Here is my letter to Chris Smith: Chris Smith March 10, 2014 Director, Policy and Regulatory Reform c/o BC Ministry of Energy and Mines PO Box 9320 Stn Prov Govt Victoria, BC V8W 9N3 Dear Mr. Chris Smith: I know this is long winded but I hope you will read it to the end as this is what I go through a Small Placer Miners Wife. A Week in the Life of a Miners Wife: I was asked to write a story about a Day in the Life of a Miners Wife, but it was too difficult to do so I have done a Week in the Life of a Miners Wife. This is just one week as each and every week can and will be different. Early Monday morning I arrive home with the puppies (Odie & Dakota) from the mine, unload the truck, shower and head off to work for 8:30 am. At 5:00 pm I head home, feed and water Odie and Dakota and the 2 cats (Spazz & Thomas), start laundry for my miner (Rick), which has to be washed and rinsed twice with all the muck, oil and grease. It can sometimes be a real challenge, when I put the laundry in the dryer only to discover more large burn holes that need to be patched again. My miner must have been doing more grinding and welding, I don’t know how he does it with all the sparks and the slag from welding, I do worry about him getting burnt, but he is very skilled at what he does so a patching I will do when his Overalls are dry. While my miners laundry is drying I make supper for myself and start to plan their meals to be prepared during the week, by 10:00pm I have the meals planned, the patching done and my miners laundry folded and put back in his bag to be taken back to the mine later in the week. Tuesday morning at 5:00 am the puppies are wanting out and Thomas is singing in my ear. Head off to work where I deal with e-mails from customers and load up the computers for work. My Mother In-Law (Katie) has the concentrate all dried from last weeks run so now it’s ready for me to sift in the sieves, top of #1 sieve goes into a container to be picked later and the top of sieve #2 goes into another container to be picked later as well and what comes out of the bottom of sieve # 2 I take and run through a machine that I hook up to a battery with a tub of water & pump that pumps the water to the top of a small like sluice box & I slowly pour the black sand into a vibrating table that will wash 85% of the black sand from the gold, then the business phone rings I unhook the battery as I have to take an order for my regular job where we sell all natural products from Coconut Oils and Supplements that we ship all across Canada. This is fun juggling this all together, but I love a challenge. After running the fines through this contraption (I have not come up with a name for it yet.) I then take it all apart clean and wash the gold from the mat after sniffing up as much gold as I can. I then take it upstairs to my desk with a gold pan and the sniffer and sniff as much gold as I can to have it ready to dry and for Katie to use her blowing technique to get the last speck of black sand out of it. So our miners know what they got from the last section they processed. Now on to the picking of what was on top of Sieve #1 and #2. #1 Sift is easy to pick it is just the larger stones & clinkers. (We really like those ones.) #2 Sift is much more time consuming as I fill a one ounce plastic cup with black sand & chunkier gold & slowly very slowly and pour a little at a time onto a lid off of a plastic container & with tweezers pick out the gold from the black sand. It can take up to 4 hours to pick one 1 ounce container. Some picks can take as long as 24 hours to do. (This I do at home at night it does not happen in one day). Your eyes get tired your hands get sore, but it has to be done as we know how hard it is for the guys in camp at the mine to process the Dirt & deal with the muck. This makes for a long day at work taking orders, running credit cards, Katie puts the orders together and I do the shipping manifests & Katie runs to town 26 kms (well in the Van) to have them go to be delivered to our customers all across Canada. I head home around 6:00 pm, feed and water the animals and myself, start another load of laundry and yes sit down & start picking again. My miner calls every night to let me know how his day went this can be any time between 6:00 pm and 9:30 pm. So if someone happens to call before my miner has. I tell them my miner hasn’t called yet & I will call you back after my miner has called to tell me how his day went. I have gardens as well so I go out and water them all around 8:00 pm & of course I put the phone in my pocket in case my miner calls. By 1:00 am I can not see my vision is blurry from picking, I head off to bed. The dishes can wait till morning. 6:00 am Wednesday morning, I smell coffee and feel eyes on me I open one eye at a time and both puppies with heads on the bed are looking at me saying we have to pee! Out I go before the sun is on the gardens in my pj’s to water the gardens again. I pick the berries from our sun berry plants, rub all the tomato flowers to help pollinate them as they are all still in the green house. Head back in the house to clean the litter box, feed and water everyone again, make my lunch and take meat out of the freezer to start to make our miners meals, turn the dryer back on to take the wrinkles out of the clothes, shower, fold the laundry, coffee, breakfast. Oh well the dishes will probably still be there when I get home. Off to work I go to find Katie doing the finishing touches from the run I did the day before in our machine with a blow dryer in one hand and small paint brush in the other hand. I load up the computers, e-mails, answer the messages from the night before get the orders processed and ready for Katie to package up & off to the machine to run more black sand & gold, another day grinding away. Katie is now picking waiting for me to bring her more to blow, we sit down for lunch I have the gold pan in one hand, lunch in the other, portable phone in my pocket. I swirl the pan, sniff the gold, take a bite of lunch & then the phone rings off I go to take the order. Back to swirling and sniffing, and then I pour out of the sniffer into a bowl and into the oven to dry so Katie can start to do her blowing again. Home from work at 5:30 pm feed and water everyone again, I have to do dished since Spazz and Thomas slept all day. Tonight is the night to make bread and buns for our miners, prepare the grouse for the oven and make the raisin sauce while the dough is rising, make the wild rice to go with the grouse, one meal just about done. I gathered wild horse tail this morning as well and I make tea for our miners as it helps their bones and joints. Start picking again till 8:00 pm then off to water the gardens, pick more berries, back in to take the grouse out of the oven and form the bread and buns to rise, and start to pick again: Oh shit I forgot to put the buns in the oven, I set the timer so I don’t forget about them, the grouse is cool enough now to pick off the bones and put into the raisin sauce and I start to pick again. The buns are done and the bread is in the oven again set the timer so I don’t forget about it. Oh how I can not resist a bun fresh out of the oven with butter, I take a break and enjoy. Now back to picking at midnight I can no longer function, I put all the food away and let puppies out for a last pee. And off to bed. Thursday the alarm goes off at 5:30 am why oh why are the nights so short?? Humm I smell coffee! Let the puppies out, water the gardens, back into feed and water everyone again. Shower, make lunch, and put the stew meat in the slow cooker to make sweet and sour beef for another meal for our miners, take a turkey carcass out of the freezer to put in the slow cooker when I get home from work to make turkey soup for our miners. Upon arriving at work I find Katie in the same spot as I left her, yes blow dryer in one hand and small paint brush in the other. I continue picking, but I am all done with the machine until one of our miners brings us more dirt to play with. I answer the phones; e-mails get the orders processed for Katie to put together all while I continue to pick. Yippeee only one more ounce of dirt to go, then we are all caught up till one of our miners bring us more dirt to play with. I am so tired, but hey all done picking & Katie is all done blowing & brushing we can now have a break tonight from that. Katie told me to head home early she will answer the phones; I head out around 3:00 pm. I clean the beef out of the slow cooker and put the turkey carcass in, make the sweet and sour for the beef, get the potatoes ready to boil, water the gardens, cut fresh beet tops & swiss chard for the weekend. Feed and water everyone again, back out to the garden to get fresh thyme for the turkey soup. Talk to my miner; prepare the vegis for the slow cooker in the morning, the carcass is done and ready for deboning all done and ready for the morning to finish the soup, then I decide to put it in the slow cooker over night instead. It’s midnight again. Friday: I did not set the alarm last night, I wake up to eyes looking at me and something furry in Thomas’s mouth at 4:00 am, up I get with a bit of cursing and throw Thomas and his prize of a mouse out of the bedroom and close the door. At 6:00 am I wake to the smell of coffee, drag my butt out of bed get rid of Thomas mauled prize. Let puppies out, water the gardens and pick more berries, Feed and water everyone again, shower and head to work. After work head home load the coolers with all our miners’ food and food for the weekend, load the puppies and off we go to see our miner. Upon arriving at the mine around 7:00 pm, it is so quite hummm whats happening now?? One miner is heading home, another miner is heading to get parts and my miner says to me look honey we are all alone for the weekend. As any miner knows breakdowns always happen on a Friday, I think the oldest miner in the group plans it that way! So they can have the weekend off to get the parts first thing Monday morning! Saturday the alarm goes off at 5:30 am, my miner says to me we need to get the pumps ready to empty out the settling ponds to have them ready to put the new culvert in and they have to be below the water level to stop the sticks & debris from going through them, but you stay in bed & I will be back in a bit for breakfast. Well of course I have to pee so up I get and head to the outhouse, well I might as well stay up & get breakfast going. With breakfast done, puppies have gone for a long run. Now to get to work, I vacuumed out the boiler pots, pulled hoses here & there, helped move pumps, directed the culvert operations, made lunch, back down to pull more hoses & help move the pumps again. At about 8:00 pm we are just about done AND my miner says to me oh honey I am so hungry what’s for supper? I looked at my miner and said PIE, MUD PIE! Sunday the alarm goes off again at 5:30 am, up and at it again, with breakfast done and puppies go for another long run. I go down and clean out the nugget traps, and pan the materials I find in them, make lunch, more hose pulling and pump moving and then bam the house will not turn on the excavator with my miner in it, another break down. Well we can have an early supper and I can head home before dark to unload and get the laundry going and ready for work Monday morning. My miner is not really my husband he keeps telling me that once he gets enough gold he will make my ring, but then in comes the fuel bill, it’s been a long 8 years! Thank goodness the house will not move on the excavator and they have to fix it. I will have time to can 80 pounds of tomatoes, 40 pounds of carrots and 20 pounds of beets. Sincerely a very concerned Miners Wife in B.C.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 05:45:27 +0000