Stone balls

[Ed Pawlowski]

Takes some talent to build these from stone using dry stacking. Would make a great lawn decoration

[invalid unparseable]

I have an artificial rock covering the well head in my front yard. Looks nice.

[T]

how about this?

[invalid unparseable]

I think a dog owner would think that is only a four day supply.

[micky]

Does he use mortar? It seems not. How does it stay together?

I was in my friend's basement again, house built in 1854. Stone foundation. I can only see 3 feet wide, but I don't know how it stays in place either.

[Ed Pawlowski]

No mortar. Dry walls have been around for centuries and it takes some skill to do it right. When I lived in CT there were walls all over built when fields were being plowed for crops. Most were just a few feet tall to act as a border fence.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Friction and gravity.

[micky]

Those I've seen but this looks 100 times more difficult.

The balls are hollow, right?

[Clare Snyder]

Many tallented stone masons have built many "dry stone" walls for centuries. those stone spheres took some talent

[rbowman]

I don't know which came first, the border fence or 'what are we going to do with all these damn rocks we plowed up?'

That one has been puzzling people since the first whites started snooping around the area. I caught the sunrise from the stone tower. It was worth getting up before breakfast.

[TimR]

I grew up in a glacial area in Wisconsin. I forget the word, terminal morraine maybe? Every winter the freeze thaw cycle brought rocks up. Every year there was a task farm kids dreaded, called picking rock. Move them to the border.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Yes, moraine. Seems it was poor planning on the part of the glacier relocation committee. They were just left in haphazard locations, no planning. Back then there was no Congressional oversight to regulate it.

[Scott Lurndal]

It's called the driftless area.

Some very beautiful territory, particularly in the fall. We had a cabin there along the mighty muddy near Ferryville. McGregor/Marquette in Iowa are pretty as well.

[rbowman]

Upstate NY had plenty of glacial rocks and also eskers, long narrow ridges that we called hogbacks. There was plenty of stone for walls. Most of the walls were not very well done. I've seen areas where people have built rock walls that are quite artistic; most of these were tired kids unloading a stone-boat at the edge of a field.

The Forest Service decided to plant a field along an airstrip that hadn't been broken in decades. When I suggested building a stone-boat I got puzzled looks. They had hired temps from a labor service and after a couple of days the kids revolted. They had a valid point that most temp jobs don't involve back-breaking labor and they should be getting more per hour. They got their raise.

[Jim Joyce]

My brother and I got hired to pick rocks when we were kids, age 10 and

1. I don't know which was harder, picking rocks or walking in a freshly plowed field all day. We each earned /hr for our efforts.

The next summer, when I was 12, I got hired to drive grain truck. Much easier job and better pay, to boot.

We also got hired to pick bales a few times. We earned 2 cents per straw bale and 5 cents per hay bale. That was hard work, especially as the flatbed trailer started filling up and we had to lift the bales above our heads, and then toss them even higher.

[rbowman]

When i worked for the Forest Service I got to know bales intimately. They bought some hay, but made some themselves. It was double jeopardy since after loading the bales on the flatbed, you went to the hay barn, unloaded, and stacked them.

It wasn't done yet. In the winter they fed about 200 head of horses and mules, so it was back to the hay barn to load the bales back onto the flatbed or pickup, take the hay back to where it came from, cut the bales, and serve breakfast.

I don't know which was more fun, the first part in the August heat or the second part in January at 5 below.

That was 30 years ago. They've switched to round bales now. That takes all the fun out of it.

[AK]

You are a sick person.

You are not funny.

Please get some counseling and spare this group and many others your B.S.