Please--Permit Me

Where're you going with those buckets of mud, boy?
Where'd you get that mud?
You got a permit to move that dirt, son?

I got it form my Mistress, sir.
Yes, sir!  Yes, sir!
Twenty-five buckets, one-third full,
And no permit but a hope and a dream.

Where're you going with that boulder, boy?
Where'd you  get that rock?
You got a permit to roll that stone, son?

I got it from my Mistress, sir.
It was stuck in the mud.
I thought I could use it to stem the flood.
No permit but the sweat and the blood. 

Where're you going with that log on your back, boy?
Where'd you get that wood?
You got a permit, son, to tote that load?

Got it from an old clear-cut, sir.
Somehting that was left behind.
Gonna take it to my Mistress, keep her kind.

Where're you going with that shovel, boy?
What're you going to dig now?
You got a permit to use that thing?

Going to dig a hole, sir.
Going to see what's there.
No permit, sir.
Why?  Do you care?

By David

July 22, 2011

Generator up and running.  Needed premium.  Who knew?  Another 25 buckets!  Those guys are moving. 72'4"---deep.  "After the big mud sulmp I had a couple of mnoths ago, I'm finally back to ceiling air space.  That's cool."  It's amazing how heavy a rock pice form down there weighs.  Be sure to go to cavenextdoor.blogspot.com   

June 2011

June 21, 2011

Since last writing, progress has been slow.  Days of work few.  But we have lights from the 12 volt turbine shining in the culvert, at the gate, and a light below the collar.  Outlets and a panel have been installed in a fairly dry corner (NW).  The turbine has been brought back on line with intake cleaned, lots of water so we have 17 amps.  Nice bright lights.  I have also been making lumber from old cedar with the axe, froe, and maul.  Need to improve facilities a little bit.  Add more rustic

     On my way past Eugene, from the one year birthday party for granddaughter, Ruby, I stopped to see JD.  He sent me home with 100’ of 1” PVC schedule 40 for conduit for the audio-visual feed from the digging face.  We want the world to see it all happening.  I have dug the ditches and bent the pipe, and am ready to run the lines through.  There has been rodent damage to the wires and they need soldered and spliced, again.  I am getting ready to move up to the dig until the job is done. I wonder how close I am. 

May 2011

May 21, 2011

The Beginning of Judgement Day  (according to an OLD, slightly cracked, fellow.

Charlie and David heading up.  Still four foot snow drifts on the road so we get to hike a mile over patchy snow.  The ground is flat and brown.  The green is Oregon grape.  We packed in more heavy copper wire—90’ of 6 gauge—for the 12 volt supply below the collar, nails, conduit elbows, garden hose, and a bottle of brandy.  More buckets too, to replace unsafe worn and broken ones.

     Before we could put the 6 gauge wire down the conduit, we had to pull the too short 12 gauge wire (that we had previously put in) out with a line attached to it so that we could use it to pull the 6 gauge back down the conduit.  Four pulls threaded the wire into and down the upper culvert and around the gate.  This left the last 40’ hanging down through the collar to the bottom of the dig.  An elbow and three 10’ pieces were then threaded on from the bottom.  Boy, is it ever wet down there!! 

     To top the day off, while Charlie and I were having lunch, he was sitting in the lawn chair in the sun between the snow drifts when a fresh butterfly came and lit on his hand.  Stayed for 10 minutes while he was chording away on the guitar.  Then it came over to my hand tickling with her tongue, and showing her beautiful, rusty serrated wings.  I passed her back to Charlie. She grazed her fill and then fluttered down, and drank of melting snow water.  So when you’ve overwhelmed, just figure out the next thing to do and do it.

May 2011 Log

May 2011

     With the last piece of culvert installed at the top it is now possible to install wiring for lights below and above the collar.  But, I can’t help digging. So one day in April, with the help of longer days and easier hiking (you can walk on the snow without snowshoes), Charlie and I got in a forty bucket day!!  I told Charlie that was a record that might not ever be broken.  The result was a lot of backfill at the top, of course—there were slumps to fill in outside the shaft, and the digging at the bottom proceeded faster than the shoring going up.  This is the east wall.  Slump muds oozing between he cracks.  I think if I wasn’t careful this side could slump all the way to the top. 

     In fact, while installing the last piece of shoring and congratulating myself on digging a shaft right down an active sinkhole, mud started flowing out of the wall and slumping began immediately.  I could hear rocks and cobbles rattling behind the walls and falling down.  I went up—FAST,  Climbed up into the culvert, pausing to listen before I shot to the surface.  The noise of water dripping and running was all I could hear.  I climbed back down to the bottom to check on damage.  I tried to plug the hole (which was up against the ceiling), and that had the effect of starting the slumping again.  So I climbed back up into the culvert again, and waited for the action to cease, if it was going to cease.  After a short while, things quieted down while I was imagining everything I’d dug during the winter filling back up with med and clay from behind the walls.  Thankfully, that didn’t happen.  Actually what did happen was probably good.  The rocks I heard were rocks that I had stacked in a cairn alongside the east wall, and as the mud flowed out the bottom, the rocks settled down and eventually plugged the hole the mud was coming out of.  

     Oh well, there’s more to do than dig.  We drug in some 2” electrical conduit, packed in fittings and sweeps, and started running the electrical wires.  These will reduce the extension cords.  There will be a line for 12 volt, 110 volt, a culvert light, and 2 phone lines for a video feed to the surface.  The phone lines will run through separate conduit.  We have had 2 digs working on the wiring where we only got five buckets out.

     The boulders are getting bigger and every one has air under it.  Yesterday I hammered a big one up and started barring it out of the mud under the east wall.  It split longitudinally, a clean break right through the center, leaving two beautiful flat pancake rocks.  They will be useful for something. Walls? Steps?  I am overwhelmed.