Scott Burt said:
Tinker, if you tell me the story of how you stacked that stone wall back in the day, I will listen...(did you?)
Can't wait to see this top all finished up.
I like the blonde stripe you painted in the center of the feet of the base! [big grin]
Way back when I was 38, i could pick up and place those tiny stones.
When we first moved into our house, that bank came right up against the house. We actually had to climb up the side of the bank and lean out, slapping a hand against the side of the house and reach down to the door handle to open.
i think I have told in another thread about having a friend come with his JD crawler (before i had such equipment) and keep digging until he (predictably and well prepared for) broke the foundation. I made necessary repairs and shoring pilasters and we continued digging.
Eventually, I started building a stonewall , but my back complained and i poured a concrete slab so we could make use of the flat area. I built a very rudimentary trestle table out of pine. It lasted for maybe three years until we had an early spring heavy rain. the hillside behind the unfinished stone wall softened and a huge boulder came down, crushing the table. Two days later, as I was backing into my driveway, I heard a loud crash and a sound like a large tailgate banging. You have probably heard such a sound. I loped up to tp of hill, and there was my son's tri-axle with the body slowly lowering. It seems THE BOSS LADY had decided she did not like to think about sitting at a replacement table and getting squashed by another rock slide. 20K later, we had a terraced stone wall. The back work was a humongeous JD hydro excavator with mostly me son pulling the levers. Since he had run my backhoes as he was growing up (first time alone without me holding him onto the seat was when he was 5 yr old.) his son was also a part time operator on this job. He was practically old. i think he was about 7 or 8. Kids today just don't get started so early anymore.
Off to the camera side is a wall I had built. David was placing on a sq/cu ft as much in five minutes as i had done in a week on the walls I built. We have a 1/2 acrea "L" shaped lot with a square 1/4acre section that is about 35 feet from low point to high point. Needless to say, i have built a lot of stonewalls even before David moved his big toy onto the hill.
BTW, in one of the pics, you can see a portion of the fireplace i designed and built. That replaced the FP that was original in the house. When I tore it down, the header over the opening was quite well cooked. Lucky we did not burn the house down. This FP, before (and even since) we installed the wood stove, I would burn the creosote out about twice a season. That was fun. with the wood stove, i could adjust the flame in the chimney so it showed about two or three inches of blue flame like there was a gas burner in the top. I could keep it going for up to an hour before it would die down. This chimney i constructed so it would need to blow up >>> or
