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Most of you know by now that I went prospecting to Ghana... primarily to help a village get set up for small scale mining. Even after 4 days it's still kind of strange to think about the fact that I'm on a different continent. Below are a couple pics to get started.

     Lucky Joe and Chief Augustine at the place of Joe's lodgings. This Ashanti Chief drives a Subaru pickup.

                                              Detecting with a Gold Bug Pro behind a small village in Ghana.

                                                 Walking through the bush to get to some galamsey diggings.

I find There are many words and phrases that most people that  are new to the Prospecting world may be confused by so it might be helpful for them to compile a list.  I expect I need a lot of help with this so every one is invited to add thier own !!

         1   Bucket Butt    A feeling you get in your rear after sitting on a Bucket to long, A really bad case can be seen and shows up as circular impressions on your Butt !   

      2   Picker      A piece of Gold big enough to pick up with your fingers   no relation to what comes from your nose 

      3   A bucket of cons    A standard 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full or less of concentrates as a full bucket weighs more than most of us want to lift.

      4  Kink    What your back does after lifting a full bucket of con's

      5   Get started early     9:00 am 

                               Now add Your Own !!!

If you feel that you have mastered your metal detector, or at least feel really comfortable using it.  Let your Law Enforcement know that you are willing to help if they ever need it.  Why you ask?  (Go ahead and ask why.)

Law Enforcement from time to time needs help.  Usually, there will be at least one officer with a metal detector on the squad.  However, if they are trying to find a stray bullet, or other item, one detector can't cover all the ground very fast.  That's where you come in.  Send a formal letter to the Chief of Police, the Sherrif and even if there is a State Police barracks in your town to the head Officer in charge.  Let them know that you are more than willing to help if they ever need it.  Years ago, I even included a nice photograph of some of my finds.

I'll give you a case in point.  There's a man I was introduced to, who bought a Side Scan Sonar system.  He had visions of using it in the Summer searching the lake he lived on for sunken motors, or just general treasure hunting in the lake.  He went around to the Marinas, and asked if he could put up a flier offering his services for items lost in the lake.  One Winter day, he got a call from the local Sherrif's office.  One of the Deputies had remember seeing his flier and wondered if he could help them out.  He readily agreed and loaded his equipment on their boat and went in search of what they were looking for.  (I'm sorry, I don't remember what it was, but he found it.)  The divers went into the frigid waters and retrieved it.

Now, not only is he called into help the local Sheriff's Dept.  But the Police and and State Highway Patrol.  All season, they call on him to use his equipment.  There was a missing girl and the State Highway Patrol presumed that the might have drowned in the lake.  They found her car parked near the water's edge.  So they called him in to start his search.  He laid out his grid pattern, and soon were searching the lake's bottom for any sign of human life.  They even had a boat with Cadavor dogs in it searching.  The dogs got a hit out in the water and he was called over with his Sonar.  It wasn't the missing girl, but it was a car.  Probably had been there for 20 years resting on the bottom.  The dogs were going crazy!  The car was pretty far out into the lake, but the divers were able to hook a cable to it and with the help of a crane, drag it to shore.  Inside the trunk was the remains of another woman, long since passed away.  They never did find the missing girl.  I'm not even sure that they found out who was locked away in the trunk of that car.

Don't you think that he has built up a good repore with the Law Enforcement Agencies?  I'm not saying you will find Jimmy Hoffa, but you maybe able to find a key piece of evidence!  Please note:  I would not do this if you just got your metal detector. 

Early this Summer, I wanted to search a Grade School that had been closed.  I pulled up with my van and metal detector.  In the parking lot was a Deputy Sherrif's car.  Not sure what the rules are in the town, I decided to go to him and ask if there was a problem if I searched the school grounds.  I also handed him my business card.  "Treasure Seekers International".  It has my name, web-site, address even my e-mail on it.  I told him who I was and that I wanted to search the school grounds and if there was a problem with that.  He said that since the school was abandoned, they didn't like anyone to be on the grounds, due to vandalism.  I expained that I wasn't there to cause any problems, and thanked him and I was ready to leave.  He told me that he had about an hour of paperwork to do.  That it would be alright it I searched while he was there.

I thanked him again, got my machine out of my van, and proceeded to search.  I was really hamped in my efforts due to the long grass.  (It was over a foot high and very thick!)  After about 30 minutes, I hadn't found a thing.  So I decided to pack it in.  I went back to his cruiser and expained to the deputy that the high grass was making it very hard to search and almost impossible to dig.  I thanked him and told him that I was going to go.  He handed me back my business card, and I told him to keep it.  That his Department should feel free to call me if they ever needed an area searched.  Now I don't know if they ever will.  However, if they do,  I'll be there.  (I'll also bring all of my machines just in case I run into long grass again.) 

The worse that a Law Enforcement Agency can say is, "No thanks". 

Until next time.  This is Charlotte49er saying, Good Hunting!

After spending the summer digging a hole that kept giving and giving it was time to fill it back up. Sunday at The Creek was saying fairwell to a lot of rocks that I knew well after moving them around all summer.

 The trees were changing color and the winter rains would soon push the water level up the Creek needed to flow in its normal pattern so as to not erode the bank.

  Chanting goodbye to the rocks I knew so well tossed, rolled, and shoveled them back to the hole they came from "Less the gold they were hiding"

Making One last lap around the area picking up Trash left by campers and hunters threw the sack in te back of the truck  and headed home.

  Not that I won't still be working The Creek through the winter just not standing waist deep in the cold winter run, Shallow spots with my wading boots and warm dry cloths will be my choice.

  The weather changes the way I prospect not always the where !

                                                                          Good Gold Too You Winters comming !!!

Saturday While I was at the Thrift store came across a bib style wet suit and thought Wow $5.00 how can I goe wrong ! The Length Looked right and the Kid working said don't worry about the waist they streatch also had a torso suit that looked good too $5.00 also !

                  Now I can go sunday and dig the " hole " and not Freeze so off I went sunday morning. Normaly my Wife or oldest Son come along I'm glad they didn't.

                   Putting on the bib style wet suit was a chore to get over My feet  ( that should have been a warning ) after getting it halfway over my hips decided there wasn't any way so tried to get it off      OOOPPPPS !!!  Hopping around the truck as I could no longer walk found my box knife and carfully cut my self free.   Now  if the thoughts of this sight dosn't have you laughing it gets worse yes I tried on the torso suit.

                   My arms fit in and my head through that openining rolled it down over my chest an belly and zipped,  Only one problem now my arms don't move and I can't bend them enough to take it off so once again back to the box knife and freedom.

                   So after two wet suits have been cut to ribbions the moral of story is yes SIZE DOES MATTER !!!!

                                           SURE GLAD NO ONE WAS LOOKING !!!

I'm watching the mountains around me and seeing the snowline get lower and lower.  Frost and ice on windshields in the morning.  It is getting down to do it now or wait till spring.   It makes it much harder.  If only my vehicle meant for my prospecting was running 2 weeks ago like it should have been.  But we know how car repairs go.  It is the little surrounding things that make the job longer and more costly then the original problem to begin with.

Hopefully I will have a chance.  I want to get 1 more ounce before the main season is over.

Hello again,

I am looking for someone who ownes or has the gold prospecting rights of a gold claim. I  am willing to do all of the work on the claim as well as prospecting.

The deal would be to split the finds between us. However I want to be the only person working the claim during this time.

I am open to any and all deals/offers that someone may have to offer so please feel free to contact me with any offer you may have in mind.

Phone:574-249-8899                 E-mail:terryslone48@yahoo.com

     Last week fed ex stopped by the shop with a box for me, aahh yes my Sandy has arrived!! Come to poppa my lil’ friend!! In the previous weeks leading up to this purchase I was pondering how little time I have to hone my detecting skills, between home and work there just wasn’t any time left for detecting, meanwhile reading in the forums about Terry in New York just killing it up there with his beach detector. Now I don’t know how he ended up stuck up in NY but him being from Arizona that’s just got to be brutal. What I do know is that Terry knows lemonade, in the beginning you could tell his spirit was a bit down, he wasn’t even on the forums for a while…then he started squeezing the lemons, got himself a Tesoro Sandshark and started working the beaches, with a good degree of success I might add, then his normal posts came rolling in to the forums accompanied by some photo’s and some youtube video’s, yep… ol’ Terry was back!!

          That got me to thinking …I got started in this hobby back in and around 94-95  beach detecting, and now I’ve kind of put it to the side and focused on gold prospecting, maybe Terry’s on to something and I should be too!! So there it was..sitting in front of me like the winning lottery ticket at the local SPMA door prize giveaway, my own Sandshark all wrapped up in bubble-wrap and waiting to be put together and put through its paces. I considered several models before settling on this one, nothing was based on price, it was just based on what was being said on the forums about the particular models I was considering, one high end model had folks talking about cheap dials that would break off and they were ending up replacing them with aftermarket dials (forget that!!) but there was one detector that everyone was happy with (Including Terry) and that was the Tesoro Sandshark. The Internet…when used to your advantage can be the greatest tool of them all for finding treasure!

           So now the game plan is to put this detector together and hit the beach this weekend and practice, practice, practice, needless to say 5 am is a bit too much for me so I opted for an afternoon run to a beach in Coronado,Ca. I took my 12 yr old daughter for company and to see if she would have enough attention span to work the Bounty Hunter I bought her a year ago, its hard to buy a kids style detector because they typically have a hard time swinging anything heavy and when you get a light kids version like this Bounty Hunter they typically don’t go very deep, and if a kid isn’t pulling coins out every two feet well you all know what happens... their attention span fly’s out the door, anyway when we arrived at the first beach we unpacked and found that the clouds and overcast had kept the beach fairly vacant which is perfect for us... we, or I should say (I) worked about a hundred yards with nothing but bottle caps…not good because my daughter gets her lack of attention span from ME!! So we left for another beach just down the road.

         This next beach is called “The Silver Strand” state beach and it usually charges 10 bucks to get in during the summer months and stops charging after Labor Day so I thought I was in good shape but when I arrived low and behold there was indeed a park ranger at the booth wanting ten bucks from ol’ Bucket. I told her I thought they quit charging after Labor Day and she said they charge year round now…no problem I thought to myself, I’ll just flash her my credentials (a Bucket&Boomer T-shirt) have my daughter giver her the sad eye’s and we’ll be on our way for free!! Anyway....so after getting the boot from the park ranger we were parked across the road in a residential area…for free I might add and making our way to the beach, when we got there we fired up our detectors and got to work, now being the first time I’ve ever used this detector I’m not about to slap on some hip waders and get waist deep in the hoopla (Pacific Ocean) I wanted to figure some things out first, and let me tell you that the learning curve for this particular beach detector…as is with most Tesoro’s  is very short!

              In no time I was yerking....yes "yerking" up bottle caps 10 inches down so I new I was on the right track, I worked the storm break of piled sand and in one three foot area between me and my daughter we pulled up 32 pennies, one of them being a 1927 wheat cent! At one point we were scooping pennies three at a time from their sandy graves…a bonified cache!!  (OK maybe that’s going a bit too far), and as the pennies thinned out so did my kids attention span so I was left to myself to work the rest of the storm break while she chased birds up and down the beach. As I headed south down the break I hit a nickel then a dime…at this point I’d swear I was “Loaming” as the denominations were getting bigger then I ran into a Heineken bottle cap , and another and another so I figured there should be roughly six of these screwing me up, if I can gather all six I should be clear of these little discouragers, well at around ten of em I was impressed with this guys drinking skills and knew I had a twelve pack to contend with, once I found that 12^th and final cap I was happy now and I could focus on this area…sure enough..no more bottle caps and shortly thereafter I pulled up a couple dimes, a quarter and a very thin (fake) gold (colored) ring!

     The afternoon had by now, given up to the evening and it was getting dark and time to call it a day, but I was very happy with the way that this metal detector handled the beach, it was very stable, easy to use, fairly light and best of all very reasonably priced, I would actually call it a steal!!  I plan on…in the coming months regularly using this Tesoro Sandshark  and posting on its successes. Terry motivated me and now its my turn to pass it on!! So get out there all you taters at home and make your own LEMONADE !!!!!!!         Bucket

My Contico footlockers arrived at Walmart pickup on Friday. I will use these for luggage as they are just at the airline maximum size limit, lockable and sturdy. Now I can see how much stuff I can pack in and still keep under the 50 pound limit. My main concern is keeping my detectors safe. Maybe I'll wrap them with clothes to pad them. I just worry about TSA going through everything and then not repacking properly.

I went and picked out a new pair of detecting boots yesterday. My old 5.11 boots just did not have the support necessary and I've been suffering at the end of a long day out in the field. So now I have a pair of Magnum Spider 8.1 Desert boots. They seem to be much more sturdy and detector friendly (no metal). The comparable Converse boots were just downright uncomfortable when I tried them on.

Tomorrow I get my visa application answer back from the Embassy of Ghana. Fedex will deliver and I will find out whether 'approved' or 'rejected'. They make you get your airline ticket first so that you can give them the flight info. This is a bit backwards in case of a rejection however.

In answer to a couple questions: Gold can be exported from Ghana with a proper export license. Otherwise it's smuggling and illegal. I will be declaring everything and playing by the book. As far as bringing it into the U.S., there is no duty or taxes on unrefined gold as it is of unknown purity/value. Basically just raw ore. Tax is due in the States upon sale of gold. Also, I will be taking many pictures and video. I want this trip to be well documented. It's not like just another day in the local hills, so I will post pictures and storyline as I can.

And yes, a CC690 power sluice will be getting a good workout in Ghana. I will demonstrate its capabilities and set up a dealer for this highbanker in Ghana. Probably do the same for Fisher detectors too once it is shown how reliably they can produce the goods.

Ghana Gold Trip 

I thought it might be fun to give everyone a front row seat to a prospecting trip I have planned.

Let me begin by saying that I never intended to travel anywhere further than the Western United States. I've always been of the mindset, "If I want to see (fill in the blank), I'll go online and look at pictures." But now I find myself in the strange position of planning a trip to West Africa just the same as if I were going to drive a few hours away for a prospecting trip.

It all started when I got an order for one of my CC690 power sluices from a gentleman in Canada.  He had a few prospecting questions, and so we talked on and off over the next few weeks. One thing led to another, and he suggested that I come to Ghana with him (where he is from) and help show his village how to mine for gold. I brushed aside the suggestion without consideration because it was not something to which I would ever give a second thought. It might be fun to wish on about, just like going to Australia or the Sudan to prospect for gold would be, but certainly nothing to entertain seriously. The gentleman from Ghana turned out to be Christian and took a lot of time explaining to me things about his country and in particular the Ashanti region from which he was from. After many conversations, I came to realize this was not something I was needing to be convinced of so much as it was something I was supposed to go do. I have had many previous offers to come prospect here or go help with some operation over there, but nothing that I seriously considered even though they were much closer to home. Now here was an opportunity much further away, but after much thought and prayer(and conversation with the other half), there is no reservation in my mind about going.

I applied for my passport in July and it arrived in early August. On September 5th I booked my plane ticket ($1438.10). I got my Yellow Fever and other vaccines out of the way on September 6th to the tune of $261.00.  I have my application in with the Ghana embassy right now for a travel visa. It has been decided that November is the best time to be in Ashanti due to the wet season being over.

My Ghanaian partner (yes, it will be a partnership of sorts) has the concessions(leases) to some incredibly rich gold areas but doesn't have the knowledge, equipment or contacts to effectively work these goldfields. This is where I will be able to help. Right now, the concept of mining in these areas is limited to lining a wooden trough with blankets and using that as a sluice.

My partner had previously purchased a Fisher Gold Bug Pro metal detector to use while he was in Ghana. He didn't know at the time, but I am well versed with the Fisher Gold Bug 2 and am presently getting the same way with the Pro. So by the time we meet in Accra, I will be able to provide him with some expert instruction. I will also bring a Minelab GPX4500 detector which is only surpassed in detection capability by the new model GPX5000 Minelab. If this venture works out as I think, we will be detecting some virgin ground that has gold and also the added bonus of little to no trash targets. Literally a nuggetshooter's dream!

I will write some more as plans firm up, but exact places and dates will probably be left vague. I also don't know if I will be able to add to this blog while I am in Ghana. I just don't know the state of wifi and internet connections over there. I have plenty more research to do just to get ready.

Lucky Joe

Wayne and I try to make a habit of cleaning out our snuffer

bottles after every trip so I can document our finds for the

slideshows etc.  Good intentions aside, we both forgot  to

clean the bottles after the last two or three sampling trips we

made looking for new spots to dig. These are the photos of the

contents of Wayne's bottle and my bottle after stops at likely

locations in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties.

I have posted a number of 6 hours at the Creek Photos     6  hours at the Creek start with leaving the House  "with luck" by  7:30 in the morning a Lunch packed, bottled waters some frozen all in the cooler.

    Sluice,folding chairs,buckets,shovels,umbrellas, dry clothes,classifiers and equipment too eclectic to list all in the back of a 2001 Nissan Frotier crew cab. Next we load My wifes 79 year old Mother and her Daschound Duke, my Wife Jane and Her I pod as she is our DJ turn, she turns on the music and we wind our way for an hour thru the beutiful Trinity alps.

    Setting up our day camp takes about 15 minutes and then I'm off to digging, I run about 3 buckets 1/2 full down the sluice and then clean it out the cons go to the Ladys for panning or running down Janes home made Barbie sluice as she Calls it ! and then panning. in the mean while I,m back digging.

    six hours later we are loading and headed for home.  Good Music, Good Food, Good Company, Good Gold a Saturday well spent !!!

You have probably have all heard of what an impact Hurricane Irene had on the East Coast. But up in New Hampshire and Vermont, all hell broke loose with torrential rains. You can just imagine what an effect this has had on the rivers and streams. Some of the rivers, like our favorite, the Wild AM, are not the same. Entire area of the riverbanks are now gone. The only silver lining, or should I say Gold lining, is what Mother Nature has exposed for us prospectors. But of course we hope all of those who are still without power and some who are stranded get help soon!!!

Bromley Brook, Manchester Vermont, Hurricane Irene from Russell Henderson on Vimeo.

http://tin.er.usgs.gov/mrds/find-mrds.php  You can research mining claims here. Use the google earth option to locate the claim you are interested in. A lot of information here.   Ted

Here's an old blog I wrote a few months back on my old XLT.

Today I…for the first time since 03 went beach detecting. I figured that if for whatever reason I couldnt get out gold prospecting as often as I would like I could at least keep my metal detecting skills honed by coin shooting at the beach. So i planned a Sunday run to Coronado,  just north of the famed Hotel Del Coronado and as usual, it was Saturday evening about 10:30 pm before I had actually remembered that plan, so I scrambled to get my gear together.

First, I needed to see if my beach detector was still working, so i pulled it out of its canvas tomb of the last 8 yrs and loaded the batteries in it, closed my eyes, and fired it up….ah yes music to my ears, I thought to myself as my Whites Spectrum XLT came to life with a very bird like, digital acknowledgement of power. As I examined my detector I noticed the cover over the liquid chrystal screen was coming off, this was very strange because it hasnt been touched, moved, or anything else for 8 yrs and now all of a sudden the screen is falling off, oh well if it actually still works then I will glue it back down later….for now its three pieces of scotch tape and we’re golden, the next problem is that the liquid chrystal screen is kind of …well, unreadable, in that it has horizontal blank lines going through the screen every 16th of an inch making it very hard to read any of my old programs and for those of you that are familiar with the White’s Spectrum XLT, you know that this was indeed the Cadillac of detectors back in…say 94. It was an amazing machine that you could program the way you want, it had a big beautiful liquid chrystal screen that told you everything you need to know about whats under your coil except the date on the coin!! It had pinpointing, it had a depth meter, and it would even tell you the denomination of the coin and be fairly accurate! and now my screen was…unreadable!!

Well too late to change plans I will work it out at the beach! 6am came quickly on Sunday…a little too quickly and I decided that 6am was foolish! 7am would be much more accomodating, well  there I was, ready to go and it was only 8am and still cool outside.      At the beach I had my scoop and my detector, normally I carry a small trash bag but I didnt want any trouble with the city’s union workers so when I uncovered a piece of trash, I just left it there for the union workers to pick up at a more convenient time.

Now my screen was still not working perfectly but I figured if I used the detector for a few hours it might work itself out, it did show enough for me to set up on one of my old programs….the rest will have to be done “Jedi” style, strictly by feel, anyway off I went swinging my “Hothead” aftermarket coil, Blackbird amplifier and living the dream!! Three hours and roughly 7 cents later (one nickel and two pennies)I figured that I had sufficiently sharpened my detecting skills…”Jedi” style….ofcourse, while also lending the city’s unions a helping hand by leaving dozens of pulltabs and tin foil wrappers exposed and ready for pickup, and now I was beat and ready to head for home, on the way home I was thinking what a great detector this has been over the years and how I would like to get it back into perfect working condition, and anyone who has ever owned this particular model of White’s knows that this puppy has earned its stripes and will forever be one of my favorite all-time machines, and for that i would like to endow this magnificent machine with the Bucket & Boomer Stamp of Approval!!

    Pulling out the XLT brought back a lot of beach hunting memories and I still remember doing battle with KellyCo over the fact that the blackbird didn't work when they sent it to me and after calling them enough times they resorted to calling me a kook and hanging up on me....now keep in mind I really am a kook, BUT...that's not their job to decide that, and when you call someone a kook you better make damm sure they are not in a position to make a video and really let you have it!! Anyway I ended up calling the mfg of the Blackbird and they said it was a simple matter of getting a stereo to mono plug at radio shack for a buck...problem solved and a lot of grief from KellyCo could have been avoided. I have never bought anything from them since.

Gold prospecting at night, now that's something you don't see everyday....ok, ok, not funny!! But it is something that we did last month due to the heat during the day. We were in AZ for 7 days and had to make the most of it and I must say for the better part of the week the weather cooperated just fine it was mid to high nineties most of the week and being from San Diego...that's a bit hot, but we were expecting hotter so the mid nineties was a welcomed sacrifice. 

We decided to rest up on one of the days and try our luck at crack vac-ing once the sun went down so around 8pm we headed for a very nice looking ravine with multiple areas that were very near bedrock, the ravine was very steep in spots as well,  so it was a bit of a challange to hike all of our gear,camera equipment, lanterns and such to a spot that looked to good to pass up, after many attempts to light the lanterns in a bit of a wind... we settled for two out of three lanterns and a couple of headlamps for light to work with. Now this particular ravine had many, many shallow spots with virtually no overburden so in the spot we chose at the bottom of a six to eight foot drop-off there wasn't much to do except take a whisk broom and sweep off the light brush and cactus needles from the surface before we were able to fire up the now infamous pile of junk we call a crack-vac that has failed us more times than its actually worked, yet here we are in the dead of night twenty miles from civilization once again wondering whether this thing is going to start or not and why the hell we haven't gotten a new one yet....

As the motor sputtered and popped before coming to life as its done many times before we new we were on a time limit before this thing konked out, so we got right on it sucking up two pockets of dirt that had been trapped in the shallow holes. So with Scotty manning the video camera, Bucket working the nozzle and Boomer trying to keep the motor running, limited light and a fair breeze whisking up the ravine made for less than perfect conditions to work with but the pockets were small, roughly 1-2 sq ft in diameter and were easily sucked into the nozzle, about 1/2 way through the second pocket wedged in a crack was a real beauty!! Just sitting there waiting for three kooks with a crack-vac and a camera to come by and collect it...whodathunkit!!!

So there we were in amazement over our good fortune when the crack-vac decided its had enough and konked out on us, we were in a frenzy to get it started so we could work some other spots while our luck was good! but while we did manage to get it going for short periods of time, it finally died for good. So we packed up and hiked back to the buggy, all in all pretty happy about the experience, by now it was roughly 1am so we hopped in the buggy and were ready to embark on the hour long run back to the house we were staying at but there was one last problem....the buggy wouldn't start!!!.....next time we'll discuss what to do when your Sh!t don't start, So to wrap this up lets just say that gold prospecting at night takes every bit as much preparation as it does during the day and then some!! We will at some point do it again but will come better prepared....next time.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Bucket.

                                                                                                                                                               www.bucketnboomer.com

I don't see much chatter on this site about the raging battle in Cali. , but thought that I would stir the pot a bit .

Some of you may know about the court ordered SEIR that was supposed to be done in Cali . Well it was almost complete,

 but the anti's saw that it was proving the dredgers right ! So now they tried an underhanded tactic . They tried to

slide a trailor into the stae budget, that would add another 5 year moritorium to the dredge ban ..

It passed the state senate by a huge margin ..

Today, Gov. Brown vetoed that proposed budget !!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/us/17 ... ml?_r=2&hp
Edit: Quote from gov. Brown ..
In a letter to lawmakers, Brown said the Democratic plan is "not a balanced solution. It continues big deficits for years to come and adds billions of dollars in new debt. It also contains legally questionable maneuvers, costly borrowing and unrealistic savings. Finally, it is not financeable and therefore will not allow us to meet our obligations as they occur."

I like the part about legally questionabl maneuvers !

Please add new posts about the Idaho Dredging issues to this thread.

As I previously stated I will have much more to add on this issue when I have the time.

Like many of you I have many obligations in my life that take precedence but I assure you this matter is high on my list and will be addressed as soon as possible.

If anyone has any facts or comments on Idaho Dredging feel free to post them here.