Wednesday 30th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Did a run of rock from WRH to add to that JC delivered yesterday then made 1 mix to build up the walls some more. Very hot weather. 2 hours. Mike.

Monday 28th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Arrived at 11am and picked up a load of rock from WRH. Made a mix and carried on from yesterday. JC popped by with another 3 bags of cement and moved some rocks from my car to the site. Another mix made and used. Concentrated on building up the pillars for the steel lintel to go in. 5 hours. Mike. 

West wall pillar. Photo MK.

North wall pillar. Photo MK.

View from the East. Photo MK.

Sunday 27th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Arrived at 11am and picked up a load of rock from WRH. Moved this to the dig to join a big load of rock John Cooper dropped off yesterday. This was enough for 3 mixes which was used building up the North and West walls. Spent the rest of the day bulking up the corners and pillars with clean stone. 6 hours. Mike.

View from the East. Photo MK.

West wall pillar. Photo MK.

View from the West. Photo MK.

Friday 25th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Arrived at 10.30 and did a run of rocks from WRH. Moved these to the dig with others we had left over from last session, this was enough to use up 2 mixes. I then did 2 more runs for rock and used 2 more mixes bringing the western wall round. Unsure on whether to build an arch or use steel to bridge the gap between the North Wall and West wall. 7 hours. Mike.

A view from the West. Photo MK.

A view from the East. Photo MK.

Thursday 24th April 2025

Mike Kushy and John Cooper. MK to begin with. Did a run of rock from WRH and also brought a full cement bag. Got to site and moved rock closer to walls. Did a mix and just finished with it when JC arrived, with a car full of rock from WRH. JC made another mix whilst MK moved the rock. A big mix made and it was used to bring all the walls up to the same height. The next step is to start building a western wall and tie the whole lot together. JC did another rock run and then left. MK spent the rest of his time back filling the southern wall. 5 hours. Mike.

A view from the West. Photo MK.

Sunday 20th April 2025

Mike Kushy and John Cooper. MK to start with, arrived at 10am. Did 2 runs of building rock from WRH. Then 2 mixes were used to build up the south wall some more. This was then back filled with small stone from the spoil heap. I then did 2 more runs for rock. JC showed up with a load of rocks at 14.30 as I was handling the rocks from the car. The pair moved all the rock to the dig and JC started on another big mix. Meanwhile MK was removing wood props and preparing to bring the wall round. We also decided to build up under the arch so we can set the props higher to finish the walling. 6 hours. Mike.

West view. Photo MK.

East view. Photo MK.

18th April 2025

John Cooper. Weather forecast said light rain first thing followed by heavy rain so started collecting rocks from White Rabbit at 9am. Did a couple of runs then called it a day. Mike arrived as I was leaving. 1 1/2 hours. John.

Mike Kushy. Arrived at 10.30 and filled the car with rock from WRH. Met JC and he told me he had already taken 2 car loads up. Bit of a drizzly morning and light rain expected for 1pm. Made a mix and laid some of the southern wall, a little wet but all okay. It was about 11.30am when I made the decision to make another mix. About half way through the 2nd mix the heavens opened and everything got very wet very quickly, the leftover now sloppy mix was used to fill gaps and support the wall from behind. A bit worried about being able to drive out I made haste and forgot to cover the walls up. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the cement has washed out. 2 1/2 hours. Mike.

17th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Arrived at 10.30 and picked up 2 car loads of rock from WRH. Shifted these to the work site and used 3 mixes to build up the southern and eastern walls some more. Finished the day off clearing some buckets from the dig face to go behind the walls. 5 1/2 hours. Mike.

Photo MK.

15th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Got onsite around 10.30am. Used 2 mixes to build up the Northern wall some more, then used stones from the dig face to back fill the wall. Chiseled out some more of the steps and fitted retaining boards so the could be levelled. Swept up. 6 hours, Mike.

Site at end of day. Photo MK.

Site at end of day. Photo MK.

13th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Built up some more on the North side, filled behind with spoil from below. Started getting to more solid stuff in the floor. After this I then concentrated on widening the bottom, hammer and chiselling the easy pickings from all around. Some decent sized rocks removed and laying at the bottom. I then finished the day chiselling some steps out of the natural rock shelf and swept up. 5 hours, Mike.

The start of the steps. Photo MK.

Site at the end. Photo MK.

Birds eye view. Photo MK.

Some minerals on the western side. Photo MK.

More minerals. Photo MK.

And more. Photo MK

A collection of rocks from below. Photo MK.

12th April 2025

Mike  Kushy. Arrived at 10.30 am. Went to WRH and collected some wall building rock, I did 3 trips in total. Moved rock closer to site and swept everything down. Moved the pallet and posts out of the way and lowered a short piece of steel I beam down (roughly 1&1/2 ft). Had to chisel some out of the west wall, it got very solid so I just hammered back the steel as far as it would go. Pins drilled and fitted each end. 3 mixes used to build off the steel to the one above. 2 more mixes used to build up the South wall. Several buckets of spoil removed from the floor and tipped behind the south wall. A nice hole at the bottom, we need a bigger ladder. 8 hours. Mike.

Site at the end. Photo MK.

Little waterworn hole appearing between more solid stuff. Photo MK.

Lower steel fitted and pinned. Photo MK.

View of the lower wall from above. Photo MK.

View of wall from the side. Photo MK.

11th April 2025

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. 120 litres of water delivered to site as running low in this long dry spell. Two good mixes of cement used wall building. 3 hours. John.

Photo JC.

Later and closer. Photo MK.

10th April 2025

Mike Kushy. Got to site around 1pm. Moved sorted rock closer to walls and swept up the walking area. Drilled pins and balanced rock ready for the window to the vein, also put pins to reinforce the pillar that's been built on the natural shelf. Cleared several buckets of dust and rock from the bottom and chiselled out some of the wall with hammer and chisel. Managed to break up and remove 3 large conglomerate boulders. The pieces have nice crystal lined vugs. Bit achey from yesterday so didn't get into wall building. 3 hours, Mike.

9th April 2025

Mike Kushy, John Cooper and anon. MK to start with, arrived around 10am. Made and used 2 mixes on the walls. JC and anon arrived around 1pm. With JC building the south wall and MK building the north wall, with anon mixing we used up several more mixes. The Templeton engineers also on site and a couple of Templeton North diggers also down their hole. 8 hours. Mike.

View from the North side. Photo DM.

View from the South side. Photo DM.

8th April 2025

John Cooper. Scavenging rock from spoil heap ready for next walling session. 1 hour. John.

PM - Mike Kushy. Had a few moments spare before Templeton so shifted a few of the many rocks John had laid out. Mike.

6th April 2025

Mike Kushy, David Morrison and John Cooper. MK and DM to start with, we met around 10.30 am. We installed a working platform out of 4 inch waste pipe set in the wall and fence posts inserted, the other end sat on the natural rock shelf. The 4 inch pipe can stay in for drainage. A pallet was laid on top to stand on. We then proceeded to wall building, with DM on the mixer and MK building the walls. JC arrived around 2.30pm and he started wall building with MK. JC concentrated on tying the south wall to the west wall. With a couple of pins put into the rock a board could be braced and building was then achievable. Lost count of how many mixes. We're running out of good building stone, but there's a few large loose boulders at the bottom to break up. We finished around 5.30pm. Mike.

MK building up the eastern wall. Photo DM.

MK and JC wall building. Photo DM.

The end of the day. Photo MK.

4th April 2025

Mike Kushy, Tuska and John Cooper.  Arrived on site and the landowner had kindly brought up 2 dumpy bags of sand and a pallet of cement. MK and T to begin with. Chucked rock down the bottom and made a mix up. MK then carried on and another mix was made. JC arrived around 1'ish, with another bag of cement and 3 bags of stone dust, and another 3 mixes made. JC left at 3pm. MK made one more mix. We're getting there quite fast. Mike.

Photo MK.

Photo MK.

Photo MK.

Photo MK.

2nd April 2025

Mike Kushy and John Cooper. MK to start with, rock fetched and dropped into hole and mix made. Started wall building, JC showed up with 4 bqags of stone dust just as I had finished the first mix. With JC mixing and MK wall building 3 extra mixes were used to carry on building. Nearly up to solid rock shelf, need more building rock. 5 hours. Mike.

Photo MK.