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.
