Saw Fest and A Clicking Counter

Today marks the 4th month that we have been on our trip. Four months. Funny how in some ways the time is flying by so quickly while in other ways, like missing children and grandchildren, it feels like we have been gone a long time. Four months of fabulous scenery, new experiences, and nice people. 

I am also nearing the 10,000 mark on the blog counter. I never dreamed of having that many page views in these few months. Thank you to all who have been reading and I hope you have enjoyed our trip so far. And an extra big thanks to the readers who have taken the time to leave a comment. They mean so much to me.  Whoever turns the counter to 10,000, please drop me a line. I would love to know who you are.

Saw Fest 2010 – these chainsaw carvers are ridiculous!    How is that for a picnic table?      They are so talented to be able to carve these works of art with just a chainsaw.      They are beautiful. We had fun just putzing around.                             Since Tommy was eaten by a bear, I found Mr. Moose quite attractive to escort me around Saw Fest 2010.          

Ax throwing demonstrations and lessons were being given. Fun to watch. Hard to do.

Speaking of lessons, I wanted another lesson in gold panning before we try our hand at it again in the next few weeks. It looks so easy but there really is a technique to it.  This is a sluice box and would it ever be nice to have this out on a river. This will help you sort quickly through much more dirt than panning alone. The idea is to run water over new dirt you put on the box. The water will wash away the dirt and leave the gold on the ridges of the box since gold is 18 times heavier than water. After you use the sluice box, any gold that you missed seeing and that was washed down in the openings of the box will be collected in a sponge to cloth to be panned later.   I realized today, after much help from the instructor, that I was not doing it right before. I was throwing the “good” dirt away. I thought by the time I got to the bottom of my pan and only a small amount of dirt was left, that pan was done. I thought  I would see any flakes of gold by then and threw that dirt out. Wrong!  That is when you have to pay even closer attention and go slower because it takes such a small amount of sand or dirt to cover the gold. Didn’t get much gold today but got experience.