Hands On Inspection of an Arch and Walls Without Mortarboard or Scaffolding

Akira Inman is a stone mason in Toronto who came to our Rocktober Festival in Grand Valley in 2009 , and then through having met with Thomas Lipps (who we sponsored to be there) was invited to be a translator in Ventura last January, for the Japanese stone masons who came over for the Stone Symposium in California, and were demonstrating the ancient Anoh tradition of dry stone construction.

While there, he and I worked together and I invited him to do some projects with us including the wall repairs at Balsam Lake Ontario we just recently completed. During the week he worked with us I invited him to see this arch. He hung on with his 'hands' and took a closer look at this permanent arch I had built some years ago with Cam Reed, a homeowner who wanted to help and learn too about arches. (not so that he could then go and build them all over Ontario, but just so that he could say he helped build his one)

Anyway Akira told me the arch looked pretty cool and that it probably wasnt going to fall down.

For those of you who would like to learn a bit more about arches, I include a very good description of the 'former' centering used in bridge and arch construction written (and sent to me recently) by my friend Norman Haddow (a dry stone bridge builder, and yes you'll be relieved to know, a certified master craftsman waller with the DSWA of UK)

The Former

Prior to the 20th Century, the support for a new arch was called centering. The arrangement was similar to the technology involved in the construction of a wheel. Another method used for smaller arches was to pile sand on a wooden platform to create the desired shape for the stonework above. It was quite simple then to remove the loose sand when building was complete.

Nowadays it is much more common to cut the required shape on at least two boards then to cover these with strong cross pieces or with bendable strong materials such as marine ply. It is essential that the former of whatever type is strong enough to bear the weight of not just the arch rocks but also any material which will be built on top before the former is removed. Any area of weakness can result in failure.

The support for the former should be resting on a solid base. Bricks or blocks are ideal for the support as they can be easily knocked away when required.

Care is necessary when arranging these support so that the former can safely be dropped down to allow its removal, without interfering with the stone work. I have heard of people being required to set fire to the former to remove it as it was not possible to get it out any other way!

With a half moon former it is possible and useful when placing the arch stones to mark lines on the outside to indicate the required slope of the builders and especially the risers.

When the desired arch is not a half circle, the lines should be drawn from the theoretical centre.

Dust in the Windex

With the ash cloud continuing to shut down air travel in Europe, airline companies are talking about having to let go of some of their employees in the next few days. While all that rock and stone which first melted, then exploded and then pulverized into tiny dust particles in the atmosphere may have left travelers stranded, and airline companies scrambling, for those who know how to adapt, there is no need to be alarmed, there may well be new areas of employment mounting up in every corner.

In opening up the earth's crust and scattering all that dust everywhere, Mother Nature has in fact opened up a lot more opportunities in the house cleaning business. Flight attendants who find themselves out of a job, even temporarily, may be able to fill an ever rising demand for efficient, competent people, both in the private and public sectors of the cleaning industry

There will likely be, in the next while at least, a highly qualified work force available to address the growing need created by this international cleaning emergency. Hopefully flight attendants will be able to fill the 'vacuum'.

What sort of safety-conscious, service-oriented, hard-working cleaning ladies (and cleaning men) will they be?

Before we run way ahead of ourselves, let's sit back and relax and try to imagine where all this might take us.

As you try to 'takeoff', the steward or stewardess will stand in the front hall of your house - they will insist on calling it a 'cabin' - to review with you the various cleaning safety instructions and demonstrate among other things: how to secure and properly store various articles around the house, how to use the oxygen mask if the dust is particularly bad, and point out the building's emergency exits.

Their instructions may include many of the items below.

Younger children should be buckled into a child restraint seat or locked in their rooms.
They should not be allowed to run through the cabin. Ample diversions must be provided to keep them entertained.

The pre-wipe instructions will begin with some information about personal belongings.

Residents will be directed to stow their possessions in their proper locations and be reminded to make sure that these cupboards and compartments are securely shut, since things can shift around during vacuuming. If there isn't room in the overhead compartments, occupants are instructed to stow any extraneous articles and knick-knacks beneath the furniture in front of them.

In case of an emergency landing (or balcony) anyone sitting near an exit door will be expected to open it for others.

This will only be necessary in the event of a complete evacuation of the building.
Those coming back in afterwards will be asked to take their shoes off.

Except for the equipment being used by cleaning attendants, all other electronic devices are not to be used during cleaning. Certain devices are barred from use throughout the duration of the operation; these include cell phones, CD players, MP3 players and iPods mostly because you won't be able to hear them over the sound of the vacuum cleaner.

In the event that the appearance of the main cabin has become like, a stable, dust masks will be distributed to everyone in the vicinity and all 'passerbys' are asked to fit them over their mouths and to breathe normally. A routine de-icing procedure for the freezer compartment is provided for all first class clients.

Residents are instructed not to smoke during the duration of the cleaning, and are reminded that they are prohibited from tampering with smoke detectors in the washrooms.

Between the dusting of flights of stairs, shelves and the 'airing out' of the cabin in general, attendants will be coming around offering a choice of tea or coffee. Before they leave, the cleaning staff will come by to pick up any garbage and unwanted newspapers.

Your chairs should be restored to their proper upright positions.

Just before the attendants disembark, you will be courteously reminded to.

"Please check around inside that we haven't taken any of your personal belongings."

If this is the Trailer, the Motion Picture should be fun.

Now and then a dry stone wall idea comes to mind that is worth trying to illustrate.


It's way better than one of those fancy new 'Mortar-Homes'?

It comes in a Mobile-stone-Home Kit.
Some assemebly required.
Just 'Rock and then Roll'

Gets good mileage on the thru-(stone)-way.

Stay the course.

You'll want to 'Dodge' this 'Caravan'

Let's all 'pile in' and drive home.

And the fourth little piggy said nuts to this and built his house out of stones and put wheels on it!


( Submissions for other captions for 'U-Haul Walling' can be posted in the 'comments' section below. Thanks. )

Duty is in the eye of the holder.

Watt's the difference between a rock and a stone?
Bobby Watt of RJW Stonemasons in Ottawa defines a 'rock' as being 'an unemployed stone'.

The image comes to mind of a lot of random rocks all hanging around in a quarry somewhere waiting for someone to come by and put them to work. They spend a lot of time waiting. Hopes are raised and then dashed as masons come and go from the quarry looking for good stones. If only the rocks could have the opportunity to prove themselves. If they cant work for quoins or piece work then maybe for some sort of 'accommodation'. If only they had a construction job or some sort of duty holding something up. Hey, they could be good for something, surely?

Big trucks arrive but the rocks are only going to be used for land fill. Other trucks pull up and load up to take rocks to be dumped along the side of a ditch to stop erosion.

Then a smaller truck drives into the quarry and some enthusiastic dry stone wallers clamber out and scamper over the rocks getting really excited about what they see.

They roll a few over and pick one or two up in their hands.

" Wow, these are really great stones! They will work fine in the wall. What kind of stone do you think it is?"
" I dont know it looks like mostly granite to me."
" Lots of different sizes and shapes, and so much hearting too. What a great find!"
"And they are practically giving the stuff away."
"Yeah, they told me the stuff is good for nothing."

They get the big quarry loader to scoop a pile of the 'sandstone' into the waller's truck. And then they happily drive off with rocks that are about to become stones in a dry stone wall, and the rocks dont even mind being taken for granite.

Uninstalled Windows

Near the C.P.U. BUS terminal in Ambleside there is a platform overlooking an existing MS Office firewall where a user video opening is blocked. This is not just a hidden interface or a monitor screen in ‘sleep mode’, but rather a recent example of a common problem related to uninstalled Windows. If you have an older Windows application it may be set up to deny access privileges to anyone, including users, local dealers and recent hackers. This does create a certain user-friendly dysfunctionality , While it is important to have all sector gates, ICU slots and browser openings filled, in order to avoid any third party files being thrown out, and to limit the amount of troubleshooting, it unfortunately requires that the privacy option be set to ‘maximum security’, whereby the pop-up window also appears blank and other visual fields are often filled-in, which makes any object-oriented operation or imaging process impossible. Although you may see a large ‘unexecutable’ box appearing as one of the structure properties, if you boot up completely to the hardware, located near the local vector housing unit (which isn't actually a hard drive) you can download one of the latest upgrades of Windows available with a smaller free-space component, which you can then install yourself, and so reconfigure the stack overflow to open the Block Sector, if you know what you're doing.

The operation of reinstalling windows after they have been uninstalled, usually requires some sort of temporary cross platform structure for working off of.
It will then necessitate the reopening the blocked partition and repairing the existing mainframe slot. When you are making space available in the upper external firewall it is important, while you are up, not to backup completely, as you may experience a crash. To prevent such crashes and to avoid chips getting embedded in any of your installation boots, it is recommended that you use a windows manager rather than rely on unwarranted repair methods or any other unsupported hacking techniques. After you have completed the installation, make sure there isn't any missing hardware or fragmentation of any kind, as this will affect the visible ‘properties’ of any new MS Office Windows..

Hand Solo

A simple rock and my laptop both get me excited. They call out to me to be creative; to make something or design something new. There are several cool software programs like Sketchup that allow me to experiment with digitalized spaces and planes and eventually visualize new garden structures and landscape features, just as there are piles of sizes and shapes or rocks that lend themselves to experimenting with, and coming up with new dry stone features, much like doing jazz improvisations.

Both mediums are more like having a big sandbox. ( again, sand is made up of silicon the basic ingredient of rocks and my laptop.) They both allow me to mold and add to and take away from an idea or a structure that does not yet exist. They are virtual building blocks.

Every creation whether it be a wall or an entire dry stone folly is an extemporization that if built skillfully enough will last a good long time. Every choice, every placement of every stone, is a creative act. The computer can barely match the potential waiting to be uncovered in a random pile of stones!

Every day, the resulting work of my 'hands' can be a unique installation. Because I work with random material all day and not modular prefitting maunfactured products, it requires that I extemporize and constantly problem-solve. This is not like laying blocks or fitting computer parts together. The stones can not be conveniently locked together in a dead mass of concrete, but will require skill so that they fit utilizing their inherent natural shapes.

This kind of dry laid stonework is an event. It can even be a spectator sport . For those involved, it's a hands-on full-participation happening!

Certain wall projects can be like a kind of jam session in stone. Most dry stone walling is 'performance walling'. Instead of musical or comical or theatrical improvisation it is a 'stone improvisation'. Though you dont often have an audience (until after you've finished perhaps) you go out in just the same way and start stacking, not knowing how or if all the pieces are going to actually fit together, or what exactly it is going to finally look like.

With a random pile of stones you are always taking a risk. This is not like building shelves from a plan in popular mechanics.

Every wall I build is a 'hand solo'. It has never been done before. There are no instructions, no repeating, no rehearsed lines or actual detailed script. My hands discover a way for the shape to get out.

This is why it captures the imagination. It is an evolving process, a building upon itself

After all, if Bobby McFerrin can do musical improvisations with his voice. Why cant we do it in stone?

Sgt. Cyrus' Achy Breaky Lonely Hearts Club - Disbanded

One has to wonder about one hit wonders. As a waller, the idea of not being able to consistently repeat what you do successfully and to the same high standard as you achieved on previous walls is unacceptable. Not just the walls themselves, but each stone has to be skillfully fitted and placed with the full knowledge that you will be needing to place each consecutive stone next to or on top of the one beside it, over and over again, correctly and efficiently. You are always planning ahead. It would be wrong to describe any aspect of it as being a one shot deal. The entire process is about continuity.

The idea of people getting together to build a really cool dry stone wall is not that different from what's involved in being in a rock group. A wall, like a song, is both the final product and process. It is an event which a number of people can choose to be involved in ( making it and/or being present when it is created ) and then afterward it 'exists' in its completed form, for people to repeatedly appreciate after the fact. What makes a song a hit or a success should have a lot to do with talent and artistic content. A wall is no different. It may not be judged or appreciated on the massive scale that a rock tune might be, but there is just as much need for it to be good and be able to stand the test of time. And you should be able to do it again.

When a performer or a waller can not be consistent in their quality or their output, it may be convenient for them to say that it's just part of the ups and downs of the 'rock' industry. Maybe their agents didn't 'handle' them right. Maybe their apparent success happened too soon and they were expected to produce new 'rock compositions' too fast. Maybe they tried to force or 'concrete' the elements of their style rather than let their structure develop and fit in with the musical landscape around them. Maybe they were looking to be making more and more 'hits' when they should have let the love of rock lead them to see where they naturally fit in.

Today's one hit wonder is 'Achy Breaky Heart'. It was a 'smash' hit. It got people excited, and it was fun to think it was building up to something, but it was a bust. Nothing really came of it, or rather 'after' it. Billy Ray Cirus must have 'hit a wall', so to speak. Sure, he had a few creative spurts before and afterwards but ultimately he seemed to have put himself between a rock and a hard place. I saw him perform this song at a concert a long time ago with what seemed like a million other people. It took place at the Sky Dome in Toronto which was never really a successful music venue to begin with. The acoustics were terrible, and I remember the giant roof started to roll back as he tried very hard to keep going and give it his best. Many of us were 'waiting' for him to perform this his number one country rock piece. He served it up (for all us waiters ) on a tray. But the crowd called out for more, as the ceiling flew away.... No no, wait a minute, that's a whole different 'one hit wonder' !

If at first you succeed, why not 'keep on rockin'?

When Joe and I are working building walls we often listen to music. The music alternates from jazz to classical to rock. We like to keep it a musical democracy. Sometimes we throw in some reggae if the sun is bright and we are getting hot. The number of 'classic rock' songs Joe knows amazes me. He can tell me the names of groups from the 60's that I cant even remember, and I was there. Accompanied by the constant sound of the radio and surrounded by an endless pile of stones that need to be shaped, it's just like the DJ says in his excitedly contrived voice,"The hits keep on coming! "

As far as one hit wonders go, there are a two crossover beauties worth commenting on. 'Classical Gas' is a unique non-vocal piece that is cleverly arranged and does sound vaguely classical . Too bad Mason Williams didn't give it another go. Maybe he changed careers and became a real mason, installing classic style gas fireplaces instead. Anyway Joe likes this tune and I like to think if Mason had produced more orchestrated pieces like this one, Joe might have cultivated a bit more tolerence for music like Pachelbel's canon, and then who knows, after that maybe even developed a taste for Copland or Joaquín Rodrigo.

The other not-so-classical 'one hit wonder' with a classical reference is the well known classic 'Rock Me Amedeus'. This song too presents a kind of 'blog-bridge' from walling to music, which means 'thinking with my hands' isn't wandering off topic too much. I am at least choosing singers or song titles which have some 'rock' or 'hand' connotations, even if the associations are oblique ones.

Here is a song that was done by a group called Falco who were never heard from again! Sort of like trying to find that phone number you wrote down of the landscapers who did your neighbours backyard retaining wall last fall. You cant even find them in the phone book. These guys must have been wanted by the authorities for tax evasion. Again if Falco knew enough to produce one smash hit why didn't they stick around and find a way to repeat their success? And what was that song about anyway?

Unlike Mason Williams, Falco made no attempt to sound classical. They were into purely eine kleine 'felsmusik'. Their musical premise, if they had one, was that Mozart was a 'rock star' of his day, and presumably they were all as licentious back then as everyone in the rock scene is today. (Not the dry stone 'rock' scene, of course!) As I review the video version of this song I can't help but think that everyone was too exhausted and dissipated to try to attempt to repeat their success or do any other variations on this theme. The world has thus been spared from hits like 'Shake Your Booty Bartok'.

Step Right Up. Swing the Hammer. Ring the Bell.

It's generally not a good thing to be recognized as a one hit wonder, unless of course you build dry stone walls and split stones for a living. Then if you can split them single handedly and often enough with just one blow, people may be impressed and not only consider you to be a one hit 'wonder' but think of you also as a bit of a 'rock star'. The unfortunate people in history on the other hand, who for one reason or another, got only one kick at the can musically (or is that one swing of the cat, or one recipe for that cake they left in the rain ?) probably wouldn't enjoy the notoriety associated with being on the many one-hit-wonder lists so feverishly documented and posted on all those heartless websites one finds on the internet.

Never mind rock stars, even classical composers are not exempt from this indignity. The name Pachelbel comes to mind. Poor old Johann (did you even know his first name?) His 'Canon' written in 1680 scored a big hit in the music world for him back then, and still does even today, but relatively speaking the common consensus amidst the general public is that he never fired another shot. Maybe he did write an 'artillery suite' perhaps or a 'musical musket' but alas his only well-known piece was a bit of a loose canon that sunk any aspirations of staying afloat musically.

It is probably not a good thing ( if you want to go the distance or develop an extensive repertoire) musically speaking, to start with a hit that has a title analogous to hitting the mark, ( ie. taking aim at something for first time) or anything generally having to do with 'big bangs'. Handel may have been pushing his luck with his Royal Fireworks Suite especially if they/it had fizzled, but then he already had a few 'hits' under his belt.

This week I will be taking a whimsical 'waller's swing' at 'one hit wonders' of the rock world . There are several that I can't wait to get my 'hands' on.

Please feel free to make suggestions (in the comments box) of any of your favorite 'single hits' too, for us to go ahead and 'knock'

It all can change with the wave of the hand.

It seems that some days I can be in the zone and other days I'm not. Some days my hands know exactly what to do and other days they fumble and hesitate and don't make very good choices. They can pick up several stones before they discover the right one to go in the next space in the wall. This is not very efficient. It is also frustrating. Often being out of the zone is a matter of being too crowded. If the stones you are using are too near the wall there is no room to work. If all the stones you have to choose from are all piled up on top of each other this makes for awkward working conditions too. Sometimes the ambient noise is distracting. Music can put you out of the zone as often as it can glide you into it. Ironically 'rock music' is not always the best music for working to. Weather is sometimes a factor. However cold wet weather isn't always a problem and one can be 'in the zone' in the most adverse conditions. Conversely one can be out of the zone when absolutely all the working conditions are ideal.

If I feel like I am getting out of the zone I usually do a lot of the hearting for a while. Taking time to just place the filler stones until you get back in your stride seems to work. Your eyes and hands mull over the material available to you and the spaces that still need filling while you are hearting and you get a much better feel for the types of shapes available. Slowing down helps too. If you are trying to rush (rather than going with the flow) it's as though the stones purposely work against you.

I think of walling like surfing. You have to wait for the big waves. You cant make them happen. And then when you get in front of a good one, you paddle like crazy and then ride it out.

My helper admitted he was out of the zone all day today. He was quiet and persevered but it was obvious I had a better day productively. We joked about it. We agreed it would be good if you knew ahead of time if you were going to be 'out-of-the-zone' the entire day. Then you could just skip going to build walls altogether and go do something else that day (like surfing on the internet instead).

Hands on the Rebound.

This image of a new basketball net fixed to an old dry stone barn in a barnyard in Cumbria presented an interesting juxtaposition of ideas.

I think I was quite on the 'ball' when I 'passed' this 'hoop' in the 'perimeter' area of Doddon Valley while 'traveling', as it were, in the Lake District. I 'jumped' at the opportunity and took this 'shot' with my camera from the 'back court'.

The picture was a real 'slam dunk' visually, with the contrasting hand and rock imagery. I understand that in basketball slang, the ball is often referred to as a 'rock'. Hands that built walls of rock and stone in the past have now given way to younger hands that play games with balls nicknamed 'rocks'. In 'past times' it was essential to know how to work with rocks building walls and shelters in order to survive. Hands had to do it. Today some of these same walls now serve as backdrops for recreational 'pastimes' and outdoor games. Hands are involved but now there is an element of choice and fun. Hands score on the rebound.

On another note,

I remember my friend Peter Mullins, who ran the large Gradall 6000 rear-'pivot' steering forklift at the 2010 Ventura Stone Symposium, kept a basketball with him at all times, taking breaks now and then to flex and strengthen his hands with it. He told me that exercising, by dribbling the basketball throughout the day, provides a valuable back-stretching for the hands that apparently can not be achieved through any other form of exercise. I watched him not only dribble the ball on his breaks but also gracefully 'pivot' the Gradall many times, as he competed against the Ventura Rocks.

I pretty much get enough hand-exercise still lifting rocks everyday.

No Hands!

Walling isn't backbreaking. It is labour intensive, but it isn't really strenuous work. That's why it is always funny to hear people say things like "Boy, that looks like a lot of work ! " or, " I could never lift those stones and do the kind of work you guys do all day".

People will often come by while were working and actually nod their heads and genuinely feel bad for us having to build walls all day for a living. Here we are enjoying the great outdoors, sun shining, no noisy machinery, no stressful deadlines, not confined to some fluorescent lit office working at some high stress job, just hugging stones all day, getting lots of exercise, making beautiful walls that will last hundreds of years, and people are actually feeling sorry for us.

As wallers go I am not really that strong. I generally don't lift really heavy stones. I think with my hands and lift with my legs or with boards or better yet, try not to have to lift them at all. A heavy stone can be rolled into place or simply moved into place with a dolly. If I have to lift a big stone, I don't lift it right up to my chest but let my legs do the work. I can sometimes move a big stone around like this using one hand. Sometimes if a rock is heavy enough you don't need hands at all. Here is one I lifted today. I guess if the stone got any heavier it would just float away!

A 'Touching' Song

Where it began, I can't begin to know when
But then I know it's growing high
It wasn't the string, whooo
The string seems to look lower
Who'd believe how we fly!

Hands, touching stones, reaching out
Touching one, touching two.
Oh, sweet 'Contour Line'
Good fits never seem so good
I've been inclined to believe it never would

And now I, I look at the wall, whooo
And it doesnt seem so stoney
We fill it up one over two, oh
And then we heart
Hearting up to the boulders
How can I heart when there's a 'thru'?

Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching three, touching two.
Oh, sweet 'Contour Line'
Good fits never seem so tight
Oh I'd been inclined to believe it looks right.

Ohhh, sweet 'Contour Line', good fits never seem so good

Restless Hands

On the outside my hands may look inactive and merely in my pockets 'waiting around', so to speak, but on the inside they are busy fixing the 'gap' in this old dry stone wall. They can hardly hold back from doing it. There have been several other times this week where I have wanted to stop along a Lake District hiking trail and repair parts of a wall.

There is an expression used for a certain kind of activity where someone does something positive or constructive for strangers without any reward, and for no particular reason. It's called a 'Random Act of Kindness'. Ive read about it and even seen bumper stickers encouraging this sort of thing. I think any wall that is in need of a little bit of repair could use this sort of thing.
It occurs to me that leaving a community with a newly repaired wall is kind of a 'random stack of kindness' The DSWA here in Britain makes a point of doing this sort of thing all the time. Volunteers go out and fix walls for the day, purely out of an appreciation for them and a desire to see them not all disappear from the British landscape.

I think of this as a type of "contra-vandalism". It is a way of us getting back at the chaos, destruction, meaningless and yes often bureaucratic red tape surrounding our lives. Its a way of doing something structural, beautiful and uplifting in our community without having to always jump through a myriad of administrative hoops to get it approved.

In fact, I'd like to be part of a guerrilla squad of dry stone wallers who take it even further, not just repairing walls (as we have so few of those in Canada) but build whole new walls and nice stone benches and small sections of old-looking dry stone gardens and beautiful enclosed areas of stone, all done covertly by an efficient group of volunteers during the night, and leave these stone 'features' to be 'discovered' the next day. Hopefully people would be happy to have something as wonderful as a natural stone wall to walk by . No doubt they would appreciate the added character to their park. In this way the dreary public places people pass by every day could be gradually transformed.

Or would they all have to be taken down? I wonder.

My hands are getting restless just thinking about it.

Finger-Walking

My hands went for a walk today down by Sylven Glen conservation area, where there is a lovely trail through the forest along the swollen banks of the muddy Ganaraska river. The snow is melting and there are patches of mud and ice everywhere. The path winds through a spacious grove of Cedars and there are rocks, dead leaves and sticks protruding through the snow. My fingers had to skip playfully from moss-covered rock to moss-covered rock. They just had to !

It was good exercise and it is also very tactile. It's wonderful to feel the breeze through your hands, to feel the green under your index fingers, and to get some good clean mud between your fingernails - It's great to be alive.

Finger-walking along stone walls is very satisfying too. Your fingers can take great leaps along the tops of copes and land gracefully and then fly off again further along the wall, all the time keeping up with the the rest of the body. Stone walls are easier for fingers to travel along than chain-link fences. Concrete walls and retaining walls are boring. Hedges are nice, but a bit scratchy sometimes.

Because spring is just around the corner, there is a spring in our step. My hands are thinking this is the time when you don't have to wear gloves anymore. No need to be all 'cooped up' inside those gloomy pockets today. There are all kinds of opportunities for picking up a good looking stone somewhere along the way. They wont be as cold as they were last time we passed by this part of the forest. Perhaps we can take one home and introduce it into the wall that we started last fall.

Today I have also posted this short clip of

Walking fingers

It's All In The 'Hand-Release'.

We are pretty excited here about the men's curling team winning the Gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Saturday.
As we watched the precision and mastery of both the Canadian and Norwegian teams play, I marveled at the ability these men had to project a heavy hunk of granite along the ice positioning it precisely behind another stone at a distance of nearly a hundred feet away.

The game was exciting to watch too because of all the strategy involved, though sometimes it was not obvious what was a good shot and what wasn't until the game played out further. The complexity of decision making about where to play the next stone makes it difficult for a novice to understand just who is winning until the last shot is played. What looks like a good placement of stone to me, is often scorned by the curler who made the shot as being totally in the wrong spot.

I started to wonder about the history of curling and particularly the evolution of the tactics and strategy of the game. Getting the stones to curve is an interesting aspect of the game which actually was not introduced until much later. Silly me, I thought that was where the name 'curling' came from.

Of course there a great controversy as to who invented the game. Scotland and the Netherlands are in dispute about where it originated but generally agree it happened sometime around the 15th century. I imagine it was the Scots who first slid onto the idea, because I don't think they actually have any stones in Holland.

The first game of curling was probably played on a frozen pond with whatever rounded rocks could be pried out of the frozen ground at the time. Stones that worked well were later notched to give them a better 'hand' grip for throwing.

The 1650s saw the first handles, often nothing more than iron hinges from gate posts, making it easier to move the heavy stones. It wasn't until the late 1700s that the stones began to be ground into a spherical or round form, but even well past this date their form and shape could vary. Conical-shaped stones were used until the 1830s.

Of course my interest revolves around the fact that they use stones at all. I've read that a curling stone weighs approximately 42 lbs and is made of a unique type of granite, which is exclusively found on Ailsa Craig, an island off the Ayrshire coast in Scotland. .

How these specially selected stones are remotely guided along the ice into position is a mystery to me. The curlers, still sliding themselves after having 'hand-launched' their stones, continue to glide on, totally focused on magically willing their drifting projectile towards the exact spot where they want it to be.

The magical effect is amplified by the fact that it all seems to happen in slow motion.
It is as though it is happening in outer space. It is an easy mental leap for me to imagine the game being played in complete silence and in total weightlessness.

Sometimes when Im working alone I can picture building dry stone walls under the same conditions. I can imagine walling competitions too there. They would be held on some frozen scottish-like planet, where the stones all float above the ice, and the winning team's stones slowly, gracefully slide together into a perfect wall.

Hand-drawn Conclusions- Part 1

I am fascinated with the duality of meaning there exits in dry stone terminology. Bonding, hearting, coping, facing and bedding are just a few of the words that draw you into their double meaning. Now I am thinking about all the aspects of a dry stone wall project that incorporate the concept of 'drawing'. The basic design for instance: I am often asked to do a drawing of what it is I will be building for a client. In a sense these can be thought of as 'pre-drawn' conclusions. There is the initial 'concept', and then there is the photoshop 'application', and then there is the actual 'installation'.

Carts, wagons and hand-dollys (or 'hand trucks') are 'hand-drawn' four-or-two-wheeled devices that help in moving very big rocks. We use them all the time when we are building dry stone walls. They are quiet and maneuverable and far less expensive than bobcats or forklifts. A very large stone becomes a simple problem when you approach it with an industry-grade 'tree dolly' for instance. Two men can usually gently lever it up onto the dolly and draw it to where they need it with little difficulty at all. You just have to be careful letting it down or you may be catapulted into the stratosphere.

You would often see horse-drawn carts, in the old days, being filled with a fresh spring crop of rocks drawn from farmers field's ready to be taken to build walls with. These days it is hard to find a horse that can even do a 'rough sketch', but anyway, even with the help of 'hand-drawn' carts, a job can be 'drawn out' if the weather is bad or if the building season 'draws' to a close too soon, things have to be shut down altogether. Over the winter months new ideas for wall designs can be drawn from other sources such as magazines and websites pages. A good design can draw a client to committing to having a contract drawn up in time to start walling again in the spring. Otherwise you will have to draw from your savings. Ok so there is nothing about a lot of this that is uniquely associated with dry stone walling, granted, but I am just trying to draw out my blog entry for today.

My Second-Hand Harris Tweed Coat.

Since completing the workshop on Vancouver Island last weekend, I have been thinking a lot about the 'herringbone' pattern. I have a second-'hand' jacket that I have started wearing on occasion when Im walling and actually wore it teaching this course. It is an old, but still fairly good-looking Harris tweed coat.

Why do I work in it? It is comfortable, warm, and in many ways weather resistant. And, it has several pockets; pockets both inside and out. These are handy spots for putting things in, and nice places for the hands to hang-out in when they're cold or not too busy.I think a sports coat looks 'classy' and brings an academic mood to the job site and/or the 'class'room. It's much easier than a sweatshirt, pullover, or a hoodie, for taking on and off.

I have seen lots of old black-and-white photos taken of banker masons and stoneworkers in the old country, wearing jackets and ties while they are working.

The first time I saw a sports coat actually being worn by someone working in stone was in Ventura California last January at the 2010 Symposium. Katsumi Ida an amazing Japanese stone sculptor and carver teaching students how to split stone with just 4 chisels (called points) and stubby wedges, wore a brown tweed jacket on the first day of the Symposium and a tidy looking navy sports coat on the next. He introduced a very academic 'look' to the dry stone building project.

I though to myself why not encourage some of that look to come back into fashion. People often wear jackets and ties to maintain a certain formality and to show respect. It is all part of a raising or maintaining of the standard. Wouldn't wearing more formal clothes at our work encourage a raising of the walling standard? Why should we wallers always dress down?

Anyway, tomorrow I shall be looking at the 'herringbone pattern' more carefully and exploring some other ways 'hand'-woven wool and 'hand'-woven walls (of herringbone) are connected.

Sitting On My Hands

While it may be true that it is easier to write about dry stone walling than actually build them, both activities are easier than sitting around on your hands.

Some time ago I wrote an article about it not being good to be away from stones too long. Writing about dry stone walls is a poor substitute but sometimes it's all you can do. The weather was harsh that winter in Canada. Where I live sometimes months go by without being able to build the walls that make up so much of my work throughout the rest of the year. This morning I am looking at the stretch of wall I finished several years ago when we first moved to Port Hope. It looks like it has always been there, nestling in amongst the tall pines and cedars.

The wall looks great. The weather doesn't. I can only think about walls today and contemplate why they look so good and seem to 'work' so well in any weather. Unlike me. I don't work well in really freezing weather. The best conditions for working are the cool misty days. I guess they remind me of Scotland. I seem to be able to build better walls on those days. As I work I sometimes imagine I hear bagpipes droning off in the distance . The timeworn elements of the craft feel like they are draining back into my hands and body as I work in the cool dampness. But today it is too cold. My hands would start to go numb, but not as numb as they would be if I was sitting around on them all day!

It's a funny thing about the word 'numb'. The silent B makes me think it is so cold, the word itself is starting to freeze phonetically.

Red Knuckle Flight

I flew home from teaching a course in Victoria BC late last night. My legs and back and hands are weary. I am glad to be home. I hardly notice my hands have numerous cuts and bruises typical for the kind of activity they have been subjected to recently, lifting rocks and shaping stones. Nothing major, just normal scrapes. However my miniature dachshund Cloe who is very pleased to see me after a week of being away, is quite interested in all these wounds. She licks them long and hard as I lay in bed reading a book about the Lake District, a delightful place we will be traveling to in two weeks time.

I can not remember the details of where and how it was the scrapes and cuts came about. I am too sleepy. My dog however takes great delight in tasting and scrutinizing all the lurid details. She is delighted to discover what she can about my trip with all its seemingly gory details and cant wait to read all the parts of my hands and palms that may be red.