30/7/24

 Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley

1.5hrs

Trying different ideas with 3. Mike, Jon and Estelle took 22 skips into the end of the dig, Jon filled them all and whilst he was doing that, Mike and Estelle moved them through the first skip run, there is space there to store that number, we actively left 2 skips in the cave in that area to see how well they empty next time having been left full in cave. We then moved them to the chamber end of railway with one each end of the haul and one on steps, followed by moving them out of the cave and emptying them, including filling 2 bags, apart from one skip which we left by the railway to test how well it empties next time. This took just over an hour to do from start to finish and we arrived in the pub just after 8:30pm. We felt 20-25 would be the max 3 could do and make the pub for 8:30ish on non-darts nights. The air in the dig wasn’t great, but not unworkable.

We discussed in the pub after with Stu and James present, options around trying bags instead of the skips like they use at Halloween, Jon said he’d see about getting some of those – from experience of many digs/mud types, we will probably need to experiment with leaving them full for a week, then maybe 2 weeks, etc. to see how well they will empty. We also suggested that filling some brewery bags and loading them into the pool just before the last run, with a view to putting another conveyor belt over that would lose that puddle with rocks in and make it more comfortable to get across and a little more storage space too. There is also a lot of smaller rocks by the last skip run that could come out allowing more stacking space if required. Basically there is probably work that can be done with 3 as long as the individuals are up for triple handling and being in a variety of locations working. We just have to accept we can’t do things as fast and vigorous with just 3!