How It's Going

My thanks to everyone for the good wishes on our anniversary this past weekend.  Yes, we made it through another year in a marriage that has consisted largely of being around each other for days on end while both being armed with rather large rocks, heavy equipment and hammers in the summer and sharp, pointy stained glass in the winter.  Any one of those ingredients could easily turn out to be a recipe for disaster if tempers flare, but we're still all in one piece.  Surprising to some people, and I guess to me too, is the fact we rarely fight or even mildly disagree when we're working on the Big Projects, especially when it involves Big Rocks.

Ah, Big Rocks.....sorry, I just waxed a little sentimental there, dreaming of the days when loads of them were dumped off here.  Ah, the joy of scrambling amongst the piles and imagining what they will look like in a new project.   But, alas, we have no more big rocks left to place, and we're both having a bit of trouble with withdrawal.  They truly are addictive, just like potato chips, you can't stop at just one. 

Memories, like the Corners of my Yard, Misty Watercolor Memories, of the Piles We Had....(C'mon, sing along, you know this one.)

I'm reposting this picture of the last time we got big rocks in 2009.  We had 'em dumped right on our front lawn and yes, we're grinning because we're insane.  I think this is my favorite picture of the two of us even though I look like an escapee from an asylum.  Carl isn't a big smiler in most pictures, but even he's giddy at the prospect of using that Trusty Rusty Wrecker sitting behind him to create something new.  In the end, this pile became the Pachyberm and the Something Else beds.  Ah, good times.

But I interrupt this glorious remembrance to haul us back to the present and the other project we have had lurking in the shadows which we should be working on, the dreaded Stone Round House/Ruin/Thing.  Do you see all those smaller rocks at our feet in the picture above?  When you get Big Rocks dumped out of a dump truck they clunk together and that's where Small Rocks come from.  (You knew where babies come from, so now I'm telling you the Facts of  Life as it pertains to limestone.)   So, take roughly 800 tons of big rocks, and you'll end up with around 100+ tons of small ones, it's amazing how they multiply.  And what would you do with those rocks?  Well, if you were me you would suggest to your charming husband, "Let's use them to build a little stone cottage," and then your nightmare would begin.

Big Rocks making Little Rocks as they come out of the truck.  Circa 2009

Here's some of the 200 pallets of smaller rocks leftover after pulling apart the dump truck loads of rocks to get the big ones out.  This picture Circa 2005 (and yes, we loaded all those stones by hand)

Sounds like such a simple proposition, doesn't it?  Just take the smaller rocks and mortar them together into a reasonable facsimile of a round building.  Why, it will be Easy! And if the rocks you had were nice and flat and not all lumpy and unruly, it would have been much simpler, but we have Wild Rocks which have a terrible mind of their own and simply insist on resisting the temptation to become flat.  And all those lumpy bumps must be whacked off with a hammer which, when done by professionals, is termed 'dressing the stones'.  When done by us, it's called 'whaling away with a hammer'.

It would be easier to put clothing on these rocks than it is to make them  flat or fit where they're going, but we plow on, whacking and cracking for hours on end.  Which, by the way, is no fun in the hot, hot sun, so we normally only work on the Stone House when the weather cools off in the fall and again in early spring before the garden work takes all our time.  Mortar is a touchy thing too, and should not freeze for some time until it has cured, so we have to time our rock work with the weather, too, and of course, you can't work with mortar in the rain, either, so there's all sorts of variables.

We have a 'thing' about starting new projects when there are old projects waiting in the wings, but this is the way it goes around here due to the nature of the work and Mother Nature, too.  We now have half of the wall done in the Formal Garden, but have abandoned that project to go back to the Round House which has been sitting neglected since we poured the floor in 2005.

2005!  Egads, I was racking my brain trying to figure out what we've been doing for the last six years, and did come up with a plausible excuse.  The floor was poured in July 2005.  But then we had to get ready for a really big garden walk from Green Bay, so the round house was put on hold as we worked frantically on getting the garden looking the best it could before  July of 2006.  As soon as the big garden walk was over (800 people in two days with 100 degree temps, fun, fun) we yanked out all the trees behind the Quarry and built the North Hill which took another two years (2007) and then since we had leftover big rocks, we built the West Hill and then the East Hill (2008) and then our furnace died in 2009 so we put in geothermal and the Pachyberm and then the Something Else beds (2009-2010).  That's where we spent the last six years.  Phew, so that's where the time went.   I thought we were goofing around or something. 

There's Carl on Friday night, dressing stone for the next course.  We're not sure yet just how this is going to turn out; I had an Artist's Rendering of what I thought would be cute, basically just a round house with an arched door and three round windows, but my computer suffered a Hissy Fit and I have to relocate all those pictures.  But then we rethought the project after actually going into a very similar building one day at our local botanical garden.  Yes, we stole the idea from them, sort of, but I wanted ours to look a bit different.  Though this little thumbnail is not a very good picture, there are three round windows in the building and it looks so cute!

Garden Cottage at Green Bay Botanical Garden

 One day we were at the botanical garden and the door was open, so I took a quick peek inside and though I hate to say it, I was dismayed.  The building was rather dark and damp and they keep hoses and assorted lawn tools inside of it.  I guess I was thinking it would be different somehow, but I was poking around where I shouldn't have been. 

Then there's a little silo we drive by on a regular basis near here that always caught our eye, too.

Not the greatest picture of the silo, either, but they had machinery parked in front of it and we were on the road.  There's just something about the little, round building that always appealed to me.  Growing up with silos on the farm however, taught me one thing, they are dark and damp....and if we only put three round windows in the building, that's what our structure would be, too.  So, more thinking is in order and probably, more windows.  Windows that open (and close, hopefully) and a different type of roof and on and on.   I think the cottage at the botanical garden was built the same way as the silo above, they poured cement walls and faced the cement with stone.  Much faster than our silly two foot thick solid stone walls that take an inordinate amount of fussy time.

Here Carl is using a grinder with a diamond blade and is leveling off some of the bumps in preparation for mortar.  He's gotten much less picky on this job now, we both want to try to get as much done before the snow flies.  This building has been a thorn in both of our sides since we started it; we have had some fantastic arguments over this project.  (That's because the rocks are too little, if they were huge rocks we would have had no arguments, lol.)  I would spend an hour 'dressing' a stone, only to have Carl tell me it wasn't the right size, shape, thickness, thinness, consistency, etc, 'Just take that little bump off of there, ok?' and then I'd act like a spoiled brat and give the rock a mighty whack with my hammer only to have the stupid thing split in two and fall on my foot.  Ah, Not Such Good Times.  Carl is notoriously Picky with his projects, ask anyone who works with him.  My favorite saying is, "Eh, you can't see it from the road."  We're trying to find middle ground here.  That's what marriage is all about.  Compromise.

Very dusty job, he's wearing a respirator, you just can't see it in this picture.

There, the dust has settled and he's checking for fit.  This was on Saturday night.  We have this course mortared in already and a few more on the other side of the building, too, which we finished up on Sunday night.  We still have a LONG way to go yet, though we are happy to be back in the swing of things.  Sometimes a job is overwhelming just contemplating it, but then when you get going, it's not so bad.  On Saturday night and Sunday night we had some company and Richard, Cody and Briana all helped with the mortaring. 

And of course, where would we be on this job (or any of the huge projects) without Joel.  He was manning the mortar mixer all weekend, helping us out as he always does, with his quiet patience and strength.  As always, we owe him so much for his devotion to the garden.

We ended every night this weekend with a campfire, just sitting around talking and eating and having a good time, still all dusty from the day's work.

After the company left last night, I sat by the waning fire listening to the cricket chorus and a hoot owl off in the Back Eight trying to scare up some supper.  This place is a lot of work, but it is worth it.  We don't get away from here real often to 'go up North and sit by the lake' but we have our little Quarry Puddle which is north of the house so hey, it works. 

Toss another hunk o' wood on the fire, would you?  It's getting a little chilly.