Stone Walls

[quicksandfarmer]

This is a wall I just don't get. It's not on a property line or any sort of boundary, it's a wall to nowhere. And it has the biggest stones.

Most of the time the biggest stones in a wall are on the ground and then ones that a man could lift are stacked above them. Kudos to the man who stacked this wall (for scale, that's a 4x4 post).

One final picture: Yesterday I talked about how fields that had been plowed would have very different walls. This is a shot of a wall around a field that was used to grow potatoes and turnips. It looks just like a heap of cobblestones. I'm sure there are some big ones at the bottom of the pile though!

 

[Carl_NH]

Yes, Lou there is an art in the part of looking at a rock and imagining where it fits in the wall, before picking it up! We have hundreds of feet of "farmer walls" of stacked rocks with tractor and thumb, then a few hundred feet of hand-stacked walls, and about 100' of what I call "fitted walls" no holes, flat and straight around the patio.

A good base of gravel and filler rocks are key to keep the wall together for the winter, and you are right - walls with trees and roots take a lot more maintenance as its always moving.

I really like seeing the different walls around the country and world, and here are some examples from Kentucky and the UK. They are similar in construction with flat rock and stacked tops.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I will sell you stones for $100 a truckload, you load, all day long! We're like the Saudi Arabia of stone here.

It was 100 bucks for all of the stone. It took eight trips to haul it home with a single axle 30k gross dump. This was about 20 years ago.

 

[BackRoad]

A fallen down border rockwall that I restacked at our last place...

 

[quicksandfarmer]

It was 100 bucks for all of the stone. It took eight trips to haul it home with a single axle 30k gross dump. This was about 20 years ago.

OK, I'll do $12.50 a truckload. No adjustment for inflation. When can you start?

 

[QRTRHRS]

Ok now we are starting see some really nice stone work.

How long did it take you to build these walls and stairs?

I don't recall but it had to be more than a few days. I was driving truck but usually out and back in the same day. Not to mention keeping that 30 acre property up. My wife and a neighbor gal mostly took care of the daily barn chores. We had 25 horses give or take on site. (Not all on pasture)

 

[QRTRHRS]

OK, I'll do $12.50 a truckload. No adjustment for inflation. When can you start?

LOL, that wall was a once and done project. Besides, it's a bit far to be hauling stones to KY. Not to mention, we have our own "share" of rocks here. There are beautiful walls ~3 feet tall topped with vertical stones similar to some of the photos already posted in this thread. Some of them run for miles.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I just noticed that there is a dry laid stone wall work shop here in KY

 

[thclimer]

They have some impressive photo's on their site.