Thursday 14th November 2024

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Clearing the bottom of small rocks. Jude at the bottom filling, Adrian guiding, Mike hauling at the top of Pensioners’ Pot and transferring the spoil to the other bucket which John hauled through the rift. Once Jude had finished we all moved up and cleared the bottom of Father Duckmas of all the spoil that had accumulated. It's now at the top of Father Duckmas Shaft. A lot drier today, could have cemented. 1½ hours. John.

Thursday 7th November 2024

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Capping kit taken in and brought out again unused. Still drippy but getting drier every week. With Mike and Jude at the bottom about 10 loads of gravel were hauled up and lost by Adrian behind the walls of Pensioners’ Pot whilst John acted as rope minder. A few rocks were hauled to the top. At the end the rocks at the top of Pensioners’ Pot were moved up to the bottom of Father Duckmas. 1¾ hours. John.

Thursday 31st October 2024

John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Capping kit taken in. Still drippy but not as bad as last week. Adrian at the bottom of Pensioners’ Pot capping with John at the top stacking rocks. Jude in the middle guiding the bucket up and down. More work needed. 1½ hours. John.

Thursday 24th October 2024

John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Tidying up trip and to see how wet it was. Drippy. At the top of the final drop John tightened up the final hanger and then set up the digging bucket to catch the water. It was overflowing by the time Adrian came up from the bottom having removed the green plastic sheeting. The 6ft crowbar was also brought out for use elsewhere. Saw James as we were departing so had a chat and let him know we were going to return once it was drier. He said it had puddles round it last week. 1¼ hours. John.

Floor. Capping mat keeping gravel out of the way down. Photo AV.

Saturday 5th October 2024

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. First mistake was to forget the ladder! Thanks to Wayne for bring one over while the cement was being mixed. Second mistake was to do a double mix of cement without checking how wet it was at the bottom. Need I go on. Pete used up most of two of the buckets of cement at the bottom with Adrian using up the bit left whilst John used the third bucket losing rocks in Father Duckmas shaft. Adrian’s pet beetle was rescued from the bottom, but Jude said he couldn’t keep it, so it was freed on the surface. Pete says that’s it until it gets dry again. 1½ hours.

Saturday 14th September 2024

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. Capping kit taken in today. First of all the anchor point for the bottom hauling rope was moved along to the top of Pensioners’ Pot so it now reaches the bottom again. The bolt needs tightening up with a spanner! Whilst this was being done Kate was removing clatch from the bottom. She was then replaced by Adrian who capped some boulders. Adrian and Kate then swapped places and Kate loaded the broken up rocks which Adrian and John hauled up Pensioners’ Pot and Nigel stacked them. Once cleared Adrian and Kate swapped again for more clatch clearing. Meanwhile Nigel loaded the rocks and John hauled them along the rift and then stashed them at the bottom of Father Duckmas. Finally Adrian did a bit more capping and left the rocks for Pete to use wall building. Nice outward draught carried capping fumes away and still not drippy. 2½ hours. John.

Tuesday 10th September 2024

John Cooper and Adrian Vanderplank. Surveying bottom bit to find current depth. 15 minutes in, 15 minutes out and 30 minutes survey. Drizzle when we went in, raining hard when we came out. Bottom wasn't drippy. Draught outwards from bottom. 1 hour. John.