February 23 & 24, 2002

Back in Business

Only 45.6' to go (72.9' below surface)

Diggers: Greg Buckley, John Bowles, Bill Copeland, Terry DeFraties,

Gerry Gattenby, Robert Gattenby, Bill Gee, Brian Goertz, Carolyn Hartley,

Mike Hartley, Rick Hines, Peddgie Heinz, Ryan Freeman, Ken Long, Chris

McCrackin, Danny Schupbach

We were pleased to find the hole clean. No plug!

I was also pleased to meet two new diggers, Brian Goertz and Chris McCrackin,

from St Charles, Missouri.

On the first trip down Mike Hartley cleaned the sidewalls with the pneumatic chisel and then proceeded to square up the bottom of the 30" shaft. My third pleasant surprise was to fine the distance to the bottom of the 30" shaft to be 2 feet deeper than I had estimated after we plugged the pilot hole on our last dig 12/22/01.

John Bowles arrived early with the explosives from Rolla. We very much appreciate all the help we have gotten from Paul Worsey and his Rolla students. John worked with us all day and was the last one to leave the site Saturday night. We also said good-bye to Ryan Freeman. Ryan has made the dig a school project and will be writing a paper on the dig. Ryan returned Sunday to Australia to complete his final semester before graduation.  It was 1:30 before we started  drilling for the first blast. By then we had completed the installation of hard piping from the compressor to the dig and relocated the AC breaker box form the power pole to the 8-foot steel tank at the dig. Both the 1.25" pipe for compressed air and the conduit for the electrical lines were buried. Thanks to Greg Buckley for providing the lead-in wire and doing the electrical work. The buried services make it neater and safer around the dig. Having the compressor located on the far side of the storage silo reduces the noise level at the dig. The mezzanine man can now communicate with the down-hole man, but still with some difficulties. An improved communication system may soon be necessary as we move deeper. Any ideas? Drilling was completed at 2:30 and the first round of explosives was loaded by 4:00 PM. We used 1.5 sticks of power split in each of the outer six holes and one 16" long power split in both of the inner two holes. The holes were about 3' deep. A 4-foot long railroad rail was hung in the hole to prevent large rocks from plugging the pilot hole. Three delays were used on the non el caps. For the first time we used det cord to get from the non-el caps to the electric cap. This method provides improved safety by allowing all personnel to be out of the 30" shaft before the electric cap is connected. The first blast occurred at 4:37. Unfortunately a step was left on 40% of the 30" hole. Several large rocks were found but the railroad rail did its job. The rail not only did its job but was undamaged by the blast! The two holes in the step were cleaned with air and reloaded Sunday morning. After the second blast the pull was 2.2 feet.

A third set of 8 holes was drill and loaded Sunday. After drilling each hole we insert a thin walled plastic pipe into the hole with about 3" sticking up to prevent debris from filling the hole before we get it loaded with explosives. A ring of duct tape was added near the top of the plastic pipe.

This worked well to keep the pipe from falling too deep into the drilled hole. We loaded 2 sticks in the outer 6 holes and 1.5 sticks in the inner two holes. Terry forced the explosive to the bottom of the holes and stemmed the top foot. We pulled 2.2 feet with a fairly clean level bottom. Again we found several large rocks, one measuring 9 x 9 x 6". We will continue to use the three innovations that worked this weekend: 1) railroad rail in the pilot hole, 2) det cord between the non-el caps and the electric cap, and 3) duct tape on plastic pipe. Another innovation we are testing is the use of a plug (see attached photo) to plug the pilot hole and allow the 30" shaft to fill with water. Next weekend will pull the plug and hopefully flush away the debris cone in the cave. If we have 30 feet of water in the hole it will take about 3000 lb of force to pull the plug.

A special thanks to Carolyn Hartley for the spaghetti and meatballs and brownies and to Peddgie Heinz for the stew and salad provided for Saturday dinner. We were glad to see Danny and his daughter at the dig and wish to thank him for his long-term support.

Eddie Simmons (417-736 3195) will run the dig next weekend. Contact Eddie or me to sign up.

Rick 913 - 897 - 4258