Day 14: Correction again! I made a subterranean crater!

     Today, I can say with a degree of pride and joy that I spent all day mining! I woke up early and went straight to the cellar. Although I should point out that by "mining" I actually meant extending my main shaft, blowing a giant hole in it and then harvesting the fruits of my labour! I constructed two large latrines from wood, equivalent to about 3 blocks of TNT each, carried them to the mineshaft and then went back for the bucket of sulphur and sand. I then thought that it might be best to extend my mineshaft down a little to ensure that I didn't rupture the top layer of soil and cause a cave-in. After about 20 metres or so, using the step shaft method, I dug out two long holes on either side of the mineshaft walls, placed the wooden latrines into them, and then filled them with the contents of the bucket. Then, carefully connecting the fuse wire to the redstone dust, I made a trail back up the stairs and connected the same flint switch.

     Needless to say, with the equivalent of six blocks of TNT going off, the result was rather amazing: the hole was rather deep and wide, which exposed multiple veins of coal, and a large amount of gravel. Knowing my stuff, I knew that gravel meant the presence of iron or other ores, due to the high pressures causing pure raw ore to become concentrated in small pockets.

     I had to return to the ground floor of the house and retrieve a few wooden steps I'd premade awhile back after constructing the wooden walkway. I carefully made my way down to the bottom of the hole using the steps, and began to place a few torches around to light up the place. Iron is a tricky ore to spot in the dark, and I wanted to make sure I found some! Not seeing any on the surface, I decided to shift some of the gravel that was everywhere! I had high hopes due to the amount of gravel I had found, but the one problem with it was it could easily cause a collapse if I wasn't careful. After about an hour or so shovelling gravel from one of the walls, I noticed a small vein of coal actually under the main stairwell that I had constructed. With a bit of moving steps around, I managed to extract all the coal, and put it into a chest I'd constructed towards the far end of the mineshaft. Returning, I continued with the removal of the gravel, when I suddenly I hit the jackpot! Before I began excavating my find, I cleared the area around it to ensure I knew how much digging would be involved. I was ecstatic at my find!

     After excavating all of the iron ore I had found, I took it to the surface in shuttle runs that took about 40 minutes. I really needed a better way of getting this to the surface, and was toying with the idea of constructing a minecart and railway system to transport the ore from the source directly to the surface! I had certainly found enough iron for the job, and I had enough left over to store as a few blocks to sell to make a bonus on top of my pay packet. If I could find some gold, I could really make a huge bundle, what with the high price that is being paid for gold in it's pure form. In previous MiNES I'd even found diamond, but that was unlikely to be around due to the geography of the place. There were no volcanoes or underground sources of lava to generate intense pressure and heat to create diamond. Knowing my science, I knew that the gas laws played heavily into the creation of diamond! Coal is the like diamond, but considerably easier to create naturally.

     I had that dream again, the one where I had solved the runes in the book, but I couldn't quite remember when I woke up. The weird thing was, the only other thing I could remember in my dream, was a pig running around in my house with me ignoring it! This confused me instantly when I woke up, but I feel it has a link somehow...

Syeonyx signing off