22/3/16

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Dave King
2.5hrs
started off with issues with electricity. Kevin's drill required it for us to cap in there. After a bit of fettling, the neutral wire was found to be off in the top extension lead, so once repaired, we took the drill down and Stu started capping while Mike went into the dig to dig.  Estelle and Dave initially went scouting for frogs and toads and removed some more to the pond before helping Stu. Bottom dig still wet and needs the rocks capped, but focused on capping the top rocks and have removed quite a lot more rock now. 

15/3/16

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Duncan Simey
2hrs
the bottom hole had clearly flooded again since the last time we were there, probably on the Tuesday night after we left as been dry most of the week since. We found quite a lot of frogs and toads, one of them a very heavily pregnant female frog and these were evacuated to the pond before settling in with hammers and chisel to beast the rocks in the upper of the two digs. Mike mostly digging in the dig and the rest of us taking turns with the hammer and chisel. Moved quite a lot of large rock out of the way, really does need capping to make life easier. 

8/3/16

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, Duncan Simey
2hrs
Continued work digging in the bottom dig with Estelle digging first followed by Duncan. You can see a 'tide mark' of leaves about 6ft up from the entrance of the bottom dig where the dig had flooded during Storm Imogen last month. The top layer of clay in the dig was particularly slimy! Mike spent most of the evening trying to reduce a rock in size with a hammer to get it out of the way, but the rock won. 2 toads rescued and put into pond.
We really need to get some capping done next week, 5 rocks in lower dig and a couple in upper dig. 

16/2/16 - logging on behalf of Mike Moxon

Last Tuesday Stu L & I arrived at the dig to find a lot of leaves plastered around the walls & the slope between both entrances had slumped, burying the extension cable. The mud was everywhere slick & we realised the hole had flooded to about 2 foot above the lower entrance (just as well we gave the previous Tuesday a miss!). We cleared a lot of mud out of / away from the lower entrance to prevent it getting washed in again, but guess the mud we are chucking into the bottom is reducing the drainage. When Dave King arrived we tirfored the big boulder further out of the way & took the winch out to the surface so it can be washed (along with the drill for drying). There was a large frog in the corner dig, who must have been woken up by the water - we left him down there.

2/2/16

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, Stu Lindsay, Mike Waterworth
2.5hrs
Continuing digging in both higher and lower of the two bottom digs. Lots of mud removed, lots still to come out!