When Donny arrives at a new dry stone wall project with a truckload of 22 to 24 tons of random stone from the quarry, its always an exciting part of the job.
In fact it's a bit of a celebration. As the tail gate opens, its like opening a large present. What will the load contain? What kind of shapes will the stones have? Will there be enough copes, or through stones? Will there be a lot small stuff for hearting?
The stone selection in the load that arrived yesterday at the job site was all good stuff. Too good! I'm going to have to complain to Donny. After we'd picked through it and laid the foundation stones I found myself walking around and around the pile looking for bad rocks that I could put at the back of the retaining wall or break into smaller chunks for hearting . There was nothing but beautiful briefcase/suitcase shapes and sizes.
I find it amazing to think that walling is one of the few occupations where you can have too much good material. No chef would ever complain about finding only good meat in the delivery from the from the butcher. No carpenter, getting too many straight two-by-fours in his load from the lumberyard, would find it a problem.
No body wants bad stuff. A bus driver doesn't need bad kids on her bus. A writer doesn't need bad ideas. A singer doesn't need bad musicians for accompaniment.
No it's only the waller that needs bad stuff. It's actually no good if it's all good.
