Day 747: down a bit

Day 747:  still clearing rubble, but now that the big chamber is done (and on my map!) I’m working on clearing the layer below, at least in the area where I was digging before. To be honest, I’m trying to avoid digging across this level right now because while there is ore here, I’m still doubtful that I’l find diamonds here and I want to dig down to where they are.

To the east of here, I found diamonds roughly 40 meters down, so I still have about 20 meters to dig before I’m in the general area of them, according to my map. And with the hope that diamonds are equally distributed at the core boundary. Neither of which have any guarantees at all. For all I know I could dig out the other side of the planetesimal at any time.

Anyway, clearing this level so I can get to the ore pockets (especially the iron and the coal) directly below me, and then on down to hopefully diamonds.

Day 746: more rubble

Day 746: Still clearing rubble, which is boring but makes things safer and nicer looking.

Plus I discovered that I dug under one of the ponds at some point and the sunlight is still filtering through the pond, and then down a couple of levels to here.

So actual sunlight! I know it doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re 20 meters underground and relying on a ton of torchlight to to make the place safe from monsters and navigable, a little tiny bit of actual sunlight is amazing for the morale.

I’m almost done here — I did a ton of work the first time apparently — so soon I dig back down.

Day 745: cleaning up more rubble

Day 745: clearing rubble is so boring.

I’ve already cleared all of the ore out of this area, which is why it’s so big in the first place. And now I have to clear all the boring rock out of the way so that it’s a proper chamber with proper walls and supports and such. Mine collapses are bad news even when you have an entire crew, they’re totally out of the question when you’re alone.

Ok and let’s be honest here: any mining should be done with a partner. The smartest thing I could’ve done when I landed (crashed, appareted, whatever) here would have been to give up mining and become a full-time rancher.

On the other hand, most miners don’t have exploding giraffe-corgis to deal with and so far those monsters have blown through every wooden or mud-built building I’ve created. The andesite, diorite, and granite that I’ve dug up have been the only things they’ve withstood. So one could make the argument that solo mining is self-defense.

But it’s really dangerous self-defense. Like taking up solo swimming after meals for fun.

Day 744: oh hey that’s a thing

Day 744:

Dug up and found a chamber that I had dug previously was above me, dug up a little more and … wow.

I don’t actually remember working on this room though it’s obviously my handiwork. It’s huge. I vaguely remember maybe I was digging this direction to get to the village that I have still not found yet?

Did I mention huge? I’m guesstimating based  on the length of my stride but I think it’s something like 46 meters by 49 meters and definitely my work because, well, nobody else I’ve found so far is building stairs and they’re definitely the stairs that I build out of cobblestone rubble.

One knows that one has been in an area for too long when one forgets a chamber this size for too long.

More importantly, it doesn’t look like I finished it, which explains why  I didn’t add it to the map yet.  Looks like that’s my next job.

Day 743: down down down

Day 743: down another two levels and digging into the ore that’s here, looking for diamonds. I don’t think I’m low enough toward the core to find them yet — these planetesimals tend to be stingy with diamonds and other pressure-formed rocks because they don’t really form enough pressure at the outer layers of the mantle to form them. (They also don’t tend to have a hot molten core like, say, Earth, or Mars did many many moons ago, which does call into question where all the ducking lava is coming from…)

Anyway, discovered a seam that will have me digging up again tomorrow, because this is how mining works. The ore never runs the direction you want to go because that would be convenient and a planetesimal covered in zombies is definitely not trying to be convenient.