Mike Kushy, Trevor Hughes, Adrian and Henry (Adrian's son) Miles and John Cooper.
Busy day lots going on, we estimate 100 buckets cleared minimum since last charge. We all took turns doing different jobs.
TH assisted AM on a supervised set up, all went off well. Heck of a shockwave, everyone seems quite excited about the potential of it opening up soon.
5 hours. Mike.
 |
HM on double lifeline and cows tails watching TH and AM set up below. Photo MK. |
Mike Kushy, Tuska and John Cooper. MK and T to begin with. After a few hours fettling the dumper truck we got it moving and unloaded on the big spoil heap (I'll leave Tuska to go into details about that with the Templeton team). We then set about clearing TempleTwin around 1pm, T on surface and MK clearing (massive amount of gravel!). JC arrived around 1.30 and the 3 cleared until 3.30, 45 buckets cleared. Still just more gravel and no sign of solid yet so more clearing to be done and I have a suspicion the breaker is going to earn its value next session. The limestone on the eastern wall looks to be going soft (this'll be the void areas I kept hitting whilst drilling), the limestone is rotten with a 6 inch band of mud next to it. A dry day until 3pm, then very damp. 9.45m deep, but we're at least 10m in reality. Mike.
 |
| Before clearing. Photo MK. |
Mike Kushy and John Cooper. Arrived at 10.30am. With JC on surface MK drilled holes and set charge. Same amount as usual but felt considerably more powerful. Drilled into a couple voids in the Eastern wall. Fumes flew out again. 2 hours. Mike.
Mike Kushy, Hollie London and Tuska. MK and HL to begin with. HL at the bottom, MK on winch/bucket carrying. We carried on like this until Tuska arrived around Midday. Tuska took over the winch and we cleared another dozen buckets. We then took the winch/tripod apart, moved the steels and levelled the ground. The pulley point now sits a lot higher, which helps massively. Next job is drill holes and set charge. 4 hours. Mike.
.jpg) |
| Adjusted set-up. Photo MK. |
Mike Kushy, Tuska and Trevor Hughes. MK and T to begin with, arrived around midday. Carried on building up the spoil walls and moving spoil until TH arrived, around 2pm. TH went down the hole, T did the winch and MK carried buckets. We carried on like this until T left, around 3.45pm. TH stayed down the hole and MK winched/carried buckets until 4.30pm. TH reports still loads of loose to clear and no sign of the floor yet, estimate of 60 (well filled) buckets cleared! Need to sort out the winch and pole set up as things are gradually wearing away as the pulley point isn't optimal. Mike.
Mike Kushy and Tuska. MK to begin with and got onto site for 9.30, set up drill and started to drill shot holes. T arrived just after 10 and cut some bushes back ready for our spoil wall to be built. Charge set and fired fne, fume cloud cleared almost immediately! The pair then worked on bulding the retaining wall and backfill it. T left just after one and MK stayed on for a few more hours. Horrible wet muddy day with on/off showers. Mike.
 |
| View of site. Photo MK. |
 |
| Muddy boots. Photo MK. |
 |
| The start of the spoil wall. Photo MK. |
Mike Kushy and Mikey Waterworth. Clearing for 2 hours, still a little spoil left to clear! Mike K.
*Afterwards MK and Tuska took the breaker to Tuskas house and got it working again, the switch mechanism needs a regular clean out. Would be worth keeping tools for this in the shed.*
