Worth it's Weight...

There is something soothing and calming in the slow shake and dip of the pan, the exhilaration of seeing a little color in the bottom, and EUREKA!! you have found 6 small flakes that you quickly suck up with your sniffer before they are lost. Repeating this process hundreds if not thousands of times may fill your small 1/4 oz glass bottle which could possibly be sold at todays prices for about $200 -$300. 

So why do I do it? Maybe it's the hard physical labor of shoveling river rocks all day. Maybe it's the challenge of the hunt. Maybe it's the incredible feeling of accomplishment when you find that one little tiny piece that is just big enough to make that beautiful clinking sound when dropped into a glass bottle. It could be the peaceful serenity that you find as you wade downstream alone looking for that perfect spot to start digging or the fact that the all elusive nugget could very well shown up in the next pan. I think it's a combination of all of these. Nothing beats getting away for a day to spend some time alone in some of God's most incredible creation. 

Am I smarter than a 3 year old?

I thought that this being the first post on my blog, it would be appropriate that it be about one of my kids...

Tonight my 3 year old son brought his nearly empty mug of soup over to me at the computer and asked me to drink it. I thought he was offering it to me because he thought I liked tomato soup so I happily obliged and gulped the last bit down. He smiled at me as he took the mug back and said, "Now I get a cookie!" Just to verify that I had been duped by a three year old I asked my wife what she had told him regarding his soup and she replied, "I told him that he gets a cookie if he finishes his soup." How could we deny him...