OPAL MINER PROSPECTOR

SMELL OF A NICE DINNER

Back to Grawin Opal Fields. I was at this time hand-mining 50 buckets in the morning and 50 buckets in the late afternoon, That's pick and shovel, fill the buckets and pull them to the suface by windless average of 15-18 hours a day. On this day, I came out of the hole after about 11 hours to the smell of a nice roast dinner. What a pleasant aroma to walk into, as I entered the kitchen asking the cook what the special occasion was all about. Had I forgotten a birthday, anniversary or one of those days we seem to forget? "No. Dinner hasn't been put on yet." was the reply. Walking outside with nose in the air to see if old Pat was having a cook-up, I lost the scent so back inside. I traced the smell to the wood stove and opening the oven door found the mystery dinner layed out on the bottom tray, to my disappointment. The last thing at night was to open the oven to help warm the camp and the first thing in the morning was stock the fire up. Yes closing the door as well. We had two cats that must have decided to have a nice warm place to sleep, cause this was the nice roast neatly layed out and cooked well, so a sanger and back to work after coffee. "No,a cold corned beef sandwich".