Sunday 16th November 2025

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.

Saturday 15th November 2025

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.

Adjusted set-up. Photo MK.

Saturday 8th November 2025

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.

Sunday 2nd November 2025

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.

Saturday 1st November 2025

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.*

Saturday 25th October 2025

Mike Kushy and Lee Venning arrived on site for 10am. The weather wasn’t too bad with a mix of sunshine and the odd shower. We got straight to work clearing the spoil, with MK down the shaft filling buckets and LV on the winch. After about 40ish buckets MK got to work with the breaker and before long it was back to hauling buckets, with some rather large rocks coming out. We stopped at 12.30pm for a quick lunchbreak. After lunch MK went back down the shaft on the breaker and filling buckets and LV was back on the winch.

At about 2pm Dave Morrison joined LV on the surface and took up winch duty while LV emptied the buckets. This continued until we got to 135 buckets (the spoil heap is bloody massive now). MK then drilled 7 x 600mm holes (breaking one of LV’s drill bits in the process). Estimated depth now 9.5m.

MK then got to work setting up so the holes he had drilled could be destroyed, we all retreated to a safe distance and the holes were destroyed. 7 hours. Lee.

Looking down. Photo LV.

Saturday 18th October 2025

 AM: Mike Kushy, solo. Breaker work for 2 hours.

Spoil after breaker work. Photo MK.

PM: Mike Kushy and Hollie London. First we cleared 42 loads of spoil. Then a supervised set up for Hollie, who did the entire set up herself. All went off fine. 3 hours. Mike.