Thursday, December 24, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette



· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1106.60
· Spot price last Gazette : $1115.10
________________

Calendar of Events

DECEMBER
· 9th GPOC Christmas Party
· 21st Winter Solstice
· 24th Christmas Eve (That’s Today!)
· 25th Christmas Day
· 31st New Year’s Eve

JANUARY
· 1st New Year’s Day
· 13th GPOC Members Meeting 7:00 p.m.
_______________________________________
NEWS

Happy Christmas Eve to you all and a MERRY CHRISTMAS to you tomorrow!

Since all markets will be closed tomorrow and we will all be enjoying a Christmas Dinner, you get a treat by getting the Gazette early this week instead of late. Lucky you! We are still awaiting the birth of our granddaughter and are now thinking she will wait until next year just to be a girl and make us wait. LOL!

The metal detecting trip was interesting. The day was warm enough for the guys, but they forgot about the frozen ground. Instead of digging, they ended up hacking at the ground to find the center of an ore cart wheel, bullets, etc, and a few pieces of pyritic gold ore, typical of the Idaho Springs area. Nothing new was found on the private property, though, and they spent some time hunting a couple of dumps in the area. Still, a better day than sitting around watching T.V.! The ladies stayed in town and finished up their Christmas shopping. While we Do enjoy prospecting for gold, we needed to have some extra time to find our golden gifts for Christmas.

Bright sunshine greets me again this morning after a couple of days of light snow that left us about 7 inches of powder glistening in the sunlight. Temps this morning were 12 degrees but with no wind that blew everything around. Not so for points east of us, but here in the city, the snow fell softly and consistently over the duration of the storm.

Sure hope you asked for gold and silver bullion in your stockings this year so you have that special hedge against inflation this next year. We stored a bunch away years ago and it has appreciated nicely since then. All in the safety deposit box, of course. The new green energy may turn into gold for us, too, this next year. I hate the idea of carbon credits, but won’t mind making money from them at all. Somebody has to do it, might as well be us.

You may have noticed that I have removed the twitter updates from both the blog and the website. I had a few complaints about the threads being too hard to follow, and think that many of you may not like them either. The reason was to update the pages regularly so that the site can be found more easily. Daily updates help in the search engines, but what you want is more important. If you have an opinion about the PLEASE let me know. I have kept the link on the ning site in a sidebar to help update that as it is new and needs constant refreshing in the searches.

Win7 has been pretty easy to switch to, but many older programs on the old laptop will now transfer and I will have to repurchase things like Word, or so it seems. That means that the website in Front Page and the store program will not load correctly here, so they will still have to be published from the old computer until I can figure out how to transfer it all to the new computer.

I read a few articles from time to time about gold prospecting, but there aren’t too many worth sharing right now. However, I did find a couple for you to read. Ok, the first one you have to watch. It’s a Youtube about a trommel in use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHb-kawshiY Here’s a nice story about Christmas, Arizona http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/1212christmas1212.html


Gold ‘N’ Store
(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.
World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette 12/19/09


· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1115.10
· Spot price last Gazette : $1150.10
________________

Calendar of Events
DECEMBER
· 9th GPOC Christmas Party
· 21st Winter Solstice
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
· 31st New Year’s Eve
JANUARY
· 1st New Year’s Day
· 13th GPOC Members Meeting 7:00 p.m.
_______________________________________
NEWS

Golden sunshine greets me today and it is very welcome! As those who follow know, windows7 conversion has been keeping us busy, along with all the regular holiday things. With Christmas only a week away, we are scrambling to get everything ready. We are also still awaiting the birth of our first granddaughter. Mom is very far along with the beginnings of labor and she may have her bundle of joy before Christmas. With this birth looming, our Christmas get together is up in the air as to when it will happen. No matter when that is, it will be joyous!

Gold prospecting for us has been limited to the stores, but we do have a metal detecting opportunity in the next few days. We are also predicted to have a white Christmas this year, although not much of the white stuff is supposed to be on the ground. The ski areas have gotten hammered again and they are happy with their good fortune.

Predictions for where gold will be in the next few months have been mostly down. The most relevant predictions are putting at around $950, although I have seen predictions in the mid 800’s. This will be a buying opportunity for those who buy gold as it will begin another uptrend soon.

If you haven’t checked out the store, you might want to. I have at least one 14K gold nugget pendant whose price is just above spot. More gold nuggets and gold jewelry was posted, too.

Speaking of the store, I was able to find the error that gave the error messages and have corrected it, so the checkout cart is working again for all products. Now, the trick will be to transfer the program to the new computer without having to rebuild the whole thing again. Already tried the transfer suggestions that came with the software, but that didn’t work. In the mean time, the old computer will do the work just fine. I have some interesting options for the gazette’s format that I didn’t have with XP that I’ll try out in the next week or so. Watch for some changes as I play with the new formatting tools.

No time this week to look for much information for you. Also, be aware that there will be no regular gazette next week since it will be Christmas! :>D I’ll get a blog up so you get next week’s gold close and let you know how the metal detecting went. Have a great Holiday Season and a Merry Christmas!

Gold ‘N’ Store
(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.
World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette 12/13/09


HOOKED ON GOLD GAZETTE
· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1115.10
· Spot price last Gazette : $1150.90
________________

Calendar of Events

DECEMBER
· 9th GPOC Christmas Party…Remember your unwrapped toys for children. Our Marine friends will be there to pick them up. You may also make cash donations.
· 21st Winter Solstice
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
· 31st New Year’s Eve

JANUARY
· 1st New Year’s Day
· 13th GPOC Members Meeting 7:00 p.m.
_______________________________________
NEWS

Have any of you had any of that golden white stuff lately? We have had a bit, but the cold has been bitter! -15 degrees at night and around +12 during the day. I think Alaska was warmer than we were this past week! And to boot, we had a gem and mineral show to help out and a GPOC Potluck to attend. BRRRR! It is WAY too early in the year for this kind of weather for me. We are all wondering what WINTER has in store for us after the 21st. Ski resorts are cheering, though, so if you are here for the high country snow, it is pretty good right now. Thankfully, we have started a warm up that is thawing all of us out.

Along with the cold we have had a bout of the runny noses and the usual maladies that go along with being cooped up in the house too long in frigid weather. Windows Seven was successfully installed on the new laptop and is running this morning. Now the task of transfering all the files from the old laptop to the new begins. In case you are wondering, it took about 8 hours to complete the update on a new laptop that didn’t have anything but the basic stuff it came with, and a couple of extra browsers. Time consuming, but pretty easy.

ICMJ had a report in their latest issue about California and the ban on dredging. It seems that the federal agencies consider the new ban a violation of the mining laws and are not, for now, enforcing it. Because of this opinion, state officials are also reluctant to enforce the ban, so dredging is continuing. It seems the dredgers have called the government's bluff and have won the first round. This situation should be interesting to watch as it could set precedence for future problems with dredging. Small towns are also noticing a marked decline in revenue due to the lack of dredgers who use camp grounds and town stores for supplies and gas when they are in the areas. Oregon continues to look at a ban themselves.

Christmas Season is upon us all, and after all the cold weather it is taking some doing to get caught up with all the Holiday stuff. Haven’t even had time for twitter lately, and we’ve been holed up for more than a week. You would think you could get caught up in those circumstances, but when it’s that cold, you don’t seem to want to do much of anything except try to stay warm. As such, I haven’t searched the internet much for info, but I have a link or two lurking in one of my files for you to read. Here is one on prospecting instructions that was good http://www.ehow.com/how_5689312_pan-gold-mines.html . In world news, Russia is planning a gold sale to the central bank this next week. http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-central-bank-buys-30-tons-of-gold-from-state-repository-2009-12 and China has a gold mining problem of its’ own http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/asia/11briefs-ChinaBrf.html?_r=1

As you can see from the top of the page, gold has begun to slide from its’ highs. The charts are looking bearish and predictions are that the metal could plunge to the mid 900’s or more. Looks like we could have a buy signal soon. We hope it stays around for the Tucson show and we can buy gold at a cheaper price, too. :>D Hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”!

(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.
World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Christmas Shopping


Ah, Christmas shopping!
No I haven't forgotten you. We had the DSL go down yesterday and, so, I am late getting the Gazette up this weekend. You'll have it sometime tomorrow after I get the Christmas Shopping caught up after all the frigid weather we've had the last couple of weeks that made want to just sit under a warm blanket and hibernate. The sun is back out and it was over 50 degrees today. That also means that everyone else is out, too, and it takes twice as long to get things done as usual.
To boot, the store checkout isn't working. Literally, one minute it was working and the next it wasn't. Everything looks good, but something is wrong. Probably have to spend some time with tech support to find out what's up with the program. (sigh) Talk to you more tomorrow. Hope your Holiday Season is going well.
Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Gold 'N' Store updates


Yup, that's what it looks like around here. VERY pretty, and VERY cold!

The one good thing about the cold and snow is that I actually found a window with light coming through it that was good enough to photograph gold nuggets. That means I can get some more of them uploaded and listed on the store for sale in the next week.

I have one report of a problem with the check out on the new store. If you have ANY problems with it, please contact me so I can track down what happened. I have another invoicing option we can do, too, so don't give up on the new store if you are having trouble ordering from it. I DO have successful orders coming through, so the whole thing isn't a problem. There may just be a glitch or two to work out. Also, there seems to still be links to the old store. Make sure you are ordering from the store that does NOT have the website template, but shows the goldpanner in the upper left hand corner. If you find a link to the old store, let me know so that I can get rid of it. I did delete the page, so you may only get a blank page. That means you are on the wrong page. I'll work on a redirect tomorrow after we are finished with the GPOC potluck and meeting today. Check out the store for gifts with gold prospecting themes, gold nuggets for sale, gold nugget jewelry, and gold in white or black quartz jewelry.

I am reading new reports about the new no dredging regulations in California, but I'll save that for the Gazette on Friday. Hope you Season of Holidays is going well, and that you are enjoying all the people you love during this time of year.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
www.hookedongold.com

Friday, December 04, 2009

Not the Hooked on Gold Gazette


Sure wish this was MY store. LOL! However, this is a picture of one of the gold jewelry stores in the Souk at Dubai Gold Market. Yeah, they're the ones who are thinking about defaulting on their loans to European Banks that sent everything into a tail spin Thanksgiving weekend.

Gold closed the weekend at $1161.40 after reaching a high in the neighborhood of $1225. Didn't have time to look today as we were in Colo. Springs helping GPOC set up for the mineral show this weekend at the Phil Long Ford Expo. I'll get back to you next week.

We had forgotten how hard it is to photograph gold really well. We took literally hundreds of pictures of gold to put up for sale on the website and only got two to come out good enough to use. We will try again this week. You will find one new piece up on the store and a couple more pendants for your Christmas lists.

GPOC was greeted with frozen sand and frozen buckets when they gathered to set up for the weekend earlier today. Hopefully all will be thawed out by tomorrow for opening. See you all in the funny papers, and from Hooked on Gold, may your Holidays be filled with Joy, Laughter and Good Cheer. Remember to be kind to one another and hold your family dear.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
www.hookedongold.com

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Wishing you a Golden Thanksgiving



Happy Thanksgiving to All! We hope everyone has a wonderful time with family and freinds this holiday. The turkey is in the oven and we are getting ready for our feast, but I have a few minutes to chat with you since there will be no Gazette tomorrow.

Gold is down today around $1186 as Dubai asked for a 6 month extension on its' loans, which, in turn, sent the London Stock Exchange tumbling and forcing a three hour closure. This should frim up the dollar sending gold lower, but I'll be watching to see what happens later.

We got the tile laid in the entry way yesterday, so we will be looking for another project to work on. Shopping will be taking up some time and there are get togethers with friends to look forward to in the coming weeks. Have a happy and safe holiday season, and may your golden wishes all come true. Check Gold 'N' Store for that special gold nugget jewelry item your looking for. Check back next week, too, as I get more raw gold for sale posted. We should have some time in the next few days to get it photgraphed and posted on the store site. Looking for a prospecting gift or stocking stuffer with a gold prospecting theme? We have those, too.

Until next week,

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley

Friday, November 20, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette 11/20/09


HOOKED ON GOLD GAZETTE
· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1150.90
· Spot price last Gazette : $1096.90
________________

Calendar of Events
NOVEMBER
· 3rd Election Day
· 11th GPOC Meeting
· 13th-15th Gem Show at Merchandise Mart
· 26th Thanksgiving
DECEMBER
· 9th GPOC Christmas Party…Remember your unwrapped toys for children. Our Marine friends will be there to pick them up. You may also make cash donations.
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

As with all good intentions that fail, things this past week have gotten in the way of my getting back to you before now. Our friend Pedro, from Colombia, S.A., had some extra time in Denver this week, so we spent our week with him. We don’t get these chances often, so we take them when we can. We visited the Denver Museum and the Garden of the Gods, and even though we had snow last weekend, the days we were out were very nice, indeed. Beautiful blue skies and warm weather made for a very enjoyable time together.

I’ll be working on internal linking to Gold ‘N’ Store as I am sure the text links go to the wrong page. I thought about that this past weekend and realized that I still have more work to do on the store, too. I’ll be putting up more page links and getting some more gold listed, as well as working on meta tags and descriptions. Check back on Cyber Monday to see what I have that is new.

Cache Creek still had gold prospectors in and out as of a couple of weeks ago, even with 4 inches of snow still on the ground. The Game and Fish Dept. has been watching for hunters in the area, too. As a conservation area, it is closed to hunting, and there have been several hunters in there this season.
Hope you have been watching gold jump up and down this past week. It touched $1170 before falling back again. Still, a nice run up in the metal. Everyone at the Gem Show was talking about the healthcare bill and the state of the economy around the world. All news bodes well for gold, but silver may be the story of note after all is said and done. It closed today at $18.51.
Looking for some extra cash? You might want to ‘get your teeth’ into selling gold. Read about it here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/19/business/main5711640.shtml . And, is you are interested in buying or have bought gold ingot bars, you might want to check into this article about how some of them may be filled with tungsten http://www.businessinsider.com/the-tungsten-filled-gold-bar-conspiracy-gets-discussed-on-cnbc-2009-11 .
There is probably a ton of other news out there that I missed while I was gallivanting around Colorado. With the holidays beginning next week, we are looking forward to a quiet weekend before the Thanksgiving Holiday and the mad rush to Christmas begins. This also means that there will be no Gazette next Friday as we spend time with our extended families. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, and a Holiday Season that is filled with Joy, and remember to visit Gold ‘N’ Store for your prospecting gifts.

(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.
World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Playing with a Different Kind of Gold This Weekend



Two of the gold panner examples of gifts for prospectors in Gold 'N' Store

Guess what? This is Gem Show weekend! All of you that have read this blog for a while know that means I will be playing with a different kind of gold as I spending the weekend in the Columbian Emerald Booth with 18K jewelry gold at the Merchandise Mart. That also means you will not get a Newsletter today, but I'll get back with you on Tuesday with what news I have for you.


Gold spot price is staying above $1100 as of this morning, and I'll be watching it to see if it holds for the weekend. It has only $7.00 to fall before it closes below $1100, so today will be an interesting day to watch it.


I have news on Cache Creek, too, for you.


Remember that the new store is back up and running. I have spent time this past week getting the descriptions up to snuff and I have started to add the gold back to it, too. Check back often to see what is new and what has sold already. Get ready for Christmas realy so you don't miss the old priced 14K gold nugget jewelry I still have in stock. You can check out Gold 'N' Store now if you like.


(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)




Monday, November 09, 2009

New Store at Hooked on Gold

Good Day to everyone. I have had a wonderful start to my day by being able to finish, upload and link the new store. That's right! Hooked on Gold has a new gold prospectors store. After last year's attempt to replace the pages that I had spent weeks constructing and never did work well, I found a program that was easy to use and purchased it. Last year I purchased a program that was so confusing to use I gave up on it after about 8 weeks.

My experience with it was so bad, I was reluctant to try the new one, but I have to say it has delivered everything it said it would so far, and more. While it still took some time and effort to put together, the instructions were easy to understand and implement. CoffeeCup has really good programs on its' website that include my new store.

Now, I didn't spring for the customizable template options since I didn't know if it would even work well, but I did include the familiar goldpanner icon I have on my webpages. The "HOME" button at the top of the menu takes you back to the hookdeongold home page.

You will find only a few of the items listed on the store home page, and more if you click on the categories either in the menu or on the page. I'll add more items and some gold in the next week, so check back to see what else is going on. Christmas is coming!

While going through the links after I had uploaded everything, I found the Cache Creek page is not loading, so I'll have to work on that this afternoon. For now, you can see and use the new store at http://www.hookedongold.com/store

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/

Friday, November 06, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette 11/06/09


Good News! Ben Parker's book is back in print. New link should be up in the store this weekend.

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1096.90
· Spot price last Gazette : $1044.70
________________

Calendar of Events

NOVEMBER

· 3rd Election Day
· 11th GPOC Meeting
· 13th-15th Gem Show at Merchandise Mart
· 26th Thanksgiving

DECEMBER
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

What a difference a week makes! Freezing temps last week and mid 70’s this week. Being out of doors was really pleasant the past few days, and we are thinking about a metal detecting trip tomorrow. Or perhaps I should say Larry is. I’m not ready to be cold again quite so soon.

Gold, now there was a story this past week. It jumped over $52.00 and even touched $1001.00 before retreating on Thursday. With economic concerns in everyone’s minds, many are picking up gold as a hedge more now. India’s purchase of IMF gold didn’t hurt either, and has caused people to take their gold into the markets in exchange for money. Many are melting older pieces to be made into new for their brides.

I found this interesting article this past week on why the government won’t confiscate your gold. The first reason is that circumstances now are simply not what they were in the 1930’s, another is that we are already off the gold standard. Several other points are very well made in the article. A very good read. http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1257177600.php

I was wandering around the internet looking for information on another subject when I came across this very god website about Victor, Colorado at http://www.victorcolorado.com/history.htm

Oregon has been in the news concerning gold prospecting and dredging for gold. ICMJ has an article on their Governor wanting to have many acres withdrawn from mineral entry so that all gold prospecting and mining will be halted or severely restricted in those areas. ICMJ has a great quote in it’s article by Mike Higbee about dredgers and fishermen. http://icmj.com/index.php for more info. Oregon is also attempting to curtail dredging there as California has done, and you can read about that at http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/ap/kulongoski-wants-to-head-off-calif-gold-miners-64391782.html I probably gave you that last one before, but this situation bears repeating the article.

That’s about it, folks. Enjoy the nice weather while we have it. Thanksgiving is coming up fast and I have almost all my Christmas shopping finished. Still hoping I can get my new sluice box in the water before everything freezes up, but who knows. Maybe it won’t see water until next Spring.

(Links to our affiliates for gold prospecting equipment
Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.
World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette 10/30/09


HAPPY HALLOWEEN HAUNTINGS!





Our Winter Wonderland Yesterday at noon.
[Half of what we got for a total]
HOOKED ON GOLD GAZETTE
· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $1044.70
· Spot price last Gazette: $1054.80
________________

Calendar of Events
OCTOBER
· 31st Halloween
NOVEMBER
· 3rd Election Day
· 11th GPOC Meeting
· 26th Thanksgiving
DECEMBER
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

If you haven’t checked out the Prospecting Community Network you might want to. We have a great group started with several already blogging and getting involved. You will be able to view the main page when you pull the site up to decide if it is a place you would like to hang out at.

So, where did I leave off last week? I know on Monday I told you about the e-bay listing, and then everything went to H**l in a hand basket as Old Man Winter settled in on us with a vengeance. We have about 22 inches here at the house, and today’s temps didn’t get much above 45 degrees. I bet there I still snow on the ground for Halloween tomorrow night. BRRRR!

Gold took back some of its’ gains this last week, but ended higher than earlier with it dipping near $1030 and rising to around $1060. Yes, my friends, your gold will be worth more in the near future, so get to working those cons so you can see that yellow stuff.

New news this past week was more about the dollar and the stock market than about gold. With Halloween tomorrow night, we are entering into the holiday seasons, and gold jewelry prices should be a bit higher this year with gold demands being more and jewelers having to pay more for the metal. Many are having a hard time selling gold jewelry due to the price. Many have begun offering jewelry in silver to reduce the costs to the buyer. I have also begun to see copper crop up in jewelry this summer, so look for some jewelers to begin to use that metal as well.

I have a new store program that I am working on. I got a long way yesterday putting it together, found that one of the files had been corrupted, and had to delete the whole thing. Not only that, but I had to purge the program from the computer and upload it again to start all over. BUMMER! I had spent about 6 hours getting it set up and adding items to it before the corrupted file showed up. Starting over on a project of this size is hard to do, but I opened it up this morning and started a new one. We’ll see how far I get this time before I have a problem with it. Last year’s attempt was a total and utter disaster. I do hope this year’s program will be easier and I can finally get a decent store uploaded. If anyone ever tells you building and updating a website, or making money online is easy, kick them in the shins for me, eh? The only thing I ever put this much time and work into for so little money back was raising my kids. That was worth the years of trial, etc., but THIS is ridiculous.

Do you have any gold prospecting stories to share with all of us? Send me some in the comments box. I’m sure everyone would love to hear someone else ramble on, or do you just love ME? :>D

I don’t have any final results on the changes at Cache Creek for next year, but I will keep my ears open so when I do, you’ll know almost as soon as I do. Have and safe and happy Halloween!

(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.
If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Monday, October 26, 2009

New Claims at Point Bar

Hey all!

Bet you didn't thing you'd be hearing from me again so soon. LOL! Well, I have more information for you on the 4 gold mining claims that were filed at Point Bar in September. The first of them is up for sale on E-bay. Going price right now is $3300.00. I would imagine the other three will find their way there in the near future. The seller isn't mentioning anything about the irrigation ditch that has a right of way on the claim, just that it has about half a mile of river, and it only costs $25.00 a year to dredge it, along with some other nice things about it. You can find this page by searching E-bay for claims; I'm not going to link it out for you. You can probably bookmark this person and check back for the other three claims if you are interested in your own place to highbank or dredge for gold. Cheers!

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette 10/24/09


Panning in Fairplay with the 4th Grade
That's our setup area


We broke up into two groups
Chad & Larry helped with the panning lessons


Everyone found gold! And all had a great time.
Even though it was cold, they didn't want to stop.


· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday, last Gazette: $1054.80
· Spot price last Gazette May 2nd: $1052.80
________________

Calendar of Events

OCTOBER
· 31st Halloween

NOVEMBER
· 3rd Election Day
· 11th GPOC Meeting
· 26th Thanksgiving

DECEMBER
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

If you haven’t checked out the Prospecting Community Network you might want to. We have a great group started with several already blogging and getting involved. You will be able to view the main page when you pull the site up to decide if it is a place you would like to hang out at.

It’s Not My Fault! The Gazette is a day late because we were gone for two days helping Tin Pan Prospecting teach gold panning to the 4th grade class in Fairplay…..on the S. Platte, no less; in the snow; it was 22 degrees. Welcome to Colorado! :>D After staying in Colorado Springs that night with friends, we then attended Dan Grenard’s (Our BLM department head GPOC has worked with for many years) retirement party in Canyon City on Friday and were not back at home until late. Hence, the Saturday morning Gazette publishing.

Gold didn’t move much this week, as you can see from the quotes at the top. After reaching $1071 it has retreated as expected. Silver, however, is up at $17.66 and its’ long term outlook is much better than gold’s for overall price increase in the near future. It has a LONG way to go to reach that 16 to one ratio it has historically held with gold.

It snowed last week, as I mentioned, and we are expecting more snow this week here in Denver. I have had several inquiries about prospecting at Cache Creek in November, and I have no idea what it is doing up there. We were in the area but didn’t have enough time to make the trek that far north on the Arkansas on Thursday to actually see what is going on up there weather wise. If any one has info on Cache Creek, please leave a comment here for everyone. The weather is turning much colder pretty fast all over the central and eastern parts of Colorado with the western side staying mild.

And so, Point Bar is a subject that is being discussed all over, now, with the claims that have been filed. While I did blog about this a few weeks ago, I want to go back over this a little more to make sure I haven’t missed anything I need to discuss with you. First, even if there is a claim on an area, they do not own the water rights, which means the claimant cannot keep you out of the water. You can still access the water with your prospecting equipment anywhere on the point as long as the material you are using comes out of the public recreation area near the pit. Another item is that this person also cannot keep you from camping in the area. Having a claim on public land does not mean that anyone can keep you from camping on public BLM lands. This only means that no one else can prospect or mine there. You only have a claim on the minerals that might be found there and only you have the right to extract them. The claimant will now be required to properly post his area and do any reclamation of the area himself.

Several people in GPOC have asked why the club has not claimed this area for members. There are several reasons for this. First, is policing the area. The area has been an open area for prospecting for so long that it would have been nearly impossible to keep anyone who is not a GPOC member from prospecting the area. Second, once the claim is made the claimant is then responsible for any reclamation or damage repair involved with keeping the area. As an open area, GPOC can apply for grant money from the BLM to do damage repair and reclamation in public prospecting areas on the Arkansas River, and that would be money not coming out of our treasury. Third the amount of money that would be required to keep the area up would have been substantial. Look at what we go through to keep Beaver Creek claims open. When we have a plan of operation in place, damage and reclamation can cost upwards of $2,000 a year to keep up. Our dues are extremely cheap now and we would have to raise them to be able to keep up with costs on 4 claims on point bar. They were open to you the way it was. Why claim them and have the hassles. This claimant may not be able to keep up with what will be required, either and you may have them back in public hands in a year or two. GPOC’s grant for damage repair and reclamation will not have to be used in the claimants areas either, and can be used to keep up other public areas. How many of you actually used any of those areas? GPOC now has what is probably the best of those claims, and there are numerous reasons why we have those and not the others. How many of you have used those claims? The irrigation ditch is another thing the claimant will have to address as well. I also wonder how much cleanup and fire control he will have to deal with in this very well used recreation area.

I didn’t find any interesting links this week for you. Usually there is a lot going on, but this past week was pretty dead for news on gold or gold prospecting. I’ve probably taken enough of your time for now, anyway, so I’ll say TTFN and call it all good. Any questions? Comment here or you can email me. I’ll give it my best shot. If you comment here, you probably will get someone else to give their two cents worth, too. I can’t know everything….my head is too small. :>D

(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Hooked on Gold Gazette 10/17/09



Two pieces of equipment used at Cache Creek to muck out the beaver pond.


Mucking out the beaver pond. This is about the size the pond ended up being. It goes a ways to the left of this shot, but I couldn't get it all in.

HOOKED ON GOLD GAZETTE
· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday, last Gazette: $1052.80
· Spot price last Gazette May 2nd: $885.80
________________

Calendar of Events

OCTOBER

· 31st Halloween

NOVEMBER

· 26th Thanksgiving

DECEMBER

· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

If you haven’t checked out the Prospecting Community Network you might want to. We have a great group started with several already blogging and getting involved. You will be able to view the main page when you pull the site up to decide if it is a place you would like to hang out at.

As it ended, the first Gazette of the Fall is a day late. I considered waiting until next week, but I have enough info to share now and an hour this early morning to get the Gazette to you even if it is a little late. Why is it late, you might ask? Well, I am painting one room upstairs while we have a few nice days and I can open the house to dry it, AND I was playing a new game. Yes, I know it is hard to believe that a new game could deter me from writing to you, but it is true. So, I am up early to atone for my wasted time yesterday that should have been devoted to you. :>D

So, what have all of you been up to this summer? Have you found gold? Won gold at a meeting? Had hail break all the windows in your house? What? Leave some comments to this blog so I don’t think I’m out there all alone. Some of you are wondering why I twitter and Facebook so much, and I have decided that it is because those places are where I have interaction with other prospectors and those interested in gold. It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing this blog, but there is very little input from you. It is hard to know what you want to read when there are no comments left for me to comment on. A blog can be almost as interactive as any social networking site, in fact they are an extension of blogs and the interactivity that was first born in blogs. So, take a minute and make a comment when you find something you like or don’t like. YOU hate it when I’m not blogging, but a blog is supposed to be two way. Give me something more to write about, and I’ll write. I’m a writing fool, as you can tell from all the sites I have, and anyone who has emailed me will tell you that I LOVE trying to answer questions.

We found gold this summer. Not a lot, but we did find gold. Helped a lot of other people find gold, too. We spent a great deal of time hosting at Cache Creek, and the BLM tells us that most people appreciated someone being in the area to help them set up equipment, teach panning and tell them where in area to find gold. The area was absolutely SLAMMED this summer, and so new regulations are being drawn up by the BLM to get some control over the area. Larry and I have been allowed to put our two cents in, and they are looking at our recommendations as guidelines. If you don’t like the new ones, you can blame us for being in there so much and people who were in there all summer moving over 100 yards of material with sluice boxes. Limits will be imposed next year, and a fee structure that will be more fair to everyone. This area is meant for RECREATIONAL PROSPECTING, which means it is not governed by the mining laws. BLM is free to impose regulations on the area as they deem necessary as with any campground, parking area that has a fee, etc.

The pond was mucked out in late September, and a couple of additional settling ponds were dug in, too. The two smaller ponds will not stop the silt from going into the beaver pond if the present amount of silt continues to run down the creek. Most people will say the highbankers are at fault for this, but from personal experience, I can say that the majority of it comes from the sluices that are run directly in the creek. Highbankers are required to settle their material before it returns to the creek, which also means the water must be diverted away from the main creek. There can be as many as 6 highbankers in the area, but on most days the sluice boxes outnumber them by about 5 to one, and I have watched sluicers move as much material through one sluice box as a ‘banker. Our average count of vehicles in the parking lot was around 28. That means on most days there were between 40 and 75 people in the area a day; every day. We ended up with two port a jons to handle the wastes, and had we not been there to get that done, the place would have been an even bigger mess than it has been in past years.

As a result of this year’s use and our record taking for the BLM, they are considering hiring a summer time employee to help regulate the Arkansas River and Cache Creek. That means that all of you who have bragged about being able to get away with anything because there is not anyone in the area to make sure you comply, have created a situation where we now have to pay a salary to keep you in line because you can’t be relied on to be personally responsible for yourself on public lands without law enforcement there to make sure you do. This means that everyone who uses the area will probably be required to pay a daily fee, and most probably have restrictions on the number of days you can use the area per season. Thanks a bunch. The ounces of gold I saw taken out of there by single or two man teams of men who worked the area all summer was substantial, and they all should have had their own claims and not using public lands in this way. All were using sluice boxes which have no fees, so they took it out for free. One team switched to a highbanker, but also stayed in the area with it for over 6 weeks. Almost all were very protective of their area and kept others out by placing equipment near and around their work areas. If you even looked like you might want to work near them they became irate and combative. Some situations were volatile enough to call in law enforcement, and there are charges still pending on at least one case. Oh, and then there was the fire, which apparently was started by a small campfire that had been left unattended above the last hydraulicing wall, most probably by prospectors. There were also reports of dredging going on and spies who watched everyone from the rock burms. Yes, we need to be able to keep people in line at Cache Creek. Some people are reporting that they feel the area is dangerous and being taken over by lawlessness. And there we were. With a sign and a green cap and a note book. There were days I carried my hand pick for defense. Yes, we need more regulation at Cache Creek. No, we aren’t happy about it, but yes, we (the public) need this regulation and support.

Another thing that came to our attention was that the GPAA put the area in their claims guide as an open area. This brought in many more people than the area was ever meant to support, and while the area was originally expected to last 20 years, the number of years left for the area could be less than 10. Long range plans for the area had included a campground, but with so few years left for use, those plans have been put on hold. Right now, everyone is scrambling to get the area under control and limit the environmental and use impact. Remember this area is a conservation area, and we are confident that had we not been there to document what was going on and help BLM understand what needs to be done, Cache Creek would have been closed this year due to extreme damage to the area and the amount of material moved and silt sent down the creek. The area was originally closed down, you will remember, due to silting of the Arkansas River, and so silting is a major concern to keeping the area open. While we are not sending silt into the Arkansas, it is sent to a beaver pond and over the dam into the conservation area below. We are confident the new regulations will give us many more years of safe use, but we NEED the cooperation of everyone to keep the area open.

I have a few links for you to follow. The first is to an animated film on youtube about an Alaskan prospector and is appropriate for our Halloween holiday coming up soon. It is about 8 minutes long http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYqtDqE69no
Another is an article about bacteria that could be an explanation for some gold deposits. It also could allow gold to be grown in a lab and lead to new technology for finding gold http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/esrf-bhf100709.php
And now Oregon wants to be like California. They are now looking to ban recreational prospecting there, too. Read: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/ap/kulongoski-wants-to-head-off-calif-gold-miners-64391782.html

(Links to our affiliates. Good deals, and GREAT folks)
You can find Panning Kits
Monthly Prospecting Equipment Specials
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now CLOSED TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until MARCH 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Prospecting Point Bar for Gold Gets Dicy


This is the sand bar west of the pit that we think is part of the Colorado State Recreation land

For those of you who have prospected and found gold at Point Bar in years past, you are aware that a large amount of area has remained open to the public for prospecting. This has been by design, and GPOC has tried to help in the BLM efforts to keep this area open for all.


This summer, all the open area was claimed by a person from Texas and is now closed to the public for prospecting. This does NOT include the pit and the access to the river from the pit. That area is State Land and is not claimable. However, this person did claim the State Land in error. There are 4/40 acre claims that have been filed from the bottom of Woody's claims to below the GPOC claim at Badger Creek. This is not something that can be unfiled or disallowed.



GPOC has refrained from claiming all of this area so that it could remain open for public prospecting. However, since the area was not removed from locatable mineral entry, the claims are valid and the public will have to stay off these claims in the future. The claimant should be putting up markers with the names 'Colorado Dream', 'Arkansas Gold Dream', 'Arkansas Dream Claim' and 'Ginger Girl'. Sorry folks. Your fun is over. Stick to the pit and the river access to it so you stay out of trouble. The site will be updated later this month with this info. All for now. More on other areas and information later this week.



Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley

http://www.hookedongold.com/

hookedongold@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Point Bar and Other Updates on Gold in Colorado

BLM Volunteer Day at Cache Ck. 9-26-09


Coyote holes and diggings too close to trees were filled in by volunteers.

More of the crew, here. Signs were posted concerning the power line pole easements and a boundary established with a branch with sign attached. This boundary is NOT arbitrary. It is established by the power line owner and Colorado State Law.

Summer has definitely ended here in Colorado. For those of you who regularly look for the blog, I applogize for not updating it lately enough for you. My only defense is the amount of work that has been going on with Cache Creek, Point Bar and the Denver Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show. Those items coupled with closing our summer camp and getting things back up and running in the winter quarters has left me with little time to update the blog.

First up is to inform you that the Newsletter will be brought back this Fall, if not this Friday then next Friday. For anyone who does not remember it, I post it on Friday evening after all the markets have closed so you have up to date info on gold prices for the weekend.

Next, I will be bringing you new information about Point Bar Recreational Area near Salida, Colorado, and you will find out more about what changes may be in store for Cache Creek for next gold season. In the mean time, there is plenty to catch up on about what has been going on in the past month, so look forward to several posts this week and next concerning all the changes and news about gold, finding gold, and some of your favorite places to play in.

I found an interesting article today about gold nuggets and nugget shooting. You can read it at http://salars.net/treasure/nugget-shooting . More info in the next few days.

Good Prospecting to You,
www.hookedongold.com
hookedongold@gmail.com

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Snow in the Gold Country of Colorado


Mt. Antero on Tuesday. Doesn't look any better today.
Temps in the upper 40's. BRRRR!


More Panning Gold From Tin Pan Prospecting

Took a couple of friends to Tin Pan for a day of just gold panning and this is what we got. Thought you'd like to see it. There's about half a gram, there, in the pan.

For those of you on my case about blog posts, This blog's for you. :>D Denver Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show was a bit slow for wholesalers, but retailers saw a lot of traffic all days. Gold Prospectors of Colorado had their gold panning troughs out all three days, and of course they were very busy. The display cases had some awesome items in them, including one that had some very nice blue colored aquamarine from the Mt. Antero area. Most of you know I spent my time with T.L.E. International selling Emeralds.

After the show, we took up where we left off with the BLM and Cache Creek. GPOC will have volunteers up there this Saturday to do some cleanup and tree removal. The trees are already down and ready to be moved, and they will be knocking down coyote holes and general cleanup. The Beaver pond will get mucked out next Tuesday and an additional pond put in above the exsisting beaver pond to try and catch sediment before it enters the beaver pond. The sediment removed from the pond will NOT be available for prospecting and an effort will be made to spread it out to begin our long term reseeding effort.

We are also engaged in talks with BLM to modify the area's use regulations for next year, and there will be many changes. Everyone needs to remember that this area was developed originally as a wildlife refuge, and mining a small part of this area is a secondary concern.

To protect the wildlife aspect of the area, mining usage will need to be restricted further to prevent destruction of the downstream areas. Sluicing and panning will be restricted next year to a reasonable time limit, as there were many with sluice boxes who came into the area and stayed all season. Some are still there. This amount of use was never intended for this area. It was intended for casual, recreational, vacation time use and not to be mined as one would mine their own claim.

Should an individual or group want to do this level of work, they should be filing their own claim and dealing with the bonding issues connected with that claim, and not be doing this level of work on public land. Altercations with individuals concerning water usage and regulations was a big problem for hosts this year, and the new regulations will insure that these problems are kept to a minimum next year.

You will be required to fill out a short form to be placed in a collection box, like is used for fee for use parking areas, but there will be no fee. Collection of this information is to ensure that individuals are not in the area past their bonding permits or their number of allowed usage days.

Information on the area will be consolidated and all forms, website and kiosk will be in sync to minimize confusion. Highbanking permits will remain as they were this season, but without the extension. There were very few extensions asked for, and there were many highbankers who stayed in the area far past their permits plus any extensions they would have had. The elimination of the extension will help in tracking how many days a highbanker has been set up. (Leaving your highbanker set up is counted as a days work, whether you work or not).

Weather is too cold here today to get out much, and so, those of you who are blog starved get a treat. The fourteeners are covered in snow and the sky is cloudy. This weekend promises to be much better, and our last week in B.V. this season should end on a pleasant note. Hopefully, all of you had a successful prospecting season.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Gold Panning at Cache Creek

The high country is really starting to put on a wonderful show. We got some very nice pictures of the turning leaves this past Friday while we walked around Cache Creek with Gayle Gresham and her husband John.
Gayle is writing a piece about one of her relatives and 'rustling' which should be interesting, and we certainly will be looking forward to reading it when it is finished. She has several generations of miners in her 'tree', and her G.G.Granddad happened to be working at Cache Creek while they were mining the area early on. She has been to the area several times, but never up around where they had stopped the mining, so we offered to give her a tour and teach her how to pan for gold like her ancestors did.


She was a quick study and proved that gold mining is in her blood. She picked up the swishing motion to separate the black sand from the gold at the end of the process really well, and with a little practice, we are sure she will be using that gold pan as well as the rest of us.
That was what she found in her very first spade full of dirt from Cache Creek. 4 small pieces of gold, and not bad if we do say so ourselves! We panned the day away along with a home schooled group from Colorado Springs who were on a field trip with their kids. Gayle spent a few minutes with them to give them some of the history of the area and to share a couple of stories about her grandfathers. (More on them later) :>D

We spent a very pleasant day with everyone on Friday...that is until we all decided the smoke from the "camp fire" wasn't a "campfire" but had become something much bigger. We have since heard from the Chafee County Fire Dept. that it did look like it began as a camp fire, so everyone needs to be very aware of the danger of fire out there concerning your camp fires.

Gayle runs a blog on the history of her family, which includes mining, that you can see here at http://www.coloradoreflections.blogspot.com/ , and I must say it has some very interesting information on it.

I have two more posts to get in before next week. As most of you know, this weekend is the Denver Gem, Mineral and Fossil show at the Merchandise Mart along with several other hotels and, we hear, some goings on at the Coliseum. That means I will be spending 10 hour days in the emerald booth with my friend Pedro from Colombia. Come out and see some of the most amazing rocks, gems, and fossils this side of the Tucson Show. Stop by the panning troughs set up each year by the Gold Prospectors of Colorado in the N.E. corner of the Merchandise Mart.

Lots more mining to do yet this year, so get out there and find some gold!

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau




Saturday, September 12, 2009

Gold Prospecting in the Mountains of Colorado




Yup, that's a forest fire starting up. at Cache Creek Sept. 11th, '09

Are you looking for mining equipment at good prices on hand tools and accessories? How about some gold concentrates to have on hand for indoor panning? Find what you are looking for and monthly specials on mining equipment, too.

A great big "HOWDY" to all of you today. My posts seem to get farther and farther apart, but rest assured, I haven't forgotten you. Every time I log in I cannot believe how long it has been since the last post. We ARE having FUN, however, and time is flying by. :>D

Since my last post, we have visited Tin Pan several times with friends, dredged a bit on the river, collected Apache Tears and Garnets on Ruby Mt., met people at Cache Ck for gold panning lessons and walk throughs, met with BLM twice on site, and had a forest fire crop up above the work area on the Cache Ck. open area. Yes, it has been a busy couple of weeks!

Aspen trees have started to turn yellow, gold and red, and each day, now, we find many more have followed suit. If we don't get too much early snow higher, we could be in for some really nice viewing this year. Beetle kill continues to advance at an alarming rate, though, and you will find many more forests with grey, needle less pine trees next year.

Denver Gem, Fossil and Mineral Show will be Sept. 18th through 20th, so put that on your calendar and go spend a day there if you are in the area. GPOC will have their gold panning troughs out for the public to pan from, too.

I came across an interesting piece this past week by miningweekly on the rise in gold prices I thought you might like to read. There was also an article on Gold Rush Days in Sacramento, Ca. that was a lot of fun.

Well, that's about it for today. I have a lot of information to get onsite and will begin to work on that next month. In the mean time....

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/
hookedongold@gmail.com
http://www.hookedongoldprospecting.ning.com/ a prospecting community/forum

Monday, August 31, 2009

Review of Tin Pan Prospecting in Fairplay

We had the opportunity to stop in at Tin Pan Prospector/Outfitter, the new panning/prospecting pay for use area located west of the highway 285 bridge, just south of the light, in Fairplay this weekend. The operator, Chad, was informative, pleasant, and really knew his stuff.


We tried out the panning ‘tub’ and were surprised at the amount and size of the gold we found. Panning is 10 bucks a day per person, and from what we saw, it is one of the best values around that we have seen lately, as you can see above.
That's your host, Chad. Great guy!

Tin Pan Prospecting is located south of the light at Fairplay on highway 285 on the west side of the bridge that crosses over the South Platte River.


Gravel is brought in from off the property, for panning, so we decided to try out the highbanking area for a couple of hours. We had two shoveling and one classifying, and came away with roughly a gram of gold for our efforts, which we all thought was a pretty good deal.


Most of the gold was nice sized flakes right out of the moraine bank, and Chad told us we had brought back more than what had been showing in that area. He proceeded to take material from our bank back to the panning area. Highbanking runs around $30.00 a day with your own equipment, and there is equipment for rent on site starting at $30.00, too. Sluicing, dredging, and metal detecting are available, but dredging is closed on the river for this season.



This pan shows what we got out of the $25.00 can o dirt. They also carry $10, $15 and $50 cans.

Chad tells us that the company will be adding several new properties next year to those already available to prospectors. You can even purchase a season pass that gives you access to all the properties. They will be looking at the possibility offering weekly or monthly rates next year. For the money, it looks to me like this is a good deal, and you will have access to patented and private property claims. We were impressed with the areas they are looking at having available for next years’ season. I know where we will be spending more of our own prospecting season next year. Heck, I know where we will be spending some of THIS years’ season that is left to us. LOL!

Their website is located at http://www.coloradogoldprospecting.com/ , but the prices quoted there are higher than they are presently charging. Chad says he will be open daily until after Labor Day weekend, and then you will need to call during the week to use the property. He will stay open to the public on weekends until the season winds down and snow is falling.

So, what do I think? I liked the atmosphere, the property, how it was managed and most of all the gold. Pictures prove my point. I also purchased one of the $25.00 cans o dirt and weighed out ½ a gram (7.5 grains) of nice sized flake.
Looks good in the pan above, doesn’t it? Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will find that much, but at least you can see what I got. They offer $10.00, $15.00, $25.00 and $50.00 cans o dirt, but they are out of the 10 and 15 dollars cans right now. Nice gift idea for that prospector you know for Christmas or a drawing at a club meeting.

If you are looking for a good place to spend some time panning, this is one to try out and lessons are included with the price. If you are looking for where you want to play in the dirt next year, consider Tin Pan Prospecting's season pass. Remeber, you will have access to all their properties for the season. Good people to work with, and a lot of really good gold. They also work with groups and offer a variety of outfitter prospecting experiences, including BBQ and camping arrangements. Stop by their spot just south of the light in Fairplay on highway 285. You won’t be sorry!



























































Thursday, August 13, 2009

Gold Prospecting and Golden Yellow Leaves

We came back to B.V. from spending 6 days at home, to beautiful azure blue skies, whispy clouds and high 70's temps......this is August. August, when temps should be in the mid 80's and we should be needing the fan on all night long and still sweat.

Prospecting for gold has been hit and miss all summer, what with hosting Cache Creek more than we intended, and having major problems crop up there, too. However, we still have, what, 6 weeks to find gold. I think we have had time to pick up a whole 4 grams of placer gold and under half an ounce metal detecting. We are hopeful the rest of the season will be better gold wise. :>D

Trees are turning yellow already, and frost has been around each night above 9,000 ft. Looks like fall is coming in early, but fall is my favorite time of year. Warm days and cool nights. AND no work to go to each day. AAHHHH!

We took a trip yesterday east of Salida to try and find a peridot field we could hunt. No luck in finding the field, but the weather was wonderful, and we saw country we had never seen before. Placid ranches with lush grass and fat cows. What hasn't gotten frosted and turned yellow is still green like it was spring. Trees looks well watered, and perhaps they can begin to resist the pine beetle that is decimating the forests in Colorado.

Circumstances at Cache Creek have quieted down and things seem to running more smoothly than in July. The place looks like it has been bombed out and holes are really big. The parking lot is still full every day and there are large groups who come in on the weekends. Plan accordingly if you are coming there. Good luck to you in your search for gold, and may you find enough gold to make your experience worth all your effort. I know finding gold is only one of the aspects of prospecting for gold. Having the opportunity to be in the out of doors with a purpose, or not, is certainly worth getting up in the morning for. I hope you feel the same way. :>D

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
www.hookedongold.com

Thursday, August 06, 2009

'09 Colorado State Gold Panning Championships


Colorado State Gold Panning Championships '09

Yes, that's the 'get up' I wear to 'official' events. I think I'll post it on FB, too! :>D

Colorado State Gold Panning Championships in Breckenridge last weekend were hectic, but we were able to get through everything before close on Sunday.

Rain (and snow above 11,000 feet) greeted us on Friday morning and made it difficult to get started on time. Junior events had to be postponed until later in the weekend so that Old Timers and National Style could get completed on Friday.

Saturday morning we found ice on the truck windshield, but clear skies and sunshine at breakfast time. We squeezed one of the Jrs. events in the morning, and had a very full field of teams, women's and men's events, which left us with no time to finish men's on Saturday. Sunshine abounded, though, and everyone was in good spirits with good competition and camaraderie. Cleaning enough sand became a problem with equipment that kept breaking down, which also slowed everything down. Fortunately, we had a back up system that could be run to help get the sand cleaned of gold for competition.

Sunday morning also was sunny but without ice on the windshield, and we started the day squeezing in the last Jrs. competition and then finishing men's before moving on to State in the afternoon. There were 25 competitors signed up and I dropped to judge so we could run dry and speed simultaneously, which helps to speed things along. This gave us just enough time afterward to run World's Dry before we had to begin tearing everything down to go home.

This had to be one of the toughest years to get everything in with rain, equipment, and the large number of competitors, but everyone had a great time and most of the weather was very good. More pictures will get posted in the next week as I get them resized, as well as announcements of the winners, hopefully tomorrow as I go through and find them all. We have video to post as well, as soon as Larry gets it put together. Have you ever seen anyone pan for gold blindfolded? Well, we did a panoff blindfolded. It was really something to see! Lots of fun. Had to have two competitors that were evenly matched to do it, and they both did a good job.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley
http://www.hookedongold.com/