22/11/22 too wet to dig

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley, Chris George, Duncan Butler, Stu Lindsay

1hr

48hrs of heavy rains ahead of digging evening, so unsurprisingly the end was too wet to comfortably dig. The grill was underwater and was overflowing into the dig, but it wasn't as bad as 2 weeks ago, probably about half the depth. Hopefully if we can have a few dry days ahead of next week we can get back in to dig. 

With the lack of digging, we turned our attention to looking at securing the bag wall and building a concreted and secured retaining wall in front of it as while it is ok at present, if we continue getting higher and higher, it's going to put more pressure on the bottom bags. This can be a winter project should we get flooded out completely if the water table rises too much. Duncan took away some measurements and will look at a shopping list of items needed, but mostly a lot or rebar and shuttering and also will need quite a lot of cement to build the wall. 

15/11/22 dry enough to dig!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley, Stu Lindsay, Duncan Butler - didn't have caving kit but helped Stu a bit at surface. 

2hrs

Having had a reasonable amount of rain last week, we assumed the dig would still be wet. Sent James and Mike down to look and they reported about 4" water in the bottom and perfectly diggable. They went back in to dig and Estelle & Jon helped with the hauls and carries to stage it and then we all moved up. Stu and Duncan started working on the wall preparations at the top, Estelle had brought some cement and Mike some sand, but not used tonight. There is a need for lots of rebar and mesh to build a fronting wall to make it all safer in there. Headed to Waldy after. 

8/11/22 flooded

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jon Riley, Duncan Butler

2hrs

With all the rain recently, sort of not unexpected to find the dig underwater at Cutlers. Hopefully we'll get some dry weather soon and we can see if it will drain or not... We're a long way on from where the flooding caused us a lot of time off from digging... Last year didn't really flood at all as it was a drier winter, we don't really know what happened the previous year due to not being allowed to cave due to covid rules and the previous year we were probably 15m+ less passage when it flooded us out for several months.

Fortunately last week, we moved a lot of rock up passage, including a load that needed breaking up, so Duncan set to breaking rock while the rest of us moved it up passage to the surface. We need to visit next week to check levels, but also we can get on with wall building at the top anyway. Only just made the Waldy as they were about to close up, thinking we weren't coming and no darts on! 

1/11/22

Estelle Sandford, Jonathan Riley, Duncan Butler & Chris George. James forgot his wellies!

1hr
After a few weeks of very significant rain fall, we were half expecting to find the end flooded out, but pleasantly surprised that the dammed area was full of water, but the dam hadn't been breached, or if it had, then there must be drainage as there was no more than a couple of inches of water at the bottom. With only 4 of us, it wasn't worth doing much, but we did move some boulders up passage from the dig that were manageable and also brought all the tools up a bit before retreating to the Waldy.