jan06

January 1, 2006 - The Tuckmeister partied alittle too hard last night and decided to rest up this morning!

January 20 - john, joyce, and the tuckmeister have just been "cocooning" the last several weeks. john has read a couple of books by the fire. joyce has been baking great smelling pastries and giving them away before john can even "test" one or two. tucky played "brave kiity" by going for his annual shots yesterday. john and joyce did have some great fondue using three cheeses from Whole Foods. They also had company for Coconut Chicken, a great recipe out of the South Beach Diet Cookbook. john needs to try another of the great recipes in this cookbook. he is sure there are other really great recipes in the book, if he could only quite preparing the Coconut Chicken one!

January 26 - Here's an email between john and Harvey Bowers, owner of The Agate Inn in Wasilla, Alaska which john hopes you find somewhat interesting:

Dear John,

The Agate Inn is actually down in the Mat-Su Valley between Palmer and Wasilla, about a 20 minute drive from the Gold Cord Mine.

We do have a family connection to the Gold Cord Mine. My Brother in-law and sister in-law own 1/3 of the mine. They do operate the mine, at a restricted level for a few months each year, but they have yet to hit the mother load of Gold. The mine still looks very much like it did in 1964, and it is one of the few mines that operates much like it did before WW II. One of the uses of the mine is they rent it for photo and movie productions. When you drank the water it must have been just after a red algae bloom.

Thanks,

Harvey Bowers
Owner/Innkeeper
Agate Inn, Inc.
http://www.agateinn.com
email: alaska@agateinn.com
907-373-2290

-----Original Message-----
From: John
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 6:57 AM
To: alaska@agateinn.com
Subject: Visited Gold Cord Mine in 1964

Hi,

While an officer at Elmendorf AFB in the summer of 1964, I and some friends visited the Gold Cord Mine. We looked for gold against the rusted car tracks and went in the old bunk house down in the valley. The best part was just the magnificant view of the mountains in every direction. Later we had a picnic near the small lake. I was young and took a handful of water and drank it. Immediately my thoat was raw and my finger blistered under my gold college ring. Pretty dumb thing to do, really.

Earlier that year on March 27th, 5:37 PM I had experienced The Good Friday Earthquake while at the Officers Club at Elmendorf. You can see the details of this on my website: www.zenpond.com/earthquake.html.

Just wondered whatever happened to the mine. At the time, it was closed and had been since the fear of the Japanese coming up the island chain. I think that may have been in 1941 or 42 (?). The rumor had it that if gold EVER got to $105/ounce, it would re-open (gold in 1964 was $35/ounce). Now I know it became The Agate Inn. You couldn't ask for a prettier view!

Thanks for letting me reminisce,

John,
Overland Park, KS