Thursday, June 23, 2011

Got Stone?

Heck Ya. I got stone!! After waiting for over 3 months I finally picked up my first barn stone foundation. 1 of 3 - one house & two barns on the same property.


In New England or Kentucky you can drive down the road and find Dry Stone Walls. More and more walls are protected from being removed. But many stone masons have a never endless supply of stone in their backyard. 


On the other hand in Maryland I'm not so lucky. The best way for me to find stone is go buy some from the local stone yard. Pick out the pallet and haul it home.


Or I can look for barn foundations. I have my eye on over 5 barns. The strange thing- All those I have talked too do not want to give them up. I believe I understand. As they site - they don't rot, but just stand in a state of time in history. Never aging. The love for the ruins keeps them attached not willing to part with them. If I had a old barn I would feel the same way.

 

Yes I GOT STONE!!
Today was a good day to go stone gathering of a different kind. I hired up a tandem dump truck to help me out. The tandem can haul 22 tons - I can only haul 6 tons. With a total of 8 hauls. I estimated we moved 100 tons. Thats alot of stone. Now time to start building! I figure that comes out to about 1320 sq face feet of wall. Nothing like having to much stone sitting around. Just makes me feel all warm and fuzy. I couldn't hold my self back from standing over the piles. Looking looking and looking. Eyeing up all the faces, shapes, sizes. I was even happy to find one which had been made smaller with wedge and shims.

I love knowing some one else touched the stone. I look forward to giving a new purpose to these stones. More to come in the weeks ahead. I thank those who helped me today. Brian for the hauling, Blair for the loading. Thank you guys! 

Good day for stone.




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