Permit hunting back in the early 90's in Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. Ran across a old still on the side of a ridge, Concreted in with copper still in place. Didn't know if it was operational but got out of there pretty quick, those hillbilly's don't mess around!

Not hunting related but, here goes. After my Grandparents moved to assisted living, Dad and I were cleaning out the drawers at their home, among other things. I came across a gold plated pocket watch that was given to Grandad by my Grandmother. It was polished smooth but the gold plate was worn off.

Seems she had given this to him as a wedding gift, my Dad explained. The watch had a picture of my Mimi tucked inside the cover. WW2 had just started and Grandad was shipped overseas. He got caught behind German lines on a recon mission. Knowing that anything of value would be stripped from him, he made a tough decision. He would hide the watch up in his rectum. The GIs were marched into a detention camp 20 odd kilometers away, a very long way to go with a foreign object up your tooter. At least he knew Mimi was warm and secure. After the fall of the Third Reich he was carried back to the states. He wasn't doing well, due to not going to the bathroom for weeks.

He drank Milk of magnesia and the rumbling began. He screamed, "Katie bar the door", as he lunged for the toilet. After the explosion and the smoke cleared, he came out of the bathroom grinning like a Cheshire cat.. he was holding 6 gold nuggets. Largest the size of a gumball, smallest the size of a "big Mo" #4 pencil eraser. Doctors told us later that the gold plate combined with heat and pressure had created a metallurgical alchemy not unlike that of a grain of sand irritating an oyster to create a beautiful pearl.

They used the proceeds from the gold to pay cash for their first home in the "M" street neighborhood of Dallas. Paid $4800 in 1946. The appraisal this year on that home is close to 500k. RKO pictures made a documentary about my Granddad called, "G I time traveler", the untold story of 'Choc' Sanders. Errol Flynn played my Grandpa. Anyhow, I can't wait to tell my Grandkids about it when they're old enough to understand. That man was full of metal, error, mettle, rather.