Friday, August 15, 2003

Good morning from Weardale.

Like yesterday, this day dawns bright and clear, though fairly still so we may be in for a warm one. It's not wise to wager very large amounts on how the weather will turn out here, however.

Yesterday was a mine day for both Joan and me. She doesn't have quite the appetite for prowling around dark muddy little mines that I do, but does like to visit her personal one from time to time, just to see what all our money has been spent on. After about an hour spent sawing some of yesterday's specimens into more manageable sizes here at the Mine House, we headed for the mine and found both Cal and Byron ensconced in various parts of the West Cross Cut. When two people are collecting at the same time in the mine somewhat of a choreographed routine is required. Water is, of course, an essential part of the process, but if both collecting parties begin spraying at once, the water pressure drops to the point of being ineffectual. This requires the water users to behave more-or-less like motorists here using the roundabouts. The person spraying (or in the roundabout) has priority until he or she is done. As soon as the second party hears the spray stop (or sees no one heading their way in the roundabout) it's their cue to start, putting the other person back in the cue. This, of course, only works if the two collecting are within earshot of each other, or are not so intent on the potential specimen emerging from the mud in front of them that they are trying real hard to ignore the other person wanting to use the water too. As always, it comes down to the survival of the pushiest.

Cal was intent on a block of fluorite-coated rock similar in size to the one I had recovered the day before, and located just the other side of the column separating the southern WXC drift from the middle alcove. After much spraying and scraping of mud, the moment arrived when it was to move - captured in today's photo. As typical of specimens from the mine, the best quality crystals are always on the downward facing portion of the rock. To help protect them incase the rock tumbles when it comes loose some mud is best left on the specimen. When this one came out, we had a large rock, perhaps weighing 40 kg with some very nice fluorites showing along one edge. As Cal washed it off and pealed the gob of mud away, we found a really nice patch of dark gemmy crystals on one section of the rock, but nothing next to it. Looking at the face of the mud ball that had been against the rock we saw numerous fluorite crystals, once attached to the rock but now imbedded in the mud. Oh well, life in the food chain. At least the remaining specimen was quite nice.

About this time Joan's light crapped out on her, and as we had no spare cap lamps and only a hand torch, she elected to go outside and wash the newly acquired mud ball for it's captured crystals. Given our mud's tenacious nature, this can be a major task, but she got several really nice gemmy twinned crystals - and a lot of colored aquarium gravel - for her effort.

After everyone took their bait brake, Cal spent the afternoon hosing the mud in the WXC looking for singles while Byron started poking around in the back of the Dipper pocket in the east tunnel. Soon he had uncovered a seam of some of the largest green crystals I've yet seen from the mine. The size and form were similar to the large purple fluorites we collected from the vein during the first two years here, but these ones lacked the white centers the purple ones had. The problem with this seam was that it was highly fractured and almost everything crumbled as Byron tried to extract it. Another "life in the food chain" experience. We got a couple of clusters out - nothing fabulous but interesting for their size. Toward the end of the day Dave got to drilling the west tunnel face in preparation for shooting the next round. This is an amazingly noisy process and even with ear protection one comes away a little dazed and confused after the couple of hours required to drill an entire face. Still, it beats double-jacking (hand drilling) by a mile!

Back at the Mine House Cal and Kerith picked up some Indian take-away for dinner and Byron found out that not all Indian food will burn the top layer of cells off your tongue. He's from Wisconsin, a place where most people have never encountered a chili pepper. David Rennison stopped by around 2030 and picked out another batch of specimens. As we stood out in the driveway discussing life and watching the evening progress a cloud of midges descended on everyone and the more susceptible ran for cover.

Today Joan is planning on playing tourist with Cal and Kerith, and I will be helping Byron clear the backlog of large specimens around the mine that need sawing.

Stay tuned for more…

Cheers,

Jesse & the crew.

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