April 30, 2007 Opal Mining Update - No 72 Back Home and Mining Again

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We got back home OK and had a good trip across, stopped in Port Augusta overnight and did some shopping in the morning and left just on 10am got back home at 4pm on Saturday it is 554 kilometers from Port Augusta to here, I unpacked the vehicle and Pat did some cleaning in the house and put some things away, then on Sunday I unpacked the boat or some of it, as a lot stays in there for next time and again Pat did the usual cleaning and washing etc all day until around 4:30pm when she had a break, she then started back at her workplace at the Mud Hut Motel on Monday morning. Monday 2nd. When Pat had finished work for the day, she went shopping and after putting what she had bought in her car she then went to the post office to pay a bill where she collapsed, she had passed out and banged her head on the floor when she fell , they called a ambulance and then they called me, I was about 5 minutes away from going there and posting some items, so I rushed over there she was sitting on a chair  and looked real bad, was gasping for air had a very pale face and her arms was twitching, sweating and very clammy, never seen her like that before and was scary for a while, I really thought I was going to lose her. They took her to the hospital and gave her a test for a heart attack (ECG), but was not that and not a stroke, as far as they can tell it is the heart that is not beating in the correct order, forget what they called it, but it is the top 2 valves of the heart that were fluttering and not working properly or in tandem with the bottom 2 causing loss of blood to the head, so she had a blackout, she had a lump on the back of her head about the size of an egg where she hit it on the floor, funny first day back at work. But she says she did not work hard and the last job she did was sitting down doing some ironing, then she went shopping and then went into the post office to pay a bill and that was it, but it did give her a warning but she ignored it, she had a pain in her chest and put it down to heart burn, then she felt a bit funny and did nothing then she felt bad and the women behind the counter saw that she was pale and asked if she would like a chair and Pat said yes, but before she could get around the counter with it Pat had collapsed. She was in our Hospital overnight, she wanted to come out, but they have kept her in and put her on medication, one injection in the stomach for stopping the blood from clotting and some pills to try and pull the heart beat back in order, she will have this medication every 8 hours and will be checked again at 8am in the morning, so hopefully she will be aright and be home sometime tomorrow, but I feel that she will now be on medication for this problem for every, looks like age is catching up to her. She is pretty fit and has not many ache's or pains like me to remind her of her age, now she has, she was chirpy when I left her and was starting to eat a meal and I have told her that if this happens again just to sit down on the floor and ask for help, not be stupid and risk a blackout where she can fall over and bang her head again, next time that may kill her, at least if she is sitting on the floor she has not got far to fall over. Tuesday 3rd. So this morning I was there with her and the Doctor came in and said that he had been onto a heart specialist in Adelaide and told him what had happened to Pat he must have wanted to know just what medication to give her and the specialist said that he was not happen that Pat had actually lost Consciousness and hit her head on the floor and wanted to get her to Adelaide so he could give her some tests and try and find out what has caused this to happen and fix her up. So Pat was flown out on the Royal Flying Doctor plane at 2 O'clock this afternoon, our Doctor said that she would be home for Easter as they do not keep people in very long, Pat was all right and very chirpy and wanted to come home until the doc said she had to go down to Adelaide, so if she is all right she will fly back hopefully by Friday, if they started the tests this afternoon she could be out on Thursday, will have to wait and see. Friday 6th. I had a phone call from Pat late yesterday afternoon telling me that all is well, they cannot find anything wrong with heart, they have run a Cat Scan, did another test where they inject some dye in the blood, (I had that after I had my heart attack so they could find the blockage) and the last test was a treadmill testing the heart out (had that too) and that they were not happy with, so it seems that she will have to go back down in about 4 weeks for more tests so she tells me, will know more when she gets home which will be today. I went out and booked a ticket on a flight out today from Adelaide which leaves at 10:15am and gets here at 12:15pm, then I will get to know more, but right now all is well with here, I should be back mining next Monday or Tuesday as it is now the Easter Long Weekend, so depends on what is open and what is shut for this event, but Pat should be back at work. Saturday 7th. Pat is back at home and all is well so far, they want to see her again around 3 months form now, will know more when they send out a letter, she will start back to work again next Monday, same as me, it has been a slow and hectic start to the month, so it can only improve from here or so I hope. Monday 9th. Pat went to work today but has a sore left ankle, it has a big bruise on the left side of her foot near the ankle, so it looks like when she fell backwards she must have torn or damaged something, she said that when she fell over they told her that her feet stayed on the ground even though she banged her head on the ground, so I wonder if she has fractured a bone, we have an appointment with the Doctor tonight to bring him up to speed on what has happened to her in Adelaide as he would not have got any paperwork on her yet as it was the Easter Long Weekend, will get him to check out her foot. I went on the field at last to check things out, lucky for me all was well and nothing had been touched this time, I have had a bit of a water leak from this radiator pipe on the blower and it was very wet when I checked it today so pulled it off and brought it in for repairs, was only a weep but needed to be fixed, after I had cleaned the pipe and took it down to Ross's on Tuesday morning, after I had been and put my paperwork in for the Old Age Pension, yep you read right, the Old Age Pension. Rockin on the old perch now, anyway I gave this pipe a few good knocks on the concrete and it is full of rust and I mean full of rust, so I have ordered 3 new elbows from Ross and as he has some 2 inch pipe in stock will make a new one when they arrive next week sometime, this one I made 12 years ago, so cannot complain and when I put it back on thee was still a couple of very small weeps in it where I had cleaned it so it is ready for retirement.

Thursday 12th. Finally got underground, everything down there was alright as well, I have done good over the years not getting any "Night-Shifters" down my claims that I know off anyway, can also  tell by the footprints on the ground, anyway I started tunneling again, I know that I am close to the 62 foot  level but up till today I have not seen anything that remotely looks like a level so far, as the level on the 62 feet where I am is what is called an "Undefined Level" it does not look anything like the level below that has an ironstone level and is easy to see and follow. So I was looking for a change of ground, that is where there is 2 different colors and types of ground in front of me and in-between would be the level, such was not the case this time, I had done 19 inches today and I realized that the line of gypsum in front of me and on the side wall had to be the level as I was far enough in from the beginning of the drive, I had to do 55 feet and the level should have been just above the middle of the drive, but I had not seen anything that I was happy about, so when I decided this was it as there was nothing else in the face above it nor coming in from the roof that I could see and would have to go another 10 feet to go up 2 more feet, this would have meant I had gone to far for my calculations to be right. So I ran the tape measure back down the drive to see how far I had gone exactly and it was 60 feet, so this was the level, not that it looks like much at this stage, but opal is where you find it not were you think it may be, so I brought the machine back about 5 feet and started to level it off as the level at this point was now about 6 inches below the center of the drive, will take a while for me to do it.

I was looking and hoping for something a bit more interesting than this, but so long as I am on it that is really all that matters, the line of gypsum looks like it is going down, but don't forget that I am going up at 20 degrees right now or about 17 when I took this photo as I have started to level off, when I went down and check the shaft I am driving to at the 62 foot mark there was a line of gypsum round the shaft and nothing else, but was potch in the bottom level at 73 feet, but is to wet for me right now, may have another go later on at the bottom level. What I am interested in at the moment is to reach the shaft in front of me, some 20 feet from where the machine is right now and after I have open up around it so I can start tunneling again, I want to drive to the left and look for opal over a fault that is not far  from the shaft.

When the ground gets hard like it here, it leaves a ridge on the ground, normally the plate that has the hole in the center, called the crushed box brakes and scrape's this off the ground with the machine weight behind it, which is 2 Tons, but as this has the hard Alinite with it, the bearing holder ride's on the top of it causing the machine to start cutting upwards or hard to cut into the face.

So I have to stop the machine, raise the floor cutters and pull it back about 2 or 3 feet, so I can get up the front and knock this ridge of hard dirt off with the pick or electric jack pick, below is a big piece that came off for a change so I though I would show you what happens as part of my job, not everything goes smooth during the shift.

Here is the view of the thickness which is 70mm or nearly 3 inches, it is only on this side that it is so wide, on the other side of the machine it is about halve this width and breaks off easily, (most times anyway) it is where the floor cutters shaft runs though the bearings, it is where the bearings housing are and there is no cutting tooth there, but the next time I pull this machine out I will have to see if I can put another tooth in next to this housing to cut down this thickness then I should not have this problem, another modification for me to do.

Here I am on the level at last but not finished leveling off just yet, here I am backed onto the pieces of wood that I use to tip the front of the machine and should be my last time making level adjustments I hope.

Now the machine is on the level at last, you can see by the arrows how far I have brought the roof down, now to head for the shaft which I hope is in front of me, but I have gone off line in leveling off this machine so I will have to readjust the direction to where I think the shaft will be now, as the machine went off to the right, which I could not help nor stop when she is sat on the pieces of wood, must be the way the tracks grip on the wood one does a better job than the other as she always goes to the right, by the time I have finished this leveling off I am out by quite a few degrees.

Looking up the drive and seeing the machine just leveled out, the spots on the photos are from partials of dust that reflect back the flash.

Here is what I think should be the level, there are 2 lines that have come in the face, but the top one is what I am hoping is the right one, so far nothing in the face to  tell me what is what, no trace or potch, no outlines of shells, nothing it is dead.

Had to adjust the machine again as I have to bring the level up a bit to get it in the right position in the face, should anything come in it for me to see, as this point I do not know how far I have to go to reach the shaft.

Thought I would give you a look back to the pipes down below, as funny as it may seem I walk backwards down this drive as it is easier for me with my feet and knees, puts a lot of pressure on the knees walking down a 20% incline, on mine anyway, so backwards it is, you can just see here the elbow I have had to put on at the top of the drive to get over the ridge.

Here is the face as I have finished today, the last day of the month, the level or what I though was the level is now very faint and near the top of the face, those brown spots are in it, the line that was below it has now come up at one time a few feet back I was thinking that they may join together, but then they went further apart, so now which is the level, I do not know, but the shaft is not far away now. I put the tape measure down the shaft I am heading for before I went down, but did not hit it as I thought I would, so when I came up and went to pick up the tape measure I went over the area with the wires (divining) and worked out from them that I have about 6 and a half feet to go yet, thought it would be closer than that, so I worked out how far I have gone so far and it is a couple of inches over 90 feet, so the shaft must be further than I thought. I thought it was 93 foot out, but that must be the other shaft on the right that I was thinking off, I remember now that I had to move the shaft over about 6 feet after that Greek Driller tried to drill it and messed it up, then I got this other drill in to drill it but had to move the shaft over to the left looking from where the tunnel machine is now and so I must have also moved it a couple of feet further out as well, as it was all done in a hurry when the drill was trying to set up, still I will hit it tomorrow for sure and it should be on the left hand side of the drive according to the wires, so will see how good they are tomorrow, I am normally pretty good with the wires and can pick drives underground with them, but I am a bit out of practice, so this will be a good test to see if I still have the touch. Have to get another drum of diesel in the morning and top up the blower before I start work, put the battery charger back on the loader, tomorrow, should see the battery charged up as I had it on charge today for 3.5 hours, will be glad to move the blower from where it is as my truck was full of dust again today, when I move the blower this time I also move the ladders to and put them down the shaft that the blower is moving from, so will make a nice change and the angle of the blower this time will be different to the truck so when the wind blows in the direction it did today it will miss the truck by a long way, trouble is with the old  truck is the door on the drivers side is not a good seal and the window seal also is not the best and the dust gets into the truck on the drivers side and covers it all with lots of dust. Over cast again, but not forecast for any rain.

Well that's the end of the first month back, not a good one or sure, with Pat having a heart problem and having to go to hospital, but she has got over that and is back to normal except for a rash she has got, looks like one of the pills she is taking does not agree with her, so she is now trying to find out which one of the 3 she is taking she is allergic, but apart from that she is fine and back to work as normal I had just gone back to work and got back in the groove so to speak when it rained here, 5 days in a row, not much but enough to keep me off the field and out of that boggy clay mud, it was also cold weather, not like you guys get in the US or Europe, but cold for here in Coober Pedy and with the weather like that the water lying around takes some time to dry up, so I ended up having a week off again, so have not done a lot this month at all, but now back into it for sure have to try and find some opal ASAP and for that I need to open up around this shaft and start tunneling to my left as you see me now. Also this next month I have to make a new radiator pipe you saw at the top of this newsletter and also fix up that fan, so will do the both at the sane time, I have made an appointment down at Ross's for the 15th on May as he has a few things to do and go too, so this is a good time for both of us, will take a couple of days I should think, I have to get this fan ready for when I may need it as it may not be too long, this ground is still very hard, which is good for making good opal, but is hard on the equipment, especially the fan, That Oil Seal that I replaced behind the outside cutter has started leaking again, so that repair to the sprocket gear boss inside did not work out well by the looks of it, will have to check that out as soon as I have room to walk around the front of the machine and take it off, I have to replace some cutting teeth and sharpen some so have running repairs to do as I call them, but if that sprocket gear needs to be replaced it will take time and will cost quite a few dollars to have made, so if I can I will keep working with it and keep putting oil in and if it can last until I go on holidays next year I will take it with me and gat a new one made while I am away, that way I will not have a breakdown nor loose about 4 weeks in time. So not a lot of photos this time, but I have not had the time to do anything that I could put on film, but tried to make the newsletter a good read, so until next time, See Ya. Again I Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Good Looking Opal and lots of it, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us, but only time will tell, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes. Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report. Until the next issue......... and wish me lots of LUCK. Cya Later, Stuart Bird. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here!

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