Just in the Saint Nick of Time

  So, our hopes of finishing the walkway before Christmas dissolved on last Friday's snowy afternoon, as it rapidly became clear that we were short on stone.  We covered everything with heating blankets and headed home for the holidays, wondering aloud if we would possibly see another day warm enough to finish before Spring.  Christmas came...

and went...

  And lo and behold, Monday bore temperatures nearing fifty.  So we headed out early in search of enough bluestone to finish, which proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated.  The forecast was calling for temperatures in the single digits and we knew we had to finish before nightfall.  Viking Hardscapes, bless 'em, had no open pallets.  We drove out to JC Stone in Widsor and they were completely out. They suggested we drive down to NC Hunt in Damariscotta, which we did, and they had exactly what we needed. They are always a pleasure to deal with, by the way.
  It was ten o'clock by the time we reached the jobsite and we must have looked like a couple of lunatics, with saws roaring, dust clouds rising, rocks flying, running back and forth to the stone dust pile, hammers and chisels and swearing--determined to finish before sunset.  And we did.

  We left out a few stones up near the house, so the carpenters can finish their addition, and we'll be back in the Spring to loam the edges and cracks.  I believe the plan is to plant thyme or some kind of "steppable".  I like it. Damon likes it. The homeowners seem to like it. It has, as Mike said, "A kind of fairy-tale cottage feel."

The Beast of Bremen

  Well, we decided to take on a stone walkway down in Bremen before the ground freezes up for good. It was wet and cold this morning and cars were sliding off the roads (as we nearly did on more than one occasion), but it is supposed to be above freezing for the next few days and we are going to jump through the window while it's open. 
  We started off the day in the rain, shoveling the crushed stone out of the existing path.

  Our stone dust showed up in massive frozen hunks, as if it was reforming itself back into actual stones, and so we were forced to blast it with the propane fueled weed-burner and bury a heater cord inside.  We covered it with a tarp and are hoping that our efforts, combined with the prognosticated temperature rise, will enable us to spread the stuff tomorrow.

  The home looks like an early 19th century brick farmhouse, which the owners (who seem great, by the way) have done a wonderful job restoring, and the property is lined with fantastic old stone walls.

  And a great old chimney still standing, obviously where the original homestead was.

  And if you meet this guy on your way down to Bremen...

  DO NOT stop to ask for directions!

Sheep Meadow Farm

  Damon and I spent last week at Sheep Meadow Farm on the island of North Haven, doing a job for Dan Ucci of Ledge Hill Creations.  As some of you may know, we were out there last year for about seven months, and it was nice to come back. The isolation of the place really bothers some people, but I find it hard to leave.
 Anyway, we went out to Sheep Meadow and built a circular patio with a 15-foot diameter out of what is commonly referred to as stand-up blue stone. That doesn't mean it is stone with sound moral and ethical standards, but blue-stone that is actually stood up on edge on the pallets, so as to make for difficult and unwieldy transport.  Here are a few shots of the farm and estate:

  The caretakers Doug and Kenny pretty much had the spot dug out for us and prepped when we arrived.  They removed yards of wet clay, put in drainage, and covered it with compacting sand.  So all we had to do was fire up the compactor and run circles around it for an hour.

  We spent the next few days laying out the stones, cutting and chiseling joints a half to two inches.  We worked till dark every day and spent the evenings relaxing and reading in the comfortably furnished guest apartment.  We finished on Friday and drew our radius, with Damon on the center point and me at the other end of a 7 and a half foot string, drawing a perfect circle, which we then cut out with the saw.

  Just in time to catch the next ferry home, which made Damon very happy.

Triple Chimney Down

  Hired by the Potter Building Company--owned by my good friend Tom Potter--Damon and I reluctantly removed three chimneys (or 'chimbleys' as they are oft' referred to in these linguistic hinterlands) from a three-story building that is under complete renovation in Rockland.

  I despise heights and postponed the job for many days, in hopes that the chimbleys would collapse of their own free will.  That failed to happen, however, and I was eventually faced with the reality of having to climb up on the roof and knock them down with a hammer, which was made somewhat easier with the use of the jobsite's new pump staging.  The chimneys came apart easily, with most bricks coming loose without even having to strike them.
  The most difficult of the three was the front chimney, which was over seven feet high and almost entirely devoid of mortar in its midsection, so that when I stood on my tip-toes to strike the top, the whole chimney would lean and threaten to dive into the street below.

 

   Here, Damon is wildly abusing a shrinking chimney in the attic.

  We put the bricks in buckets and flung them from the third story window into the enormous bed of the large truck pictured in the first photos.

  House sans chimbleys:

  Also, I need a longer truck.

Finished On Barter's Island

  Ran down to the island for a day to wrap up the job there with Dan and Richard and Randy. The patio looked good and we spread some polymeric sand in the joints and sprayed it down.  For those who haven't used polymeric sand, it really is a miracle. The time it saves in jointing is unbelievable. Of course, it isn't the right product for every application, but when it can be used, it is a major time-saver. Honestly, you just sweep it in the joints and spray it down with water (in four or five steps) and you are done.  It's pretty rugged, too, and able to withstand Maine's drastic temperature changes.

  While Damon and I did our chimney rebuild last week, Richard came down and jointed in our cultured stone. 

Bricks and Books

  The staging is down and the shingles are back in place.  All there is left to do now is wash down the roof.

  Here is a shot of the recessed shelves we built on the first floor, where we tore through the wall for the chimney.  The trim was not a perfect match, but Ruth wasn't up for special ordering any and this one from Viking was pretty close.  It will look much better after Adam Rawn paints it.

The Heat Is On

   The new thimble in place and the new cleanout-door, before it was washed...

  Here is a shot of the chimney as it reached the attic floor, at which point the floor had to be opened up to allow for straightening of the structure.

  Here Mike Fitzgerald and Damon are bringing the chimney through the floor.  Much gratitude and appreciation are owed to Mike on this project.  His knowledge of code and chimney-building expertise helped this job to proceed quickly and efficiently.  His brother, Mark, was a huge help also, particularly in the demolition.

  And the chimney was topped-out just in time for the storm.

  Esther the Cat says, "Does this mean you can turn the heat back on?"

  Yes, it does, Esther. The heat is on.

Chimney Rebuild

  We started this chimney project last week.  It was dangerously teetering atop the roof and the mortar was deteriorated throughout the rest of the structure. A steel insert had been placed inside the chimney probably ten years ago. Our only option was really to tear it down to the ground and rebuild it, which is precisely what we have been doing.
  The roof is very steep and staging was difficult.  Matters were not helped by the fact that there are slate shingles beneath the asphalt shingles. which forced us the use roof-saddles to attach the roof steel to.

  Of course, we had to do some demolition inside to access the structure.  It was already accessible in the basement and the attic, and we were able to go in through a closet wall on the second floor.  This shot is in the first floor living room. We tried to be minimal in our destruction.

  Chimney gone.  Looking down.

  And up...

  Note the curve of the hole. The original chimney made its way upward through the house at something like a 30 degree pitch. 

Light Steps

  Here is a shot I came across of some stone stairs we did at the Norumbega Carriage House with Midcoast Masonry.  We tried to blend in with the existing stonework without getting carried away in either possible direction.  You can't really get a clear visual on the work itself, but the lighting is nice.

Paleontology

  Ned unearthed this at the job site a few days and we have all been scratching our heads over it since.  The stone is rather large, about five feet in length, and appears to have on its surface the fossilized imprint of an enormous spinal cord.  Wild guesses include: whale spine, saw-fish proboscis, and fern imprint.

What I Do It For

  It isn't about the craft, or the money, or the exercise, or the comradeship.  I just do it for the cookies.  Alice made these for us down on Barter's Island yesterday. Fantastic!

 

  This is the patio we have been building for Frank and Alice.  We hope they like it as much as we like the cookies.

My First Garden Sculpture

  Obviously, I still have to epoxy the parts together--this is just a dry run with wooden wedges holding the stand upright. The iron post is an antique piece from a fence or stairway or something. I have been lugging it around for a few years, trying to figure out what to do with it.

   On a more somber note, my cat Gracie passed away this week. It was very unexpected and I miss her more than I have ever missed anything. She was and always will be my little girl.

The Big Rock Candyless Mountain

  Hand-picked ten yards of stone for a wall in Boothbay. There was no way to get him down once he got up there. Had to airlift...

Stone Symposium Mid-Week

  I stopped by the sculpture symposium again on Wednesday or Thursday and grabbed a few more photos.  It was interesting to see the different levels of progress by the the sculptors.  I never made it back at week's end for the final show, but shots of it can be seen on JC's site, linked in my last entry.