19/9/17

From Duncan

Tuesday night's digging was steady progress - approx 50 bags dug between 4 of us. Half were taken to the surface and half are stacked at the start of the aerial ropeway. The tube is still going straight ahead. Only minor glitch was Stu locked himself out of his van blocking the rest of us in. We managed to squeeze our cars past (tight and slippy). Dave took it on the chin and shuttled Stu home to get a spare set of keys while Miri, Jon and I retired to the Hunters.

11/9/17

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Stu Lindsay, Mike Waterworth, Dave Walker, Duncan Simey

2hrs 15mins

Despite arriving just after a downpour and the hole nearest the gate taking a stream, the dig itself was quite dry. Emptying the bags from last week was quite gloopy at the spoil heap though. Stu did a bit of maintenance on the wire, and apart from Stu not wanting to dig tonight, we took it in turns and did 10-15 skips each and are still steadily moving forwards with the floor still being like there are sort of boulders there and not following the trench anymore. Think we need to continue to follow the main passage forwards for now as it’s still heading onwards with similar dimensions although drying out and the digging is definitely harder. 

6/9/17

Blog from Duncan Simey

Just five of us last night - Jon, Dave, Stu, Miri and I.
Emptied last weeks bags and brought about 40 more to the surface. Reasonable progress considering the team size :)

The two rocks in the floor just past the hole still aren't fully uncovered yet. Discussion in the pub about whether they will need banging. They aren't particularly in the way at the, so only need to move them if want to see what is underneath. We think that will depend on what we find in the metre or so of passage on the other side of the rocks.

Digging is quite a bit slower than it was. There is enough stone in the clay that the mattock is getting less effective and the clay is drier/firmer than it used to be. Colour banding in the dig face is rather beautiful.

I was loading the aerial ropeway and noticed the rear roller has a flat spot so bad the rope is actually cutting through the central pin. Front roller is badly worn but not quite so bad. Stu is on the case.

28/8/17

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Duncan Simey, Miri Simey, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker

3.5hrs

Arrived to find Duncan had filled the place with canned smoke! Unfortunately there was very little draught tonight, despite the good signs last week, so can only assume we’ve blocked the floor hole or something else has changed below us – to stop the hole filling anymore, an empty bag was put in to block it anyway. Good session tonight though with the longer time, end is changing - no longer following the groove in the floor and changing shape and the angle of the sediment layers is more diagonal. Very little draught tonight, but with 3.5hrs digging session, quite good progress made.

22/8/17 a draught!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley

2.5hrs

A bagging session tonight as only 5 of us. A large boulder was moved by Estelle and then removed by James and Mike and this exposed a hole in the floor that started draughting a lot – can lose the crow bar in it and it looks like it is surrounded by boulders rather than the floor now, but need to expose some more before we can work out what is going on. You could feel the draught up by the inner end of the aerial runway!