Saturday, December 18, 2010

Digging For Diamonds

After we left Beaver Lake, AR we drove through some very pretty country on our way to The Crater of Diamonds to become the world’s wealthiest RV’ers. :o)

All we had to do was dig up a few big diamonds, no big deal, it was there for the taking. And anything we dug up we could keep.

Mountainous Arkansas Round Bales with Mountain in background
Fenceline Beautiful AR country roads

After spending the night at an RV park we headed out early to start digging. It was such a beautiful day although still  a bit muddy from the recent rain.

Entrance to the Crater of Diamonds State Park Crater of Diamonds S.P.

Once out on the diamond field we started scanning for anything shiny, then we started digging. We filled up a 5 gallon pail with dirt and rocks, then took it to the water tables for cleaning.

Joe and J walking out to the diamond field Joe inspecting the dirt

Joe scooped the dirt into the screen to be washed in the (cold) water.

Hopefully scooping up a handful of diamonds Washing the mud off the rocks

After the mud was washed off it is put on the table for examination.  We carefully looked through each pile for anything even slightly resembling a diamond.

Any big diamonds in there? Any little diamonds in there?

At the end of the day we took our stash to the examiner to see if we were famously rich……alas, we were not.

                           Inspecting our stash. 

But, we did have fun trying. And I think Jadyn had the most fun getting to play all day in the dirt. :)

                                    Jadyn playing in the mud.

Joe did try his luck the next day while we waited in the RV.

Heading out for another day of digging. Jadyn and I waited in the RV.

He rinsed his boots and equipment off, approached us with a big smile because…………..

Cleaning the mud off his boots. Glad to be done.

………he brought us home some very pretty rocks. Not diamonds. :o)

That diamond mine will continue to give up it’s treasure for hundreds of years so we will go back again. And since we have learned some awesome tips from the professional diggers (that is their full time job), we will have incredible success next time. Right? Right!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Update from Arkansas

I've been really busy here in Arkansas since my last post. I've been working on a shower house for the owner of the RV Park for a free site. Plus working on our RV fixing a ceiling and installing a tankless water heater. It is so nice to take a hot shower now.

When we first got here a few weeks ago I went out to The Crater of Diamonds State Park to hunt for diamonds. It was a really muddy out there but Jadyn didn't mind. After going there for three days I decided to take a break and research how to find them. I've been talking to the hardcore miners and have learned some good tips. I'll go back out there soon.

We are planning to start posting video logs soon to our blog, so stay tuned...