Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Good Morning from Weardale. The weather - same as ever, cool and cloudy. Looked like rain all day yesterday but it never managed to quite get around to it. This was mitigated by the fact that it was our first day at the mine and both Byron and I managed to get ourselves pretty well soaked by the time we were finished for the day.

Byron and I spent the morning re-installing the water lines into the mine while Jonina worked on getting the garage here at the Mine House set up for dealing with the potential flood of fluorite specimens looming in her future. As Byron and I were heading out for the mine, our landlords Bob and Mary were busy sorting out all their stuff stored over winter in order to make room for us. Mary was in a "pitch it out" mood and obviously thought the best way to straighten things out was to put most everything into the garbage. Bob, on the other hand, seemed to think that at least some of it had some useful potential left and was busy trying to hang on to a few precious items. I'm not sure exactly who won out but by the time Byron and I got back all of our work tables were set up and the mineral cleaning operation looked ready to roll.

The water lines went back into the mine with no problem this year - no leaks or mysterious blockages as usually happens. Over winter Dave dug up and repaired our leaking spot along the trail into the quarry so the water pressure is now stronger than ever, which is a good thing when dealing with our famous mud but will cause our hoses to blow up that much quicker. The water pressure at the mains in the quarry is somewhere around 80 psi - much higher than your average household water lines, so domestic garden hoses tend to have a short lifespan when pressed into service at the mine.

Dave has also manufactured and installed another set of rail points on the mine landing so we now have a rail spur to park equipment to the side of the main track. This means that we have to move both the water and compressed air lines to the inside of the landing so they don't block traffic. The water lines moved without problem and today we'll probably tackle the air.

With the water back in, the obvious priority - at least when Byron's around - is to start collecting, so we had at the West Cross Cut for a good bit of the afternoon. Along with everything else, Dave had mucked out the area for us and when we began it looked quite tidy. Sadly, this is no longer the case. Dave will be starting at the mine next week and I hope he's not too disappointed with the mess we've made of his work. I guess that's part of what we pay him for, though. At any rate, the WXC looks like it will continue to be good to us and by day's end we had a good pile of specimens built up, a few of which look real nice. There's one plate of crystals in the side of an alcove that was that was fairly sizeable when we first began. By the time we quit it had almost doubled in size and we haven't found the back of it yet. Today's photo is of this one as it looked when we started. I'll try to get an "after" for tomorrow's missive.

After a quick dinner at the cottage, Dave stopped by for a chat and a little strategic planning session for the season. Sandra came by to pick him up but decided to stay for a bit so the tongue-wagging and beer drinking went on for a while. Great way to start the work week! Everyone's up and moving fairly well this morning, however, so I guess I had best get going for the day.

Stay tuned for more...

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

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