More on the Opus 40 Restoration Build

Here is Sean Adcock's latest news from Opus 40. "The end is in sight" he says

" Well the Canadians arrived and the scaffolding went up and so did the wall.  A fair few beers went down and Doug Bell talked a lot.  It was memorable, a fun time.  Menno, Andre, Rich Mino (a waller local to the project) and Doug can be seen on the shiny new scaffold.  Even more tie stones went in and then they left and Evan Oxland on ‘sabbatical’ in Philadelphia joined us ...and the rain came down but even so more wall went up. 

 

Evan left and more ties went in, or in one case almost went in as my tape measure malfunctioned (it could not possibly have been my fault) and the monster needed stone surgeon Tomas Lipps to perform an emergency end-ectomy before it would fit into the hole in the back.  Local waller Charlie Groeters bravely holding his half of the ‘bull-set’... chisel like sledge hammers used for accurate breaking off of lumps of rock.  The end is literally in sight as we can now see the wall top level from one end of the scaffold.  At the other end we still have around 5 feet to go as the terrace behind the wall has a couple of levels. 

This wall is so high and our stone so similarly sized (normally 2-4 inch beds) we haven’t bothered with grading (reduction of stone size with height).   It makes little structural difference here except for using thinner (1 inch stone) and/or thinner shims (very thin stones used to get over steps) and plates (similar to shims but thicker and a bit mire structural).  Harvey Fite the original builder used many, but in a tall wall there is a great danger that these thin stones will crack or even disintegrate with the pressure of wall above them, weakening or even destabilising the structure, so their use has been almost entirely eliminated whilst the overall use of stone of an inch thickness has been greatly reduced.  Such stones tend to crack where there are joints below them as pressure points can easily develop there, and so even if they cross the joint a ‘running joint’ can develop.  It all adds up to potential movement and everything is geared to reducing that even if we cannot prevent it.  We certainly do not want to encourage it.  One problem at times has been getting people to remember when trying to sneak a shim or plate past me, that even though the wall might be at chest height for them there is still perhaps six feet or more wall to go and so compared to their normal walls they might as well be putting that thin stone right in the foundation, something (I trust) they would never do.  As we near the top the plate monitoring will relax a little, and stone size will decrease, however there will still be little tolerance of the shim"

.

Oh that there was a rest from all this violence.

Worthy of Description

How much value do we actually put on the photos we post? While it's true 'a photo is worth a thousand words', don't the 'pics' we post at least deserve a word or two of explanation? 

In order for our ideas to thrive in this pixel dominated universe we need to express ourselves with words as well.

To that end I would like to add a few words about the photo above...

Due to in part to excessive branding by Macdonalds, the familiar image of 'Golden Arches' inspires us to think very little else about its shape except the prospect of fast food.

I wonder if, by contrast, the dry stone structure we built out on Vancouver Island with the students from what was then called Glendale Gardens, over 6 years ago, could be a kind of whimsical rescuing of that iconic double arched shape from some of its associated commerciality ?

Hopefully it instills fresh meaning into the shape and offers an alternative to the visual disconnect caused by its lack of having any other interpretation than that of knowing there are Big Macs somewhere up ahead. 

Finding Love On The Beach

While walking along a rugged ocean swept beach south of Gualala I happened across an unusual 'L- shaped' stone.
  

The stone was looking very much like it 'needed' to be in a word. It wanted me to help it find the other letters. But what was the word?

'Love' - was the obvious answer. 

" Lucky of me to find the L " I thought, "Love comes like that." 

The O was easy too.

"O for an open heart," I mused. " For originality meeting opportunity. Yes, this would be an outstanding ocean offering. There was no turning back now."

The V was not as easy. Vainly I looked. Nothing looked valid enough. All the stone shapes, like vague vestiges of virtue could not now vindicate my silly search along the beach

Vision comes with time. Mistakingly expecting what I wanted to virtually appear, just like that, in view of the variety of stones surrounding me, was vanity. I needed to learn the value of every part of the word .

And the E ?

Well it took a lot of looking too, maybe an eternity of examining every part of my rocky existence, and making every effort to enfold rather than cast off my elemental existence. 

The E was a kind of emptying of myself. I almost envisioned ending the exercise empty of LOVE entirely.

But then ... Elation !!! 

I found it ! And I eagerly embraced it. 

And so this completed all the letters the 'L' and  I 'needed' along that lonely stretch of beach that day - stoney letters to visually  (and experientially) represent the seeking, the finding, and the fulfillment of being, and wanting to be - needed.      LOVE

Rolin', rolin', rolin' down the river.

We don't work at jobs in the city any more,

and were thankful we don't work for the Man.

After an exhilarating day moving stone 'up and down the river' we sleep pretty well at night too.

Nor do we worry about 'the way things might have been'.

If you come down to the river next week, you'll find us working hard building dry stone steps and terraces in the water. We're happy just doing our job, cause 'that's the way we roll'.

Onwards and Upwards

I am pleased to be able to bring more news in the from of a second update from Sean Adcock on the progress being made at this year's restoration project going on presently at Opus 40 in Saugeries New York.

"We have hiccupped along logisitically but we are going up, anything  electrically powered is still cursed but we have the hoist working manually a godsend for the tie stones.  These are going in at around 3 feet centres and every 20 inches or so up the wall.  Some (up to 6 feet long) are inserted into holes in-between  the slabs we are building against... there is a worry that these cannot settle in the same way as adjacent stones and might tip if/when the wall settles, they might however help to literally tie the wall back, there is no way of knowing so we mix in other shorter (4 feet long, everything is relative) ties which just but against the slabs in the back. " 




"However tying is not the only function of these stones, there is another often overlooked aspect of their role, of particular importance in a structure of this height...they also serve as impenetrable barriers to the hearting we place  above, reducing the potential for this to settle and any back pinning of subsequent stones to move.  We are keeping this pinning to a minimum- mostly only between one building stone and a subsequent one, again so the pin cannot settle.  The whole process is about reducing the potential for movement and trying to control any that will occur in the long run."
 
"We are managing to to tie into the remains of the original wall which overhangs its base by 4 inches or so in 17 feet, in places we have removed hearting and achieved the correct batter by hitting the stones with a length of oak tree... I wonder, is this where the term battering ram comes from?"
 
"Over the weekend Lydia Noble from the UK, along with Matt Carter and Chuck Eblacker helped get the wall up to staging/trestle/scaffold height.  They were followed by a group from the (Vermont) Stone Trust.  Brian Post, Seth Harris, Torvin Larson, TJ Mora and Michael Murphy who helped clear and sort the rest of the stone from the collapse which had been acting as a work platform, and rigged up the staging... it then rained, the pond refilled and they spent an inordinate amount of time in the water, moving stone.  Their unstinting and uncomplaining effort over two days has helped resolve many of the logistical problems and the site is now set fair for Andre Lemieux, Doug Bell and Menno Bramm who have just arrived from the northern wilds."

 
"Onwards and upwards."     SEan 
 

No more walls without comments

Several of you wrote to me recently to say the 'Comments' function at the bottom of this blog page didn't seem to be working. You will be glad to know it's working now. 

Just press where it says No comments: ( I know, that sounds like you're not supposed to comment, but it just means there are no comments on that post yet)  

You don't need to prove who you are, or be a follower, or a google blogger or have a URL, whatever that is.. Just type in your comment as 'anonymous' in the 'Comment as': window. 

Also, sometime ago ( I didn't notice how long ) the 'Recent comments' window on the right stopped working. This has been fixed now too, so you can see your comments displayed, usually within a day of them being submitted. 
I try to answer many of them.

Walls without 'Cement' is what this blog is all about, but not walls without 'Comments'.   Thanks.  J

Seeing things 'second hand'

I have 'seen' this old abandoned milk house many times driving by in my truck going up to the quarry . It stands all on its own in an empty field, set back from the road, with no lane leading up to it.  The structure has a always attracted my attention. Yesterday I stopped and hopped the fence to look at it more closely. 

I raced around taking photos of the charming little building from all sides with my iPhone. I got back in the truck and sped off.

In my rush I realized I never really stopped and actually looked at what I was taking photos of. In my imagination I thought I would somehow see it better later on my laptop screen .

Though I took some nice photos of the stonework I am a bit disappointed, mostly with myself.  

It is a sad thing to discover one's power of observation has become almost totally dependant on studying photos, essentially seeing things second hand. 

I have a whole laptop of reproduced images of real things that I only let myself look at superficially in favour of having got a good shot with my camera. It seems I hardly ever 'take in' what I'm looking at any more. It's a bad habit to get into. I hate the disconnectedness of it all - the loss of subjectivity. 

In future, being able to really appreciate good stonework will have to involve a lot more responding to it personally, in 'real time', when I am there. 

Don't Build Walls Without it !

End of second day of the 'Following  Farley' Fundraiser Dry Stone Workshop Event in Port Hope, On. 

If there was only one thing I was able to get across to someone enrolled in a dry stone wall workshop it would be the concept of having fun. 

Forget the pressure of maintaining an air of seriousness, of thinking of it as arduous labouring, of it being a grudgingly burdened interaction with heavy material, of the whole thing being an exasperating attempt to not break any rules, of keeping up to someone else's standards, of trying to get done more than you feel physically capable of, of trying to impress people, of needing to pass some sort of test, of thinking that if you're having fun you're not learning. 

That's all baloney. 

Any learning situation has a special self-fulfilling component to it that, if you allow it a chance, makes the whole thing surprisingly pleasurable. 

It's called 'fun'. Don't build walls without it.

https://instagram.com/p/BGSql2PPLcC/

Over Time

Before and after photos open our eyes afresh to the magic of what happens over time. This project came about through the initial vision and confidence our clients had in our ability. Then we were set free to let the existing boulders speak to us. Eventually the what was there crept into a totally different shape.

Over time, everything can be transformed. Combining skill and lots of physical exertion, all those heavy boulders were rolled away from their cluttered arrangement along the embankment and then pushed back up into place properly. We knew that what was there before could be made to look so much better, and as it did, we almost forgot how it used to look.

The camera allows us to look back and enjoy the drama that unfolded on that hill. Seeing the raw material we had to work with again, and looking at the before shot, triggers emotions akin to remembering a play with an acrimonious plot that turns out having a happy ending.

An Excerpt From An Unpublished Manuscript (reposted)

I thought it would be interesting to revisit the blog I wrote about a group of us visiting Farley Mowat's ancestor's castle, a thing I posted a year ago, tomorrow. 

After leaving the Orkneys we traveled by ferry to Thurso at the northern most tip of mainland Britain. From there we travelled by bus with professional dry stone waller George Gunn as our guide, to a remote spot on the rocky east coast of Caithness. 

There is ruined castle there called Bucholie which was owned from the time of king Robert the Bruce to 1661 by ancestors of Farley Mowat. Just before he died Farley was writing about his visit back to this unique dry stone structure back in 1961 with his wife Claire. 

My wife Mary, who had been working for Farley over the last few years putting his typewritten material into digital format,  remembered the section of his writing that mentioned where our group would be travelling and thought it would be a wonderful thing to have us visit the castle, and with Claire's permission, actually have some of Farley's last writings read to the group on our trip.

Last Monday, on the continuing tour of 'Old Stones', our group of thirteen hearty adventurers hiked nearly a mile over thick soggy heather brush, much of it along a formidable and beautiful coast, in order to make our way to Farley's castle, which is well hidden and almost impossible to get to.



After I scrambled up the side of the castle (where there had once been a drawbridge) and into the arched opening on the west face, Fred the bravest of the others, joined me. Getting inside into Brocholie involved carefully making a leap across a very narrow gap that with a 100 foot drop both sides into the sea. The others preferred to wait on the other side.



From that vantage point standing in the ruin I had the great privilege of then reading aloud from Farley's unpublished manuscript describing the historic details and layout of the castle. 


The others ( standing well back from the cliff listening to the passage I read ) told me later they were not only able to see and hear, but also imagine, all that Farley would have wanted to share if he had been there himself.

Opus 40 Update.

Work group standing on top of the 'footings'
doubling as tie stones one foot above ground level as we had to build around enormous hearting boulders first! 

First proper course of tie stones in place. 

Small car size 'hearting' teetering above your head, 

what's to worry about?

Sean Adcock reporting from Opus 40. He leads a crew of people from across N. America doing some major repairs to this one of the most important if not largest dry stone installations in the land. 

"If we are finished (on schedule )that would be marvellous...(when it will end, June 17th) is a hypothetical date, at the moment its impossible to tell when it will be!"

"Not all the preliminary stuff was done before I got here and the machinery/hoists are not working properly yet. Today was the first full day of building, all very complicated. ( I ) knew it would be a logistic nightmare and it most certainly is!"

"A few photos for you...   I'll send more as work progresses if you're interested (or could maybe plug the project on your blog).   SEan "

Thanks for keeping us up to date, Sean.

-------------------------------
Below is Tomas Lipps's description of Opus 40 and his overview of what this year's project entails. 

"Opus 40, located in Saugerties, NY, is a unique mortar-less, stone-built artifact that was laboriously constructed on the site of an old bluestone quarry by a single man, artist Harvey Fite. He commenced work in 1939 and toiled on the project for 37 years until his death in a work-site accident in 1976.

Opus 40 was a precursor to the Land Art ‘movement’ that evolved in the late 60’s, and it is well worthy of preservation. Watch a short documentary produced by Celluloid Rain Productions.

Hurricane Sandy in 2012, caused the blow-out of a 15-foot tall wall. A communal effort on the part of Stone Foundation stonemason/wallers to rebuild the collapsed wall at Opus 40 and restore the integrity of the entity has been organized and managed by former Director, Tomas Lipps of Stonexus Productions.

Sean Adcock from Wales, DSWA/GB Master Craftsman, Certified Instructor, Chairman of the North Wales Branch of the DSWA will be in charge of the work.

Tim Smith (NY) has been in charge of site prep and the gin-pole and boom supplied by Chance Anderson (NH) are in place, and work will begin May 31, 2016, and continue for an estimated three to four weeks until it is complete.

A succession of teams of skilled professional stonemason/wallers (some certified, some not) from NY, PA, VT, NH, ME, MA, CT, and RI, as well as a group from Canada, will augment the core crew, consisting of Sean, Tomas, and an intern. Work will be done in accord with best practices—although, consonant with the existing stonework at Opus 40 and the recent repair, the wall faces will be vertical.

Participants will arrive at midday, share a communal lunch, work through the afternoon, enjoy copious libations and a communal dinner, spend the night, work through the next morning, have lunch before returning home—or staying on for another day (most participants have opted for a two-day stint). They will receive lodging, breakfast, lunch and dinner, beer and wine, as well as an honorarium and the satisfaction of doing worthwhile work in the company of fellow stonemasons and wallers—restoring, even improving upon, a unique and historic structural/sculptural land form.

The schedule is full from May 31until June 17. Anyone interested observing the work in progress is invited to come by (come in the late afternoon and bring some nice cold IPA). Anyone interested in taking part if work extends into a fourth week should contact the project manager:"
tomas@stonefoundation.org

We are the Wallers

"The time has come "

The wallers said 

"To talk of many things

Of running joints

And hammer heads 

And how a struck stone rings."  

"Of shale and schist, avoiding
 cracks

And amethyst and slates,

And why debris forms mountain scree

And why the earth has plates"

"We'll speak of sub-atomic mass

Of particles and strings,

Of quantum leaps and isotopes

And earth's magnetic rings."

"And when we're done and figured out,

The universe and all, 

We'll still be no where near agreed 

How best to build a wall. "

John S-R

More than a gradual graduation.

Life has its degrees of satisfaction. 

Each new accomplishment adds to the quality and structure of our lives. 

At certain defining moments, there is a distinct heightening in the level of pride each of us feel for those close to us. It is more than gradual - more than a graduation.. 

Standing in front of the 'completed' wall students of mine built,  last year at Dalhousie University in Halifax N S is my daughter Maddy who 'graduated' yesterday with a BA in English from Dal. It seems like a big step, a huge monumental accomplishment. Her mother and I are very proud of her. 

All things being not equal.

Unless someone has a lot of experience, both having inspected and constructed many many walls incorporating all kinds of challenging types of stone material, it is not always possible to correctly determine if the stones in any particular wall have been used to their best. 

The people who are really qualified to appreciate good workmanship are not insecure.They don't need their egos boosted. They don't have to find fault just to impress others. Nor are they hopelessly unrealistic in their expectations of what is possible.  

They can fully understand the difficulties and material constraints that exist and may have been the legitimate cause of a wall to not look as neat or as correct as other walls made with less challenging material.

They can appreciate the fact that the stones may not have been as 'shapable' as they might look to others with little experience,  that the selection may have been more limited than one would assume, that the waller may not have been given the opportunity or choice to do it differently within the time required or the restrictions placed upon them by the client or the architect. 

Basically a sympathetic and qualified observer/inspector of dry stone walls understands that all things may not have been equal.

A stone does not suffer tools gladly.

A stone does not to like waste time.
It is usually the shape it is for a reason.

It does not suffer tools gladly 

Hardwired sandstone

Weathered sandstone along the coastal islands of B.C. and Washington has this amazing patterning. 

It's as though the stone is, or once, was alive and its interior cellular makeup is now being revealed.

I imagine the bubbly network of concave shapes, if seen in the inverse, would look similar to a random dry stone design.

The rock material suggests a built in receptivity to that same kind of dry stone patterning. 

Without Mortar !

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/venice-architecture-biennale-beyond-bending-eth-zurich-block-research-group-05-26-2016/


Patrick McAfee sent this to me today. It's about some new technological developments using a brilliant form of dry stone vault and dome construction. It's based on the traditional Catalan vaulting methods from Spain. We need to see this done in Canada.

Of course, there would be cement mixers in this bazaar parade.

Basket Wall Anyone?

A properly built dry stone wall has a good deal of give and take to it. It stays together the same way a basket does. 

The stones in the wall are skillfully interlocked in tight arrangements and yet are still able to move. The connectedness of the stones create thousands of expansion joints. Each joint can move a fraction of inch if it needs to. 

The unsightly cracks one sees in a concrete or masonry block wall our to frost heaving, hydrostatic pressure in the earth and erosion do not occur in a dry stone wall.

Stones laid up in dry laid configurations not only have a basket-like adaptability to stresses within their structure, dry stone walls can even be adapted to become basketball backstops too. Here's one I saw in the Lake District a few years back.