10-3-11

Martin: Saturday morning we woke to clear skies but by breakfast the clouds had rolled in. We headed to a place called Tambaroora where there was an old fossicker named Ted Abbott who gave  panning lessons. We found him parked on the side of the road with a hand written sign stuck on his rear window advertising his services and another family pulled up at the same time. Ted then took us down into a gully with a small creek running through it, handed a steel pan out to each of us and proceeded to demomstrate his art. He made it look pretty simple but there is a bit more to it to try and get any gold flakes to settle in the one spot. A couple of specks showed up in his first pan and everyone was finding something in their pan nearly each time. One of the other children even found a little nugget the size of a watermelon seed. Children have great eyesight for picking out the small particles. The lesson lasted an hour and only cost $5 per adult and half that per child so it was a good deal. He collected the pans and as we decided to stay on at this spot, he showed us a layer of clay to dig up on on the water's edge and this proved to be productive. This section of the creek was located in a fossicking area set aside for the public.

That's Ted sitting on the bank on the left. He is 79 years old, still smoking, has 7 children and twenty three grand children.

Me: This morning we went for an early morning walk and then headed to my niece's home for a visit. Brittany, Andy and their 1 year old cutie (my great niece, Isabella) just moved into their first home. They've had fun doing some home improvement projects and their home is lovely. Isabella just learned to walk last week and she is basically in a constant run all over the place. She is really adorable and at such a fun age!

This afternoon my nephew, Nathan and I biked the river path taking us through the quaint towns of St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia. It was the most scenic trail through huge trees next to the Fox River. Such a pretty fall day, again! Half way through our ride we met up with Joan, Carol and my Mom at a favorite chocolate & ice cream shoppe. Wow, did we eat some good chocolate and delicious ice cream! Coconut almond ice cream and toffee covered with milk chocolate and nuts were the best.

Brittany, Joan, Isabel holding Isabella, Me, Carol