We Have To Come Up With A New Hobby

Up to now, we have been "rock hounding" the easy way - we buy bags of dirt which have been seeded with semi-precious stones, bring them back to the campground and then spend leisurely afternoons picking through small piles of gravel, looking for gems.   Today, Syd and Lynda took us out for real, honest to goodness, gold mining.  We had visions of hauling out huge nuggets, which would allow us to purchase a new RV complete with a chauffeur.

Out we went to the hills outside Yuma, where even the cactus is drying out from thirst.  We were informed that the diamond back rattlesnakes would probably not be a problem, since they are hibernating.  We sincerely hoped that the snakes knew that!  After bumping up and down gravel roads (which, btw, are still in better shape than the roads in Sudbury), we arrived at a hill and set up our chairs in the shade of a mesquite bush.  Syd, who was sick as a dog, jumped down into a hole and began heaving up large buckets full of sand and rocks.  We deposited these on a shaker platform, which skims off the big rocks and, with luck, lets  the gold get trapped in the bottom.  The remaining

sand then had to be washed several times before we could start looking for the gold.  It is backbreaking work - and the end result is that we won't be buying a new RV anytime soon.  Or, for that matter, a dollar-store xmas ornament.

We then took a sightseeing trip in the area, looking at old claims, a pioneer cemetery and the remains of the mining town of Dome (one wall).  We ended up at what is probably the world's smallest church, where RRR fulfilled her dream of giving the congregation a blessing.

 It was a fun day but we decided that it might be a good idea to come up with Plan B for getting rich.