Gold Rush - General Discussion

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Lies from the jump.  Again.  Parker had over 1,800 oz in hand, yet the narrator said he had less than 1/3 of his 4K goal.  

I liked Tony copping to utterly ignoring ongoing operational maintenance for the dredge.   That's what you get when you force Gene to chase unicorns.  It was  a bit stunning that Tony was not edited to have said a single negative thing about his son.  Remember how the dredge was f-ing allll on him?  No excuses?!!  I don't recall Tony taking complete blame before.

The entire point of the $300K conveyor was to quickly handle a bunch of overburden.  The entire point!  So, it's proven that it can't handle the job efficiently.  Nothing said about the bad investment?  Was Parker sold a bill of goods by the Aussie dude?  How soon will we get the arc proclaiming Indian River starving for pay because it can't be stripped quickly enough?  While I'm at it, when will we get the admission that the cost of the conveyor alone would eat up 1/4 of the sacrosanct 1K  oz goal?  Parker's contract at IR is not for beyond this season, either.

Heck, AFAIK, the Disco show is still in question for next season, right?  If Parker really did buy that conveyor, he's cray cray.

[Liberty]

Funny how Freddy suddenly became so subservient.  Freddy must need the money from the show more than 'Dozer Dave.  At the end of this episode it did sound like they needed more hands so the call will probably go out to Sandy, Oregon.  It was great to see to barking orders as he effectively took over the Fairplay claim.  Disco would have us believe that Freddy singlehandedly put the current operation in place and ran it's tests.

Wonder what's up with Parker's GF?

If only Todd's endorsement for President had won, Todd would be in DC right now as "Secretary of Mines".

This show is not fit for anyone with an IQ greater than Todd's to watch, and yet here I am.

[jwc]

I think the conveyor can handle the job if it is loaded with dirt carefully.  In the long run, it is a huge time/money saver in wages,  equipment wear and tear and especially fuel.  I wonder if they are going to ditch the boundary cut and go full on Indian River because $5 a yard isn't going to cut it.  Unless he has some obligation to milk that mine uneconomically, I suppose if it is leased and all setup and stripped it makes some sense, there is a lot of sunk cost so it doesn't make sense to move the plant to Indian River this late in the season especially given the overburden issues going on over there.

I wonder if Tony took the heat for the broken dredge gear part because his son told him it needed maintenance and he said screw that push it til it breaks.  Which it did.  But it looked to me like the ground it was going through needed more overburden removal, so they can strip the ground while the part is getting repaired.

And Todd has some nerve complaining to Freddy about the condition of the shaker.  Yes Todd real mines probably use old functional equipment often not everyone has the luxury of getting a new wash plant (which will be sold to Parker for 1/2 price a year later) every other year.  Or shipping them to central America and back.  And this tool is going to go round second guessing Freddy on gold mining? The guy shows up in Oregon to save your bacon and that is the gratitude he shows?  Plus he needs to suck 500 ounces out of the project to pay for his past screw-ups, ideally by next Thursday when the snow will be falling.  But let's spend the day running hoses all around before it rains and the hole fills with water, which was good/bad because Freddy is coming with the tank.  Realistically there must be a ton of usable gear in the state and Freddy probably knows more than a few good operators, but he decides to bring in the Hoffman's.  The money is indeed in the show.  Come out to Colorado, run the dozer for an hour, lunch, load some dirt with an excavator, look in the sluice, where we sprinkled some gold in a few ripples, next show flash a jar half full, then some long-winded speech about how the season is saved, teamwork blah blah blah.  Then some breakdown which could have been avoided by proper maintenance/scheduling of tailings pile removal or something, and finally, save the day with some boneheaded fake fix/plan then go home a day later.  Good money if you can get it.

 

Plus I wonder what happens with the wash plants and other equipment they ditched in Oregon.  Ship them to Colorado for next year (maybe Dave will jump on board for that?) or send them up to the Yukon?  I guess the show makes a boatload of money so what is a couple of million in depreciating assets in the grand scheme of things.  No problem, just find a mine somewhere, arrange with the owner to shoot for a couple of days, add dialogue and boom tv gold!

 

I am just getting so jaded with the Hoffman's shenanigans.  I wish they would bring back Dakota Fred and his son.

Edited January 21, 2017 by jwc

[pastafarian]

I don't know how the gold is split, but I would guess that the Hoffmanns' are way over $6k (500oz) in the hole.  If the show is to be believed?  The cost of equipment rental, moving and multiple land leases have got to be incredibly high on top of the amount of dirt they moved and infrastructure they built for nothing.  How much does lining a huge water pond cost?  Do we see 'Monster Red' again, or was it repossessed/ gifted?  Of course, not paying anyone helps.  Tony cannot be this incompetent, can he?  Because this season makes him out to be a completely reckless dumbass.

[SRTouch]

3 hours ago, pastafarian said:

I don't know how the gold is split, but I would guess that the Hoffmanns' are way over $6k (500oz) in the hole.  If the show is to be believed?  The cost of equipment rental, moving and multiple land leases have got to be incredibly high on top of the amount of dirt they moved and infrastructure they built for nothing.  How much does lining a huge water pond cost?  Do we see 'Monster Red' again, or was it repossessed/ gifted?  Of course, not paying anyone helps.  Tony cannot be this incompetent, can he?  Because this season makes him out to be a completely reckless dumbass.

Ah, Monster Red may be gone for good this time - don't think Parker will need to buy it now he's buying stuff new.

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 1/21/2017 at 1:24 AM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

So, it's proven that it can't handle the job efficiently.  Nothing said about the bad investment?  Was Parker sold a bill of goods by the Aussie dude?

I loved the part where Parker called the Aussie dude, who showed up and basically told Parker he shouldn't be running it full out before he had any experience with it.  Or as Parker said,  "He told me to quit acting like a 22 year old kid."

On 1/21/2017 at 0:24 PM, Liberty said:

This show is not fit for anyone with an IQ greater than Todd's to watch, and yet here I am.

Well, here we ALL are.  So grab another bag of popcorn and we'll keep watching (and snarking) together.

On 1/21/2017 at 1:06 PM, jwc said:

Realistically there must be a ton of usable gear in the state and Freddy probably knows more than a few good operators, but he decides to bring in the Hoffman's.  The money is indeed in the show.

That post right there proves that this is less about actual mining than it is about creating footage for the show.

On 1/21/2017 at 1:06 PM, jwc said:

And Todd has some nerve complaining to Freddy about the condition of the shaker.  Yes Todd real mines probably use old functional equipment often not everyone has the luxury of getting a new wash plant (which will be sold to Parker for 1/2 price a year later) every other year.  Or shipping them to central America and back.

Ha!  I forgot about the whole Central America fiasco.  Thank you for reminding us.

On 1/22/2017 at 7:14 AM, pastafarian said:

 Tony cannot be this incompetent, can he?  Because this season makes him out to be a completely reckless dumbass.

Look at it from the producers' point of view.  The "I'm much too busy to deal with you having cameras around" schtick probably got old fast.  Especially since Tony is getting paid good money to have those cameras around.  

They probably grew tired of this and stopped giving him a positive edit.  Remember when he was only a guest on the show?  They made him out to be some sort of a God back then.

Edited January 23, 2017 by TheLastKidPicked

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Now we're down to 6 weeks and Parker's main claim is yielding 100 ozs/wk, give or take.  He's just over 2K, by my count - based on Disco edits, of course.  No 3K for you!  Indian River is similarly dry.  Time for the epic comeback, aka Disco shenanigans!

I loved the two engineering issues we saw with Parker and Tony.  That crane was good and stuck.  Wow.  I would have liked to have seen the pin and the housing which were "glued" together.  What mitigation/preventive measures did Gene take to make sure that wouldn't happen again?  At any rate, this is where the show still shines, imo.

The crane operator who sank his machine was annoying, but at least he was not a snowflake.  He had the good sense to STFU when Parker was struggling to not lose control.  And good on Parker for holding it together.

How much did Kevin haaaaaate being subordinate to his sister and taking orders from her?!!!  But, I sure noticed that he most certainly did as she asked.  Good stuff.

[jwc]

Parker is not on really good ground.  Maybe he will have to bring in a few more people to go 24-hour operation on both claims?  If they are not already.  That is a lot of wear and tear on the equipment.  Lots can go wrong in the dark.

So Tony's daughter is now in charge with the refurbished dredge.  I guess they have time to order all the mats and stuff they need for the dredge that had been re-re-scavenged.  I would have thought Tony would have had another excavator laying around instead of having to switch out the arm on the pipe crane.  In the second season or whenever when we met Tony he had a huge operation with a monitor ripping up the landscape and sending the gravel slurry to a huge washplant so I wonder if he does these piddly operations for Disco's benefit and his main business is not involved while he plays musical dredges.  There is plenty of camera time of people loading rock trucks and excavators with sluices in Todd and Parker's operations.  I guess with those projects on hold (while they wait for a licensed barge pilot to be free, although they showed more footage of the new dredge being disassembled in the preview, and the part for the other dredge to come) Tony wanted to scratch some gold out of the claim the old-fashioned way.  Like I said in previous seasons Tony recommended to clear your ground for next year this year so you are ready to go on day 1, so it was surprising to see uncleared ground for the dredge (remember when he said screw it and forced his son to dredge uncleared ground which caused logs to get stuck in the bucket line) that was when Monica got stuck on overburden duty so now that the dredge is out of commission she gets to be in charge of the sluicing operation while everyone else gets to go tear apart the old dredge.

Back to the Hoffman operation.  50 ounces of gold.  With a 20k profit.  150k in the hole.  Not sure how much equipment is leased but I thought the operation owned some stuff I would think it would be smarter to offload a sluice or a d-10 or something and pay everyone off instead of (literally) keep digging a bigger hole.  Then the whole drama with the giant rocks.  Those rocks plus an old shaker seems like trouble.  At the end though it looked like Freddy was going to weld on an angular set of pre grizzly bars so some of them will roll away.  Then the belt is broken.  Which would entail a 2-hour fix at Parker's mine but is a huge deal at the Hoffman operation.  And then Dave rolls in with the cavalry.  Great more mouths to feed.  Let's bring in the whole crew to gang-f this dinky mine so we can exhaust is even sooner.  Not sure how much gas/diesel it takes to drive an F-10 truck from Oregon to Colorado but it is probably a lot.  Doesn't appear carpooling is a popular option.  Ok that is a little unfair they probably all towed a trailer out and dropped it off before they drove to the mine.  Maybe someone could have towed out some of the sluices or shakers or conveyors we had ditched in Oregon when you decided to come out.

I mean Parker has conveyors all over his operation getting dirt, rock sand whatever into and out of the sluices.  Todd just wants to do it in the lamest way possible by having someone drive a bulldozer or excavator 24 hours a day.

Part of me wants a spin-off called 'Freddy Dodge Gold Rescue' where he goes around to troubled mines and helps them fis their operations.  Kind of like 'Homestead rescue' but for mines.  Maybe being Dave along.  Leave Todd off the show of course.

[pastafarian]

I don't think the fines and inevitable lawsuits that the Hoffman's (Freddy?) will receive were factored into the total worth of the gold haul.  It looks likely that the only reason they were able to get any gold from this old and played out mine was to expand it past its regulated boundaries by making new equipment landings and mining the previous landings.  Trying for the "we didn't cut down trees to mine, just to park" defense?  Registering it as a new mine so they can argue that they don't have the restrictions of that 'old' mine?  There may be some good gold there, but it isn't a very big area so it would seem it would run out fast.  Possibly the reason for the rumors that Todd and crew were only there a couple of weeks?

http://starcasm.net/archives/363143

There's a whole lot of wrong here.  If you watch the show, you can see homes not far away from the mine through the trees and it's bounded by a highway on the other side, probably why there are restrictions.

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 1/27/2017 at 11:52 PM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

I loved the two engineering issues we saw with Parker and Tony.  That crane was good and stuck.  Wow.  I would have liked to have seen the pin and the housing which were "glued" together.  What mitigation/preventive measures did Gene take to make sure that wouldn't happen again?  At any rate, this is where the show still shines, imo.

 

Lonesome Rhodes, do you remember the first few years, when these kinds of construction, breakdown, and fix-it-however-you-can issues were the bulk of the show?  It proves that the newly manufactured drama is totally unnecessary.

On 1/28/2017 at 10:29 AM, jwc said:

 Let's bring in the whole crew to gang-f this dinky mine so we can exhaust it even sooner.

You paint with words, JWC.

On 1/29/2017 at 7:37 AM, pastafarian said:

There's a whole lot of wrong here.  If you watch the show, you can see homes not far away from the mine through the trees and it's bounded by a highway on the other side, probably why there are restrictions.

Pastafarian, thank you for the link, and did I read that article correctly?  Eight acres?  That's such a tiny footprint, it would be hard just to park everything there at one time, let alone mine.  But the show made it out to be a regular size operation.

Edited January 30, 2017 by TheLastKidPicked

[SRTouch]

3 minutes ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

Lonesome Rhodes, do you remember the first few years, when these kinds of construction, breakdown, and fix-it-however-you-can issues were the bulk of the show?  It proves that the newly manufactured drama is totally unnecessary.

Ah, the good old days with the Dakota Boys and Fred Hurt

[TheLastKidPicked]

14 minutes ago, SRTouch said:

Ah, the good old days with the Dakota Boys and Fred Hurt

Those days had much more of a "Let's hang up a bunch of cameras and watch these guys mine" feel to it.  And was so much more realistic.

Does anybody remember those days, when Todd spent a lot of time building the washplant?  (Back when he did it himself).

And then Jack spins the excavator around, with the boom out, and obliterates the wash plant? 

We rewound that about 10 times, and laughed out loud every time.

I actually like Jack, but that was hilarious!

[Rock knocker]

This link here will be a game changer.  It shows just how remote Freddy's mine is, and why they had to bring a crew out from Oregon.  It is so remote that folks can only handle the arera for a little bit of time, much like deep sea diving.

 

https://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/02/03/fairplay-gold-mine-critics-get-help-from-udall-bennet/

[pastafarian]

In my town people go ballistic if someone tries to build a cell tower or open another fast food place, I can only imagine what they would do if someone tried to dig a 50' hole nearby.

[brgjoe]

There's one thing I don't quite understand.  (other than it's because it's a scripted TV show and stuff)

Didn't last year Dozer Dave come to the rescue with all sorts of equipment to bail Toad out, in exchange for him being a full partner in the operation?   Has that been mentioned at all this year?  And since it was Dave who brought all that fancy, schmancy equipment to the mining operation last season, wouldn't all that stuff be his and not Todd's?   So I don't see how the Toadster could move all that stuff to Freddy's operation without at least asking Dave about it.  (unless I missed it)

And didn't Freddy have his own mining operation last year?  I thought he would have plenty of decent equipment at his disposal.   Or at least something a heck of a lot better than that rusting hulk of a sluicer? 

The drama is getting to fake even for me.  And that's pretty much across the board with all the operations. 

[Liberty]

On 2/1/2017 at 6:19 AM, brgjoe said:

Didn't last year Dozer Dave come to the rescue with all sorts of equipment to bail Toad out, in exchange for him being a full partner in the operation?   Has that been mentioned at all this year?  And since it was Dave who brought all that fancy, schmancy equipment to the mining operation last season, wouldn't all that stuff be his and not Todd's?   So I don't see how the Toadster could move all that stuff to Freddy's operation without at least asking Dave about it.  (unless I missed it)

And didn't Freddy have his own mining operation last year?  I thought he would have plenty of decent equipment at his disposal.   Or at least something a heck of a lot better than that rusting hulk of a sluicer? 

The drama is getting to fake even for me.  And that's pretty much across the board with all the operations. 

In reality I assumed that Volvo provided the equipment for 316 Mining and Parker for promotional considerations.  Discovery frequently blurs logos it does not want to promotion.

IIRC, Freddy was with his brother and brother's SO,  at the beginning of last season, and Dave was running an excavator for the Dodge Boys.

As you said, it's fake so...................

[jwc]

So Parker is not getting enough gold out of the Boundary cut.  OK.  The ground is petering out.  Ho-hum.  He hires a guy then fires the guy 10 minutes later.  Even though he knew the guy couldn't run a loader let alone an excavator I mean really is that the only guy you could set on the job mucking around near 600k of sluicer and whatnot.  Ffs maybe the guy could have drove a rock truck for a day then had some time to f around on a loader to get him up to speed, I mean a guy to fuel and maintain the gear could be good to have around.  Just didn't seem like he got much of a chance, being as he was hired as a mechanic after all.  Although he didn't have his own tools for the big trucks I mean what do you expect when you hire the guy from jiffy-lube.  Whatever, get off that crappy claim double down on Indian River, start clearing for next year, pan in the cut, drill some holes.  

Tony found a barge to get some gear up to the new dredge.  I know there is a lot to these dredges but wouldn't it have been easier to just salvage the few vital pieces like the bucket line and just build a whole new dredge around it?  I mean he already constructed for $10k a barge he can't use, plus an unusable tug, plus another tug with no pilot.  Heck he could have just helicopter slung loaded out the bucket line and whatever else out of the sticks and built a new dredge around it based on pics of the salvaged dredge by this time from new material.  Maybe.

The Hoffman operation is a joke.  They did get $130k of very dirty looking gold.  Not sure what the take was after you factor in all the additional running.  Lat time it was $20k profit after 3 days.  So now after a week, more guys more fuel, et cetera, times 5 guys, carry the 2 net profit $20k?   So Dave gets the job of fixing up the double trouble washplant.  They put in that custom built pipe-sprayer and from the footage I saw the nozzles were spraying about as well as my garden hose.  And everyone was complaining about how crappy that wash plant was.  Gosh, we had a nice wash plant we brought down from Alaska that was left in Oregon, no f that lets go with this piece of junk.  Although, to be fair, they built ish friggin solid in the fifties and it broke down just 2 years ago, so Dave got it fired up pretty quick.  The re-done electrical looked pretty slick I bet that was about $10k of electrical work there because it looked brand new with bells and whistles all new after they were done with it.  Are they even off the grid there?

Hoffman operations are always a money pit with no end and some gold gets got sometimes so full speed ahead!  OK though at the first mine it literally looked like tailings were bulldozed to make a nice parking lot for the show.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Total BS on the new mechanic.  The tailings job required a crane, not a dozer.  There was no room/solid ground for the dozer to operate without wrecking the sluice.  He told everyone he never operated equipment like that.  He was also a virgin field engineer.  He knew the basics and performed basically.  Of course he was fired.  Ugh.

Edit monkeys had Parker saying they were in danger of not even getting 2K?  They were within 100 ozs, if not over already.  They are over now - not counting the second operation.  Now, 4K is  whacko goal at this point.  But, that realism was not enough for Disco.  It never is, is it.

Beets had not touched the dredge knowing full well he would have almost no time once he got a pilot.  So, here we go.  Rush rush rush with teardown to the skeleton/support metal that could have been done weeks before without any heavy equipment.  It cost him the better part of a day, if not more.  Stoopid.  

If Parker's claim is really crapping out, there's no show next year.  Given that Christo had already checkout or been removed for this season, I would be very surprised if this was not it.  I wonder if Beets is actually on the hook for the new dredge.  I hope not, for his sake.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Lonesome Rhodes

[Liberty]

'Dozer Dave has sure improved his delivery of the scripts.  In his first couple of years he sounded like he was reading directly for the first time from the script, now his lines flow like hot asphalt.

Although his performance has improved, it is still not time to give up his winter job, even though he was made a full partner of 316 Mining last season.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Liberty

[pastafarian]

The 'new' Hoffman mine "was providing good gold till the wash plant broke"?  Huh?  Why did they stop mining 2 years ago if it was good ground?  Only the Hoffmans are capable of replacing that spray bar?  'Sorry honey, I'm shutting the mine down and working at McDonalds till a TV show comes around and fixes the wash plant'?  Tony bought and rebuilt a tug and barge that he can't use, then bought and rebuilt a power barge to replace them...that he can't use because he can't find a captain.  So he rents a power barge with a captain?  That's efficient use of company resources and funds.  Parker is now set up for the 'heroic' and chancy move to new pay that will save his season.  How much did DC pay the mechanic to act the fool?  The script is getting too easy to predict.  Maybe it's time for DC's writers to mix things up?  Add in a murder mystery into this whole web of deceit?  Have Parker disappear, then we suspect Jack or Tony's wife?  Only to find Parker alive on Oak Island.  How did he get there?  Now Todd's missing.  Quick, check out all the area church's........fried chicken.  How about a 'Superstars' type competition between teams from Gold Rush, Bearing Sea Gold and The Curse of Oak Island?  Or an old-timey variety show With Todd and Parker as the comedic hosts.  Jack could be the musical guest and sing hymns, Rick could rap.

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 2/3/2017 at 10:58 PM, jwc said:

Hoffman operations are always a money pit with no end and some gold gets got sometimes so full speed ahead!

Remember Parker's first year with Tony?  When they agreed "test holes, test holes, test holes".  We saw all of the operations drilling test holes and verifying the gold in an area before committing to mining it.  Funny how that never happens anymore, and as JWC says,  "Full speed ahead!"

On 2/4/2017 at 2:08 AM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

Edit monkeys had Parker saying they were in danger of not even getting 2K?  They were within 100 ozs, if not over already.  They are over now - not counting the second operation

Lonesome Rhodes took about 10 seconds to do the math and figure out that they are fudging the numbers just to amp up the drama.

Although his performance has improved, it is still not time to give up his winter job, even though he was made a full partner of 316 Mining last season

And Liberty brings up an intersting point here.  If Dave is now a full partner, why did he leave?  Wouldn't he want to stay around just to keep an eye on Todd and the operation?

Quote

Quick, check out all the area church's........fried chicken.

HA!  We might have quote of the week right here, by Pastafarian.

Edited February 6, 2017 by TheLastKidPicked

[Jenkins]

1 hour ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

Remember Parker's first year with Tony?  When they agreed "test holes, test holes, test holes".  We saw all of the operations drilling test holes and verifying the gold in an area before committing to mining it.  Funny how that never happens anymore, and as JWC says,  "Full speed ahead!"

That is because they don't care about actually gold mining anymore, they care about putting on a good SHOW and collecting their half million salary (rumor) from Discovery.

So wasn't it just a couple years ago Discovery got a new CEO and he promised they would have no more fake reality shows (this was after some ridiculous mermaid "documentary" they put on)? Yeah, that lasted long...look at crap like Alaskan Bush People and now Gold Rush...

[Lonesome Rhodes]

An Ashlee sighting!  Isn't it amazing how the edit monkeys can make it seem like someone does not exist?  Clearly, she had been there for a significant amount of time, if not the entire time.  Who knew?

We had a couple of cool engineering issues arise.  Tony once again supported his kid appropriately and in his own inimitable style.  I really enjoyed that.  Parker, again, went for the short-term jury-rig solution.  This will certainly come back to bite him.  Hard.

I do have full respect for Parker's refusal to fully play out the extension.  You know Tony will not be a happy camper.  Could be some fun TV to watch very soon. 

[jwc]

Todd sends his cousin to find the pay.  Logan goes where Todd pointed send a bunch of worthless sand through the plant.  Blame Logan.  'Find the pay or else...nothing cuz' so Logan goes a-panning.  Finds an area with 8 small colors (I couldn't see them so they must have been awfully small).  Weird how they found the good pay on a high point, but it was in with some big rocks so they are good to go,  2 wash plants running.  Muddy water.  I would have thought Todd would have gone around and panned the claim a bit instead of having run a bunch of sand as the top guy, but no, just have your cousin load whatever then blame him when it doesn't work out.  At least now they have a shiny conveyor to load up double-trouble.  Clean-up time, lotsa gold.  But with all those guys on board, equipment, fuel, new conveyor lease, I don't see how the operation can turn a profit.  It can't we know that.  

Every show they (all of them) are preoccupied with gold total.  I would like to see a breakdown of ROI.  We had these costs, ran for this long, here is how much we made.  I guess Parker did this a bit when he realized he was just breaking even on the boundary cut.  But yes, knowing Tony, he will want to scratch every grain out of the played out ground, which works out fine for him as long as someone else is breaking even.  

It was nice of Parker's parents to drop by.  

[Liberty]

14 minutes ago, jwc said:

...Every show they (all of them) are preoccupied with gold total.  I would like to see a breakdown of ROI.  .....

It was nice of Parker's parents to drop by.  

Discovery might consider ROI inappropriate for the audience.

Wonder if the older Schnabel's get paid for their appearance.

[walnutqueen]

51 minutes ago, Liberty said:

Discovery might consider ROI inappropriate for the audience.

Wonder if the older Schnabel's get paid for their appearance.

Considering that Todd actually has a FAN BASE (I know, right!?!), Discovery might think their audience is STOOPID.

[Mambo Gladys]

I love Parker's parents. They are so sweet. Let's hope when he grows up a bit more he can mellow out and be more like his dad and Grandpa John.  

Sidenote: What the heck is Parker's girlfriend doing all day while up there at the mine? They showed her driving a rock truck at first but that apparently didn't stick.  Hopefully she can at least take a pickup into the nearest town so she isn't trapped in the camper all day. 

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 2/11/2017 at 1:55 AM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

Tony once again supported his kid appropriately and in his own inimitable style.

Tony's kids have the skills and experience to work wherever they want to.  The fact that they continue to work for Tony and Minnie says something about their relationship.

On 2/11/2017 at 10:31 AM, jwc said:

Logan goes where Todd pointed send a bunch of worthless sand through the plant.  Blame Logan.  'Find the pay or else...nothing cuz' so Logan goes a-panning.

Todd was so obviously in the wrong that sometimes I wonder if he forgets he's on camera.

On 2/11/2017 at 10:52 AM, Liberty said:

Wonder if the older Schnabel's get paid for their appearance.

I don't know, but I do enjoy seeing them.  Do you remember one of the first seasons when Parker needed to blast a bunch of dirt and rock so he could build his road, and his dad and brother helped.  That family could carry a show all by themselves.  (Especially when Grandpa John was still alive).

On 2/11/2017 at 11:45 AM, walnutqueen said:

Considering that Todd actually has a FAN BASE (I know, right!?!), Discovery might think their audience is STOOPID.

They've made it quite clear that they don't believe their audience can do third grade math and figure out that the numbers are generated to maximize the made up drama.

19 minutes ago, saratothej said:

Sidenote: What the heck is Parker's girlfriend doing all day while up there at the mine?

I'm really suprised they didn't address this.  The first part of the season they made it seem as if she would be a big part of the show.

[Mambo Gladys]

1 hour ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

I'm really suprised they didn't address this.  The first part of the season they made it seem as if she would be a big part of the show.

I was hoping she would be. It would be nice to break up the sausage party every now and then. 

[TheLastKidPicked]

It's possible that Ashlee doesn't want to be featured on the show and be compared to Monica Beets.  Monica is such a hard worker, and people couldn't help but make a comparison between the two.

Might be better just to keep a low profile. . . 

Edited February 13, 2017 by TheLastKidPicked

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Seeing the precision engineering attempted on the dredge was great stuff.  Having said that, they knew this was going to be required and they had a month to have it done.  Tony got lucky, again.  And Gene was nowhere to be found.  Hmmm.

Another thing they had a month to devote some effort to was bringing paydirt to the dredge, and/or getting rid of potential overburden it was bound to encounter.  

I am entirely unclear as to how Parker is filtering out jagged rocks and such with his new set-up.  Sure enough, the preview hints at bigtime consequences.  I do look forward to the conflict when Tony learns that Parker has abandoned so much of the other tract.      

[TheLastKidPicked]

8 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

 I do look forward to the conflict when Tony learns that Parker has abandoned so much of the other tract.    

This has happned before.  Do you remember a few years ago, when Parker found all the good gold there was to find on the claim he leased from Tony?

Tony insisted that Parker mine every inch of dirt, even though it meant a loss for Parker.

So, you are right--  there is bound to be a conflict.

[Liberty]

What was the time-frame for Parker to buy his own claim?  Did that come up at the end of last season?

[walnutqueen]

Oh, christ on a cracker - someone's handing Todd a handful of nuggets ... again.

Disco will NEVER learn with these chucklefucks.

[TheLastKidPicked]

1 hour ago, walnutqueen said:

Disco will NEVER learn with these chucklefucks.

Oh, I think Disco learned a long time ago. . . 

And is laughing all the way to the bank!

[walnutqueen]

1 minute ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

Oh, I think Disco learned a long time ago. . . 

And is laughing all the way to the bank!

"SAD"

[walnutqueen]

Hah - a few minutes at the controls of heavy machinery (the first "work" I've seen Todd perform in YEARS) and his corpulent lazy ass probably contributed to his labored breathing much more than the altitude did.

Dredge V Washplant, Kevin V Monica - Tony GAVE those kids their orders, and knew the runnng costs before they even started.  Or, should I say, Minnie did.

Oh, I am just kidding myself, because it is all fakety fake fake.

I'm a gonna melt some random gold earrings I can't wear anymore with my trusty Bic lighter until I have a couple of "nuggets".  Then I'm a  gonna point Todd & Jack to my own private glory hole - the deep end of my abandoned swimming pool which is a nasty swamp in need of dredging.  Freddy Dodge can be easily distracted by a mere rumor of an undiscovered Gem mine in some godforsaken corner of the earth, so I've got my bases covered.  Maybe they'll even mend my fences to keep Parker from spying on their latest California claim!  I'll wear earplugs to avoid the painfully nasal tones of Jack giving the Disco-provided weekly weigh in.

[Medicine Crow]

1 hour ago, walnutqueen said:

Hah - a few minutes at the controls of heavy machinery (the first "work" I've seen Todd perform in YEARS) and his corpulent lazy ass probably contributed to his labored breathing much more than the altitude did.

Dredge V Washplant, Kevin V Monica - Tony GAVE those kids their orders, and knew the runnng costs before they even started.  Or, should I say, Minnie did.

Oh, I am just kidding myself, because it is all fakety fake fake.

I'm a gonna melt some random gold earrings I can't wear anymore with my trusty Bic lighter until I have a couple of "nuggets".  Then I'm a  gonna point Todd & Jack to my own private glory hole - the deep end of my abandoned swimming pool which is a nasty swamp in need of dredging.  Freddy Dodge can be easily distracted by a mere rumor of an undiscovered Gem mine in some godforsaken corner of the earth, so I've got my bases covered.  Maybe they'll even mend my fences to keep Parker from spying on their latest California claim!  I'll wear earplugs to avoid the painfully nasal tones of Jack giving the Disco-provided weekly weigh in.

OMG, you're SO right!!!  I have to ff through anything related to the Hoffmans!!

[Lonesome Rhodes]

So...the end of last week, the narrator said that Parker had finally, but barely, crossed the 2K threshold (a lie of itself).  This ep, after way over 400 ozs at the weigh in, they have 2,167 ozs?  I may have misheard.

Poor Beets daughter.  She just could not contain herself when the absurdity of the "contest" and its parameters were outlined.  Didja notice the original cost of the dredge and equipment vs. the capital costs of the equipment used for the standard mining process were never factored in?  Seems to me, it would take a looooong time to amortize $1 million, plus the at least $50K we were told it cost to move and set-up.   Way less so, the customary machinery.  Oh.  Throw-in the many fixes and the significant downtime associated with the dredge.  

If this really was about operational cost, the daughter clued us all in:  Of course the dredge is cheaper.  Big whoop.  It is sad that Tony, who was always the bottom line guy, has allowed this ludicrous season to progress as it has.

Where is Gene?!

[SRTouch]

7 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

 

Where is Gene?!

Unlike the rest of the pretend miners, Gene always seemed to be more of a real engineer/mechanic/site manager and not give a hoot for the camera idjits. My impression, though maybe never actually stated, was that he came to the Yukon because he knew/respected Parker's family. Then, when Parker turned to the dark side, he quit the show. Only to be enticed back, into the Beets crew with the promise that he could actually do his job instead of pose for the cameras. Now, Tony is as much a poser as Parker (Todd and crew are in a league of their own). So, I think, if Gene is still part of the Beets crew, he's doing his job, and doing his best to avoid the cameras. 

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 2/24/2017 at 8:34 PM, walnutqueen said:

I'm a gonna melt some random gold earrings I can't wear anymore with my trusty Bic lighter until I have a couple of "nuggets".  Then I'm a  gonna point Todd & Jack to my own private glory hole - the deep end of my abandoned swimming pool which is a nasty swamp in need of dredging.

I'm glad you posted this, Walnetqueen.  In our house we keep asking oursleves,  "If the gold is so good and easy to get, then why were they just waiting for Todd to show up and mine it?  Why didn't somebody else mine it a long time ago?"

On 2/25/2017 at 1:41 AM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

It is sad that Tony, who was always the bottom line guy, has allowed this ludicrous season to progress as it has.

I think Tony has figured out what Todd knew long ago.  You can make more money going along with the show and cashing those checks than actually mining.

On 2/25/2017 at 9:16 AM, SRTouch said:

Unlike the rest of the pretend miners, Gene always seemed to be more of a real engineer/mechanic/site manager and not give a hoot for the camera idjits.

I completely agree.  And this is also how Fred used to be.

I

[AndreaK1041]

39 minutes ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

I think Tony has figured out what Todd knew long ago.  You can make more money going along with the show and cashing those checks than actually mining.

Doesn't Tony have a real mine somewhere nearby that they just don't show on TV?  That was my impression.

[TheLastKidPicked]

Hello Andrea!

I think that Tony's mines, inlcuding the ones they show on TV are real.  The good people on this board who have done the math have figured out that the decisions many of these guys are making are done for the benefit of the show, instead of the benefit of the mines.

Because, as Todd has said,  "The real gold isn't in the ground-- it's in the show."

And I don't blame the miners for playing it up for the cameras and going along with the made up drama.  They are getting paid well to do it, so why not?

The reason it bothers me is that the early shows, where they basically followed them around with cameras and filmed them doing their thing, was much more entertaining to me.  I wish they hadn't messed with that.

[Liberty]

51 minutes ago, TheLastKidPicked said:

...And I don't blame the miners for playing it up for the cameras and going along with the made up drama.  They are getting paid well to do it, so why not?...

A few seasons ago I recall reading that the Dakota Boys were leaving since Dakota Fred did not think they were getting paid enough.  There was some quote attributed to him of 'if we are the stars pay us like stars'.  (IIRC in their final season his son was mining in some high valley and coming up empty.)

Not disagreeing with your post, just that things may have changed over the years, or maybe Fred was too greedy.

[TheLastKidPicked]

You might be right, Liberty.

It would be great to have a friend on the show, even as a crew member, so we knew what was really going on.

In the meantime, it's fun to come on here and speculate.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

4 hours ago, AndreaK1041 said:

Doesn't Tony have a real mine somewhere nearby that they just don't show on TV?  That was my impression.

My understanding is that the giant tract, which is Tony's base, belongs to others and he simply has the contract to extract the gold for the owners.  The smaller tracts that he has leased out to Parker and others, along with the dredge site, are his.  You've noted how we rarely see anything to do with his largest operation.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Lonesome Rhodes

[walnutqueen]

Disco : We're gonna have to pull the plug on this shitshow, Todd.

Todd:  But I'll blow shit up in yet another place!

Disco: Well, alrighty then.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

So, Parker had the single-cleanest weigh-out this show has had in years, with over 300 oz, and he had to shut down his paydirt gathering for a good part of one day.  If the creek bed is this rich, his biggest problem will be gauging when he hits 3,000 oz.  Per the latest, greatest, narration, he has jarred 3375 - 811 ozs (2,564) at Scribner.  

The edit monkeys pulled an all-timer with the barge.  It was claimed it was in peril due to low depths of available water with which to navigate.  The next thing we saw was the barge chugging along at a very good pace the next morning.  What happened to alllll the sandbars?

When is the showdown with Tony gonna happen????  It was good to finally see Gene, again.

[jwc]

8 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

So, Parker had the single-cleanest weigh-out this show has had in years, with over 300 oz, and he had to shut down his paydirt gathering for a good part of one day.  If the creek bed is this rich, his biggest problem will be gauging when he hits 3,000 oz.  Per the latest, greatest, narration, he has jarred 3375 - 811 ozs (2,564) at Scribner.  

The edit monkeys pulled an all-timer with the barge.  It was claimed it was in peril due to low depths of available water with which to navigate.  The next thing we saw was the barge chugging along at a very good pace the next morning.  What happened to alllll the sandbars?

When is the showdown with Tony gonna happen????  It was good to finally see Gene, again.

 

I saw the cleanliness of Parker's gold and then Jack came out with his jars.  They were full of black junk.  Looked to me to be 50% trash.

Also, Freddie needs to put on some sunscreen.  That high altitude is baking him.  Todd not so much, because manning the grill, driving around the site then going to take a nap is easy peezy.

[Rock knocker]

2 hours ago, jwc said:

I saw the cleanliness of Parker's gold and then Jack came out with his jars.  They were full of black junk.  Looked to me to be 50% trash.

 

Even if a jar is 50% hematite and pyrite by volume and 50% gold by volume, the density of gold is so high that it would make up about 85% by weight.