continued
Mel does this for a little recreation. He's 70 years old now, slowing
down and has to pace himself.
Mater of fact I think he enjoys talking more than the gold.
Here he's taking a breather and giving me more than an earful.
He likes checking his riffle tray every now and then for pickers
and he does find them. He claims he gets a least a pennyweight
every time he goes out.
Here he's blowing away the light sands to show me the gold
behind that first riffle.
He doesn't waste a lot of water here in the desert, he likes panning
in a pan. He said the small pan was used to retort mercury and gold
a long time ago. He showed me some gold melted into the
bottom of it a gold pan with gold, always.
Mel always checks his tailing piles for nuggets and sometimes finds
them. Here he's using his Gold Bug 2, he also has a Minelab 2100
with extra coils for sale. He can't swing and dig like he used to
and has to let them go. Mel thanks a lot for all the advice you've
given me over the years and for these photos.
Note: Mel passed away August 15, 2008.