Feile na gCloch 2017

This is going to be a wonderful gathering of the stone clan.
I look forward to seeing many of you there.

So our plan was...

So our plan, when we first positioned the wood form, for getting it out from under our newly built Haliburton Canada 150 Dry Stone Bridge later this week was to chainsaw the supporting 4x4s and have them drop away low enough to have the form drop too and then slide out easily.




Only problem is (as this illustration shows) the water level has risen a foot since Monday and now we'll need to use the chain saw under water!

Good Question.

Why aren't there any stones here, on this part of the bridge, sir?



Because Craig hasn't got his other row finished yet, son.



And Ted and Iris can't put their row on until Craig has put his two on the bridge.



And then, after that, we can put these two rows on.





And maybe by Friday all the other stones will be on the bridge.

Relationships

Stressing about a rocky relationship?  Take a lesson from these stones.They don't mind getting dumped. They're going to join up with all kinds of new ones and be lovingly placed into a beautiful stone bridge that's about to be built in Haliburton Ontario in the park this week.



And here is the centering (along with the students) that will form those new stone relationships to create a permanent structure for all the passers-by on the trail. 

Hoist away

How come rocks never look anywhere as big in the photos as they are in real life?
This huge chunk of granite had to be lowered into place using a tripod and a hoist.
It went in to make up an important section of foundation of the dry stone bridge abutment.
We could have never lifted it in without this tripod set up. 


 

Just as tripods are used to lift heavy motor blocks in and out of vehicles needing major repair, we 'motored' to get our heavy block into the bridge, in order to repair the damage from previous two days of continuous flooding. 

Bridging the Gap

A bridge to some,
where storybook stories happen,
invites all of us to span the time
between now 
and what will become...
- not just fancifully 
but actually possible 
using our imagination. 

A bridge to know
where special,
things happen along the way.
(Things just happen that way)

Friends and bridges like these 
are made, 
not by being 
professional or politically correct,
not by relying on modern adhesives 
or heavy machinery, 

Not by waiting for bridge financing 
or the banks narrowing 
our vision 
and trying to shrink our crazy stream
to something more fordable, 

Not by assessing all the risk factors 
and deciding it's too
expansive, 
too unregulatory chanciful, 

Not by imposing liability limits on our enthusiasm 
and making our babbling creek
some sort of impassible raging chasm.

But by building on and over
the same 
foundation of know 
how and when-to
that we've always intuitively understood. 

Learning how 
and knowing when the time is 
to make that creative connection,

And boldly bridge the gap.

And be only circumspect
in this respect
that we kindly ignore others who tell us 
'It can't be done'. 

Ten fun-filled days

Hands up everyone who had fun at the bridge workshop !

Great meals together

Cool refreshing stream to stand in while you work

Getting into shape while shaping stones

Lots of exercise

Beam balancing and challenging obstacle coursing

Barrel vaulting 

Powerful drilling

Lots of photo taking

Dollying massive voussoirs

Hoisting huge rocks

Getting rained on nearly every day

Learning to work as a team

Pitching 

Coping well

Cleaning up

And cooling off !

and Voila !

Happy Canada Day everyone !

A smashing good time

Becoming a Strength

Eggs and Bacon - 'Walling Fuel'

When I was employed as a labourer, I hated taking sandwiches to work. 

Before I saw the restaurant scene in Goldsworthy's 'Rivers and Tides' it was already a ritual on my walling jobs for the guys and I to have eggs and bacon together at lunch. 

It seems strange, while everything else on the menu has gone up in price over the years, eggs and bacon still remains a very reasonable meal at most restaurants. So it continues to be a thing, now that I'm a boss, to treat the guys too to 'breakfast out' (around lunch time), rather than just go off and have them have to stay back at the job site eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Here are the bridge students all having lunch having breakfast together yesterday. 

The seemingly random clip in 'Rivers and Tides' of all the guys having breakfast was kept in the final cut for a reason. I believe the director/producer saw a connection. 

It has been my thought too that a curiously strong relationship exists between the quality (and output) of artistic dry stone work done on any day and those wallers on the job who have enjoyed having eggs and bacon together. 

Here is my student crew again, yesterday afternoon –everyone doing their best work, all fuelled up on a high performance breakfast of eggs and bacon.