Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Dry Stone Dutchman





We were doing a big job up at a new cottage at Cameron Lake in Ontario all last week and this. It involves tall retaining walls built of quarried limestone brought in by truck. There is also a lot of surface limestone on the property which we wanted to use in the wall and got the go ahead to do so. First few days were quite productive. Landscape architect arrives and says she likes what we built except she doesn't like the blackish stone, (see top photo) which was one of the 'on-site stones' we were incorporating into the wall. Convinces the clients that they don't like it too.

So? What to do? Remove it ! Hmmm.

Thought of taking the wall all the way back down to that height to remove the offending stone but instead decided I'd try to pry it out first. I used a crow bar and my fingers but it was too big and too tightly fit into the wall. So I chiseled it out. It took a while. Argh.

And I replaced it with some stones the client and the architect like.

Resolved even more in my mind that dry stone work is NOT decorating.