first things first

This is the start of a significant more-glory story, one that will set a foundation for many more stories I shall write…
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First Things First

Before I run off and try to find more glorious things to be and do in my life, I want to put an unusual, even a radical amount of energy and time into finding more glory close to home…that is in what I already do, who I already am, who I already know, etc. For I believe that I can discover much that I seek close to home. Then, after this discovery, perhaps I will stretch forth, but, what is new, I will do so from a much more glorious foundation than I have ever claimed. A firmer foundation, no doubt.

This is the life I have chosen. About the only big thing I want to change…is what I believe about it.

The Hunt Is On, P. 3

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My friend Paul is a technical wizard and inventor. He mines gold for a hobby. He specializes in fine (small) gold recovery. He shared this story with me.

He and his friend were working a claim in Alaska that was owned by another man. All summer they were retrieving gold by dumping large piles of a sand and gravel into a sorting machine, which would shake, screen and wash the mixture, concentrating the gold. At the end of the day Paul and his friend would clean up the sorting machine. Each time they would find large gold nuggets at the end of the machine, where the mixture of supposedly worthless "tailings" would wash to.

With his keen understanding of the principles of mining Paul theorized that much gold was being washed away because the machine was being run too fast. He suggested to the owner that they slow down the machine. The owner wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to keep pushing the sand and gravel through his machine as fast as possible. One day the owner announced that he would be gone for a few weeks. He put Paul in charge.

As soon as the owner left, Paul and his friend slowed the machine down. For the next two days they retrieved three times as much gold as they were finding before. They were excited to slow the sorting machine down even more the next day. But on the third day the owner made an unexpected return. The owner was excited about the increase in production. Paul tried to explain to the owner why they were finding more gold. But the owner had traditional and rugged ideas about finding gold. He simply assumed that while he was gone they had run into a “hot spot”, a place of high concentration of gold.

The next day Paul was forced to leave the area with his truck and gold excavating equipment, as wet and freezing weather was starting to set in. Winter in Alaska. However, the next week the weather warmed again, long enough for his friend and the owner to do some mining. His friend reported that the owner insisted on running the machine fast again, wanting to get at the “hot spot.” Paul’s friend said that immediately their production went right back down to the earlier levels.

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LESSONS….

-Things are not always what they appear. Paul learned that all of their loads of sand and rock could have been “hot spot” loads, had the owner slowed down a bit, listened and learned.

-Sometimes, rather than run out and get more piles of stuff (stuff to accomplish, etc. we could experiment like Paul did. Think about the principles of gold (glory) recovery, slow down a bit, and maybe find as much or even more gold (wonderfulness/worthfulness) than we were previously finding. [e.g. stories like Virgin Master, Quaterback demonstrate this] \

- when people slow down and find more gold (glory/worth) they could, like the owner, be tempted to assume that they just serendipitously had run into a ‘hot spot’….they got lucky…[this is a good reason to understand ‘correct princples’]

- The great things in life are often mixed up with lots of stuff (sand and gravel)…there is much scanning, sorting and selecting that needs to go on if we are to find the good stuff, especially if those things are fine (small and simple) things.

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A collection of more technical details Paul gave me that I can use in (option for) telling this story….

Our 3rd day....we got down to 140 yards per hour....by the third
The cleanup involved 3 tubs...that night we could only complete 1 tub...we got 53 ounces.....but snowing and freezing...we had to leave...understand the physics of gold....(glory)...it is mixed with a host of other materials.....
Classification, concentration and water volocity--these are the 3 things.....the three key variables....
In the plant we were running 2 inch material....because the volicity of the water...we were losing nuggets....we could only get down to 140....we may have event got down to 100 and found even more...didn't get a chance....after a week it warmed back up....and they went back to work....and they were back to their 18-23 ounces per day at 200 yards........at 140 the first tub 53 ounces.....they went back to the old ways....he did not catch on..understand or pick up...... 3 yards per minutes...10 yard bucket...9 yards every 3 minutes....3 minute turns to get 20 loads...close to 20o yards at a time 180 cubic yards per hour---lots of material....strip mining...using the tailings to reclaim the area.....wash plant...
Find the balance for the machine....he went down to 140.....on third day he stopped us....he figured we were in an extremely hot spot...he wanted it....he did not understand that it was not a hot spot....what we were doing to make maximum...by balancing the production to the capacity of the machine (the variables were the water and the feed)