"ALWAYS AN ADVENTURE"

The relatives had come to visit. Cindy's sister, Teresa, and her boyfriend, Jack, had never been to Arizona and naturally, wanted to spend a day in the desert and see how we use a metal detector when we prospect for gold. We had been living in the desert for a few years now and so it seemed reasonable to explain a few things. Jack carried a pistol. I did't carry guns, so I told him to leave it in the truck. We did'nt use our desert critters for target practice, not even the occasional rattlesnake we might encounter. Next, we explained that everything in the desert will bite you, sting you, including the plants, so be aware of your surroundings, watch where you step, reach or squat. Then away we went. I took Jack to the creek, scratched some material around and found a small piece of gold with my Gold Bug detector. Cindy and Teresa went exploring down the canyon. Only a few minutes went by when there was a ruchus down canyon, and Cindy and Teresa came running up. Seems ...

This was our total take from our dig today, 4.4 Grams. The 3.2 nugget on the top right we named, The Pack Man Nugget! Buddy.

Chris is speaking and giving a description of our work area at the claim.

Like all new ventures, it's taken time, patience, many disappointments, and many mistakes to become completely confident in my abilities to prospect, and trust the detector's ability to locate the gold. My demonstrations on how to use the Fisher line of metal detectors are not designed around "mans" inate ability to contract "Gold Fever" by reading a book, seeing a large piece of Gold, or hearing all the "hype" from someone, who is more anxious to separate you from your money than be concerned with what your potential is to actually find something of value. Into 5 months of prospecting on our claim, 2-3 days a week, we found a 3.2 gram nugget! We arrived around 10am. This particular area of our claim required us to remove a yard (27 cubic feet) of barren boulder and gravel-pack, to expose a 2ft x 6ft area of bedrock. After a 9-hour day of digging, bucket sampling, detecting, there it was, all by itself, 3 inches in the crack of the bedrock. It was ...

A deer observing us while we are observing it. A little tree frog resting on our equipment.

A deer observing us while we are observing it. A little tree frog resting on our equipment.

On one of our trips back to the truck after a long day at our claim we came across this beautiful Mohave Rattlesnake. Then a Transula had the right of way! We respected their Territory!! This brings to mind a paper I wrote for my college english 101 class back in 1986. It was titled: AN EXAMPLE OF "CLASSICAL CONDITIONING" AND "OPERANT CONDITIONING" by Raymond Pomichter. One of the best examples of "Classical Conditioning" I can give is an experience in conditioning that I, myself, acquired while living and working in the Arizona desert. I spent many hours roaming the desert, "prospecting" for precious metals, or working on a mining claim, and I often came upon rattlesnakes. The sight of one would bring me to a halt, and send twinges of fear through me, until I could see for certain that I was in no danger of being bitten. By keeping a safe distance and prodding one of these snakes with a stick to get him to "rattle" so I would know ...