We are coming from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/876964/
The other thread was getting pretty slow to load. Please show us any interesting stones/rocks/boulders/erratics you can find, and also let us know how you use any of these in your gardens and landscaping.
Here's another shot of the other side of the "bear cave erratic" in the woods behind our house......
That's a big rock!
Thanks, Louise. I've been loving this thread, although I haven't a stone to offer. Who would have thought that a thread about rocks would need a volume 2? Rock On, indeed! Melissa, that course at Salem State sounds just like your cup of .... minerals.
Al, "You got that right, Jack!! " I won't be moving it into our yard anytime soon! LOL
Thanks, Carrie. It IS interesting how many of us find stones so fascinating, isn't it? I thought I was strange that way. LOL
Nope, I LOVE stones, but the ones at our place are so buried by time and neglect, we are working on digging them out...any that we have that are big as your bear cave, Donnie, are actual outcroppings, not single rocks, and we are working to uncover them too. This is only our first season here in this home...so it slow going...and achy afterwards!
Image the postage and handling on that thing.
D_P - Imagine first moving that sucker more than a mile down to our farm to package it up for delivery!! LOL Together we've moved some pretty hefty foundation stones with just steel bars and lots of patience.
And I'm sure it was worth every aching muscle!
I like the way the tree that fell on it just bent over the edge.
Must have been a soft tree to bend that way.
I love the lore of your property.
The cattle ponds with stone wall guides.
How man invents practical things for easing everyday jobs has always fascinated me.
I'll be an archiologist the next time around.
How did you know the wooden balls were marbles?
I lived in Ithaca NY when a meer girl.
Our house was near Cornell University and we were told it originally belonged to Ezra Cornell's orchard keeper.
Comming home from school one day I found a china doll's head in the Victory garden.
Mother told me the body was originally either cotton or leather so she made a leather one for it.
Have it to this day.
Do you keep these personal wonders in a special place?
As we are recreating the back hill garden, and terracing it with found rocks, we are also finding some great stuff. So far the best finds have been an oxen shoe and part of an old clay pipe. We keep these in a special place inside the house.
Old bottles can be very valuable. Cool, Candyce!
Jo Ann - we knew it was a marble because they were pretty common in that time period. We've seen many of them in museums and antique stores around here. In a way I wish I had kept it. The day we found it, we had taken my college roommate's family on a hike back there, and I gave the marble to her 10-year-old son.
Nance - Yes! The enjoyment we get out of the outdoor fireplace/BBQ that was built on the foundation stones made it worth all of the effort! We dug up the bricks in that area that were part of the original beehive oven and Hank reconstructed a fireplace we could use to cook corn on the cob and stews and hot dogs. We put the decorative old bricks that had a scalloped edge up on the top of the chimney to the fireplace. We also put a grinding stone from the property into the face of the chimney. In this photo you can see a bit of the fireplace/chimney etc.
Candyce - how exciting to find those old artifacts! We too found a baby oxen's shoe when we were digging beneath our living room addition. The clay pipe must be very cool!
Gorgeous, Louise!
Thanks, Carrie. It took Hank years to build it when we were coming up here on weekends only. It has stone armitures with bluestone tops and cabinets underneath to hold the cookware and charcoal, etc..
Light the fire, Louise, I am on my way...
That is so great, I love old bricks, the wheel...all of it.
He/you did a wonderful job.
Avery nice spot.
Thanks, Sharon! I'll pass that compliment along to Hank! I was the supervisor and requestor of the armitures. He did the actual building. Now he's really glad we did the arms....they are very handy buffet surfaces when we have a cookout.
I want your bear cave rock, too....wonder if you could just sort of tow it down on your next trip south?
Or maybe put it on a skateboard...it all looks downhill on the map ^_^
Oh why not!? LOL Believe me, I'd share these cool rocks with you and Laurel if I could!
Oh, yay...I am "norther" than Laurel...so I get first pick.
Since you want the bear cave erratic, I'll have to find something just perfect for Laurel too. I think one of those 18-wheelers that rumbled by here all of June would be a good rental! LOL
I found a close-up shot of the outside fireplace chimney bricks.........you can see how interesting those old bricks were.
That is so beautiful. I can't help remembering the hand made bricks that were used to build my great grandparent's home in Bardstown, KY. Looks like my old KY Home, that federal style, but is older by a few years. I have a few of them here. Wonderful tribute to old and new.
Thanks, Sharon. I am so wanting to get to Kentucky at some point. What a nice memory for you, and how interesting that you were noticing such things as hand made bricks when you were a kid! I'll bet you were heading for a career in restoration way back when!!
I did get to help my uncle restore that house...every inch of it and uncovered (under 10 layers of wallpaper that I painstakingly flaked off) 5 original oil paintings done on the creeksand plaster. It was amazing. I was able to restore the 4 that needed some restoration, and the 5th one was quite intact. It was a gorgeous place, but when my uncle reached 85 it had to be sold, and was much more than I could handle alone. (100+ acres, and by that time my hubby had just died). I did get some plantings that had been there since my great grandmother was living, though...they are very much alive right here in my gardens.
Whew!! Didn't mean to write a story.
Beautiful story Sharran.
It's so hard to let the past go.
Dolly brook
Those are definatly old hand made bricks.
The ones that are curved and split were in the hottest part of the kiln and fired too high.
Just more clay lore for your "tales around the cook out fire"
Louise, that is absolutely gorgeous. How many weekends did it take? Did Hank think up the design or did you both kinda 'wing it'? I bet it gets a lot of use!
Sharran - what a fantastic life experience that was for you. And to have plantings with that kind of history is a tremendous blessing. I'm glad you took the time to "write a story".
must laugh once more. When they built my addition, the foundation guys dug out a portion of our hillside to complete the hole for the concrete pour. It was mostly airspace but there was about half of it hillside. When it was complete, the backhoe man, an artist, let me tell you, built about a 5 foot wide path on the downhill side with a large boulder retaining wall next to the house. It was a joy to watch him work with the boulders. However, a number of years later, an opening in between became the "Chez LePew" as a skunk, hereafter know as "Whitey" due to his extremely wide white stripe, took up residence. He resided there for several years, dug up my hens and chickens looking for worms more than once and raised a couple of families before he and they decided to move on. Nothing exotic like bears here, just skunk caves in the stones. We blocked the hole once they departed.
Martha
One of the coolest places for rocks is Acadia. This is from Baker Island. These igneous beauties look like huge throw pillows. I left someone's bag in the photo for scale.
What a treat.There is nothing like the coast of Maine.
Keep em comming Victor.
Rocks and clouds.
Sharon - what a lovely story about your family home and rescuing the plants. What happened to the paintings?
Jo Ann - thanks for that info on the bricks. I just love them.
Nance - The entire project took about 3 years worth of weekends. We collaborated on the design and it changed a few times. We ordered the BBQ insert from Tennessee. We also ordered a wrought iron curved top door to put on a warming oven that I want to have next to the BBQ part, so you could put food that is already cooked in it while the rest of the stuff is on the grill. We actually haven't gotten around to that part yet. Given the rest of the construction, we haven't decided how we can keep the cavity warm enough to do any good.
Martha - cute story about Whitey, and how nice to have the stone wall where Whitey lived. Can you post some photos of the wall? I'd love to see it.
Victor - Those are beautiful igneous rocks. I love their color, and it is such a nice shot with the water in the background. Please do show us some more!
Another beautiful shot, Victor!
Thanks, Louise. This is known as a shatter zone - where rising magma met cold surrounding rocks. Apparently, this is one of the few places on earth where it is easy to see.
Beautiful photos, all of you.
Louise, the paintings were painted directly on the walls, so they went the way of the house and acreage. It is on the KY registry of historic homes, so maybe it will be kept as is. I cannot bring myself to go see it again. Another time, perhaps.
Fascinating, Victor!
Sharon - good to hear that it is on the Historic Register. That should keep them preserved. We opted not to have our house here put on the Register, because we didn't want to give up the ability to make decisions as to paint color, etc.. Our living room that is tucked back into the corner of the main house and the ell wouldn't have been permitted. Maybe one day a bunch of us will come down and take you back to the house with lots of shoulders to lean on! LOL I can understand how you feel about it. Our family home that my Dad built and where we all grew up is in the same neighborhood our house in Fla. is in. We pass it every day on our morning walk. Part of me wants to go inside and part of me doesn't. Now it has a big privacy fence that keeps you from being able to see inside. Plus, now there is another house built in what was our big back yard. I still have heart tugs once in awhile there. When my Mother's orchid tree blooms in that yard, I get sorta sniffy.
I know exactly what you mean. And it would take a whole bunch of you to get me to go near the house. But thanks for the thought, and the understanding.
Now wait a minute Louise! Are you saying you're going to bring Sharon a beautiful rock and leave me an 18 wheeler? We have standards here you know. Besides there is no room with a 20 yard dumpster parked in Maypop's yard. I also took Sherrie's (bad) advice and told them to leave me all the stone from the original fireplace. Five more tons are being delivered next week.
L
From the 'beach' at Acadia. Great assortment.
Keep em comming Victor.
Shatter zone ,I bet my Rockland cousin doesn't know that.
I am facinated.
