GOLD!! GOLD!! GOLD!!! GOLD!!

MY FIRST (& only) HIGHBANKER: MADE FROM OLD STREET SIGNS, GUTTERS, FLOWER PLANTER & BED FRAME - HIGHBANKER

2004: Taken up in the Sierra Foothills above Jackson, CA, and just before I cought one of the worst cases of poison oak I've ever experienced.

ROAD SIGNS & GUTTERS: Sections were made by hand bending old road signs. Riffles were made from angle iron or by cutting gutter sections lengthwise and welding them to steel flat stock.

HOLLYWOOD BED FRAME: Adjustable legs are seen upside down here. When installed for setup they are secured with modified Hollywood bed frame brackets and homemade thumbscrews made from hex head bolts hammering out the heads of the bolts.

MOTHERLOAD: When I'm not thinking about prospecting while back at our home in Soquel, CA, I'm up digging and panning for gold in the Sierra Foothills. Some day I hope we can afford a nice big piece of land up there, where the wild turkeys roam and the only sounds you hear is the wind in the trees and the trickleing creek.

LONG TOM: Made from 5 - 40"x20" sections of 18 guage galvanized steel.

STEEL LONG TOM: When bolted together they make a 16 foot long tom.

HEAVY DUTY: At about 15-17 lbs per section, this 75 to 85 pound long tom is not something you would want to have to pack in to a remote location.

RIFFLES: Riffles are different in each section of the Long Tom and are welded directly to the expanded wire mesh.

MEASUREMENTS: Sections are 40" long, with 4 1/2 sides and a trough width of 11", tapering slightly from one end to the other to allow the end of one section to slide into the next.

BLACK MAT: Black mat has been glued to each section of the long tom in different configurations as well.

RIFFLES: Riffles in this, the first section, are straight with a 90 degree 1/4 inch lip and slanted at about 25 degrees. On average, riffles are placed approximately 7-8 inches apart.

RIFFLES: Riffles are different in each section of the Long Tom and are welded directly to the expanded wire mesh.

OUR POND: There is also a fine moss which grows during the summer, mostly in the shallows where it gets warm. It's slimy to touch, but dries to a fine filter-like consistancy.

MINER'S MOSS: An endless source, the water milfoil plant often chokes the pond and needs to be thinned from time to time.

MINER'S MOSS: In place of 3M matting for miner's moss I harvest something that grows in our back yard pond. I think it's myriophyllum elatinoides, AKA: (Water milfoil, Christmas Tree Plant).

WATER MILFOIL: Hanging like pelts in a trapper's lodge, but in this case in our old chicken house (lion got the last of our birds, but that's another story), the feathery plants dry while awaiting the creeks to rise with the first winter rains. When it comes time for clean-up I simply allow the "moss" to dry in the sun. It becomes brittle and can also be reduced to ash if lit on fire.

  



WHILE MY FRIEND ED SUPERVISED THE BULLDOZER CUTTING THE NEW ROAD DOWN TO HIS CABIN, HE TOLD
ME TO TAKE A NAP IN THAT TENT ONLY AN HOUR BEFORE THE ROOT BALL, DISLODGED BY THE DOZER, CAME
CRASHING DOWN THE HILL TO FLATTEN THE TENT AND THE COT INSIDE. GOLD FEAVER HAD CALLED TO ME A
BIT EARLIER SO I WAS 75 FEET UP THE CREEK SHOVELING DIRT INTO MY SLUICE. SURE GLAD I'M NOT A DAY
NAPPER.
 

  
 

I DESIGNED THIS SLUICE SO THAT IT COULD BE CONVERTED INTO A TRI-LEVEL WASHER. IT WORKS WELL.

  

I USED ANGLE IRON TO FABRICATE ADJUSTABLE LEGS WITH FABRICATED THUMB SCREWS THAT I POUNDED FROM HEX BOLTS. I ANGLED THE LEGS OUTWARD FOR GREATER STABILITY.

  

  THE WHOLE THING IS MADE FROM OLD HEAVY GUAGE ALUMINUM TRAFFIC SIGNS MY FRIEND ED GAVE ME. I CLAMPT THEM TO MY WELDING TABLE AND BEAT THE SNOT OUT OF THEM TO FORM A RIGHT ANGLE.  
 
  

I CUT FLAT STOCK WHICH I WELDED TO FORM RIFFLES.

  

I USED PVC FOR MY WASHER AND CUT THE BOTTOM OF A SQUARE PLANTER FOR THE RECEIVING BOX.

  


USING PLASTIC GARBAGE CANS, LARGE PVC PIPE AND PLUMBERS PUTTY, I CONSTRUCTED A THREE TIER TAILING SYSTEM SO THE WATER PUMPED BACK TO THE RECEIVING BOX WAS AS CLEAR OF SILT AS POSSIBLE.
 
  


AND THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

  

AND THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

  

AND THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

  

I WORKED THE BASE OF THIS LITTLE TREE FOR A MONTH.

  

FOR SOME REASON, I CAN DIG ALL DAY AND NOT GET TIRED OF IT.

  

I GUESS IT'S ALL ABOUT WHAT THEY CALL, "THE FEVER". 

My son Austin, wife Karen and me. As we waited for the skys over Marina, CA to clear so that we could all go skydiving on Austin's 21st birthday. The jump finally came over the winter holidays over the north shore in Hawaii. Remember For every medal or ribbon I, or any servicemember, has ever been awarded during their military career, an equal or greater award is due those left behind to manage the homefront. When just one member of the Armed Forces, be they Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Army or Marine, "ship out", you can be assured there is an army of support holding down the fort at home, in America. NEVER FORGET		Austin, who is currently a member of the Bio Medical Research Team at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, enjoys the outdoors just as much if not more than the average kid from California Curse of the SC half-pipeAnd, while he would be the first to admit that he may not be the most adept skateboarder in the state, he does try. Austin tried twice for his chance to bail out of a perfectly good aircraft at high altitude. Here he finally jumps from 14K ft over the North Shore of Oahu When his first jump attempt failed due to weather, he found solace in a shark dive off the North Shore of Oahu. You would think with a middle name of Saylor that Austin was sailing the seas at a young age. Truth is he didn't become interested until his late teens. Again, North Shore Oahu I guess if you were to ask him what his first love in sports was, he'd reply surfing. Like a fish to water, Austin has allowed himself to be pummelled by ocean waves time and time again only to bring about a large smile on his face. Here is Austin and his friend with a gun in Jamaica. It's good to have a friend with a gun in Jamaica. His grandparents have resided in Hawaii for more than three decades. A good excuse to visit the Islands from time to time. Here he is panning for gold in the Sierras just outside Sutter Creek, part of the "Mother Load", where they say gold was first discovered, setting off the great American Gold Rush in 1849.		Whether he's surfing or sailing, skydiving or sharkdiving, on the beaches of Waikiki or Jamaica or just hanging with his ol' dad pan'n for gold, he's my son and I'm very proud of him.

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