Friday, June 6, 2003

Good morning. The weather - heavy overcast and windy. I guess the summer has retreated from the northland, at least for the moment. Yesterday was a typical "summer" day here in Weardale. The sun would momentarily emerge only to be followed by more clouds and the occasional rain squall. This effect can seem rather odd when one is spending a good bit of time underground. Emerge from the tunnel one time and the sun is out - the next time you find yourself getting just as wet outside as you were in the mine.

Yesterday morning I went back up to the old mine and helped Dave and Byron finish hauling out our salvaged rail. This didn't quite amount to back-breaking work, but mine is very sore this morning. We now have enough rail for another 100 feet of tunnel, and as Dave said - "if we should be so industrious as to drive more tunnel than that, we know where to get more rail". After emerging with the final section of our haul everyone sat down and stared off into space for a while, finally getting around to our bait (lunch in the local dialect). The area around the old mine ruins is actually quite scenic and it was pleasant to have a little time to sit and enjoy it. The sheep even seemed unusually brave and a few wandered past, munching leaves from some flowering bushes in the burn. Today's photo is of the guys taking their bait.

After regaining our composure Byron and Dave decided to attempt a recovery of an old ore skip that was down the tunnel a ways. Jonina was in need of more specimens to feed her cleaning process, so I headed down the dale to the Rogerley to gather up the specimens remaining about the West Cross Cut. As is often the case, the weather at one end of the dale bore no relation to that at the other. When I left the old site it was cold and drizzling rain. By the time I got to the quarry the sun was out and it was almost hot. Once inside the mine I discovered that, despite Byron's apprehension, the roof of the alcove where he was working a few days ago was still in place. This is actually a bad thing. Had the suspect rocks come down then we could just clean up the place and get on with collecting. Now we will have to figure out what to do to keep everything from coming down on someone.

Back at the cottage I put on my chef's hat and got dinner on for everyone. Just as we sat down, David Rennison drove up for another gander at the current specimen hoard. I put a glass of wine in front of him, which kept him occupied for a moment or two, but soon he was fidgeting in his seat, unable to contain his fluorite lust. After making him wait for what must have seemed a very long time while we finished eating, we adjourned to the garage where he picked out a couple flats of material. Says he is taking a representative selection to show Alex and will be back for more on Saturday. Cash-flow is a good thing.

Today, if all goes well and Dave is able to borrow a portable saw, we will get the rail cut into manageable sections and hauled out. I have some errands to run about the dale as well, and Jonina will be back at the cleaning with her fresh supply of muddy specimens.

Forward in all directions…

Cheers,

Jesse, Byron and Jonina

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