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.