The New Wall

  Damon and I had a few good days on the new wall we started in Camden. It was nice to spray it down with the hose at the end of yesterday and see the colors pop out in the stone.

Pratt's Island

  Congratulations to Dan Ucci, owner of Ledge Hill Creations, on the completion of one hell of a big three-year stone project. The landscapers, stonemasons, carpenters, and designers were all there last week putting on the finishing touches before the Down East Magazine shoot on Monday, so I sneaked in for a few shots of my own. I only worked there for a few winters--the majority of the credit goes to Dan's full-time crew; Danny Harrington, Richard Ware, Lance Carlezon, Joel Oyer, Jesse Casas--but I felt privileged to have the hand in it that I did.

   Richard Ware

   And Danny Harrington

Boothbay Veneer

  Damon and I finished the wall in the front of the house yesterday.  I have to say, I was satisfied with our work. We both were. We are pretty harsh critics, especially of our own product; but that little wall looks damn good, if I do say so myself.

Veneer Wall

  Damon and I have been working on an outdoor veneered wall in Boothbay, using the same stones that were used to build the fireplace. It's nice stone, which makes the building that much easier. All of this stone, by the way is coming from Lance Carlezon's quarry in Winsor. I stopped by there the other day and was amazed by the beauty of the place, the sheer quantity of raw material, and the amount of work Lance himself has put into the place.  Sometime this week, I am going to go back up to the lot and take some photos. I'll post them, along with Lance's contact info, if anyone is interested in stone.

Last Summer

  Just a shot of the wall we built at the Turner Farm on North Haven last year.  This is only about a third of the structure.  I think we would need a small plane for some good aerial photography to get the whole thing.

127 Seconds

  And then there are the obvious hazards of stonemasonry... I was working on carving out a large corner stone for an outdoor fireplace on Saturday, very large--it was about the size of a Volkswagon Beetle.  The stone was sitting awkwardly on a smaller stone as I chiseled, so I reached down to remove it, whereupon the whole mass just keeled over rapidly and slammed down hard on my left hand, pinning it to the ground.  I screamed like a baby and tried to pull it out, but it would not budge.  That's when I realized I would have to cut my arm off in order to be free, just like in that movie.  However, I could not find a dull pocketknife or can opener, so I just screamed some more for one of the other masons to release me.  They were all sleeping, as it was Saturday morning and most of them were hung-over, and so no one could hear me whining.  I was then forced, and aided by some kind of adrenaline-fueled panic, to pick the stone up with my good hand, which I succeeded miraculously in doing. That's when I saw my finger and the horrible bloody mess it had become--it was doing that weird squirting thing that usually happens just before you bleed to death.
  Damon was good enough to drive me 30 minutes to the emergency room at Miles Hospital in Damariscotta, where they did a fine job of sewing me up and reassuring me that I would get to keep my arm.  I was the only person in the ER, so my wait was relatively short. The nice lady at the front desk kept telling me about the wonderful cheeseburgers they were serving in the cafeteria, though, which was quite upsetting, as I was bleeding to death and had not yet eaten lunch.  "I'm going to go get one," I told her.
  "No," she said.  "You are not allowed to eat."
  "Why not?"
  "Because you're bleeding to death," she said.
  "Then why did you tell me about the cheeseburgers?" I asked.
  "Because they are delicious," she replied.
  She wasn't the only one.  The nurses kept talking about cheeseburgers and one of them even said, "It's a shame you can't eat, because the burgers today are excellent."  Even my doctor, who was otherwise quite professional and careful with the stitching, kept leaving my room intermittently to go eat cheeseburgers out in the hall.  I think they should change the name of the hospital from Miles to McMiles.  They're lovin' it, I guess.

Moving Out

  Well, we finished installing the third and final hearthstone, and we are heading outside to work on the patios and veneer with Mr. Jesse Casas.

  Jesse is a second-generation stonemason and has been in the business for something like twenty years, or half his life. Here, Damon and Jesse are laying some of the fabled Belfast Heritage blue-stone, with some very tight 3/16 joints.