HurtHawk

I was doing a cleanup of the cons from last weekend's gold trips. I ran them through my homemade sluice and was panning them out on the patio. I noticed that the local group of mule deer had moved in to the back yard to drink from my processing buckets. They have found them an easier source of clean water than trudging to the local creek.

Suddenly, there is a horible racket and I look up to see one of the big bucks with his antlers tangled in the bungee cord that was holding my jury rigged header box to the sluice. The buck takes off at a dead run with the sluice box bouncing merrily
behind him....with me in hot pursuit!! When he reached the treeline, the sluice caught on a small tree and the bungee cord broke. I am 6 feet tall and weigh close to 200 lbs and I can't break one of those cords...did I mention this was a BIG buck?

Everything turned out well...the deer was scared but unhurt and the sluice only suffered a bent latch. My wife only wishes
she had a video of me chasing my sluice and the deer! Best of all...I had already removed my gold.

To all our (city folk) family and friends that have asked us more than once: "um, so, what DO you guys do for fun up there in the mountains?" (you know who you are)
Our standard answer has always been: "oh, we just like to sit and watch the grass grow." But now that spring is here,
it's time for some real excitement!