Follow-on to the project called 'Stone Wall Construction'
The Pergola! Love it! We put on a second coat of ebony stain. This picture was taken the day before we started the Ruined Wall, which will be just to the right of the Pergola. You can see a palette of rock at the edge of the photo.
Clear shot of the Pergola from the West Wall, just before construction of the Ruined Wall begins. The Ruined Wall will curve towards this wall.
Let the games begin!! Footings getting their 4 inch layer of gravel - Evan at the rake.
It all starts with a good foundation. We really don't have a problem with frost heaves here in Tennessee, but a good footing trench and a thick bed of gravel gives you a little insurance!
Velvet, the Wonder Dog is keeping us safe from maruading killer squirrels! They love to attack unsuspecting stone wall masons and landscapers.
Jesse (The Jr. Rock - brother of Bryce) is heading up this project. The giant brush pile in the background is where we cleared out the area for the Pond. That's a whole other project...
Jesse acts as task master to friends Evan and Jason. The scary thing is he actually has a bull whip, which he demonstrated earlier (was that an act of deliberate intimidation?!) LOL!
Starting to take shape.....
Footings done, string for the levels is in, and we're starting the first course. Essential to use HEAVY rocks on this course, as the whole wall rests and depends upon it. All rocks must be more or less level and absolutely stable. We jump on them to make sure they don't wiggle or shift.
First course coming along. All massive stones. The center will be completely filled with stones and chips - each one wedged tight and made stable. It takes twice as long to pack the middle as it does to lay the outside stones.
Closeup of foundation course.
View of the first course from the front.
Wider angle view. The wall will be about six inches shorter than the stakes. Pergola has 2 coats of ebony stain, and looks awesome!
Another view, a little farther back.
View from the Pergola
View from behind the Pergola. The West Wall and 'Gibralter' are visible in the background. The curve of the Ruined Wall would take it all the way round and connect up with the West Wall, if you took it that far. But of course, we won't! I thought it would be important for the eye to complete that curve, however, so that's why we did it that way.
Stepping back even further behind the Pergola. The top of 'T-Rex' and 'The Monolith' are visible to the left of the Pergola. You can also clearly see the 2 foot gap we're leaving between the Pergola and the Ruined Wall. Gotta have some space to plant vines and such!
Looking from the cruve of the West Wall towards the Ruined Wall.
UPDATE - 2nd week. We're making progress. The outside stones on the first course is complete, and the filling of the center has begun. We pack the middle with large rocks, shards and finally gravel. Normally you wouldn't use gravel but we're building with VERY irregular field stone, so it actually fills in better than trying to use shards, once you get to a a certain point.
First course coming along.
Detailed look at a section of the first course that's finished. Its hard to tell, but there is actually very little gravel in the center. Underneath that gravel its almost solid odd-shaped rocks, which are stabilized just like the other rocks in the wall.
Jesse checkin' out the level.
Placing a stone.
One other exciting development happened this week. There's something MISSING from this picture, and that's a good thing! See next picture for the answer...
That dumb telephone pole is what's missing!! The power company finally finished getting the power lines buried, and they pulled up the telephone poles and hauled them away. Yeeha!!
Jesse and Evan working up a sweat. The knee cushion Jesse is using is really great. This kind of work is really hard on your knees, back, and hands. For some reason, though, I can't get Evan to use gloves!?
Jesse, Evan, and the long view of the Ruined wall.
Ruined wall taking shape!
Lots of progress this week. Jesse and Evan are on vacation the next couple of weeks, so it will only be me working on the wall for a while.
Third course is has about 8 more feet to go. Then the real fun of making things look “crumbled” will start in earnest.
I didn't even realize this when we started this project, but there is a beautiful Sourwood tree (in full bloom) directly behind the Pergola. Happy coincidence!!
Sourwood just behind the Pergola
A little bit of progress. Things are going slowly with the boys on vacation.
This Skink can't wait for the wall to be done!!
End-cap of the wall rising. This forms a little tower on the end. We're on the last layer now, starting to use flatter stones so we can level it out properly for the cover stones (flat stones on top).
The spot where the large flat orange stone is placed is where the “crumbling” will begin. We have to completely finish the wall up to that point before proceeding so we'll be able to match up the height of things as we get towards the end of the wall.
Lookin' good!
Cover stones going in.
After a long hiatus, Jesse is back on the job and things are starting to move again. We're now working on the top course of cover stones, which is really exciting because the wall suddenly starts to look finished!
First few feet of cover stones are done, and the end tower is complete. Still have to add the stone shards in the cracks between the big rocks.
Looking from the other end.
I'm going to find a large copper bowl or urn to put on top of the end tower to serve as a planter.
Once more, we go over the top!
This week, we're breakin' out the Big Guns!!
Doing a little clearing...
Getting ready for flag stones under the Pergola and a new stone path. We had to move the Pergola out of the way temporarily. Stone on the left is new.
Ruined wall almost complete! Just a few more top stones and some of the “fallen” stones to place.
Robert makin' quick work of the bed for the stone path.
Bernino and Robert working on what will become the steps leading to the stone path.
Ready for the rocks! We're using huge slabs as the steps.
Bernino hard at it!
Placing the bottom step. Unfortunately it broke in half when we lifted it! We'll just put the two pieces back together, and it should look fine.
Second step in place!
You can see where the bottom step broke in half here. It will still work fine - this is a rough look anyway.
Getting the top step just right!
We've cleared out a place to the right of the steps because Robert thinks we need a bench of sorts beside the steps. So we're going to move the “Thinking Rock” and press it into service here.
Another shot. You can see “The Hulk” in the upper right corner.
“Thinking Rock” being lowered into its new home. I love this rock!
Nestled in as the new bench beside the stairs.
Looks fabulous there!
Steps and 'Thinking Rock' from the top. You can see how perfectly it makes a nice seat by the stairs. Flagstones will be placed between the drive and the first step.
Long distance shot with some of the new rocks on the right.
New rock, which I named “The Hulk'. This thing is almost 7000 lbs. !!
At the end of the day, Robert and Bernino have the steps done and the paletts of flagstone ready for Jesse and me to lay out the walk.
Another view. The walk will curve to the left from the steps and head over to the Pergola.
A look from the Pergola towards the new steps.
I think this is like 3 tons of flagstone!!
Well, we all got so busy I forgot to take pictures as the work progressed! It was a long, HOT, tiring day, but we got all the stones down. However, we could only level about 25% of them, so this will be a long weekend! Jesse and side-kick Paul pose here under the Pergola - utterly filthy, but proud of a successful day. (I was just as filthy, but who want to look at a fat, dusty 50 yr .old??)
I think the Pergola is the only thing keeping Paul vertical! We were all pooped!!
Side view of the walk, Pergola, and ruined wall.
A look down the new walk from the top of the stairs. The stone is really gorgeous, but you can't tell in these shots because its covered in dirt!
Another shot.
The view from under the Pergola of the new path.
