I’m in Reno at the Northwest Mining Association annual meeting. I had to stop hunting ducks in Colorado because I finally landed a job, (though chukars are not safe now in northeastern Nevada) and had this meeting lined up beforehand. We left our house and animals in the hands of some drunk Indians from Montana [...]
When a geologist goes hunting, they know the age and name of the granite they’re walking on. They notice the degree of exfoliation and imagine the regional stress regime in their mind’s eye. They walk into and out of planes of fracture sets. When a geologist goes hunting they wear steel-toed company boots paid for [...]
It’s that time of year again: The Victor Penguin Hockey Club (a loosely organized community ice rink and hockey team for the local kids in the mining town of Victor, Colorado) is looking for volunteers to fix up their circle of boards and hang irrigation netting for shade before they begin to flood the home-made [...]
These are river ducks. They don’t come this way. You have to shoot them off the river, then clean them, which means sitting on the train tracks in the morning sun plucking and letting the wind blow the feathers away. That’s what I did on my birthday. I have been out of work for so [...]
Today, I am freezing my ars off in my office because Scrooge is too cheap to put an extra coal on the fire. A client blew me off. That’s OK because his scheduled visit forced me out of my hovel in the mountains where I have been hiding from reality since I ran out of [...]
Excited goldfish
I’ve noticed at mines all over the world that most animals love to eat a flour tortilla. Dogs, cats, horses, pigs, chickens, goldfish, mice, javelinas, crows – I’ve seen them all eat flour tortillas and rice as well. Most of these animals, including goldfish, will also eat kernels of cooked corn. What I don’t understand [...]
It occurred to me when I was younger that my life was already a blur if I examined it in detail. In retrospect, that was because I had a rocket strapped to my butt – fast forward into motion. Since then, I have landed in the sea of life like flotsam and jetsam. I dog [...]
For lack of inertia in addressing the anti-mining minions who swamp my blog and inbox with contrite hysterical whining, I am going to start putting my personal collection of Belinda Smegler recipes on my blog. These are real recipes collected from a variety of mines all over the world. Belinda is a real woman I met whose [...]
So, sometimes though every freaking thing is looking bleak in our mining industry, I can usually find another perspective and force a better point of view, alter my attitude, yank the yoke and plod on in a forward motion. Today is not one of those days.
At least at the Denver Mining Club I can sit [...]
There is an article in the Flume newspaper (South Park , Colorado) suggesting a newly proposed mining venture might be as calamitous as Summitville (sigh… Summitville again? Is anyone interested in modern mining?) Is this guy going to set up a hydraulic hose and wash Fairplay with all its stray dogs and small children into [...]
