Making mojito's from our desert garden

Now that the weather is warming up and our yard is finally landscaped, Matt and I have been enjoying our morning coffee in the backyard.
We are surrounded by fresh herbs, sprouting veggies, and as the sun warms up, the sweet scent of jasmine hangs in the air. We are loving our new backyard.
We have the sweetest little hummingbird that loves to investigate what we are doing and play in the sprinklers when they kick on. We also have a hungry chipmunk that managed to get my strawberries and fresh lettuce...

Tomorrow we are having our first BBQ of the season. We are bringing homemade mojito's, fresh from our garden. I'm going to infuse 3 different species of mint and lemon verbena in the simple sugar tonight.... Yesterday I picked up a mint/ginger species so I am excited to give it a try... I was thinking I might even throw in some fresh berries too...

We also have been eating fresh lettuce from our garden when the chipmunk isn't pigging out:) I can't tell you what a difference it makes to eat something fresh from your own garden. The taste is phenomenal!

Gold Show In Las Vegas

Very Proud of our First Gold Show

Matt working hard on his ammo crates

When we got back from the Gold Claim it was total crunch time... I had a short amount of time to get everything ready... I had 80 gold bags to sew and then fill with concentrate... Both of which took much longer than I expected. I was filling gold bags till 1am the night before the show...

 Another fun project was collecting old military bread bags and packs and turning them into something totally functional and cool for use now a days... I am thinking they would make cool emergency bugout bags or they would be great on any campus... Definitely one of a kind item.

I had owls to sew, wood signs to make, and a banner to create...

Sewing. Sewing. Sewing...

 Matt and I both had fun on some of our wood projects. We have been collecting wood from various desert locations... Some of it was from an old brothel on our friends property others were from an old foundation in the middle of nowhere... We did a light sanding on the wood and then  rubbed in a wax and finished it off with a light coat sealant to protect the wood. The ammo crates that Matt restored and turned into booze cabinets are really amazing. He did an awesome job at taking something dilapidated and creating beautiful cabinetry that West Elm would feature...  I'll have to do an entire post just on the process he used to restore these boxes. Many of them are from the 40's and 50's. The bottom of the boxes have a stamp of when and where they were made. It's just amazing theses boxes are 50+ years old and are still in good shape... If only they could tell of the places they have been...

Some of our reclaimed wood.... Love the history!

I spent 5 days working on all of our projects so we could be ready for the big Gold Show.... Overall I think it was a success... We met a lot of great people and had fun! We heard from other vendors this year was a little slow but I think that is just a sign of the times...

Matt's booze cabinet...

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Whooty Owls were a hit!

We definitely were a unique booth at the show. I was the only Poobird there! I wanted it to look like we pulled over our covered wagon and displayed our goods... We had 4 tables to show everything plenty of space... I even had my sewing machine hooked up to our inverter and was able to sew a couple owls in-between  talking to all of our customers. It was such a pleasure to meet so many interesting people and talk about prospecting. It's really the only place that many like minded people are gathered together....  We may even bring a few people out to prospect for the day on the claim...for those of you we spoke to in regards to that, we're still checking into the fine print stuff, etc.  We haven't forgotten about you!

I hope everyone finds a some color from our Paydirt bags...  We worked hard to get the material so I hope they have some good color.. If you're reading this and you are someone that purchased a bag please feel free to leave a comment... We are always interested to hear what you found... We are going to try and make one more trip to the claim before the heat gets unbearable...


Thanks to everyone that stopped by our booth at the Gold Show and thanks GPAA for hosting another successful show.  It was a real pleasure to meet all of you:) Gold luck in all your prospecting adventures:)

Finale Update to our Last Gold Claim Trip

Daily gun maintenance...

So my cell phone was never meant to be taken out in the field... As soon as a spec of dust gets on the thing the SD card reader freaks out and the phone has a meltdown... Definitely not designed for outdoors adventures... So about half way into the Field Notes posts I could no longer turn my phone on and post updates. Sorry this is so belated... Better late than never right:)

Jenn heading down to the office

Our covered wagon...

We managed to cut a path up a hillside through some rugged terrain. Unloaded our heavy generator and in increments of 5 feet or so Matt and I moved the thing to the desired location. From this new spot we are able to move up the wash a ways and try out some beautiful bedrock... The only problem was we were in a major time crunch to get some material. Moving the equipment is a pain in the butt and the Keene 151 dry washer has to be on level ground or you lose material out the back. Of course,  we only figured that out after half a day of Matt having a full on temper tantrum. He was kicking buckets, cursing like he was back in the Marines, hitting things... It's amazing the darn machine is in one piece... I thought for  sure he was going to take the shotgun to it at one point.... Next time I am going to film his little fits for everyone else to enjoy... Very comical:) On our last day he even had a black cloud materialize over him, it definitely resembled his mood.

Matt and his black cloud.... It followed him from the ER

We really didn't have enough time to test out this new area. We only had a day to get material and then we had to pack it in and leave the next day...  I was very nervous we wouldn't get enough gold bearing material for the Gold Show but we managed to get it done... That was some hard earned paydirt.. It kinda sucks to sell it all and not get to pan it out and see that shimmer of gold...

Our faithful Gold Magic Wheel

The prospecting was rough on this trip but as far as a camping trip goes it was beautiful out. The weather was pretty nice except for those wind storms that passed through. We had some beautiful days, filled with spring blooms and lots of wildlife...  A cattle trail passes through our claim to a spring... So there I am pulling down my britches one beautiful morning to use the restroom and as I turn around there are two cowboys on horseback heading over the mountain straight for me... What are the odds of that... It was pretty amazing though to be in the middle of the desert and see the two cowboys appear, trail dogs and all. They were searching for the calf... At that point we hadn't seen her for a couple days and were worried sick it was attacked by the roaming pack of coyotes.... On our last night though Hitch alerted us that the cows were close by and we spotted the little baby with it's herd safe and sound... That was a good sight to see. On our next trip back though we are going on a little night ops mission to keep the roaming pack of coyotes in check...

Our camp Gila Monster.... This guy came cruising through our base camp with Hitch the hound on his tail...

Jenn's first 2 rattlesnakes...

I got to see my first Gila monster. I actually got to see two of them. One was crossing the desert wash and the other found me and went cruising through my campsite. They are really an amazing sight to see. Most of nature has a natural camo but this guy is bright orange and slow moving so he sticks out like a sore thumb against the desert floor. There are only two poisonous lizards in the entire world and this is one of them... Once they bite you they don't let go... I guess the string of warm days we had brought the reptiles out from under there rocks because I also had two rattlesnakes fuss at me. I was letting the dogs out of their covered wagon at the end of the day so they could bounce down the trail to their daddy and Hitch wouldn't go all the way down the trail.  I was standing at the top trying to figure out why he wouldn't leave me and I hear something that sounds like a critter in leaf litter. Only thing is there isn't any leaf litter in the desert... So I stop to see what was making the sound and there was a rattlesnake agitated by my presence. The thing was only 5 feet away from our shower and just off our main trail.... Needless to say we had to deal with them... We shot it with the .22 but it slithered off where we couldn't see it anymore so Matt in true Marine fashion blasted the entire area with the shotgun... The next day we discovered that there were two rattlesnakes, a male and female.  The buzzards had a nice snack that day...

Jenn enjoying our last sunset

new camo job on the water drum... Looking to get some military surplus camo netting next...

Jenn loves her shop vac. She has a method now that involves  a toothbrush. After she gets done with the bedrock it looks like it's been polished...

This is the nipple cactus and it has the prettiest bloom in the desert.... Tiny little thing though

                                                      Choking down the dust!

Our temporary engine for the dry washer....

Field Notes: mechanical meltdown

Jenn sporting her bunny ears and cooking up our Easter feast...

Well the last few days have been riddled with headaches... Feels like the universe is testing our resolve...
Before we left Vegas we had all our equipment serviced to avoid these kind of headaches. Nothing sucks more than wasting your day trying to fiddle stick around with equipment that should be in good working order. The darn thing isn't even really broken only the pull cord is messed up so that shut down our entire dry washing operation... Needless to say we are both a irritated and depressed.
On a more positive note,our claim neighbors are incredibly kind and we all try to help each other out when possible. Thanks to one neighbor loaning us an electric leaf blower we rigged it up to the dry washer and can limp by until our engine gets repaired.  
If mining gold was easy there probably wouldn't be much left. The going has been tough on this trip and I sure hope the sun shines again on us tomorrow!

Anderson's Wolfberry

At least the weather has been beautiful and the desert is blooming. Everyday new flowers are unveiling themselves to us. I even discovered the Anderson wolfberry growing on our claim. This was a staple of the local Indians diet. They look like tiny tomatoes and have a sweet flavor to them. They taste great fresh off the branch but you can also turn them into juice, dry them out like raisin, or cook with them. A delicious sweet treat.


This morning we ran into town for the first day in 6 days out in the desert. After getting another 75 gallons of water we headed to grocery store. We got a real kick out of it when we were walking down the isle and a man wearing a six shooter, spurs, and dusty chaps, asks me where the baby carrots are... The best part, there was a Wells Fargo bank in the grocery store just a few feet away... Gotta love a town where the common vehicle is a dusty off-road rigg and wearing a gun on your hip is more common than not:)

We loaded up on water, oranges, a big ole' Easter ham and some beer... Gonna cook us up an Easter Feast this weekend. 

Griswold Dutch Oven.... Seriously the best thing ever too cook in!

They were selling baby bunnys and chicks outside the grocery store for Easter Weekend. I couldn't resist picking one up. Adorable little guy and so sweet. I remember going to the local feed store in my home town with my mom once a year and picking out baby chicks for our chicken coop. Nothing better than warm, fresh brown eggs. 


Matt dropped me off in town to peruse a few shops while he filled up the water tank. I managed to find some really cool old treasures! My favorite item was an old wooden Ironing board. I can't wait to get this home and start using it. I never thought I would be excited over an ironing board:) I also found some great old metal boxes that would make great memory boxes and an old sewing box filled with little goodies. I love the old wooden spools of thread.


So we are half way through our trip and the loaned generator literally worked for about 2hrs before dying and the electric leaf blower sucks. So while we are in town Matt is picking up a Stihl gas powered leaf blower to get us through the week and we are going to relocate our 200lbs, that is empty, more like 260lbs with gas in it, to a new location so we can move to a better section of the wash and get some serious concentrate accumulated.

Matt is so fed up with this trip he is ready to pack it in... I refuse though to admit defeat... I told him I will move that darn generator with or without him but it's going to get done. So on our way home from town we will scope out a path and make way for the truck to get up a hillside. If we can't get this accomplished we aren't going to have any material for the Gold Show....

The girls cooking up an excellent dinner

Our gold fish... We ended up giving it to our claim neighbor as a thank you.

This is all Hampton and Hitch did for 12 days.

We call this Saguaro Way

Field Notes-Day 3+4 Gold Claim

Completed Puppy Shade Shelter.... It's actually about 10 degrees cooler in there

After a few days away from clocks, internet, TV, and our modern society, you lose track of time. Out here it really doesn't matter. You  live one day at a time. The way it should be...

Well I spent an hour the other morning gathering materials for a small shelter. Everything I needed could be found all around me. The desert is full of building materials if you take the time to learn the plants. The mighty Saguaro cacti, when they die have long straight spines. They worked great as the frame for my shelter.
They are also good to get a quick hot fire going. Dead Cholla  cacti is my favorite for fire starting. It lights up fast and the smoke has the sweetest smell. It's also a beautiful wood to use for decor pieces or great for dog chews or birds...The mesquite tree is the best wood out here for long,  hot fire. The wood looks like cedar when you split it. Just a beautiful red color.
Everyday requires firewood collecting. The Indians had the women and children gather small, manageable pieces of firewood in vast quantities... They called is squaw wood. So everyday I gather a large pile of squaw wood to use for my cooking.

Cottonwood Tree

We finally took a walk over to the giant cottonwood tree. It stands out like a sore thumb with its heighth and brilliant green leaves. It really does produce a super soft cotton too. Just like what you would find in the fields of Georgia only smaller.Curious if you gathered enough of it if you could spin it into a useable fiber... I am always on the lookout for  techniques used by the Indians in the Southwest so if anyone has recomendations or tips please feel free to share.

I am always trying to learn new information or really forgotten techniques of how to live on the land. I think the next book I add to my collection will be Food Plants of Sonoran Desert...

A rare moment of Jenn sitting and enjoying her fire...

If you find yourself looking for water in a desert always hike towards the greenest trees... This particular cottonwood happens to have a natural spring nearby. A small free range cattle ranch is down the road a few miles. Somehow the cows discovered this spring and make the trek over our claim to it every few days. They have a baby calf now they are teaching there secrets too. I just hope the sneaky pack of coyotes prowling the night or the mountain lion don't hurt the new baby...

So when it's too cold for a shower this is our bath water.

The Saguaro Cacti spines being used as the frame for the puppy shelter.

Hitch enjoyed this shelter the rest of the trip... It even withstood 40mph winds

Caution: Wear a helmet when chopping dense firewood...

Jenn doing our laundry in the middle of a desert... After 6 days we were in need of some new undies:)

Our little spring filled with water... In the morning the birds surround the area and dip down for a little sip.

Field Notes-Day 2 Gold Claim

An explosion of warm, melted chocolate, and gooey marshmallow just assaulted my taste-buds... The perfect way to end another long day.

About five feet behind Matt I discovered two angry Rattlesnakes fussing at me.... 

We are so ready to hit the sack. Just waiting on my bath water to boil so we can call it a night. It was very hard to sleep last night while 30+ mph winds bombarded our canvas wall tent. The whole thing was shaking and the dogs were too cold to sleep by themselves so all four of us are packed on top of two military cots like a can of sardines. The weather channel really needs to focus more on predicting reliable weather forecasts and less on their line of shows and special stories. No mention of wind was in the forecast leading up to our trip... Then the daily forecasts have been off too.  It's funny how they change the forecast hours after you've already been getting blasted by the wind; no kidding geniuses! Needless to say we are ready for the wind to go away. Kind of hard to do much of anything with your gear blowing all over.
We didn't find much gold today. Moved a lot of overburden and sampled some new areas. We ran into town today to get our blower vac serviced. That way we can test out some new areas and not be tied down to base camp. 
We worked today till about 7pm. I headed up to start our spaghetti dinner and Matt decided he had to take a real shower today; not just bathe in our bucket of water. So as the sun is setting there he is stringing up a tarp and taking a shower in Luke warm water heated only by the sun's rays from the day. It was in the 60's with 20mph winds and as soon as that wind hits your wet skin it's Cold!  He felt bright eyed and bushy tailed afterwards. I think i will just stick to my bucket of hot water...
Tomorrow depending on the weather i want to try building a shelter like the Indians used and start fire using an ancient method called the bow drill. Let you know how it turns out:)