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A days prospecting
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 1371
Anxious to check out my hand dredge, crevassing tool, I head out. A favorite river south of Salmo, beautiful spot, and as luck would have it the river's low, passable, and I can get into all sorts of spots I wouldn't otherwise be able to with my tools.
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In theory it should be good, the hand dredge sucks up the material from the bottom of the waterfall and pools, works well (the lid keeps popping off, but I can fix this), and I scrape the crevices in the bedrock, gather the material up and pan it out.
And when I'm done, out of about 6 small buckets of material I've got 6 small flakes of gold. Tiny flakes, flour, hardly the showing I was expecting or hoping for.
Such a great location though...
When I get home I put the final concentrates under the microscope, a handful of fine gravel, and see what I've got.
A log cabin in the koots
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1300
Going to look at a place, called, arranged a viewing for 10:00 AM. Typical Kootenay house, old, (1896 the landlady tells me), once an estate but now in disrepair, a full mousetrap with dead mouse at the door, outbuildings without their roofs, overflowing with garbage, discarded furniture, the deck cluttered with tools, no obvious outstanding projects, just that rural disorganization. I knock and wait, it takes her about 5 minutes to answer, she's apologetic, big night the night before at the neighbors, she's trying to shake the cobwebs out of her head, I sit down on the deck while I wait for her to get changed...
About ten minutes, she's still shaking the cobwebs out of her head, but dressed, sits on the Veranda and talks to me, wants to feel me out to see if I'll be a good "fit", the cabin, it's on her property, a stones throw from the house, 1895, built by and for the coolies that built the house, why am I so well dressed? she asks, I'm not, What do I do for a living? I tell her where I work, how long...she's still sketchy, shows me the cabin. It's tiny, maybe 8 feet wide, 15 feet long, a 7 foot peaked ceiling, drop down ladder to "the loft" - a 2 foot crawlspace above the bathroom. It's charming - a bed immediately upon entering on the left, wardrobe and desk on the right, the shady side of the cabin is filled with cords of wood - the place is heated with a wood burning stove, a basic and tiny bathroom/shower behind an outhouse door....
$750 a month.
It's crazy, I'd live there a couple of months, all you can do is write and sleep, it's the perfect cabin in the woods, I imagine Thoreau must have had bigger, better, when he wrote "On Walden's Pond" - but it would suffice. The Landlady, though, she's her own little nightmare - still trying to shake the cobwebs out of her head, she's telling me "I don't want any junkies or alcoholics..." - points to a tin filled with baking soda outside the cabin and sniffs..."the last tenant...what was he into?", she knows, and then dashes back inside, she's parched, she needs a drink...7 other prospective tenants to show it to, I'm pretty sure I won't get it, I'm not what she's looking for ...
You could live for a while in the cabin, but it would be yet another one of those bad-landlady situations, the house, estate in ruins, she's advertising for a tenant but she's really looking for a partner, someone to clean up the yard, the house, been there, done that, and I'm thinking that rent should exempt one from the monotony of chores and labour, where she, well, like a lot of the hippies out here she's hoping...
The Harrop Fire
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1877
Forest Fire east of Harrop, smoke billowing over mountain. It's about 5 or ten km up the valley...the sky's still blue. The next morning though...
The other side of the lake has disappeared into the haze, the smoke, you can't really smell it, but it's clammy and clings to your skin...
The Liquor Store that sells everything...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2061
When I think about it, they all do here. A stark contrast to Alberta. You can buy cigarettes, liquor, lottery tickets, all the major government subsidies, at a single store. One trip. This is amazing.
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