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So, at home after a fruitless prospecting trip, I'm again searching for the Fluorite Vein, at 5 Mile Point , this time online. And I came across this gem of a document, a prospectors report of a claim he had, which he believed held a lost mine of riches. These are submitted to the Government as "Proof of Work" on claim, there's tens of thousands online. But this one stood out - a few of the highlights below:
It's gold, everything from the "untitled placemark" to the "Whole area bright Purple and Green rock formation" and the slanted pasted on Fig 37. He didn't actually climb up to the rock, he's just trying to imply it's fluorite.
It goes on and on, a surreal mockery of a prospecting document drawn up by a confirmed lunatic.
You can read the entire thing here: https://aris.empr.gov.bc.ca/ArisReports/32678.PDF
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And, after the long day of waiting and the face to face facebook interview, she wanted me to drive up and look at the place again in morning.
Which I do.
Her son, he has no idea I'm coming, why I'm there, so I let him talk to her for a few minutes on the phone. I can hear his frustration, even to him she's a nightmare, finally he uses the "my phone is dead" excuse and bails on the call. Now she's calling me. I've brought the agreement? Yes...Now she just wants to add some caveats...that I won't smoke indoors (fine), that I'll mow the grass (it's coming into winter!!), sure, and so I'll shovel the snow as well, and I'll pay the utilities for the whole house just in case she can't find tenants for upstairs...
The price listed was $850, add in the utilities - , now $1300-$1400. Hmmmm.
But she's not done.
If she can't find upstairs tenants I can be her air b-n-b landlord, renting out the place upstairs, showing it, tidying it up afterwards...
...Oh, and did I want her to leave the furniture in the basement? And how much extra am I willing to pay for it?
I don't, furniture is cheap, I have my own.
....Oh, well, then, she'll need a deposit to pay the tradespeople to take it out of the suite, - and, of course, I'll have to pay storage on it as well...
It's fucking crazy, these Kootenay landlords, and somehow you're knowingly making a deal with the devil and they always find a way to make it worse...
I leave, I get a bunch of texts, a tear-felt apology left on my voicemail, she shouldn't have asked me not to smoke in the apartment...
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Took one of the locals out for her 77th Birthday. Working up an appetite before the restaurant:
Posing for the Camera:
Like Stormy, starting conversations with the neighboring tables, an older, conservative couple, she's talking about greying hair with the woman, gets her age - a mere 76, then pooh-pooh's her as a youngling. Definitely more interesting people out here than in the city, 30 years a local, first arrived here and lived for a year in a TeePee in the Valley.
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Days off, up the Crystal mountain, collecting, then out with Chris.
Guy from work, took him on a few prospecting excursions, showed him what was what, he's dying to go on a few more...
I don't blame him. I was at his place, the clusters he dug out of the Crystal mountain, I knew they were there, had made 4 trips up the mountain, snow ended every trip, the fifth trip I bring him along and we find it..
I would have found it without him. AND it would have all been mine.
So, like, I don't wanna speak but my largesse, my generosity, it's costing my sanity dear. "Our" claim, but, really, mine, and not that I don't mind sharing but...you get it.
Now I'm trying to limit my time out with him, take him and show him some fluorite seams, show him how pretty it is under a black light, next thing he's got a few buckets at his place, pictures of it posted on Facebook.
And, every time I'm at his place I marvel at the size of the clusters he got from that pocket, easy $500-1000 apiece.
Take him up to explore some old abandoned mines, deep inside, his flash going off and ruining my photos. His photos, again, the next day on Facebook.
When we're off and not finding stuff - which is 99.9% of the job, he gets bored, wants to give up, go elsewhere.
Meanwhile, a couple of photos inside a mine, fungi growing off of guano:
silvery filaments, like a fine wire silver...
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He's been getting up and around, hitchhiking out to Balfour to pay me visits, bring me sacks of rubbish he's gathered from free piles (and always a few scrolls), it's good to see him off his scooter, coming into the restaurant to lord it over me, get free salads, fries, desserts, then complain about the prices...
He sits on the beach, enjoys the view, stops and talks to the customers (!!STORMY - STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!!).
I go around to visit him at his apartment - the artist in his studio:
The marionette of the Mexican with the Ukulele, the hula girl doll, I found them in a free pile and hung them on his doorknob...he's arranged them festively with some Xmas ornaments.
He assures me he's been cleaning out his place, tidying up...
A short visit, the smell grows unbearable, the only way you'd know is if you were a CSI that showed up a month late to the death of a hoarder, there's a body in here somewhere, and he's inviting me for dinner, he's going to make it, amazing, and I can't even breathe in here, let alone imagine eating food, but it's a week away and I'll just have to deal with it when the time comes...
And the treasures just pile up in the back of the jeep and I'm afraid to unbox them...