A Memorial to Kiko

Yesterday, we had to euthanize our dog Kiko. A disk in his back had slipped and pinched a nerve in his spinal cord. Because of this, his hindquarters were paralyzed. He had to be euthanized because he would never recover. Kiko was our loving friend for nine years, and we will always miss him. When we first got him, he was just a puppy, and his ears were to large for his head. He didn't really perk up about a name until mom suggested Kiko. When we lived in Boise, he would sometimes want out really bad, and in his rush to get out, he would run into the sliding glass door. He did the same thing with the screen door in our current house. In our Genesee house, he had a lot of fun just going on walks around town and meeting other dogs. He still had fun in Sahuarita, but he only got a few walks. While we were in Sahuarita, he kept trying to sniff cacti on our walks, one day, he got to. It was a barrel cactus with long, hooked spines in addition to the normal ones. One of the spines caught in his nose and he yanked away, cutting his nose, we got the bleeding under control soon enough though. Even after this, he still tried to sniff half the cacti along the road during our walks. Kiko always loved snow, and romped in it at every opportunity. His birthday was October the thirty-first, Halloween, and his best present was meeting all sorts of new people and learning new smells. Every Christmas, we would hang up a stocking just for him, and it would be stuffed with goodies every time. Every Independence Day, he would get scared of the firework noises and run to hide, oftentimes under my mom's desk. He would never bite us, or hurt us, intentionally, and we always played together during the day. He was a funny, fuzzy friend whose death has left a hole in our lives. We will miss him forever.

Had a Fun Tour of a Copper Mine Yesteday

Yesterday, my family and I, excluding my dad since he was at work, went on a tour of a large copper mine. The first thing we did is wait for a tour bus to arrive, since we missed the first one while getting gas. While we waited, we looked around the gift shop and found that they had a lot of copper-based goodies. When the bus arrived, we got on as soon as we could, hoping to see the mine. The bus left shortly after everyone was aboard. The guide told everyone about a herd of wild horses that roams the area, though they never showed up. This was understandable, seeing as they have hundreds of acres to run around in. As we passed the mine, our tour guide explained the basic process of mining, but he did not go into specifics yet, that was to come later. When we reached the top of the mine, we were looking over an immense, tiered, pit that was several miles across in either direction and very deep. That day it was quite windy, so we did not stay very long (don't worry, there was a high fence). While we were there, we saw several of the mine's 320-ton dump trucks and the machines they use to scoop up large piles of dirt to load into the dump trucks. The scoops required huge amounts of power, but did not have any engines, instead, they were connected to the mine's power grid by miles of 4-5 inch thick power cable. When we got back into the bus and drove back down to the main building, we actually got to go inside and see the inner workings of the refinery. First was the SAG mill, which takes rocks that are 8 inches or smaller and breaks them up into rocks that are 5 inches or smaller. Then the rocks are sent to the ball mill, where 8 pound and 18 pound steel balls grind them into powder. Then they are sent to a tank the combines the powder with water, pine oil, and a few other chemicals and then the mix is agitated. The chemicals and pine oil cause the copper to attach to the bubbles in the water, which then rise to the surface. the copper-coated bubbles are then skimmed off and all the added materials are separated. The resulting copped is called copper concentrate, and is about 28% pure copper. This is later melted down and formed in anodes which are then transported to a different location for smelting, after which the copper is about 99% pure and usable. The whole trip was quite enjoyable.