Going well so far! Been able to work some claims that are normally under the snow and found some good showings, nice way to start the year for sure.

So far I have only gotten out panning once and realizing my shoulder is not happy with me, oh well, it is nice to get out. I have also found what seems to be a decent small shovel to take on the motorcycle, as most full-size or slightly shorter with the D handle are still awkwardly large for on the bike, since I also found the folding shovels tend to break, or I have broken one. Looking forward to exploring more, be it on 2 or 4 wheels. Maybe even get the motivation to climb up and check out the quartz showing and the adit near my office. (There are no claims there, can't be and can't see anything on mapplace in terms of what the adit was for, but was told it was a gold mine).

I have been out test panning old mine dumps at one of my mineral claims, and found ample free-milling gold, some of it relatively coarse for hard rock, and much of it plainly visible to the naked eye. Plenty more was visible under a 10X loupe. Can't wait to do a 4 bucket test of -20 mesh material! On the placer side, I taught myself welding last year, and this winter I have been fabricating some unconventional heavy duty hand implements for loosening and moving cobbles and pay using principles of mechanical advantage and friction reduction. Essentially, human-powered farm implements to bridge the gap between hand and machine work. Why lift full weight vertically when you can sled materially horizontally for 20% of the effort? A couple of the devices are speculative and might not work, but testing will reveal all. Regardless, it's fun to dream things up and be able to bring them to life via welding.