Gold and Winter Solstice

Gold's down this afternoon below $839.

Winter solstice has come and gone, and that means our days are getting longer. What does that have to do with finding gold? Well, that means summer is closer and we can get back to the mountains and get wet and dirty, and do some gold panning, highbanking,dredging and metal detecting in our favorite gold bearing areas.

It also means Christmas is close at hand and we at hookedongold are looking forward to having some much needed time with friends and family this weekend. We hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season and wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! We will be hearing from our youngest son tomorrow who is in the Philippines, and my Mother is visiting for the Holidays. Chrtismas Day will find us spending time with relatives we have not seen in a while, and visiting with friends. Our Holidays are as busy as our prospecting season! Hopefully your is, too.

You can follow me this next year on facebook and twitter, and I'll get some links up for those so you can find me easier after the holidays are over. I have several new gadgets I will be trying out onsite early next year, so watch for some gadgets you can use to give us some feedback. If they work, we should be able to have some fun with them.

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley Weilnau

Gold is Down

ARASTRA near Alma, Colorado




Gold is taking a nose dive this morning along with the stock market. I haven't watched silver for a while, but I see it is also down at around $11.27, while gold is bouncing around $645. Everyone is saying the "Fed" should have given interest rates a nudge downward on the last meeting, and that stocks are reacting to the "misstep". I am sure gold prospecting, dredging, panning, and highbanking are going on somewhere while I am at home doing laundry and cleaning house. Believe me, I would rather have a #2 shovel in my hand than a vacuum cleaner! Climbing mountains looking for gold and gemstones is much more interesting that climbing stairs and putting away clothes and sheets. Painting is up there with mountain climbing, but only when I can't get away. We are looking forward to Labor Day week when we have our last big week of prospecting for this year, and must, once again, be content with weekend excursions to nearby places. GPOC has an outing planned for the weekend of Aug. 25th at Prospector #3. Don't know if we will make that as our last week will begin the next weekend and diesel and gas probably should be saved for that. You never know, though. We might decide at the last minute to skeedaddle. GPR has a demo this weekend at the Golden History Museum during the Arts Festival. Lots still going on, but I need a nap! LOL! Have fun out there finding gold.

Gold Panning Championships

Colorado State Gold Panning Champions: Center 1st place - Sue Drewes, Right 2nd place - Isaac Beaty, Left 3rd place - Patricia Vesterby.



Ah, home and rest! What a week. The Colorado State Gold Panning Championships went very well, with many new contestants, and many new winners. We had people from all over the U.S., and a great time was had by all. Many thanks to Breckenridge for being so generous in their efforts to make the championships happen each year the first weekend in August.

After the championships were over, we headed for camp and four days of semi rest and prospecting. We met up with friends from Oklahoma and spent several days dredging and prospecting. A very nice restful and enjoyable week. We did not have our grandsons this week, as we usually do, as the oldest one starts high school and had to be back home to register the 9th. We sure did miss them!!!!! The baby is now 5 months old, and after two days of wearing a GPOC tie, he actually tried to put it on over his head when we gave it to him. Adorable! Except for the projectile vomiting he produced the last morning we were in Breckenridge, he took to the outdoors and all the people like a duck to water.

Buena Vista's Gold Rush Days were very nice, with the GPOC troughs filled both days until the wind came up of Sunday afternoon so hard we were chasing t-shirts, and fliers, and magazines. Needless to say, we shut down about an hour early when it didn't stop. We were on the edge of a pretty big thundercloud to the south of us, that produced all the wind. The Cotin Tail gem and mineral show at the fairgrounds was well attended, but many complained that there was too much jewelry, petrified wood, rough for cutting, and not enough specimen material. We bought aquamarine, petrified dinosaur bone, and pieces that are formed when lightening hits sand. There is some very exciting news about one of the big claim owners on Mt. Antero who is looking to open an area of his claim for public searching. Hooked on Gold will be involved with this in a minor capacity and we will let you know about what is happening this next year. That should wrap up the report on this past week. Catch yo in the funny papers later.

P.S. There is scuttle in the markets that the selling of gold by some countries to deflate the price of gold is about to end. Watch for gold to spike when that happens.

Gold Question for April 18, 2007.

WOW! Gold has been jumping around this past week going up over $692 and then falling back to around $682. Right now, gold is back on the uptick, so watch for it to go to $700(?) soon.
The gold question for this week was not a question, but a link to some interesting information that is effecting prospecting and small mining now. We first found our about this issue last year when a friend who owns a claim found he had to comply with water quality issues when discharging dredge water into the river. http://hookedongold.com/catalog244888.html will take you to the gold and panning sand page where you will find this lovely pendant and it's description.

Hooked On Gold's QUESTION OF THE WEEK: April 18, 2007.

Something different this week. Follow this link for some information on what is going on with water quality issues and small mining. We are dealing with this in Colorado as well, so be prepared for your local water boards to get involved with small mining.

www.waterboards.ca.gov/cwa401/docs/wrapp/publicnotice040907.pdf



ANSWER: No answer this week, just information you should see

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