Ham Mill – Mon Dec 3rd
Restoration
by: Andy P.
Heavy rain kept the 7 of us inside for a while and allowed the daylight to appear. We had a plan. Unload the 1 tonne trench box and leave room to off load the slightly bigger digger, digger (SBD). Ok so we had to modify that plan and get the SBD to lift and move the trench box to allow the SBD to get into place, to dig a trench for the bypass pipe. The bypass pipe, cut to fit the exit, was connected to a bend, then connected to the rest of the 6m length, the connected to a bend, then connected to a 6m length, then connected to a straight collar, then connected to a 6 m pipe. When we glibly say connected, we mean spend an hour using mallets, hammer, sledge hammers, formers, wood, people power and finally big ratchets to get the pipe over the greased seal to go 10 inches into each end of the fitting. Once the system evolved, we greased or way through the rest of the fittings.
The now, very long length of pipe and fittings was manually lifted into its intended position. Markers were added and the SBD scraped a surface path ready for the real digging tomorrow. Some of the soil was transferred to the garden slope and moved in place, helped by the mini digger (MD).
A nonplussed heron watches on. Then it got dark.
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