Pennsylvania stone wall project...:)

[Charlesaf3]

good god, $20 a pallet that was the labor bargain of the century! $20 a face square foot here. I'd fly those guys up.

Nice walls!

[Tollster]

The rock moving is progressing slowly. The rocks are getting bigger and the last one was pullong my BX backwards down the hill...slowly thank god. So far the biggest one I have moved is about 1100 pounds. The bucket or the Bh won't move them, so I have to use low range 4X4, and push or roll them onto the skid plate, then I have my heighbor get in the bucket for counter weight and I drag them up the hill. I have drug the last large ones onto the fence posts, then I slowly back down while my neighbor alternates the posts to keep it moving backwards towards the freshly dug hole. I have buried all the stones about 1/3 or better for a natural look. I have one stone that gonna be the bain of them all, its about 2000 pounds and round to boot. So it'll have to go in over the wall some how. otherwise I am afraid it will get away from my and go into the pond.
I have been taking pictures of my progress, but none yet of the actual moving of the stones, I hope to get some for ya'll. It really works and so far...gravity is my friend.

[srs]

Tollster, great job on the wall, just beautiful! Love the ole lab too! One word of caution however is to watch for bees making a nest in the cracks of the stone. I had a tiny stone wall around a few trees at my old house and not realizing it yellowjackets, hornets or wasps, whatever, made a nest in the small places in the stone. I found out the hard way that they were bees. A few shots of hornets spray took care of them but I was pretty cautious after that. Again nice dog and a job well done.

[EdC]

Tollster

Wow! Really interested in how this will come out. Moving big stones with small tractors can really get interesting. On the one hand it's amazing how much the little guys can do. On the other hand it takes a bit of original thinking sometimes to get the rock moved.

[Robert_in_NY]

Originally Posted by srs

Tollster, great job on the wall, just beautiful! Love the ole lab too! One word of caution however is to watch for bees making a nest in the cracks of the stone. I had a tiny stone wall around a few trees at my old house and not realizing it yellowjackets, hornets or wasps, whatever, made a nest in the small places in the stone. I found out the hard way that they were bees. A few shots of hornets spray took care of them but I was pretty cautious after that. Again nice dog and a job well done.

I just saw this thread and was going to ask about bees. I would love a stone wall but we have a ton of wasp's around our house as it is. So for now I will skip the field stone look.

Those stone walls look great though. I have thought about trying to build one around one of my small fields but I do not have very many rocks around here.

[Tollster]

Some shots on the progress.
Early in the staging, planning and placement

A few more dug in



Here I have added smaller ones toward the very bottom of the hill to compliment the larger stones. Like they broke away from them and rolled there. You can see the staging area up top. I am saving the largest stones for the top. I placed alomost all the stones so they tilt back into the hill side to nurish the rock garden when it rains. Most have been almost perfect placing. If I could suggest one thing for someone who may undertake this, it would be to get all the same type of geological stones. I have an assortment, which makes the placing and planning more complicated.


Another view


Slowly getting there. I maked allot of cubbies for plantings. The hill has a northern exposure with very high drainage, mostly small rocks and shale base, which is why the grass never gets high there. The idea is for the stones to create shade pockets and microclimates, so many alpine and fragile (Maintence Free...I hope) plants can survive.


Here you see the only red stones I had, I thought about intermingling them amounst the rest, but they seem to stand out, so I grouped them and handled them as carefull as I could so I did not damage them with the loader, I also tried to look at the shape and interesting parts of the stone and displayed them towards the viewer. These had some interesting holes and alge. I also tried to keep grain lines and such running in bond.


I am at a stand still now, its been very wet and all my friends don't call anymore......Wonder why?

[pycoed]

Nice looking place you've got there!
Lots of dry stone walling done here in UK - check this site for a flavour:
DSWA Picture Gallery Frames

[Tollster]

Nice links, I love the walls in Lancashire, and Wales. Looks like a lifetime of work.
Heres the little BX23 in action.
Picture of my neighbor Tim rotating the timbers as I inch the stone backwards into the hole. Notice the spacing of the timbers, we where able to guide or steer the stone to a point by varying the spacing, here we are trying to steer it to the right if you looking from the tractor towards my neighbor.


Tim with some extra effort on a 1400 pounder. This i very close to my dragging limits, none of the hydralics would move this one, it was all low range 4X4 with diff lock to skid this up the hill on the plate.


You can get some idea on the size of this monster, it was 23" thick, 60" long and 45" wide, kind of makes my BX23 look like a toy here.


It was getting late by the time we set that monster, I think its coming out nice and will get some shots tomorrow. 4 more monster stones, 1 is about 2000 pounds, and I think I can handle the other 3 with the BX as I think they are a lighter type of stone and range between 700 and 1200 lbs. I still have some smaller sizes to fill in towards the stairs.

[Tollster]

Well, I have completed my spring landscape project. The rock garden came out well. I have 3 large stone left, which will not be part of this area. The only things I still lack are 2 large trees at the top of the graden and some complementry shrubs to isolate it from the rest of the yard. It was more than I had barganed for and not for the faint of heart. I lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks.

Some of the last stones in place:



Cutting the edging between the yard and the rock garden.


Adding the pea gravel, I aimed for 3" base to keep weeds at bay:


And now a drum roll please... The final product...thank god its over.



Now it just has to grow some, yes there are plants in there. Sedum, phlox. small pine bushes, and some arid plantings.

[PSDStu]

You did a great job and that's a beautiful looking place ya' got there!

Stu