Friday, May 30, 2003

Good Morning from Weardale. The weather - well, it has warmed up a bit. It has remained quite humid and still however, and as a result, by the time I emerged from the mine yesterday afternoon the entire dale was immersed in a cloudy haze that wasn't quite thick enough to be fog. This morning looks rather the same. The temperature increase is welcome as it is nice to be able to walk out of the mine and warm up occasionally - if not dry off. Now if only the wind would pick up we could take care of the second issue.

Yesterday was another production day at the mine for Byron and me, while Jonina assumed her role as cleaning lady and tackled the first batch of wrapped specimens here at the Mine House. First order of business for me was to take the battery from the hydraulic power unit down to Watson's Garage for a good charging. We've already accumulated a very good supply of large specimens that need trimming at the mine so the chainsaw will be needed soon.

Upon returning to the mine I found Byron busy poking and spraying at the face in the southern alcove of the West Cross Cut, so I took my place back at the northern alcove, the site of the previous day's collecting. After leaving off here the day before, no fluorite was showing except the large plate on the side of the alcove, which had grown larger but still showed no obvious way to remove without first taking out the corner of the alcove itself. The problem with doing something like that is that it widens the area of the roof and sooner or later some of it may succumb to the pull of gravity. As I would rather this didn't happen, I left the corner as is and began picking at the seemingly barren face. This continued for a while in conditions as described in yesterday's report, and seemed to be yielding only a large pile of mud and rock at my feet.

Finally some hint of green began to show at the back just past the large but inaccessible plate to the side. This was, of course, at the maximum extent of my reach while lying on the wet, muddy, and most importantly, sloping floor of the alcove. One doesn't put in all this work moving rock just to give up in defeat just because the laws of nature are working against you, however, and eventually what emerged was a large tooth-like plate with one face covered by fluorite, descending from the roof of the cavity. Unfortunately, from the angle it was at I could not tell whether it was potentially a good specimen or not. It was, however, the only one I had uncovered in the better part of a day's digging, so it was coming out regardless. Finally the thing moved. What I got was a plate about 2 foot square, covered in mud, with a few nice dark fluorite crystals poking through. I took it out onto the mine landing to wash off, hoping that the fluorite crystals were attached to the matrix and not just imbedded in the mud. Fortunately, most were attached. After all that work, I was quite happy with the result. When I went back into the mine to show Byron, I found him surrounded with a large pile of specimens, some quite good. I guess there's a good reason he's the miner in this business and not me. Anyway, today's photo is of my "trophy".

Made a quick stop at the Golden Lion on the way back to get something to help me forget the tortured state of my neck and back. The new landlords haven't changed too much about the place, but are offering meals on a regular basis. Don't know how good the food may be but at least there's somewhere nearby now to get a meal when one doesn't feel like cooking. The place is now owned by the Jennings brewery, which means that I'll have to now go further a field to find Black Sheep. Jennings makes good beers, however, and the landlady even went so far as to offer to get one of my favorite - one called "Crag Rat".

Back at the cottage Jonina had water-gunned her first batch of specimens for the season to good effect and had even gone so far as to prepare some dinner. For someone who claims not to know how to cook, she can do a good job on occasion.

Today will - hopefully - be a trimming day at the mine. Starting up a diesel engine for the first time that has sat over winter is always a time of suspense. If anyone does not know what can happen in a situation like this, I refer you to the 2000 reports during early June. Jonina's car is ready for pick-up from Watson's garage so we'll drop her off there first thing.

On another note, I have received word that Noel Dedora, one of our original investors in this project and an all-around nice guy is retiring from his job as an investment banker as of today, and plans to lead a life of indolence and sloth from here on. Hopefully now that he will have some time on his hands we can get him over here for a little recreational digging.

Stay tuned for more...

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

There's nothing like one after a hard day's work...

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