Thursday, August 7, 2003

Greetings,

A cool drizzly breezy morning. Kerith and I left about 10:00 for Consett, 18 miles away, and the nearest supermarket. Driving over the moors it was 3 striper fog, but even in the thick fog you could see the heather in bloom everywhere. It cleared up enough to make the drive back quite attractive, we got back to Burnbrae before noon. I changed into mining gear and Kerith stayed around with the housecleaner, Sue.

Not a great deal of collecting at the Rogerley mine today, it was mostly prison labor -- making little rocks out of big ones to clear the Crosscuts and putting in support timbers all around the area in preparation for dropping a couple of pillars with specimens in them. A block of mud, about 36"x30"x24", sort of peeled itself out of the ceiling and I set about chopping it up with an ax. It is so plastic and smooth that I could, and did, chop cubes out of it that looked polished from the ax blows, the mud/clay is that fine.

By late afternoon it was probably in the low 80's and quite humid making the mine the only comfortable place to be. I got home about 6:00 p.m. in time for dinner and a shower and to meet David Rennison up at The Drift about 8:00 p.m. Tomorrow we tackle the rest of the timbering and set to pulling the pillars.

That's it from this place way north of Lake Wobegone.

Best Regards,

Cal & Kerith

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