17/8/21 water levels still high, time to start looking to pump...

Dave Walker, Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Chris George

30mins

Dave was quickly ready to head down so he headed down to check the water levels while everyone else got ready to go down. He was met coming up the ladder on his way out. He reported that despite mostly dry weather in the last week, the level had dropped about an inch, it was still extremely unpleasant level and the area Estelle had been digging 2 weeks earlier was under water, only high level digging was available. It was decided that there was no point in the unpleasantness of digging in those conditions and that we should go to the pub and discuss planning what we do next – while the water may slowly drop again over the coming weeks, it is unlikely to get to a point where it is where it was before the rains of the 8^th August and if we want to try and dig more through the winter, we need to get back to pumping

Plans in the pub involve looking at acquiring 1 or most likely 2 110v pumps as safer than 240v, we will need a transformer, but between us may have ones that could come and go each week if needs be. We need to look to secure the pipe at the end as currently it is crossing the path and effectively in the way and it needs to be set up to allow a bit of future proofing on length to pump a bit further ahead than we are now. We need to decide if we want to split the level and pump to a barrel which could be located by the outside end of the railway line and then a 2^nd pump would pump up to surface and towards the pond. We also need to look to check the electric cable that is currently in the cave and make sure it is safe and sound. Will look to ask Mark or Ben to come over at some point soon and take a look for us. We will ask around re 2^nd hand pumps, but also look to price up new from online, they need to be able to cope with the sludge and also the height.

10/8/21 water levels back up after a storm at the weekend

Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley, Estelle Sandford turned up about half hour later

1hr

Sunday had seen rain of biblical proportions locally and the dig had suffered a rise of around a foot or slightly more of water thanks to that. Along with limited people turning up tonight, this made digging challenging as it was over the knee height now to walk to the end and digging was kneeling on a wet ledge. It was too wet to bother to try and bale water, so just one lot of 17 skips was brought up and emptied and the decision was made to abandon and go to the pub, where James and Stu turned up also.

3/8/21

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Chris George, Stu Lindsay

2hrs

Dave went in first, water levels lower than last week, not affected by rains, he sent out 4 bottles of water and then some slurry before starting digging proper. The rest of the spoil was digging. Easy going… Estelle in next for her 17 buckets and then Chris in after and then off to the Waldegrave. Hopefully it will dry out further…

27/7/21

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Dave and Max Walker, Jon Riley, Chris George, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon

2hrs

Good session, James went in first to dig, followed by Jon and Mike. Mike brought over some empty containers to fill with water which helped reduce the water levels a bit. Easy digging for the most part at the end, all bagged with us being an 8 and then off to the Waldy after.

20/7/21

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Chris George, Dave Walker

2hrs

Chris, Estelle and Dave dug tonight, puddle down a bit further and making steady progress forwards with the roof coming down a bit. Usual 17 skips each then Waldy.