25/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Liz Wire, Dave Morrison (Tuska) and his girlfriend, Martin Grass, Joan and Simon Goddard
1.5hrs
Arrived at 7 and met with Tuska who came over to advise as large hole like this is similar to what they had to deal with at Templeton and he is probably the most expert at dealing with large excavations. Since the weekend and a lot of rain, a couple of large boulders had fallen into the bottom. Tuska advised on suspending any workings and platforms from RSJs and also clearing the areas around the edges of the site to ensure no rocks would wash in. He suggested one idea of rolling turf down the right hand slope and then pinning netting to it to allow it to naturally grow over whilst secured. The back edge by the hedge probably needs shuttering. The approach to the dig needs tidying and a path creating as there is a lot of mud and clay to stick to your feet. Martin came across and took photos for Descent. 

22/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley
2hrs
The digger having finished and gone, Estelle and James visited to look at the final result. The sides are fairly even now and the digger has done a pretty good job of cleaning out the edges making it look a lot safer. Need to sort out rigging and also work out how to get some sort of platform and hauling system in place to assist with this. Estelle contacting Templeton diggers to help out Tuesday, particularly Tuska if about. Chatted to Kevin over a glass of wine about ideas for how to access and dig. 

18/8/15 Big Digger!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, Kevin Clinton
3hrs
Estelle got a text from Kevin while over at Vurley Swallet saying that he had an 18m arm digger there digging the big hole out deeper. Estelle called in on way home from Cheddar to gauge what might be required for the evening and took a few photos and a bit of video. As soon as James got back from work, Estelle and James headed to dig armed with ropes, ladder, SRT kits, etc. to work out best method of getting down. The digger was still in situ and the arm had been left in a good position to act as a belay point, so this was used to attach the ladder via a length of rope to the edge and the lifeline. Estelle went down first and it is around 11m to the very bottom, but a 10m ladder suffices as you can come off easily enough on the slope. A couple more holes have been exposed on both the left and right, but a lot of loose stuff was falling in. Estelle came out and James went in and shortly after James came up from having a look Stu, Mike and Leonie arrived and Kevin came over in caving kit. Kevin started going down the ladder and as he got a few rungs down there was some movement and a couple of large rocks decided to come out of the right hand wall. He decided not to descend after that and came back up. Mike and Leonie both went down and had a look but Stu declined the ladder, although he was very keen for someone to get his shovel out of the dig that he needed to take for his holiday. Estelle went down for another look and took Kevin’s gopro down and then Mike went in again and managed to climb up to the dig using the longer ladder which was lowered down to use to get back up and also removed some rocks from the shelf that were perched and retrieved the shovel. De-rigged and went to pub. Digger planning on clearing out some more and also levelling off the right hand side and clearing all around the edges to hopefully make it all a bit safer.

11/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Liz Wire, Stu Lindsay, Kevin Clinton
2.5hrs
James brought up the survey on laptop to show Kevin and the others in survex. Total cave length between all holes currently at 107m and new cave at 61m.
Mike, Stu and Estelle started digging/hauling as James forgot his undersuit and had to pop back home, but was soon back and came in to dig and Liz also turned up too. It worked easiest to have one person loosening the spoil and one person filling the skip while a couple of people outside hauled and emptied. The mud is a particularly sticky consistency and stuck very well to the hauling skips making them heavier and harder to move as the evening went on and the heightening of the passage. Diggers swapped so everyone got a chance and it's easy digging with a lot of spoil coming out, hence 70 kibbles in one evening. Hauling got tiring and Kevin came down and assisted with hauling and emptying later in the session
Kevin is looking at getting an 18m digger in to have a go at making it deeper and safer, probably over a weekend soon, so the digger works Friday, we visit over the weekend and he does more on Monday. Await news on dates...

Left for pub just after 9:15, but Waldegrave shut so went to Ring o' Bells at Hinton instead - we need to plan letting Derek know and getting sarnies booked so he stays open! 

4/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Martin Grass, Liz Wire
2.5hrs
James and Estelle arrived first and soon after Mike and Stu and we went down into the dig to start digging the entrance spoil out to continue the enlargement. Martin arrived and soon after Liz and both Martin and Liz were given the guided tour and Martin took photos for Descent. He left soon after and we all carried on working on the dig. For a little while James and Estelle worked on the other side dig but didn’t really have enough digging tools there yet. Will need to bring more next week.