Friday, June 20, 2003

Hi Gang:

I am finding that life is quite busy here lately. Anyway, Weardale has reverted back to usual weather for this time of year. Right now I am in a multitude of layers of clothing, as opposed to tee shirts. Oh well. Today, Sarah and I determined that due to the ratio between wind and rain and our desire to go outside, we would catch up on a number of things IN the house.

Wednesday, we worked outside, but it was only marginally cold. So the usual activities - watergunning, sawing, and unpacking. Not so bad. After we filled the table with specimens it was time to quit. We were defiantly going to have to saw and clean the next day if we were going to have any room to work.

Thursday was the first morning that the sunlight hasn't gotten me up at 0500 (Not my usual hour in the morning). I actually slept until the alarm at 0745. Staggered out to find coffee and the morning phone call from Bill. I realized that the reason it was so dark was that clouds were on the ground, pouring down rain. By 1000, when Sarah appeared it was looking marginally better, so no choice but we proceeded to prop the garage doors open with bricks against the wind. Thus we began our day. By lunch we were lulled into a false sense of calm. The temperature was good and the wind down. At about 1300, it began to get cold. The wind picked up and it began pouring down buckets of rain, which given we were both already wet was not too bad - that was until the dribbles of water down my back began. I wear two sweatshirts and a pair of wet weather overalls usually. The arms get soaked by water from the saw, but I stay reasonably dry. So if you can picture this, I have saw water spraying me in the front and ice water dribbling down my back. Sarah moved her table into the garage, so she was only getting marginally wet. So off come one of the wet sweatshirts, on goes a pullover rain shirt with hood. I thought, right, this should take care of the worst of it. Then the mac leaks. The ducks are in mud pit heaven, however, as their previously empty pond filled in 30 minutes. It rained steady for 4 hours. I just gave up worrying and kept going.

At 1700 David showed up to look at the weekly haul of fluorite. I was moving like a robot due to the cold by now. Sarah got us hot coffee, thank god! After dealing with David, we closed up and started thawing ourselves out. I took a 30 minute hot shower after Sarah went home. Told Byron dinner was going to wait. Since then it's gotten worse. Oh well, at least we're inside now. I like the saw we borrowed from David. It's really easy to handle. No strain on me at all. It's really smooth and feeds its self. Much easier for me than the water guns.

Byron, meanwhile is doing great at the mine. He found a 4x5x7 foot area that is giving druzy quartz and green fluorite. Some of it is gemmy, some of it is not. That is always the balance. He has been digging this area out for the better part of a week. It is starting to pinch down, so Byron is worrying that there won't be enough stuff. In the last three days, though, he has brought me four large plates, which are great. He had to paw through 18" of mud to get to them, but they are really worth the pain of clearing the mud first. On Tuesday, Dave put in some lifters in the pocket floors. On Thursday morning they realized that the rounds in the North West x Cut had bootlegged, meaning that instead of moving the rock out into the tunnel to be cleaned, they had most likely blown into a pocket. It seems the new area and the area that Jesse had been digging more than likely go on into the rock. Needless to say Byron has relaxed a little. Dave didn't work on Friday, so Rob and Byron handled the mine. After having Rob do some mucking and packing, Byron had him try to drain a large puddle in our road. We know there is a leaky water line there, but where? If we drain it, maybe, like the last two we can see it seeping up at the source of the leak. When Byron asked how it was going Rob said "Aye, one hour of work and a pint of blood to the midges". Read No-See-Ums with a bad attitude.

Anyway we are fine and the mine is doing its thing. This weekend Byron and I thought about going to Stirling, in Scotland - William Wallace country. But there are about 15,000,000 festivals going on up there. So I thought about Arran. There is a Fair going on there. So how about Isle of Man. Art and Music Festival. All this meaning that these places will likely be crowded with no rooms available. So we decided we would go and explore the Lake District before school lets out for the summer. The next Daily will be on Monday, my time. Everyone have a great weekend.

Cheers,

Jonina and Byron

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