1/5/2004
James Kinney Farmstead summer kitchen longwall mining damage pictures.

Diary Entry:

This day started with a big "THUMP" sound as more plaster came down in the hall downstairs. A little more has come down in the upstairs hall ceiling last night too. The pendulum upstairs is back to start and the living rooms downstairs are still past start and the two in the basement are not quite back yet and are slightly to the north side of start. A marble placed on the smooth ceramic stove top races to the north now, instead of to the west. Mr. Ernie Stubbs of QES came to get a water sample from the new water system. Kurt Stubbs checked cables --- all were OK and he checked the water in the wells again. The barn water level is up to 18 feet (static level). This is a record of 15 foot of water in the well that is 33 foot deep. He said surface water is coming in like a torrent. We have just had 3 inches of rain and water and mud is everywhere. The temperature is 38 degrees but the weather is changing to snow this PM. The OVCC survey crew came out and made measurements. They said the house and other buildings have dropped 4 feet since mining. (this turned out to be an error as it was 3 feet ) David Simpson, structural engineer, sent me a copy of what was sent to the coal company concerning his opinion of the safety of staying in the house. He stated that some "step cracks" were found outside the brick buildings he expected more to occur when the cables come off. I had another unexpected visitor drop in, Chuck (?) who will be undermined by the Century Mine as he lives down on SR 26. He said they should "OUTLAW LONGWALL MINING". Dave Bartsch, OVCC, came by at 5:00 PM. I gave him static about his public statement to the news media that "all the cracks were in the house before and the longwall opened them up and now that the longwall was past they closed up". I asked him why he said that and he said that his employee, Claude Luke told him. I gave him the tour and showed him the cracks that he said were closed up... and what do you know, they are all still very open, even getting more so every day. Dave Fitzpatrick called to ask about a schedule for putting on the new house roof. I had to tell him that it was still moving and it would not be wise to put it on for a few weeks anyway. But we get bad weather in January so this might not be possible anyway. I had asked Claude Luke and he indicated that he would let me know when it was safe to put it on.

Floyd Simpson