Rock Wall Construction

Bill sounds like when I was close to finishing my dry stacked bed, a friend came over and said "What are you doing, building a park"? It looks great.

Doug

thanks doug!

Bill I thought of you yesterday as I passed this huge farm out in the country. It has the most amazing rock wall that has graced the farm for well over 100 years. Most old farmsteads in Maine have rock walls. These were/are used as our property lines, I have them on my land and so do the neighbors.
Here's a wall, or I should say part of it as it goes on for over a half mile.

Sorry it's crooked, I was in the car and it was hard to snap.

Nice shot, Pixie. We have the same situation with our stone walls here. Our property lines are all stone walls. We're in trouble if someone moves the wall. LOL When I was first practicing law, one of the hardest things I had to do was a complicated title search of an ancient farm that had been chopped into little farmlets. They were so identical it was very hard to know which parcel they were referring to in the land records at times. It was a stone wall that saved the day for me in figuring it out.

Celeste thanks for the picture. That looks like a huge wall and it most of taken some time to build!!

That is one heck of a shot, Pixie.

Nice shot, Celeste, but I'm sending you a bill for my neck cramps!

i finally got the main middle section done.

i'm pretty happy on how it came out

looking down the wall

Looks great, Bill. Congrats on your hard work.

a view from the hill

thx Victor - another from the top on the front steps

here is what I have left. I've decided to take down the old wall. i'm saving the rock and gravel to a yet to be determined project. Took down about 10 feet of it yesterday. whoever built it did a lousy job. all the stone is placed lengthwise with no cross width stones to give it stability. it's falling "out" on both sides.
at some point i will need to thread the two walls together. i'll probably do that when i get the corner and beginning of the stairs.

the first photo was a pic of the stone i collected last fall. this is the updated pic of the same area. have used quite a bit of it!

You are an inspiration to us all, Bill. Thanks for sharing your progress with us. It looks great.

Wow, Bill, it looks great! What an achievement.

Karen

thx

Amazing. Have you invested a lot of $ in Ben Gay?

and aleve!!!

Wow, that is one gorgeous wall. The entire driveway looks spectacular. I can just see when those roses fill up with flowers and spill over the wall... oh, it's gonna be Heaven.

Bill since you are almost finished you are more than welcome to bring the leftovers to KY and show me how to do this! About a couple hundred feet of wall should be enough for me to get the hang of it!!! It really looks good.

Doug

Yeah, right? I think we all want dibs on Bill's skill! It compliments how nice your wall is Bill!

Thanks again - it really is not hard to do - big on the bottom - smaller as you move up - keep everything leaning in - every so often put something in that spans the width of the wall - flat on top if you can.

oh and there will no leftovers - there are 3 or 4 smaller walls projects to come and now i'll have the brittle blue slate rock to do something else with.

my next post here will be when i finish and get it connected to what is left of the blue slate wall. even i'm getting a little bored with the 4 foot updates:)

Aw Bill I was counting on you to come to KY with rocks and a strong back!!!

Doug

You have really done a great job with that wall, Bill. I am very impressed!

thx candyce

Wha, Don't you ever get tired? We use to stay in a wonderful B&B on 113 near Mason St when our son was in school near by, but I think it is closed as a B&B. Wonderful old house, but no great wall just a tall white fence as the house was very close to the road. Some of my early family (Holden) are buried in the old Groton cemetery. Great area. Patti

Hi Patti - gotta keep busy - in all the different places i'velived i've had women neighbors stop and chat and say things like "i wish my husband did something around the yard" and i've husbands come up to me and tell me to stop because thay are getting nagged. I tell the womoen i'm sure thier husbands are busy with their kids - the men i just say sorry if i casuing them hassles and then tell them what the next project will be. it's up to them to get of the couch and in the yard.
And yes we love it here - a lot of open space and quite.

He he! You go Bill!

A NATURAL BLUE LIMESTONE HOUSE

This is the house my dad and his men built following the great depression of 1939. They worked together to build a home for each of the men and their families using materials they mostly found on the property they owned. My father was a contractor out of work as were his men. This is one example of how they beat that so called horrible depression.

This home had the first application of radient heating East of the Mississippi. It is working to this day burried in the ceiling plaster.

My dad told me often that when the times get tough the tough get going or something like that.

Note that these are quarry stone not faced or cut to shape. That is because blue limestone is extremely hard and can hardly be cut. They blasted them out of the quarry sidewalls and built all of the homes by fitting the pieces not cutting them.

Endview.

Back.

Wow, that's just beautiful Dwayne!

Yes - very nice.

Starting new thread
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/pf.php

Very nice work Doc - would not want to have to add a new window!

try this link instead

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/907067/

Wonderful job, Bill! I hate to see it come to an end! LOL

Duane - your Dad's house is so pretty and charming! I love it! That stone is amazing!

The construction continues - or should i say the deconstruction - took down the remaining blue stone wall to get a few rocks for the new patio project so i will post again as i finish the wall

need to collect a bunch of large base rocks for this - i will have to be stealth:)

come on over Bill!