Monday, June 2, 2003

Good Morning. The weather - still summer-like. It stayed so over the weekend, though the wind has never come up and the entire dale is fairly hazy. The warm weather had the effect of bringing out the hikers, bikers and motorcycle riders by the thousands. The pubs were all doing a good business as a result. Being such rare and unusual weather for these parts, especially over a weekend I recon there's a fair number of sunburnt bodies trying to rouse themselves for a Monday morning right about now. It's good to see the dale come back to life after the depression caused by the foot and mouth disease crisis two years ago.

Saturday was a day at the saw for me. Though Byron had accomplished a lot of trimming at the mine using the chainsaw, there is always a lot of "fine tuning" to be done by hand. In addition, as some of the better pieces are destined to be carried home in my luggage any extra weight that can be left behind is a good thing. Our table saw here is a real beast and using it is not something to be taken casually. To prepare for the ordeal I went down to the mine to get a full set of our bright orange rain gear and a pair of wellies. There is one pair of them that, while they fit me perfectly, have a small leak in the soles. The effect of cold water slowly seeping into my boot while working in the mine is something I would rather avoid so I grabbed that pair for use at the cottage where one will hopefully not be standing (or sitting) in ponded water.

Byron stayed at the mine to do a bit of collecting in the currently productive West Cross Cut while I headed back to the cottage to do battle with the saw. Upon returning I found Jonina getting suited up herself for a day of watergunning. Bob, our landlord, was himself getting ready to do battle with his copious, and somewhat overgrown lawn and was busy getting the tools of his trade out of the garage before we took over entirely for the day.

So for the afternoon I sawed, Jonina washed, and soon we were both awash in muddy water, rock, and eventually a few good specimens, along with buckets of trimmings and waste rock. Fortunately the weather was warm and everyone dried off fairly quickly. One of the real joys of specimen cleaning at our old location, Little Allercleugh, was the incredible view we had of the valley from the garage. The somewhat less joyful aspect of this was that the almost constant wind blowing over the high moors made specimen cleaning a very chilly business. Being down in the valley now we don't have the constant wind to deal with but neither do we have quite the view.

Byron returned from the mine around 5 pm with several tubs of new specimens, at which time I decided I had had enough abuse from the saw for the day. Jonina was still hot to gun for a while so Byron and I went up to the Grey Bull in Stanhope. Ran into Isabelle's son Noel, who is still managing the pub despite it being sold to Jennings recently. Had a good chat and got invited to a cricket match that Noel's team is playing on Wednesday. He says that there's not a chance that they will win fairly so they are scheming on how this can be accomplished otherwise. Being almost totally clueless as to the rules of a "proper" cricket match, I'm not sure if I could recognize one that wasn't. Could be entertaining, though.

Back at the cottage I helped Jonina get on a quick supper (called "tea" here in the dale) about which time David Rennison showed up. As promised, he brought his table saw for us to use and after a short demonstration it was obvious that this thing was light years ahead on the user-friendliness scale than ours. Jonina, however, objected when I suggested using our old one as backfill at the mine.

Sunday morning Dave Beadle stopped by to hash out a written timbering procedure that the mine safety folks want us to have. While Byron and Dave dictated and Jonina took notes, I adjourned to the garage to try the "new" saw. A momentary delay was caused by a blown fuse, compounded by the fact that I forgot that here in the UK the fuses for appliances and such are in the plug heads. After overcoming this obstacle I launched into a slicing and dicing session that was a pure joy compared to the previous day. No torrent of muddy water spraying in my face, no intense vibration from the saw blade popping crystals off the matrix. Got my large specimen from last Thursday cut up into a couple of a more manageable size, and sliced up some Frosterley marble for a French collector who wants some to make eggs with.

After Dave and the crew finished up with the timbering procedure, the three of us headed up to the Allenheads Inn for some lunch, and afterwards wandered back down the road towards Rookhope. Found the Rookhope Inn open again with a new owner. The former owner was a rather outgoing sort who would be happy to tell you his entire life story given half a chance. The new fellow behind the bar is contrasted by his quietude, and tended to respond to inquiries with as few syllables as possible. Still, the place looked largely unchanged and they had a good selection of ales on handpump. I don't know if the food is quite as elaborate and varied as Steve use to do, however.

Finally made our way down to the Mill Race, where, being a sunny day I was able to get some not-so-gloomy looking photos of the outside for a web page I offered to do for them. Inside I found a loud thumping noise coming from the kitchen and upon sticking my head through the door saw Mary busily beating the accumulated ice out of an old chest freezer with a rolling pin. When I ask if she would like a photo of this on the web site, the pin was waved menacingly in my direction. Oh well.

Today is Dave's first day at the mine so he and Byron will probably plot strategy for the summer. I am driving over to Kendal with Jonina to see Lindsay and get the blasting permits in order. Today's photo is of some of the results of yesterday's sawing.

Stay tuned for more...

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

Go Back