Career path

[Tomas Lipps <tmlipps@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Craig, hi

I was doing a bit of dry stone walling myself over the weekend.  a
house in the neighbourhood is up for sale so, as often happens I
guess, the realtor has complained to the city about the state of our
back yard so I'm obliged to tidy up.  that pile of stones  back there
may not be an eyesore to the likes of us but to others, particularly
others whose commission from a sale might be diminished, it is, so .
. .

I surrounded the pile with a bit of a wall, thus reducing its height.
drywalling is such a pleasure.  what I do when there's the
possibility of folks walking on it is to simply set the top course in
mortar, keeping it back from the surface of the wall so it can't be
seen.  the mere idea of mortar though is anathema to a dry stone
waller  as they tend to be such purists.  my friend Dan Snow, author
of an excellent book on the subject, "In the Company of Stone" has
never in his life opened a bag of cement. but you seem to be an
open-minded chap and I'd hate to think of you being denied this
pleasure out of fear of litigation.  another thing to do, of course,
(no pun intended) is to top off the wall with a row of cap stones,
set on edge and wedged against each other between substantial blocks
at the wall ends.  this is stable and does not attract foot traffic
as does a nice flat surface. uncomfortable to sit on though.

by the way I accept your offer to document the "auld way" of
splitting out a boulder with a star drill.

Tomas