When the Wall is Over.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

Today after what is probably 18 months worth of intermittent labour, a milestone was achieved, a millstone was cast away and a million stones were joined as one.

The wall was completed. Forty eight gabion wire baskets have been assembled, joined, filled with decorative rocks, bricks and rubble, dressed up and sealed. All to hold some dirt and paving back and create a level area behind the house.

Still got another one to do out the front! Each basket takes about 20 minutes to assemble, another 20 minutes to install and then a couple of hours to fill. Plus all the collecting of field stones and rubble (much of the latter came from the concrete tank that I demolished). So many tedious and ultimately rewarding hours...

[frinesi2]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly looks awesome! Great aesthetic.

[sn4cktimes]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly my wife and I were talking once about all the stone walls that are in Europe. She was wondering why and how. Answer seemed simple to me. Every rock the plow hit was picked up and moved out of a field. Had to go somewhere...

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@sn4cktimes
That's pretty much where every rock in that wall came from...floaters in the field or dug up through various other activities.

[OPPOsaurus WRX]

I forget the official name for that but it's really popular in neither Europe from what I've seen

[facw]

@sn4cktimes This is definitely how it worked for New England farm walls. Churn up fresh new rocks every year between plowing and freeze/thaw cycles, so why not stack them into walls?

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly Looks great!
School my friend's kid is going to in Chicago had a really neat stone fence:
Three colors of rock trapped in wire caging between the posts.

[Shop-Teacher]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Neat! I've never seen a wall built that way.

[gmporschenut also a fan of hondas]

@sn4cktimes @facw New england rock walls are just the baby version of european hedgerows. To really get them, they would slice the it over. This would keep animals in, and when combined with rock would with roots all intertwined. Do this for a millenium and you have a substantial barrier to go through
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhino_tank

[sn4cktimes]

@facw That's cool. And apparently walls made of rock like that are really quite good at sound deadening.

[Brickman]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly I protest caged rocks! Let them free! #letitrock!

that should provide good drainage too

[ranwhenparked]

@sn4cktimes Also SE Pennsylvania, at one point during the colonial era, I think farmers just started building random fieldstone walls out of boredom

[sn4cktimes]

@ranwhenparked Oh those farmers! Always so much free time!

[ranwhenparked]

@sn4cktimes That's what's weird, but they certainly stacked stones like it was their job

[sn4cktimes]

@ranwhenparked Kids dude. THAT's why they always had so many (that and high infant mortality rates, but I'm trying to keep it light)!