I attended a Geological Society Field Meeting at Aust Cliffs and surrounding environs. However, activities at HR continued, the following report penned by Jon with a contribution from Mike:
“I am reminded that I offered to write a report on last Saturday’s efforts at HR.
Halloween Rift 29th October 2022
Four diggers (Paul, Jon, Jake and Mike) arrived at the appointed hour. Jake was elected to be the responsible key holder for the day. Nick arrived shortly before the Team ventured underground to make up the five needed to haul to the surface.
Having been absent for a few weeks, Nick was sent to the front, supported by Mike. Jake initially worked the ledge, with Jon at the bottom of the entrance and Paul on the surface.
The progress was slow; digging is currently hard work. After 10 or so bags of spoil were sent to the surface, the Team reorganised. Mike moved forward and dug behind and to the left of Nick, supported by Jake. Paul worked the ledge and Jon stacked in the entrance. The pace increased but the turnover remained below the recent average.
The difficult issue was then determining when to bring the morning’s efforts to a close. There was no time-keeping device on site and the 20-bags-per-person rule seemed inappropriate at the current digging rate. The Team chose to rely on Jake’s beer alarm.
Eventually, the alarm sounded and the Team cleared the entrance. A total of 70 bags and a solitary rock were removed.
Back at the farm, the beer alarm was seen to be accurate to within half an hour. It could be argued that predicting the time to within half an hour in a 24 hour period is an error of around 2%. Jake could claim 98% accuracy in his beer alarm.
The team then retired to a local hostelry for light refreshment.”
Mike added: “Nick removed two almost torso sized rocks, that took both of us to move on the skip & a few smaller ones. I cleared the far end of the hollow in the floor to see that it appears to be headed towards where Nick was digging.”
