Pat's Progress Well, Wednesday has arrived, and so did our clam shell bucket and rotator on the trailer of a curtain sided lorry - great! Some preliminary work has gone into investigating just how we will interface it with our JCB jib. A similar arrangement to that on No.5 should suffice and the boys at Western Depot will be able to fabricate the necessary parts.
As for the jib, it received its coat of red oxide paint in readiness for the the yellow finish. This will be applied on Monday, if the weather still holds dry. It should look fantastic, well, that is until the first time that it takes the plunge to the bottom of the cut!
Elsewhere, we have laid a ply floor on the floor planks of the facilities cabin. This is to remove the undulations of the planks so that lino' will sit happily on top. This too was cut and given its first fit. There is a little trimming to complete around the edges.
The two water containment buckets around the front spud legs both leak due to rust and erosion. Today, the port side one has had the wafer thin metal cut out and a new piece, considerably thicker, let in. This was a particularly difficult job due to the confined access. The results look good.
A number of other odd jobs were undertaken.......we're nearly there.
