Before winter claim trip Options

[johnnybravo300]

We have the car packed up and making a trip to the claim again tomorrow. I really don't know how much time we will get there before it snows.
We have about 8 more buckets we can fill for a boring winter day later on....never know where the next corn flake may be hiding! I'd like to run some material too so I'll post if there's anything good.
I've been working in that area all week and I can feel the claim calling me. It's been torture I tell ya!
I have an idea for the biggest hole yet. The area we plugged up for the dredge earlier this summer has been over flowing for months onto the area I first opened up and it's soggy and saturated now. I might try to divert the creek on around further to dry it up and take advantage of that to open a huge hole right across the main channel. Seems like a decent plan and I was getting good gold there before anyway. Whoohoo!

[johnnybravo300]

I dropped my wife, son, and daughter-in-law off at DIA yesterday to fly to South Africa to visit family so I'm on my own for a few weeks with the dogs cats and chickens keeping me company...the best kind of company sometimes!
Im heading back to the claim tomorrow to work on the new diversion and fill more buckets to bring home. After this I'll have almost 40 gallons here for the winter to keep my gold withdraws at bay hehe. I'll probably run a few buckets while I'm there if I get time but I have alot to do so who knows.
I picked up a new shovel a month or so ago and can't say enough about it. I'd recommend it to anyone that digs in deep murky water and is tired of pulling the shovel up only to see most of the material washed off. Really irks me so I got this and it's made my life much easier! The guy is a miner in Cali and hand builds them for these conditions. His website is betterbasicsmining and he has a few models. I went with the Ace model. It has the long t handle. They are very well constructed with nice welds and very stiff.
He has a number to text and reach him and he was great to deal with. I wish I would have had this shovel long ago!
I don't try to advertise for anyone but with tools out there like this I like to share if it helps someone out. Personally id rather scoop 20 times than 50 for the same amount hehe.
This new hole should be big enough for quite a few guys to work in if it works out that way, maybe 5 or 6 guys. Theres a big rock layer knee deep or so that I've gotten nice chunkers from and I'd like to access it all eventually as well as get deeper.
Our area here at home is pretty snow covered so my sep nod and pet wood hunting days are coming to a close.