22/11/21 no rain, so keep on diggin'

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jon Riley, Stu Lindsay

2hrs

No rain since last week, so minimal bailing to get the dig ready to dig. Mike initially went in to clear the water and start digging, but Stu then took over and did about 25 skips before Mike took over again. The grill is making it a lot of difference with not having to walk through the pond at the end. During the session we increased the rope length of the drag haul so it’s about 5m longer, which means it’s a little less hard work for the person behind the digger, but all jobs are quite hard work with only 6 of us – we need more diggers on a regular basis!

16/11/21 - a decking across the pond!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Fran Campbell, Adrian Miles

1hr 45mins
Mike brought along 2 scaffold bars with an idea we could put them across the pond at the end and then put the 2 metal grills over so we can get to the dig end without ending knee (plus!) deep in water when we are trying to deal with the water levels. The water had dropped back down to relatively normal levels again and the scaffold/grill idea worked a treat. Mike and Adrian filled all the water containers several times each until the dig beyond the dam was empty and did a few more in the pond too bringing all the water out, so as to help prevent it lapping over the dam. Digging was then possible so Fran went in and dug 16 buckets worth before we headed to the pub. It's easy clay digging at the moment with the passage lower in height and less wide, but we don't know yet how far it goes down due to water levels and not having dug down as much recently. Long range forecast is for mostly dry weather so fingers crossed the water levels won't rise for next week and it may well just be a few containers of water to clear the other side of the dam.

 

2/11/21 flooded!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Stu Lindsay

1hr
After several weeks of a lot of rain, unsurprisingly the dig was flooded at a high enough level it wasn't diggable - water up as far on the floor as where the lower haul is. We checked the length of the electric which goes to the top of the step currently and then exited and went to the pub to discuss our options... Basically either quit for the winter and buy a pump in the spring or buy a pump now... we will chase to get the updated survey from Andrew and also look at the pump options a bit further and see how the weather goes.