Tumco Mine

We went for a hike out at the Tumco Mine.  We haven't been out there in years.  It's an old mine on the California side that produced quite a bit of gold.  They had to use cyanide to get it out of the rock because it was fairly fine.  You can still see the areas they used to wash it and where the waste ran on the ground.  The hole that was dug was impressive since most of it was dug back in the very early 1900's.  The piles of tailings were also impressive and looked like they made new mountains.  You could see where an old well had been but they also piped water out of the Colorado River which is not too far from the mine site but still also quite a feat.  There is one active gold mine in this area and it is a huge operation.  The rest of the area is full of small claims with gold miners like us just working small areas trying to find a small bit of gold.

The weather is finally getting warmer again back in the 70's and 50's at night.  The only bad thing is it rained again.  It has been the wettest winter we've seen.  It has rained at least once every three weeks just enough to keep the dirt too wet to run through our drywasher.  So no gold prospecting for us this winter.  

It's Yuma

It rained again here in Yuma which is good for flowers but not for gold prospecting.  I took a picture of a flowering brittle bush.  The bees love the flowers and so do I.  The dark mass in the tree is a mistletoe.  We like the pretty berries for a nice Christmas look but they are a parasite that can kill the tree in which they live. 

I have been asked why we still call the blog fishtales since we got rid of the boat.  We plan to do some fishing along trout streams and whenever else we get the chance.  Our main focus will be gold prospecting.  Its called fishing until you catch something then its called catching.  Gold is kind of the same.  Its called gold prospecting until you find the gold then its called mining.  Now that it rained again just as the dirt was getting dry enough to prospect again there goes prospecting for several more weeks.   We have had a cold blast with temps in the low 60's but the wind was very cold coming out of the north.  It should be warming up from here on out!