Bull$hit, Aw $hit and Bad Ass $hit!!

Does this not look like a magnificent day?  The weather could not have been better.  Although I would liked to have sat on the patio and sipped my coffee for hours, there was no time to be wasted.  By 8:30 the troops were off on their foray to Jamestown to ride the steam train that lives there.

Every day we drove out and every night we came back, these wild turkeys greeted us with gobble gobbles. The males were showing their stuff like I've never seen.  There was LOVE in the air!!

One last very interesting thing about the gold mine was the gorgeous building on top of the hill.  I was sure it was someone's mansion.  I practically ran up the stairs when our guide said we could go inside.

It turned out this beauty was made of poured concrete and used as the assay office and accounting headquarters for the mine.  I had no idea so much went into deciding what little section of dirt would actually be sent to the stamp mill.  Ten or twelve little samples from one small section would be tested for gold content.  If it wasn't enough, they quit digging there and moved on to another section.  

There were no big chunks of gold, this was all tiny stuff.  One ton of rock had to be crushed to get a thimble full of gold.

After receiving the go-ahead from the assay office, the next section of ore was sent to the stamp mill where the rocks were crushed and mercury was added.  It would bind to the gold and form amalgam.  That would be brought to this room in the building and burned, causing the mercury to vaporize.  

The vapor went up and through a big pipe where water was added, which caused the mercury vapor to turn back into a liquid.  It was captured in the bottle you see here, then reused in the stamp mill.  I had no idea!!  The remaining gold was then melted in these cylinders and poured into 60-70 pound bricks.  Imagine how many thimbles that took!

Upstairs was the payout office.  Miners came here to get their few dollars for all that hard work.  

The view outside the office was amazing, but the miners were not allowed to dally.  The Kennedy Mine, the deepest on the Mother Lode, and the Argonaut Mine next door closed in 1942.  There is still one more story about this mine, but I'll relay it tomorrow.  

While everyone else drove down to Jamestown for the train ride, I chose to wander the streets and alleys of Jackson and Sutter Creek.  I've ridden that train many times and these antique stores were screaming my name.

But first ... I bet you know where I am here!!  I forgot all of Cooper's blankets, so I hit up the fabric store for two big pieces of flannel.  Okay, I admit I got two SMALL pieces of quilt fabric.

That's when I ended up here ...  at The Biggest Little Kitchen Store.  I used to drive two hours to get here just to purchase kitchen stuff you can't find anywhere else.  They have it all!!  Including $hit!!!  Although Bull $hit is good, Bad Ass $hit is the best, and a big jar came home with me.

As for the antique stores, they were a bust.  What I consider antiques have apparently disappeared.  All I could find were everyday things I have in my house.  So just when did I become an antique???

When the RV group returned, we all wandered down to Strings Italian Restaurant for dinner.  The service was very fast considering they were serving 23 people at once, and the food delicious!!  My chicken parm was the size of an entire dinner plate!  Too bad I didn't take a picture!!  

As you can see, Cooper was pretty happy with his blanket.  He spent an hour hiding his ball and digging it out before we hit the bed.  

Next up, Sutter Creek, down the long skinny streets into the land of antiques and wine tasting.  Luckily I was early and found parking, but boy were those spaces tiny!!  I'll post those pictures tomorrow.