Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
In about two weeks I will be back in the USA . . . where it is summertime. I expect to be back in Florida on August 8. It only will be a quick trip back; I'll be heading back to the mine late in August. Yes, while in the USA I expect to sell a few pretty rocks.
Many of you have asked about visiting my mine in Koroit. Between you and me, some of you would be fine out here, some of you would not. I'll go into details later. Again, between you and me, wheels are in motion to make it possible, a bit more comfortable and a bit more interesting for people to visit me in Koroit. Again, I'll go into details later.
.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
- Wonderingalice, Shoreleave, Winter, A Day
Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
Today I picked up Paul at the Cunnamulla airport. There only is one gate. My car was the only car in the small parking lot. The plane Paul was on was the only plane within miles of the airport. As some of you may know, Paul was on "shoreleave" for the past 2 1/2 weeks on the Sunshine Coast - a beautiful area just north of Brisbane. His vacation was supposed to be 1 week, but somehow. . . Big thanks to Mark and Karoline for their generosity. They were such a great host and hostess, Paul almost did not come back to Koroit . . . and yes gothic romance fans (or should I have said "bodice ripper fans"?), Paul met "someone very interesting".
It was rather theraputic to have some time on my own - Koroit is a great place for such therapy. . . . but I appreciate having Paul's help.
I will be updating / completing the blog entry "A Day in the Life" to give you a better idea of my not quite Jack Bauer-like 24 hours.
Previously I mentioned a similarity between aspects of the plot of The Trial and some of the workings of the Dept of Mines in Queensland. In addition to the tangled and dynamic paperwork and official rulings in The Trial, the story is rather dark, lonely and depressing (The film by Orson Welles with Anthony Perkins is quite beautiful and well done, but not really the best feel good movie or date flick. I believe it's the opening scene (after Welles narration) which features an uncomfortably long lasting shot with Perkins being very anxiety-ish. . . but I digress). Actually, interacting with the Dept of Mines is more of a combination of The Trial, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass (also well worth reading even by you adult types). Although some aspects of the morass of Dept of Mines paperwork can on some occasions leave one feeling dark, lonely and depressed, the entire experience usually is more Alice-like, including various semi-logical puzzles, rather confounding forms with nearly useless instructions and a few laughs. Please be aware, the folks working at the Dept of Mines in Quilpie have always been very nice and very helpful to me. They are aware of and sometimes quietly will admit to the absurdity of some of the burecratic silliness. Several times they've helped me negotiate the confusing and perilous waters into The Heart of Darkness of many pages of form after form. Ross and Sally have been particularly helpful - Thank You!!!
Regarding Dept Mines paperwork . . . there were a few unforseen zigzags which are currently being resolved. . . out of consideration and hoping not to lose to many readers, I will spare you those details. This means the excavator has not started to dig, but will start in about a month. It worked out just fine. I have plenty of rough to deal with right now and have enjoyed working underground, possibly for the last time at this location. This paperwork glitch and change of plans is typical of living and working here. Of course, it is best to have a plan, but a plan which is not overly rigid. . . always be prepared for the unexpected and go with the flow. . . it's a beautiful combination of sameness and unpredictability.
It is winter here. When you're living in a garden shed and the outside temp gets close to freezing, it gets cold inside. . . unless you have a great fire. The sun is getting low and we need to get back to the camp, collect firewood and start our fires before it gets too cold. . . it will be dark before we get back to Koroit. Today was quite cold and tonight probably will be too. If I'm too late starting my fire, the mice will get upset.
Thanks to Mark, Karoline, Sally, Ross, Len and Kim . . . and of course, thank you Sam.
.
Today I picked up Paul at the Cunnamulla airport. There only is one gate. My car was the only car in the small parking lot. The plane Paul was on was the only plane within miles of the airport. As some of you may know, Paul was on "shoreleave" for the past 2 1/2 weeks on the Sunshine Coast - a beautiful area just north of Brisbane. His vacation was supposed to be 1 week, but somehow. . . Big thanks to Mark and Karoline for their generosity. They were such a great host and hostess, Paul almost did not come back to Koroit . . . and yes gothic romance fans (or should I have said "bodice ripper fans"?), Paul met "someone very interesting".
It was rather theraputic to have some time on my own - Koroit is a great place for such therapy. . . . but I appreciate having Paul's help.
I will be updating / completing the blog entry "A Day in the Life" to give you a better idea of my not quite Jack Bauer-like 24 hours.
Previously I mentioned a similarity between aspects of the plot of The Trial and some of the workings of the Dept of Mines in Queensland. In addition to the tangled and dynamic paperwork and official rulings in The Trial, the story is rather dark, lonely and depressing (The film by Orson Welles with Anthony Perkins is quite beautiful and well done, but not really the best feel good movie or date flick. I believe it's the opening scene (after Welles narration) which features an uncomfortably long lasting shot with Perkins being very anxiety-ish. . . but I digress). Actually, interacting with the Dept of Mines is more of a combination of The Trial, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass (also well worth reading even by you adult types). Although some aspects of the morass of Dept of Mines paperwork can on some occasions leave one feeling dark, lonely and depressed, the entire experience usually is more Alice-like, including various semi-logical puzzles, rather confounding forms with nearly useless instructions and a few laughs. Please be aware, the folks working at the Dept of Mines in Quilpie have always been very nice and very helpful to me. They are aware of and sometimes quietly will admit to the absurdity of some of the burecratic silliness. Several times they've helped me negotiate the confusing and perilous waters into The Heart of Darkness of many pages of form after form. Ross and Sally have been particularly helpful - Thank You!!!
Regarding Dept Mines paperwork . . . there were a few unforseen zigzags which are currently being resolved. . . out of consideration and hoping not to lose to many readers, I will spare you those details. This means the excavator has not started to dig, but will start in about a month. It worked out just fine. I have plenty of rough to deal with right now and have enjoyed working underground, possibly for the last time at this location. This paperwork glitch and change of plans is typical of living and working here. Of course, it is best to have a plan, but a plan which is not overly rigid. . . always be prepared for the unexpected and go with the flow. . . it's a beautiful combination of sameness and unpredictability.
It is winter here. When you're living in a garden shed and the outside temp gets close to freezing, it gets cold inside. . . unless you have a great fire. The sun is getting low and we need to get back to the camp, collect firewood and start our fires before it gets too cold. . . it will be dark before we get back to Koroit. Today was quite cold and tonight probably will be too. If I'm too late starting my fire, the mice will get upset.
Thanks to Mark, Karoline, Sally, Ross, Len and Kim . . . and of course, thank you Sam.
.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
- Opal Production Down
Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
The word on the street here is that in general opal production is down throughout all of Australia. Yes, this is a business filled with rumors, however the significant drop in production seems to be a fact. The production of boulder opal in Queensland is way down. The drop is due to a few factors including : people who are digging are not finding much opal and because of increased fuel costs fewer people are digging (today I paid over US$7 / gallon for diesel). Koroit is unusually quiet this season with few miners working. Luckily, I have been having a good season and finding opal.
.
The word on the street here is that in general opal production is down throughout all of Australia. Yes, this is a business filled with rumors, however the significant drop in production seems to be a fact. The production of boulder opal in Queensland is way down. The drop is due to a few factors including : people who are digging are not finding much opal and because of increased fuel costs fewer people are digging (today I paid over US$7 / gallon for diesel). Koroit is unusually quiet this season with few miners working. Luckily, I have been having a good season and finding opal.
.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
- Blog, Questions, Comments, Emails . . . etc
Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
Greetings, sorry for a bit of a gap in posting . . .
A few of you have left comments and questions on the blog, thank you. I appreciate them and have posted a few. Since this can be read by anyone, I have not posted the more "colorful" comments. Yes, I appreciate them, but they might make some of my dear readers blush. . . and after reading such comments those readers who are less physiologically and technically sophisticated might be left confused, frustrated or even a bit queasy.
There have been a few comments that I find rather confusing or unclear. Now I'm a bright boy and have read and even achieved a reasonable understanding of some of the subtleties of the writings of Wittgenstein and can almost understand idiomatic Australian, but please don't test my abilities. If you have something to say, please be clear.
You should be aware, when you post something on the blog, I have no idea who it is from or what your email address is. Please be sure to include your name & email address when you leave a comment or feel free to email me directly with your questions.
Thanks for taking a look. I will be in town again tomorrow and hope to make up for the lengthy gap in my postings. . . tomorrow I hope to add a few things here including a description of a typical day in my life here mining, details on some of the treasures I've found, the smell of burning gidgee in the morning (certainly more pleasant than the smell of napalm in the morning, but not reminiscent of victory), some creatures encountered. . . etc
.
Greetings, sorry for a bit of a gap in posting . . .
A few of you have left comments and questions on the blog, thank you. I appreciate them and have posted a few. Since this can be read by anyone, I have not posted the more "colorful" comments. Yes, I appreciate them, but they might make some of my dear readers blush. . . and after reading such comments those readers who are less physiologically and technically sophisticated might be left confused, frustrated or even a bit queasy.
There have been a few comments that I find rather confusing or unclear. Now I'm a bright boy and have read and even achieved a reasonable understanding of some of the subtleties of the writings of Wittgenstein and can almost understand idiomatic Australian, but please don't test my abilities. If you have something to say, please be clear.
You should be aware, when you post something on the blog, I have no idea who it is from or what your email address is. Please be sure to include your name & email address when you leave a comment or feel free to email me directly with your questions.
Thanks for taking a look. I will be in town again tomorrow and hope to make up for the lengthy gap in my postings. . . tomorrow I hope to add a few things here including a description of a typical day in my life here mining, details on some of the treasures I've found, the smell of burning gidgee in the morning (certainly more pleasant than the smell of napalm in the morning, but not reminiscent of victory), some creatures encountered. . . etc
.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
- Goat, XXXX, Footie, Kiwi, Hungover, Internet
Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
First - A very big thanks to Len, a friend and fellow miner in Koroit, who is letting me use his computer. This means my blog postings should be a bit more coherent as well as more interesting and my email responses will be faster and also a bit more coherent.
. . . speaking of coherent, I'm working on about 2 hours of sleep after taking part in a very Australian social event - As you sports fans probably already know, last night in Sydney, Queensland defeated New South Wales in the third and deciding match in the State-of-Origin series. If you're not a footie fan, what I just said means Queensland won a rugby game and has a certain amount of bragging rights for about a year . . . it also means that last night across the land downunder many blokes and their mates and a few Sheilas got on the piss. (in USA english: last night across Australia many guys and their friends and a few women got drunk (had a few beers)).
Thanks to Curly and Vince for their invitation and for hosting a huge Koroit get-together (21 people were present) last night including dinner, watching the footie, watching QLD win and NSW lose (16 to 10), entertaining conversation and a bit of Queensland's own beer XXXX.
Thanks for the generous donation of many cans of XXXX and a few of VB from a dear Kiwi friend Mark. . . thanks for the conversation, the warm fire until about 3am, the music and the ride home. . . . a particularly big thanks to Mark's Mrs, Caroline, for her patience and understanding and hopefully for not killing Mark this morning.
more later. . . it's dinner time. . . .
First - A very big thanks to Len, a friend and fellow miner in Koroit, who is letting me use his computer. This means my blog postings should be a bit more coherent as well as more interesting and my email responses will be faster and also a bit more coherent.
. . . speaking of coherent, I'm working on about 2 hours of sleep after taking part in a very Australian social event - As you sports fans probably already know, last night in Sydney, Queensland defeated New South Wales in the third and deciding match in the State-of-Origin series. If you're not a footie fan, what I just said means Queensland won a rugby game and has a certain amount of bragging rights for about a year . . . it also means that last night across the land downunder many blokes and their mates and a few Sheilas got on the piss. (in USA english: last night across Australia many guys and their friends and a few women got drunk (had a few beers)).
Thanks to Curly and Vince for their invitation and for hosting a huge Koroit get-together (21 people were present) last night including dinner, watching the footie, watching QLD win and NSW lose (16 to 10), entertaining conversation and a bit of Queensland's own beer XXXX.
Thanks for the generous donation of many cans of XXXX and a few of VB from a dear Kiwi friend Mark. . . thanks for the conversation, the warm fire until about 3am, the music and the ride home. . . . a particularly big thanks to Mark's Mrs, Caroline, for her patience and understanding and hopefully for not killing Mark this morning.
more later. . . it's dinner time. . . .
Thursday, June 26, 2008
- roos, emus and Kafka
Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
Last evening was a typical evening after a day of working at the mine. I had spent the afternoon slicing rough - with some beautiful results and Paul had gone for a long walk in the bush. As the sun was nearing the horizon, Victor, a miner from Yowah, stopped by for a yarn (yarn: Australian for a chat or a story). After talking about various peculiarities of the opal business and mining in southwest Queenland, Victor left and Paul and I drove off to take showers.
Paul and I take showers in a little corrugated iron shed near someones camp by an artesian bore, about 5 miles from my mine. The water is from way down deep so it's always hot and a bit minerally - it has a slight smell, but does not stink. It has some magic combination of minerals in it that do incredible things for achey muscles - it really feels great after working hard all day. Last night, after the sun was down and it was dark, Paul & I were driving to the bore. Sitting in the middle of the dirt road were 2 young kangaroos - not an unusual sight. They were not joeys, but were not full grown. They were in the middle of the road, back to back, one facing the right shoulder of the road, the other facing the left. As we drove up, they darted off the road in a very organized sort of way which looked rather funny. Watching them hopping along we could see another younger one and mom not far from the edge of the road - a typical sight out here. We took our showers and were rejuvenated. Since the hot water is virtually endless, if no other miners are waiting for a shower, it is so nice to just linger and let the hot water run over your neck and shoulders . . . as long as there are not too many spiders too close in the shower. . . yes, you do need to sort of keep one eye open for univited and potentially dangerous shower guests. Last night a very strange and unknown species of bug about 2" long walked along the floor of the shower until I sent a tidal wave, washing him or her away. The night before, a frog hopped between my feet as I was showering. As I mentioned, I do not mind frogs, however seeing them out here can make me a bit cautious since snakes find frogs to be very attractive.
Back to the story . . . we took our showers and were rejuvenated. After our showers, it was dark. The sun had been down for a while and the moon had not yet risen. On the way home, we saw the kangaroos again near the same spot in the dirt road. This time the 4 we had seen were all in the road. My car approached and mom promptly hopped off the road. As often happens with young 'roos in the road on a dark night, they started to hop away, but as they were about to leave the light from my car's spotlights and hop into darkness, they turned back into the light, certainly because it was much easier to see in the light, but that put them back in the path of my car. They at least had the sense to hop away from my car, down the road in the direction I was driving. For probably over a minute, we drove along the dirt road with 3 young kangaroos hopping in front of my 4WD, trying to get away, but wanting to stay in the beam of the headlights.. . . unlikely reindeer in front of something other than Santa's sleigh. I sped up and slowed down and enjoyed watching their hopping technique and them moving from side to side. They were easily cruising at over 40km/hr (you can do the conversion as an exercise - I was a math teacher) - they were only young 'roos and were not going as fast as they could. One by one, they wised up or accidentally turned off the road and out of the way of my car.
Have you read The Trial, by Franz Kafka? (Yes, he wrote The Metamorphosis.) If so, then you will have some appreciation of the vagaries of the similar functioning or lack thereof of the Department of Mines in Queensland and its associated regulations and everchanging forms. . . . more later.
. .
. . . .
Last evening was a typical evening after a day of working at the mine. I had spent the afternoon slicing rough - with some beautiful results and Paul had gone for a long walk in the bush. As the sun was nearing the horizon, Victor, a miner from Yowah, stopped by for a yarn (yarn: Australian for a chat or a story). After talking about various peculiarities of the opal business and mining in southwest Queenland, Victor left and Paul and I drove off to take showers.
Paul and I take showers in a little corrugated iron shed near someones camp by an artesian bore, about 5 miles from my mine. The water is from way down deep so it's always hot and a bit minerally - it has a slight smell, but does not stink. It has some magic combination of minerals in it that do incredible things for achey muscles - it really feels great after working hard all day. Last night, after the sun was down and it was dark, Paul & I were driving to the bore. Sitting in the middle of the dirt road were 2 young kangaroos - not an unusual sight. They were not joeys, but were not full grown. They were in the middle of the road, back to back, one facing the right shoulder of the road, the other facing the left. As we drove up, they darted off the road in a very organized sort of way which looked rather funny. Watching them hopping along we could see another younger one and mom not far from the edge of the road - a typical sight out here. We took our showers and were rejuvenated. Since the hot water is virtually endless, if no other miners are waiting for a shower, it is so nice to just linger and let the hot water run over your neck and shoulders . . . as long as there are not too many spiders too close in the shower. . . yes, you do need to sort of keep one eye open for univited and potentially dangerous shower guests. Last night a very strange and unknown species of bug about 2" long walked along the floor of the shower until I sent a tidal wave, washing him or her away. The night before, a frog hopped between my feet as I was showering. As I mentioned, I do not mind frogs, however seeing them out here can make me a bit cautious since snakes find frogs to be very attractive.
Back to the story . . . we took our showers and were rejuvenated. After our showers, it was dark. The sun had been down for a while and the moon had not yet risen. On the way home, we saw the kangaroos again near the same spot in the dirt road. This time the 4 we had seen were all in the road. My car approached and mom promptly hopped off the road. As often happens with young 'roos in the road on a dark night, they started to hop away, but as they were about to leave the light from my car's spotlights and hop into darkness, they turned back into the light, certainly because it was much easier to see in the light, but that put them back in the path of my car. They at least had the sense to hop away from my car, down the road in the direction I was driving. For probably over a minute, we drove along the dirt road with 3 young kangaroos hopping in front of my 4WD, trying to get away, but wanting to stay in the beam of the headlights.. . . unlikely reindeer in front of something other than Santa's sleigh. I sped up and slowed down and enjoyed watching their hopping technique and them moving from side to side. They were easily cruising at over 40km/hr (you can do the conversion as an exercise - I was a math teacher) - they were only young 'roos and were not going as fast as they could. One by one, they wised up or accidentally turned off the road and out of the way of my car.
Have you read The Trial, by Franz Kafka? (Yes, he wrote The Metamorphosis.) If so, then you will have some appreciation of the vagaries of the similar functioning or lack thereof of the Department of Mines in Queensland and its associated regulations and everchanging forms. . . . more later.
. .
. . . .
Monday, June 23, 2008
- Next time - - -
Cunnamulla, QLD Australia
for next time. . . .
my encounter with emus
Yabbies
more opals and more opals
winter, chainsaw, a fire in the fireplace . . . the smell of gidgee burning. . . ah
.
for next time. . . .
my encounter with emus
Yabbies
more opals and more opals
winter, chainsaw, a fire in the fireplace . . . the smell of gidgee burning. . . ah
.
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