I never have.

Someone left an old wheelbarrow...

A wheel cover from an old tractor or truck...

This is hard to see clearly but it's an old bed spring under a fallen tree. I always wonder who slept here and why they chose to bring a bed with springs all the way down here next to the creek. It wouldn't be a bad place to sleep I guess. How nice to fall asleep listening  to the sound of the creek and the other voices of the night. Summer would be a nicer, warmer time to do this,  but you might wake up sharing space with a rattlesnake. Still... it would be nice to pitch a tent and stay up here over night.

The ghosts of miners past do not seem to bother anyone.. These ghosts must still be looking for gold and don't want anyone to know where they're digging. The only signs of their existence that remains are the implements and machinery of their efforts... foundations. rock walls, tailing piles, rusty old equipment and this big water tank.

It must have been a hard life but their hope for finding gold pushed them on. The only gold that I have found down there is this....

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring. There will be another storm moving in. The wind is fierce outside. The goats are already in their house....Brownie too. He still keeps his distance from the other goats but they let him into the house now, to eat, and they were all out in the pasture eating together this afternoon, even with all the wind. 
The first day of Spring... tomorrow... I'm ready.