Yes, I am still in the land of the living - how time flies when your having fun or should I say when your not finding opal which has been the case so far this season. It is July already and this is the first couple of wet days since getting back to work. I haven't done a thing on the website as I have been reminded lately by a few people so that has to change too - opal or no opal!

On the family front there has been one major change - Mitchell is now a Cunnamulla resident. He and Zara have split up after 6 years of living together and he made the decision to move away from Toowoomba and with our urging decided to move out here. He is working in town 3-4 days a week and then coming out to help me for the rest of the week which is great - he is very keen to learn and I will be getting him mining here at the Shallows shortly. He is amazed with his health with the change as he has only had to inject himself once with insulin since arriving out a month ago - in Toowoomba it was every day - incredible what good diet and exercise can do for diabetes and, most importantly, getting away from a stressful situation. I hope he makes a long term commitment here as Lyn and I are enjoying having him around - one thing hasn't changed though - he is still bloody hard to get out of bed most mornings! Otherwise not much has changed - the gang in Canberra are all well and Noah is growing like mad and won't be long before he is up and away. Lyn has settled back into work in town and is flat out juggling her days between the two places she does the books for plus there are a couple of other smaller ones she does in her spare time - I do get to see her now and then!

On the mining front - Graham and I started in a new area on Gernot's lease, an area that there hasn't been too much done and we have found out why - the top 10ft or so is like concrete but we are getting through it. We have moved lots of dirt and there has been some terrific trace with lots of lower grade material - the signs have been fantastic but it just hasn't made good opal. There has been lots of shallow boulder levels and it has been a slow process breaking all the rock, especially with poor results - luckily we have had Gernot's brother, Willy, to help us and he has been a great help ( none of us ignorant Aussies can pronounce his German name so Graham called him Willy and it has stuck ). The levels are deeper than a lot of the rest of the lease with the bottom level being around 24 to 28 ft for a start but that has now stretched down to nearly 40 ft where we are now. This all looks good as we started on the shallow side and are following it down and I am sure we are near the bottom of it now - we can't go any further anyway as we are right on the boundary of the lease. There has been a lot of digging on the next lease and some terrific opal found so things are looking promising now. The thing is we have to move so much dirt to open up a hole big enough to move even my smaller machine around in - the first lift is to 24 ft then it is down into the hole to bench down another 6 ft or so for the 12 tonner to reach the bottom easily. The Mack has been invaluable moving a lot of dirt away but we have had to replace the fuel pump so it has not been working for the last month or so but, it is going again now which will be a big help. We have been getting a few exploratory drill holes put down and they have been very promising with good colour coming from the area we are now at - so, hopefully the drought is about to break on the material front. I was able to start the afternoon just before it started to rain and got some quite nice colour in a level at 27 ft and there is still 10 to 12 ft to go to the bottom - you can see in the last photo the different ground and to us mug opal miners it looks very, very good.

The worst part with not finding any good material is that it just drives you on to finding it and both Graham and I have just kept going non stop - this has not done either of us any good especially when we started nearly a month before any other miners got here and most of them have been getting some nice material since starting. We both have had a bit of a break to recharge the batteries and know that our turn is just around the corner. I know that I have neglected the website badly as well as this blog and that is not helping the cause at all. The worst part is I haven't had fresh material to work with so there has been no processing for the website - Tammy is also onto me looking for more rough parcels to put on Ebay as she has just about sold the lot. Anyway, I feel sure that all will be changing shortly and with Mitchell starting here as well, we will be giving it our best shot. The next blog won't be so far away and will be full of good news - guaranteed!

I have just put in mining photos this time showing from where we started until now.

It is great to finally be home at Koroit - I feel like Lyn and I have been halfway around the world over the last six weeks.

We were in Gosford when I did the last post - from there we went to Sydney and visited my other brother Andrew, his wife Annabelle and the boys, Nicholas and Charles. We haven't seen them for a year or so and they are all looking terrific and the boys growing like mad. They are very busy with Nicholas now at Scots as a dayboy and both boys into every conceivable sport and juggling it all around work as well. Lyn and I never really experienced that after primary school as both our kids went away to boarding school so it was all pretty easy. We had a lovely few days with them and it was great to catch up over the odd bottle of red.

We then moved over a suberb or two and visited one of Lyn's brothers, Graham and sister in law Anne in Turramurra and stayed with them for a couple of days. Again, it was great catching up with them as it has been a year or so since we have seen them as well. Unfortinately now, the only time all the family seem to get together is for weddings and funerals, so Lyn and I decided that because we only get away once a year we would make the effort to catch up with all the family that we don't see regularly. While we were there with them we visited Mal and Margaret Ferris, a lovely couple we met at the Cliff Richard concert and spent a lovely morning with them - it was great to show off some opal as well. We hope to meet them next year at Tamworth for the Country Music Festival as they are mad country music fans and have never been up there.

We finally got away from Sydney and headed to Canberra to see the kids - this was all uncharted territory for us as neither of us have been to Canberra. We stopped for lunch at Berrima, a little place off the highway and had a job getting away as the history of that little place was amazing. We wandered around there for a couple of hours and had lunch in the pub there - built in 1834 and has the longest continuing licquor licence in Aust - it has been built onto now but the old original stonework and bar has all been restored, it was a fantastic place and we ended up stopping there again on the way back - definitely worth a look if you are going down that way, and a terrific feed as well. Finally got to Canberra and see Tammy, Trent, Bailey and Noah - they have settled in there well after the move from Toowoomba and are in a very nice Defence Force home with Bailey's school only a few minutes walk away. Trent has settled back into work down there and is enjoying seeing some of his old mates as he was originally based in Canberra before going to Toowoomba. He is on shift work now and includes night shift as well - all 12 hour shifts so it has all been a bit hectic for them trying to get into some sort of routine with Noah, but they all look terrific and and are enjoying settling in.

Tammy and I got into setting up the Ebay selling as she is going to do that for me for a while before going back to work. She is pretty smart on all of that and got it all going in half the time it would have taken me. She is also selling other peoples stuff on Ebay as well - that came about from a casual conversation with one of the other mothers at school and she now has others ringing up every day wanting her to sell unwanted items for them. There is a little business in the making there for her while Noah is a baby and child care is scarce. Anyway, we got things going on Ebay with the rough opal and have sold a few lots so far - the main aim in selling on Ebay is to get buyers to the website and that is starting to work already with some enquiries coming in from all over the place including Germany and Switzerland.

We didn't get much time to do the tourist bit in Canberra but the Paris masters artists were being shown at the Art Gallery so we did go and see them - it didn't do much for me but Tammy and Lyn loved it. We will be back down there in October for Noah's christening and I will definitely be spending time at the War Museum while we are there.

It was back to Diamond Beach for a couple of weeks on the beach which we both enjoyed immensely. On the way back we had to make a detour out to the Hunter Valley Gardens to drop of some opal to a little shop there and we ran into some old friends from our early Wanaaring days - Steve and Karen Lofts were there when we first went there in 1985, Steve was the teacher at the little school. It was a great surprise and we spent a night with them at their lovely spot in the hills out from Clarencetown before heading back to the beach. Steve is still teaching at the local school and Karen is now an accountant with an incredible job with a huge American mining company - they both look great and are enjoying life and we enjoyed our short time with them immensly.

We have made the decision to sell our little spot at Diamond Beach - it is a long way away and we seem to be only spending a short time there each year and we both feel we can have a similar holiday each year here on the Qld coast somewhere - it is a reluctant sale as we both love it down there but the fees are going up every year and it really is quite expensive for the short time we are spending there. We have met some great people there and will miss seeing them each year but life goes on.

We finally made our way back to Caboolture for me to pick up the ute, Lyn headed back to Ipswich to visit her sister Kay for a couple of days. For me it was into brisbane to pick up parts for the Catand other bits and pieces I need for this year. I then went down to see Graham at the Gold Coast and loaded up a generator and a heap of other stuff - I sure had a load to go home with but the six wheeler handled it with little effort as usual. Lyn and I met in Toowoomba and after a monster days shopping for groceries and meat we finally headed home.Milo was sure excited to see Lyn again even though Mitch and Zara looked after him like he was there own.

It was amazing to see the amount of green feed on the way home - being away we missed all the rain and flooding that has happened out west - there was water still laying everwhere and feed up to the fences - it is truly amazing to see how the country out here changes with some constant rain, you just wonder where the seed has come from after years of drought and the place looking like a desert - nature is incredible and I have seen it many times living in the outback but it never ceases to amaze me - it really is something that you have to see to believe. I finally got back out here to the camp - there has been quite a lot of damage on the road and still plenty of water in places but everything at the camp was terrific - plenty of green grass around which is a change but on the whole it was easy to settle back in after 3 months away.

Graham arrived out with a semi load of gear over Easter so we have both been busy doing maintenance on our machines and checking over an old Mack tipper that Graham bought to help us move some dirt - it had been standing for 7 years without turning a wheel so we had a couple of days going over it but it seems to be ok and hope it will do the job. We will be moving the two excavators down to Gernots this week and hope to make a start shortly so by the time I get around to the next post we should have some opal out - that is the plan anyway!

Lyn and I had a great Easter out here with some friends from our Wanaaring days - Mal and Judy Howchin had the Post Office and telephone exchange for a number of years and are now based in Gulgong and are heading off for a 6 month stint on the road around the Top End and called in for a few days over Easter. It was great to spend the time with them and I think Mal just might spend a bit of time up here mining- he wanted to stay longer but they are meeting other friends in Mt Isa and had to head off. It was great to see them and good luck to them on their trip - it is something Lyn and I would like to do and probably will if and when we sell Diamond Beach.

This post has been a little long winded but I wanted to catch up on what we have been doing - we are now back to normal with Lyn busy catching up on her work in town and I will be back into the mining and enjoying the year out here - it really is nice to be back amongst the peace and quiet in my little spot in the bush. The days just don't seem to be long enough though with plenty to do but if I can't get it done today then tomorrow will do - it certainly is a lifestyle that I have come to enjoy.

Photos this time include a couple that Jan took at Gosford when she and Lyn visited their parents memorial and the four of us enjoying a red one night.

At Diamond Beach the resident carpet snake visited quite often and a lovely sunrise over the beach.

Sure had a load on the ute as usual when coming out from Toowoomba and plenty of green around the camp.

Mal and Judy Howchin at Easter and heading off on the road for 6 months.

The Mack tipper that Graham bought out and the machines ready to go to work.

Here it is the end of Feb already and the trouble with being on holidays is that you tend to put off the things you are meant to keep up with - well I do anyway, but the pressure is on me again so here is an update of what we have been doing since spending Xmas with the kids.

Lyn and I spent New Year with Mum and Dad and brother Michael and his family at Noosa which is a great spot to have a few days. It was great to catch up with the family as we only see them a couple of times a year. Both Mum and Dad are looking very well as they head into their 80's and are both very energetic for their ages - Dad playing golf at least 3 times a week and Mum going for her walks every morning with her mates, ending with the usual coffee break at their favorite spot. Dad had a hip replacement 17 years ago but is still going strong at 83 years of age and still hits a very good golf ball - only hope I am doing the same at his age.

After New Year, Lyn headed back to Toowoomba to see the kids again before Tammy and Trent moved to Canberra then went back to Cunnamulla to continue her work. I stayed with Michael through until the end of the first week in Feb, doing what I have done the last few years for him on his macadamia nut farms. I have put a photo in again to show the process of cleaning under the trees to allow the easier harvesting of the nuts once they start falling. We had pretty good weather for most of the time this year so I had a good run and got nearly all 4 farms completed. It did rain right at the end but the boys soon finished off what I couldn't complete, so Mick was very pleased as the nuts seem to be maturing earlier this year and harvesting will be starting sooner than normal - usually the beginning of March, so they are probably into it as I am doing this post.

It was great to see Lyn back and we headed off down the coast for our usual stint at Diamond Beach near Foster. We called in and saw Graham Paul at the Gold Coast and stayed the night there, spending the time making a few plans for this years mining. It was then off down the coast - me wanting to get to Diamond Beach and Lyn wanting to call into every little place along the way looking for markets and old shops. We got to Iluka that night - about 100 kms down so obviously I lost - nothing changes much no matter how long you are together! The next day was my turn though and we hit Diamond Beach just after lunch on the 15th Feb. It was great to be there again as we both enjoy our stays there a lot - everything had survived ok since last years visit and our big paint job still looks terrific. We had nearly a week there then we hit the road again on Friday 19th as Lyn had got tickets to a Cliff Richard concert in the Hunter Valley at Hope Estate winery on Sat night. We got accommodation in a B&B at Lochinvar not far away and had a great weekend in all with the concert and having a look around the wineries as well as meeting some lovely couples at the B&B. The concert was fantastic to see and Cliff Richard at nearly 70 years of age was truly amazing. I even sold some opal at a shop at one of the many tourist places so that was a bonus and will be a new contact for the future.

We are now at Gosford at Lyn's older sister Jan and her hubby, Peter and will be here for a few days before heading to Sydney to visit more family - Lyn's brother Graham and family and my other brother Andrew and family. It is then off to Canberra to see Tammy and Trent and grandkids - we are both looking forward to this time as neither of us has been to our nations capital. I certainly want to see the War Museum - I have been told it is a fantastic visit.

While we are in Canberra Tammy and I have lots to do as she is going to take over my selling on the internet. Tam want to go back to work but child care for Noah is very difficult to get with the smallest waiting list being 280 - unbelievable but true. She is going to stay home and concentrate on her studies to be a naturopath and offered to do my selling on auction sites for me. I most certainly agreed as Tammy is much more up to speed with the internet than an old miner like me so we are going to give it a go. All I have to do is keep the material up to her but we will give it a good go as many people are selling opal on the web and doing quite well so there is no reason why we can't do the same.

For anyone that has checked out the website, there are quite a few SOLD signs especially on the rough page - yes I have finally been selling some material mainly to Germany and America, which has been terrific. I was intending to have had material for sale on Ebay by now but that hasn't happened, but once Tammy gets going that will change very quickly. I know that once I start mining again it would be difficult to do the internet selling properly as it does take a considerable amount of time. If this works well with Tammy it will save me a lot of time and I can concentrate on producing material for sale.

Graham and I have decided to attack one of the deeper areas on Gernot's lease this year - I was going to concentrate on my own lease but Gernot has put the pressure on me to continue there and so Graham and I will team up as it is certainly easier with 2 machines where the opal level is deeper, we are looking at levels at 35ft and deeper, so a lot of dirt has to be moved. Anyway, we will give it a go and see what happens.

That is about it for now - next post will probably be when I am back at Koroit and hard at it.

I only have a few photos and they are -

- the New Years dinner with Mum and Dad, Mick, Louise and Ali

- Lyn relaxing at Diamond Beach once again

- cleaning out under the trees on Mick's macadamia farms, and

- some great views of one of the Glasshouse Mountains down the rows on one of the farms.

Merry Xmas and all the best for 2010 and to all those opal miners out there, may 2010 be a "colourful" one.

The photos above show in order - Tammy looking great with Noah / the family - Trent, Tammy, Bailey and Noah / "Poppy" with Noah / The family at Xmas dinner /the machine above the hole showing the ironstone levels I am chasing / using the excavator in the hole / checking out some stone in the hole / Grahams new 23 tonne machine / a lovely split I cut / a nice set I cut from the one stone including a slice that came out in the shape of Aust.

The year is all but over and how quick it has gone - I say that every year lately and the old fellows just tell me that the years just go quicker as you get older. Overall I must say that this year has been the best one for a while as far as the mining and the enquiry for material goes. I hope it continues on for next year as well - I know the number of miners at Koroit is getting less each year as costs and interference from Gov. departments takes its toll.

This year has seen the appearance of the Environmental Protection Authority and Safety and Health with yearly levies on each lease of a minimum of $500 per year and I can see it getting worse. We are grouped in the same category as the big coal and other mineral mining companies which is absolutely ridiculous, and some of the safety issues that have come up are just laughable when you are a sole miner working a hole 50 metres square, but unfortunately, as a couple of defiant miners have found out, they have the power to just close us down on the spot. It means that we are all going to have to change our ways in the future and that is why I know of quite a few miners that are giving the game away. I feel for them because most of them are just retired fellows that do this as a hobby, enjoy the lifestyle and have never done the wrong thing by anyone and just stick to themselves as most opal miners do. It must be said that there has never been a reportable accident amongst the present miners at Koroit and some have been there for a long time but, the Gov. coffers need filling up so opal miners are now on the hit list. I actually feel that there will be more chance of an accident happening with the constant interference than if we were just left alone as we have been in the past. I must say that right from when I started mining this lease 4 years ago, I always had a feeling that we would eventually be under scrutiny from Gov. departments so I did plan my digging accordingly, backfilling as I went, time consuming as it is, but it has paid off as I got a clean bill of health from both departments and they are even talking about using it as an example to others with my permission - maybe!

On the mining front - I continued on Gernot's lease until late Nov - I managed to get some reasonable material but on the whole only lower grade stuff - very saleable but nothing really good which is what I was hoping for. I spent the rest of Dec just slicing up material I got from when I was working with Gernot earlier in the year and cutting a few of the better stones. I did a lot of photographing of stones and little parcels of rough which will be going on the website and also on Ebay next year when Lyn and I have a month or so at Diamond Beach. I certainly have more stock in cut stones than I have ever had so if I can get things moving on the website, I may be able to move some there as well as visiting the usual buyers while I am away from home. I must say that I am not too worried if I don't sell as I think that demand is going to outstrip supply over the next couple of years. Koroit material is very different to most other boulder opal as you can see if you look at the stones on the website - http://www.cooperopals.com/ - it is becoming more scarce as the miners disappear and, also it is getting harder to find as the years go on. Koroit is only a small area and a lot of exploration work has been done looking for new areas but they are just not there - the field is only small and that is the way it will stay. There are leases for sale but to buy a lease and have the gear to work it, a couple of hundred thousand dollars will disappear very quickly - definitely not the hobbyist game anymore!

I mentioned in my last post that Graeme next door was waiting for his new excavator to arrive and it did eventually come and it is a very nice machine. He spent the last month mining with me on Gernots lease and got a real taste of breaking lots of material with little results - definitely the miners plight - he didn't do any better than me, only getting lower grade material but it certainly gave him a idea of what is too come if he decides to keep at it. I am sure he will and I certainly hope he does as it was great to have some company close handy.

It was definitely the hottest it has been leading up to Xmas than any year previously and the constant dust storms didn't help much either. The heatwave that everybody had in Nov was pretty trying - I have a small weather station with inside and outside temperature readings - the outside one under the carport and always in the shade. It never got under 45C for over ten days outside and up to 49C one day - inside wasn't much better and the nights were pretty ordinary as well - most nights going to bed at 10pm it was still 35C inside. I seemed to get a pretty good nights sleep with a little fan and we just worked all day as the air conditioners just couldn't do the job at all. At least there was a breeze every day so the sweat cooling was enough to keep us both hanging in there. Even when the heatwave was over, 40C every day until we left was the usual thing - at least the nights were better and we could get a good nights sleep. We both agreed that bigger generators and more air conditioners are the order for next year. I am certainly not whining about it otherwise I could have packed up and left like everybody else but it certainly was the toughest couple of months I have spent out there. It is nice sitting here in Toowoomba at the moment - certainly a lot more comfortable but not as quiet of course.

Lyn and I have spent Xmas with the kids here in Toowoomba and it has been great to catch up with our new grandson before they head off to Canberra in the new year. Trent has a transfer with the Airforce and they will be down there for three years and they are both looking forward to it. Mitchell and Zara are going really well even though Mitchel has just been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which has come as a fair shock to us all. It certainly means a big change in lifestyle for him but at least he will be healthier as long as he does the right thing. I think Zara is quite enjoying giving him the insulin shot every day. Lyn and I are heading up to Noosa Heads for New Year to spend it with my family, I will be doing my usual stint with Mick on his macadamia nut farms during January while Lyn is returning to Cunnamulla to work for the month. We are then heading for Diamond Beach for hopefully about six weeks giving us both a chance to unwind for a while together. We will visit Tammy and Trent in March in Canberra as they will have settled into there new home by then.

I have rambled on enough for this post - I am looking forward to a good year in 2010 and wish everybody who has taken the time to read this - all the best for the New Year.

October is nearly gone already and here I am sitting here in jeans and jumper, it is raining cats and dogs and it is 16 degrees C. Yesterday at this time in the morning it was 35 degrees and the sweat was pouring off me - the weather has been so changeable this last few months but the rain is very welcome after so many dust storms that have been raging most days over the last month. September/October are notoriously windy months but it has been particularly bad this year and with no rain for most of the year so far, the dust has been very bad - I can't whinge though, it is part of living out here - you have to take the good with the bad and I wouldn't change it for anything.

So much for all my going on about working on the website - http://www.cooperopals.com/ - I haven't done a damn thing since my last post except put some sold signs on the stones that I have sold. These were all sold to buyers here so I haven't yet sold anything off the site but I know that once the effort is put in the rewards will come. Now that the hotter days are coming I will only be mining in the mornings so will start spending more time on the processing and selling side.

The big news following on from last post is that we are grandparents again - we have a grandson, Noah James Oldham, born at 4.20 on Tuesday morning, 20th October. Tammy was actually due on the 12th so the little bugger was quite content where he was - anyway, all went well with the home birth and mother and son are both terrific and Trent is one very proud dad. I don't know where the name Noah came from , James or even Jim sounds much better to me - I think I'll call him that rather than Noah! Lyn has had a couple of weeks at Toowoomba with them helping out and is actually on her way home this week loaded up with supplies for the next couple of months. We always do our dry goods shopping while we are away as it is so much cheaper than buying out here. I only have a couple of photos for now but will certainly have plenty when Lyn gets home for the next post.

On the mining front - it has been a very busy time since finishing the big hole at Gernot's, and as I said in my last post, we were moving over to Gene's lease to go down even deeper. Well that job is now finished and I am back on my hole on Gernot's as I would like to finish the job there before moving the machines back over here to the Shallows just before Xmas. It turned out to be a massive hole at Gene's - we were down on a level of nuts at nearly 50 feet and it was amazing to see a 30 ton excavator in a hole that deep, as you could walk up to the hole and not even know it was there. I was shifting the dirt out of the hole and moving it away so at times would be perched up on mulloch heaps 20 feet in the air and the other machine was a long way down below me. The actual amount of material we got was disappointing as Gene did not realise how much that part of his lease had been tunnelled out before he purchased it - we had some quite frustrating days where we were consistently breaking into tunnels - there was little material left there for us. We did finally get into some virgin ground and did find some nice nuts - a couple in particular as the photos show. The only trouble was that by then we had run out of room so it was agreed that we wouldn't open the hole up anymore this year but would continue next year, and I think that will be very promising by the signs we had at the finish. I did just over 70 hours on my machine and with what we got should break even or maybe a little more, so I was very happy with the outcome - could have found nothing at all! At least we now have the hole open and it will all be easier for next year when we attack it again - I certainly learnt a lot as I have never had a go at a hole that big before.

Everybody has now left the field for this year except for Graeme next door so it is good for both of us to have someone else around until we both pack up before Xmas. He is expecting his new excavator any day as he has been battling along with his 6 ton machine and finding it a little frustrating. He and his son have purchased a 23 ton machine - a perfect size for digging in this area and I know he is looking forward to it arriving. He has been giving me a bit of a hand down on Gernot's driving my old machine and enjoying seeing some opal come out. We haven't found anything to fantastic but enough saleable material to pay for the diesel. I have quite a lot of stuff to process over the coming months so should end up with a reasonable amount to bombard the website over summer - I had better start getting serious about it as Xmas is coming too quickly.

Photos show Noah Oldham at 6 hours old, proud dad Trent and brother Bailey with Noah, Nanny Lyn with Noah - the hole at Gene's getting a start, getting bigger and deeper, the opal ground starting to show, one of the many tunnels we uncovered, the two machines working together and two of the better nuts found.

http://www.cooperopals.com/ - click here to check it out!

What a changeable month August was with record high temperatures everywhere and here as well, with one day getting over the 40 degree mark, then a week later we had the fire going again. It had all of us worried that an early start to summer was looming but it has settled down to normal temperatures again and the days are terrific at the moment. A lot of miners have packed up and gone for this year, and with the days getting into the mid 30s now, the rest are getting a little fidgety. I personally really enjoy from now to Xmas time - I have never liked the cold weather much and prefer this time of the year the most. There are a couple of other miners staying until the end of October this year and then I will be on my lonesome here on the field again as usual.

It has just been business as usual on the mining front - I have been continuing on the hole on Gernots lease and have been getting just enough material to keep me interested. My little machine digs to about 18 ft and a lot of the old hands have been telling me that there are two more good producing levels under that, so once I got the hole big enough, I put a ramp in on one side and ventured down. There were three more levels, the bottom one at just over 30 ft but unfortunately they were all dry as chips which was a little disappointing, but the ramp is there now and once I open the hole up some more I will have another look.

There are some very deep levels carrying good opal on Gernot's lease and Gernot made the decision to go after them with the excavator - the levels being at 40 ft, which means there is a mountain of dirt to move. The dirt can only be moved so far each time so it has to be shifted 3 or 4 times to keep it away from the working area. He had to make his working platform in the hole at 30 ft or 9 metres and when he got down there he could only move so much dirt then go back up and pull that dirt out of the hole and keep moving it away to make room for the next lot - a very slow and tedious business with one machine. I volunteered one day to save him coming out of the hole and pulled the dirt out for him - I have a mud bucket which moves quite an amount of mulloch in a short time. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it worked so well that I was asked to continue helping and did so for a couple of weeks. He did quite well in a level at about 40 ft and it was a thrill to be there to see some nice material come out. Gernot has returned to Germany and won't be back until next season, but he will be looking forward to a good one next year now that the hole is open.

An American fellow has a mine that is in an area of Koroit where the levels are very deep compared to the rest of the field and worked underground. Gene has been slaving away underground for a few years now and has been getting some nice material. He has put it to a couple of us with excavators to open-cut a big area, the opal bearing levels are from about 35 to 50 ft so this is going to be one big mother of a hole and a real challenge. I was thrilled when asked to be involved so my own mining has been put on hold again for a while. We have only just started in the last few days so I will take plenty of photos and have an update next post. Gene also has a blog and is much more diligent than I am so if you would like to stay updated on nearly a daily basis, you can check out his blog at http://www.koroit.blogspot.com/

I have been slowly updating the website - with the mining the way it has been and will be for another month or so, finding time is not easy. The idea was to mine in the morning each day and then process, cut and photograph pieces and keep the website and blog up to date in the afternoon - sounds good in theory but trying to put it into practice is another ballgame altogether. Lyn has been helping on weekends when she is here and I have finally got her onto the grinding wheels touching up slices of rough which is saving me a lot of time. I plan to start selling some rough on Ebay as well as I feel this will be a good way to build a customer base over time. The website is a long term venture for me, so I am not worried if it takes a while to build up business but I would hope that by this time next year I will be using it it as a major selling tool. For nearly half a year there are no miners here and therefore no buyers either and it is this off season period each year that I want the website to sell material.

It is getting close now for grandchild number two to arrive and Lyn is getting very excited. She is very good on the sewing machine and I have seen some terrific creations during our early years of marriage but with being so busy with the business at Wanaaring for so long, sewing was forgotten for a long period. The old sewing machine has come out of mothballs now though and has been very busy the last month or so. It is great to see her back at it because she really is very good at it, the quilt cover she has produced for the cot is terrific and I am sure there is plenty more to come. Anyway, I am sure I will be able to squeeze an odd baby photo amongst the mining photos next post.

Photos this time are - the ramp I put in on my hole, a couple of going through the level down in the hole, the rest are showing the progress on Gernot's deep hole from helping move the dirt out to actually digging the level of opal bearing rock and breaking the stone. The last two show Gernot with a pile of stone to break and the results of a couple of weeks very hard work.

www.cooperopals.com - don't forget to check it out!