Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Wide Walls !

We are in Renfrew County for the next two weeks. There is a sizeable network of dry stone walls throughout this farming community here in Ontario.  The ones we are repairing here are 100 years old. They are 8 foot wide 'consumption walls' ! They go on for thousands of meters on this property alone . Originally built with thick outer shells of glacial boulders the first year ( all the size of pumpkins)  they are then filled to the brim with the stones gathered from the fields for years and years after. These walls are still in surprisingly good shape, except where trees have fallen on them or where ski-mobilers have taken them apart in order to get through .