Out and about

It has finally cooled off a little down here so Phillip and I decided to head up in the hills and try our luck at panning. The river up here is nothing but a trickle this time of year. We did see a few holes that had enough water in them to pan but were too late as it seems that every body and his cat and dog were camped up there and panning. We cruised around a bit and couldn't find a good spot. Oh well, seems like everyone else has the same idea about getting rich panning for gold. Phillip said he might as well look around the old camp sites with the locater. Found nothing but trash, and a couple of pennies and a nickle. Not old ones either. Had a nice time out and got fresh air and did some walking around. Had lunch under some pinon pines. Soon as it cools off a bit more we might have better luck down on the desert with the locaters. Maybe take water and pan the one place down but the Buckshot mine. We did pretty good there before. That was before the last time we went there last fall and some oldtimer was camped right where we set up to pan the dirt screened out of the wash. Only shady spot around to set up. He wasn't working in the wash we liked but he was drywashing an old wash where the tailings from a prospect had been dumped. Don't know how good he was doing but when Phillip and I sampled that wash it was poor in colors.
Last wed. we decided to go arrowhead hunting up in Walnut creek. It is up in Williamson Valley on the old backroad to Seligman, AZ. That's up north from here. We have done good up there looking for arrowheads. I only found a broken one and a broken drill. Believe it or not but Phillip got skunked. We did stop and pick up and husk about 5 pounds of walnuts. Phillip has been cracking them and so far has about 1 cup cracked. These black walnuts are hard as hell to crack and get the meats out of but they taste so good in fudge and cookies. He still has more than half left to crack. We hit them just at the right time this year. Most of the time we get back here from up north too late and the pigs and other critters have gotten most of them. We have gotten them before but a lot of times it has rained and then the darn things are too hard to husk with out getting your hands dyed a semi permanent brown. It's weird how the husks smell a lot like cinnamon.
The pinon pines didn't have a good set this year around here anyway so we haven't gathered any pine nuts this year yet. Some times that happens. We haven't been down Waggoner way yet so there may be some trees down there that have cones on them.
The pigs got the sweet potatoes. They rooted down about 2 feet to make sure they got every tuber. The damn things. Got to get a higher fence for the garden and plant every thing inside the fence if we ever plan to get sweet potatoes.
Well time for bed,......Granny