Panning For Gold On The Jobsite

Is that a piece of gold? We’re building a house on top of what appears to be an ancient riverbed, and I’m curious if there might be gold on this jobsite. I’ve never panned for gold, but how hard could it be? I bought this kit off Amazon- it came with this sifter to get all the big chunks out. There’s no stream on this property, so I rigged up a hose with this wash tub. I was really excited to see if there might be gold, but in the first pan it was just sand. Next, I tried digging right at the back of the walkout basement. This property is at the base of a big mountain near a river. For some reason I kept getting a lot of big pebbles- does anyone know what I was doing wrong? No gold in this pan either. Finally, I used the claw end of my hammer to dig some dirt out from the side of the foundation. There was a lot of clay, so I used my hand to break it up. Honestly, I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I had fun doing it. And just like that- I found little chunks of gold… but right as I was about to call the Ferrari dealer I noticed they break under my fingernail- that’s not gold. Time to put the gold pan away and pick the hammer back up. @hausplans #howto #construction #diy #contractor #gold