Alaska Gold Rush Diary

Zhou Xin thought about it carefully for a long time and studied some knowledge about gold panning. He knew that to build a gold panning team that could face any situation, he would need at least the following personnel:

Two skilled operators who can operate various mechanical equipment, a mechanical engineer who is good at repairing machinery, a patient and meticulous ore beneficiation worker, and a logistics and support staff.

In addition to himself, the prospector and team leader, the gold mining team needs at least six people.

This is just the minimum requirement. If the scale of gold mining expands, the number of personnel, especially the number of operators, will naturally need to increase accordingly.

Although he knew some people in Salcha who possessed some of the aforementioned skills, none of them were particularly suitable.

What he needs is a dream team, where everyone can stand alone and play an irreplaceable role.

Most importantly, the members' character must meet Zhou Xin's requirements.

This is a long-term process, but fortunately, if it is carried out on a small scale in the early stages, it may not necessarily require a full complement of personnel.

For example, with the waterfall pool in front of us, all we need is one more helper, along with a small ore washing machine, and two people can complete the mining.

While I was thinking, I suddenly saw Logan running from a distance, wagging his tail, with something in his mouth.

Logan has grown a lot and looks exactly like a wolf now.

Now it completely regards Zhou Xin as its master, and even if it runs away, it will always come back on its own.

As Zhou Xin ran closer, he finally saw clearly that what it was carrying in its mouth was actually a rabbit!

The rabbit was very large, almost the size of a suckling pig, and was already dead, with Logan biting its neck.

Logan placed the rabbit at Zhou Xin's feet and let out a loud yelp.

After being fed by Zhou Xin for some time, it has gotten used to eating cooked food.

It seems that it caught the rabbit on the mountain, but didn't want to eat it raw, so it brought it back to Zhou Xin to handle.

"Well done, we can improve our meals today."

Zhou Xin patted the wolf's head approvingly, and Logan seemed to understand, letting out a cheerful whimper.

Let's finish work early today, go up the mountain to gather some food, and cook a nice meal.

After sifting through the remaining pile of sand in front of him, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and set off.

Logan excitedly followed his owner, running and playing on the grass, chasing butterflies and catching birds.

The vegetation grew more lush, and there was more food available.

But Zhou Xin was mainly looking for the roots of the fire grass, a delicious tuber that was comparable to potatoes, which he loved dearly.

However, he had a specific destination in mind today: the blueberry bushes he had discovered more than a month ago.

It's the season for Alaskan blueberries and other berries to ripen, and he's been looking forward to it for a long time.

Upon arriving at the hillside covered with blueberries, Zhou Xin's eyes widened in amazement.

Due to temperature and wind conditions, the blueberry bushes here grow close to the ground, like a meadow.

Looking around, the grass is dotted with white blueberry blossoms and densely covered with green and blue berries.

He knelt down on the ground and picked up ripe blueberries, stuffing them into his mouth.

From a distance, they look like they're grazing.

The blueberries weren't big, but they were incredibly sweet, and he couldn't stop eating them, one after another.

He ate for a while, until he was full, before he started packing into his backpack.

The ground was covered with ripe fruit; there was no way to pick them all.

He picked a good seven or eight pounds before getting up and heading back, completely satisfied.

As the weather warms up, blueberries don't keep well, so he decided to pick fresh ones after he finished eating them.

Back at camp, he gutted the rabbit, burying its head and entrails to prevent attracting wild animals.

This rabbit was quite large; even after processing, it still weighed over ten pounds. He planned to eat it in two meals.

First, take out some blueberries, wash them clean, and mash them in a frying pan to make blueberry jam.

Then chop off a rabbit leg, make incisions on the surface, and marinate it with a little salt and plenty of blueberry jam.

A pit was dug next to the stove, the charcoal that had been saved up was lit, and the rabbit legs were tied to wooden sticks and placed on the charcoal fire to roast slowly.

Half of the rabbit's body is chopped into pieces, blanched, stir-fried with wild onions and chili sauce, and then simmered in water.

Add the root pieces of fireweed halfway through cooking, and continue to add water and simmer.

During this time, the rabbit legs were constantly turned over, sizzling with oil and turning golden brown on the surface.

Once the rabbit meat in the pot is cooked until tender, uncover the pot, reduce the sauce over high heat, and a rabbit meat stew is ready.

The broth was thick and rich, the rabbit meat was tender and soft, and the rabbit root was soft and powdery. Luo Gen was so tempted that his mouth watered, and he circled around Zhou Xin's legs.

The rabbit legs were roasted to a perfect crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, with an enticing aroma and a tempting golden-brown color.

"This delicious meal is all thanks to you, you go first!"

After Zhou Xin finished speaking, he scooped out a few pieces of stewed rabbit meat, tore off a part of the rabbit leg, and put it into the bowl that he had hollowed out for Luo Gen with a wooden stake.

Logan pounced on it happily, wagging its tail and munching away.

After settling Logan in, Zhou Xin laid out the food on the small table and began to eat.

I picked up a rabbit leg and took a bite. The outer skin was crispy and rich in oil.

The meat is firm, and the flavor is a perfect balance of salty and sweet with a strong blueberry aroma—it's really quite good.

I scooped up another piece of rabbit meat coated in broth and put it in my mouth. The rabbit meat was so tender that it fell off the bone, and it crumbled with a gentle touch. The broth was rich and flavorful, making the rabbit meat incredibly delicious.

The man and the wolf happily enjoyed their rabbit feast, the aroma of the food filling the cabin.

The next day, he smoked and stored the remaining rabbit meat along with the fish he had caught a few days earlier, and then went back to his gold panning work.

After tasting the deliciousness of rabbit meat, Logan began to hunt rabbits frantically in the surrounding area.

Every few days, it would bring back a rabbit and then eagerly wait for Zhou Xin to cook it.

This saved Zhou Xin the time of searching for food, allowing him to concentrate on panning for gold.

Time flies, and the temperature changes from cold to warm, and then from warm to cold again.

Finally, one day in early September, a heavy snow quietly arrived.

When he crawled out of the cabin and saw the distant mountains covered in snow and the river beginning to freeze, he knew that this year's gold rush season was coming to an end.

Within a week at most, the temperature here will drop to minus 10 or 20 degrees Celsius.

The waterfall will gradually freeze, and the gold panning area will be completely covered by ice and snow.

It's time to pack our bags and gather our spoils, and embark on our return journey.

During this period, he was so engrossed in gold panning that he didn't even bother to weigh or calculate how much gold he had panned.

Even in the last month, he poured the raw gold he panned into a jar every day without drying or refining it.

He decided to dry and purify the product tonight, and pack his bags so he could return home tomorrow.

After a series of skillful operations, he poured all the gold, along with all the gold he had previously collected, including the gold from the cave, into the weighing pan.

Looking at the large pile of glittering gold dust in the weighing pan, Zhou Xin felt that all the hard work he had done during this period was completely worthwhile.

Then, he looked at the scale reading with a mixture of anticipation and excitement.

156.8!

This gold rush season yielded a total of 156.8 ounces of gold!