Ham mill July 1st
to 3rd
by: Andy P.
Bob arrived at the crack of dawn to put the pump on as there
is a lot of water to move, so the cut piles can be exposed. Water drops about 1
brick per hour.
Andy P, Maurice, Mathew, Jason and Kay made up the rest of
the crew.
The landing stage crew had inserted more piles but the last
one was stuck on the remains of the old wall. A breaker was hired to help break
this up but was still way under water. Frank and Colin arrived with it, along
with fuels and left with the last long piles for Harpers field.
A pleasant lunch, sat on the landing stage, eating 2 birthday boys cake and the odd banana. 3 more piles were cut off and wall breaking continued all afternoon. Waders being the kit of choice.
The Tuesday Landing stage crew tried to continue to insert
the sheet piles but the wall won. So the piles were added further along the
bank and were inserted to the height of the bottom of the gabions.
On Wednesday, Bob arrived early, for the now ritual long
pumping day as Andy P, Mathew and Duncan joined soon after.
What a pretty site in the early sun. A neat sheet pile row
As we had numbers we started the screw piling, with great
trepidation as this is a difficult, awkward, heavy, cumbersome job whilst
floating on a plastic pig. Whilst it was still all of the above, it was easier
than last time we did it, or the memory has faded. At 4 metres it would go in
no more but was still a few inches short, so several reversings and they went
below the sheet pile. 2 more were completed before a well earned landing stage
lunch, watching lots of blue damselflies doing what they do at this time of
year.
Roy and Maurice arrived to take the very clean breaker back
to the hire shop.
More sheet piles were- cut and the next batch of 12 made
ready for the landing stage crew on Thursday. We’re getting there.
