Howdy, Let's join our 49er Howard C. GARDINER as he delves into the culinary arts:-)): "It was at Whiskey Bar[ up from Horse Shoe Bar toward Auburn] that I first undertook systematic housekeeping. I lived alone... The greatest difficulty was making bread:-) The rest was comparatively easy, and except in bread-making, I soon became expert in the cuisine department. I could cook pork and beans, fry ham, boil potatoes, manufacture a pork stew, concoct coffee, and toss slap-jacks 'secudum artem,' but bread was for a long time beyond my capacity. Simple as it seems, the preparation and baking [of] a batch of bread is no easy matter. Time after time, after mixing the ingredients with the utmost care, kneading the dough and setting it to rise till it reached a proper state of fermentation, then placing the loaf in the Dutch Oven with glowing coals beneath and on the lid, I would watch it carefully, and at intervals probe it with a stick to see if it was done; yet, when the loaf was turned out upon the table, it invariably proved a LAP STONE:-), heavy and indigestible. Finally, however, when I caught the knack, my previous failures were incomprehensible. My bread was excellent. The loaf when placed in the oven would gradually rise up, up, up, til it fairly raised the cover, and when taken out was light as a feather. Sourdough, left in the pan at the previous baking, was used for YEARS, and after I once got the hang of it, I always had good bread...." "A fifty-pound sack of flour lasted five weeks, hence my consumption of bread and slap-jack required ten pounds a week. Provisions were sold at reasonable rates, and I lived well, far better than at any previous period in California. Never a hearty eater, my wants were easily satisfied. Coffee, fried ham, fried sweet potatoes, with bread and butter, usually constituted my breakfast. Dinner was a pick-up meal, but supper was more elaborate. Salmon were then caught in the river, and fried salmon was no uncommon dish. Taken all in all, my life at Horse Shoe Bar was a pleasant one" We need a place for the winter; how about Secret Ravine? It's only 4 or 5 miles from Horse Shoe:-), Bob Norris in Dallas BNorris166aol.com