Hi guys
Just want to say thanks for the happy birthday wishes - but to be honest on Saturday I got a flu bug & though I was no longer throwing up yesterday I was still feeling crappy & still feeling crappy today so took yesterday off work & the same today
Since my move from Wisconsin to Oregon other then running my silver cell to refine the 1,500 ozt sterling I have in my stash refining has been put on the back burner
I did bring much of my lab gear (at least everything I need to set up again) including all the chems I need, my two furnaces, crucibles, blowers for both chem fume hood & smelting/welding hood, scrubber, cement mixer (ball mill) & concentration table ect.
I also brought a small (ten foot long) covered trailer of high grade material with me - High chip population telcom boards, ram, hard drive boards, "high" grade cards etc. as well as a "bunch" of contact points & have managed to pick up some run of the mill scrap in my time here including about 30 pounds of IC chip (which I bought from a member that I have been doing business with for a few years now)
I live in town now (house with a "small" out building shop) so not really the place to set up on any scale other then running my silver cell & "small" batch gold refining (with fume hood & scrubber of course) however I have got to know a guy that has a place out of town that is willing to let me set up my smelting operation (he is a "very" well respected & established member of the community) - so I hope to get set up again once the weather gets better - but it will likely be on a much smaller hobby level compared to what I had in Wisconsin & that's because I now have a regular day job now
My day job - I work for a company called Iron Triangle - Russ the owner of the Iron Triangle is the largest employer in the area (over a hundred employees) & his primary business is logging but he also owns several "large" ranches (thousands of acers) and then a few years ago he also started a small construction crew buying old run down properties - remodeling them & turning them into "very" nice rental properties
one of those properties was a two building 11 apartment (between the 2 buildings) that was more or less a drug hang out - last year when I went to work for him they were putting the finish touches on the last two apartments in the first 5 apartment building so I helped finish that & then we went to work on the second building (6 apartments) which we tore down to the foundation - the foundation was in "bad" shape so we had to do A LOT of work to it so we could even rebuild on it - here are some pics of that project from a couple months ago - it is now closed in with roof & siding on, doors & windows in, electric & plumbing roughed in, dry wall hung & we are now starting on finish work --- we also got floor joist laid down for two more of the apartments before weather stopped building up on that (we sometimes get pulled off this job to work on other projects & we are only a 4 man crew)
The other interesting thing in my life since moving here is that I have also joined a gang - yes thats right - I am now a gang member :shock: :lol:
I joined The Whiskey Gulch Gang as a life member :mrgreen:
The Whiskey Gulch Gang is kind of like a "local" Lions Club or Elks Lodge kind of thing
The Gang was started as a community improvement group/club for the town of Canyon City (which though is a town of it's own is really part of John Day) & it is based on gold being discovered on Canyon Creek in 1862 which resulted in the town of Canyon City (2 miles up the creek from John Day)
We have two main events (& get involved in other small local events) --- one is "62 Days" which is a celebration of the discovery of gold in 1862 so we have a parade & then we (the members) get dressed up in 1862 period dress & stage a good guys bad guys (the bad guys being claim jumpers) shoot out with the bad guys being arrested & hung by the neck till dead - also do a swap meet & a band - its a 2 day event --- the other main event we put on is a demolition derby which fills the stands at the fair grounds for a day of smash & crash :twisted:
One of the small events we do is any time we have a home football game at the high school we take the Whiskey Gulch canon to the games & when the home team scores we shoot the canon off 8) --- the canon gets shot off at other local events as well
So - anyway - that brings my "good friends" here kind of up to date on what I have been up to since my move from Wisconsin to Oregon --- so you can see why I just don't have the time to be as active on the forum as I used to - which is something I actually miss since making my move :? - but I still log on here every day
Kurt