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["Disbrow Consulting" <diz@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Hi Marc,
What you are describing here is what folks around here call a "butter wall"
i. stack the stones, butter-up the back of the stones, and then pour the
crete..  This phenomena /style has been creeping in the area from masons and
landscapers invading from south of us.  There tends to be more rebar and
ties used in them, to make them last a bit than one would use in a concrete
wall of that size.  The problem is the fast heating and cooling of  the
local environment, not to mention the extreme temperature differential here.
We can get Summer heat in the 90's, and Winter temperatures (not accounting
for wind chill factors) down to 40 below zero.  The effect of this extreme
action is that the frost heaves things up from below ground level.  In
Spring we find new stones in pastures that weren't there the previous Fall.
This is certainly true about the place where I gather (with the owner's
permission of course) the field stone for my little projects.  I am
gathering by section, and pretty much taking every stone down to say an inch
and a half.  It looks pretty clean in the fall, but in the spring.. I need
to go over-it again.  Repairing these walls with fresh crete every spring is
not only annoying, but tricky to reset a stone without the repair joint
being obvious.  I use slaked lime with the mortar for these repairs.

Craig Disbrow, MBA, JD.
Disbrow Consulting
603 523 4259 (Voice)
603 523 4574 (Facsimile)