The Unturned Stone

Having just gotten back to North Carolina after a few years away, I’ve had the chance to catch up with some old friends, including this wall, the largest dry stacked project I was ever involved in. The wall stands as much as seven feet tall. It’s about six years old now and weathering well. Lichen and moss are establishing themselves beautifully and day lilies and rhododendron drape over sections of the wall, setting off the stones against contrasting colors and textures. One end of the wall works as a constant drip drain for the steep hillside above; only a dry laid wall can do that. It hasn’t budged an inch.

Progress slowed somewhat on the Ledge Spring Trail at Pilot Mountain thanks to Tropical Storm Alberto and several days of rain. Despite this setback, the trail team continues to move ahead, working between the rain drops.

This is a top view of a set of recently completed steps, that wind their way through the forest.

This future step weighing in the neighborhood of 800 lbs. is suspended on a high line which runs up and down the slope. The quarry at the bottom of the line produced over thirty stones for three different flights of stairs.Jody and Dan (not pictured) are yarding the stone up the line using a climbing rope, and a 3:1 mechanical advantage. Once the stone is at the top spar tree the high line is lowered setting the stone on the ground. Using the high lines minimizes the impact of quarrying the stones down slope.

The Unturned Stone has done several projects on and around Pilot Mountain over the years. In 2004, we worked on the Jomeokee Trail that circles the pinnacle. The project involved using a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter to stage materials. Scott Stone, suppliers of the material used on the trail, have a handful of photos on their website.

This week we finished the veneer around one wing of the house. The walls are capped with Hooper’s Creek, pitched at a slight angle to shed water.

We also finished a set of burly steps that lead from the house down to the pool. These steps run through a boulder wall that establishes the higher grade of the house. The finished steps will lead to a stone patio beside the swimming pool.

The stone team continued making progress on the veneer on the back of the house. The stone build up will continue to the white chalkline. Capstones will then be placed that meet the bottom edge of the windows. The scaffolding allows us to work safely on the wall. Though finished grade will bury the bottom edge of the wall, currently the top of the stonework is nine to ten feet above ground.

We installed a dry erase board in the office this week, to help coordinate the many facets of this project.

This week the trail team encountered a massive boulder teetering precariously over the intended pathway. Such was the potential energy that the five ton boulder rocked in place when stones lower on the slope were disturbed. This presented an unacceptable risk to the team and to people who will use the trail. The trail team decided to move the boulder, to reduce its potential. The five ton boulder sits atop a smaller stone that is rigged to the winch system. The team dug a huge hole in the slope to catch the boulder when it rolled. By moving the smaller stone out from under the boulder, the team reduced the risk of overloading the winch and wire cable.

An image taken from above the boulder gives the illusion that the winch is rigged below the stone. In fact the trail team is safely to the side of the big rock. Note the brown color on the bottom edge of the stone. This is where it has been buried in the earth. In this picture it has started moving.

An action shot of the boulder tumbling perfectly into place. Once a perilous risk to hikers, the huge rock will now be a very stable base for a set of stone steps.

Work continues this week on the veneer on the house. This step leads out onto a stone paved patio. The wall veneer continues around the doorway, but not onto the wall to the right, where a sliding glass door exits onto the same patio overlooking the pool.

Happily, someone did have a digital camera at Pilot Mountain last week, to document the havoc caused by the lightning strike.

The lightning struck the tree indicated by the yellow arrow. It then burrowed through the ground, under the fence and into the parking lot. The torn up earth, that looks vaguely like a huge mole tunnel, is where it snaked through the ground.

This tire was torn open by the strike. Later on, another tire on the same vehicle gave way.

The lightning chewed up this concrete in the parking lot. This was over three hundred feet from where the initial strike was.

We spent a couple more days this week on K.K.’s wall. Torrential rains chased us off the site on Friday afternoon, but in a day and a half we made great progress.

This is the far side of the garage/studio, that faces onto a neighbor’s driveway and a llama pen. The photograph doesn’t do the slope we’re working on justice. When it gets wet, which it nearly always is, it can be quite treacherous. The rock at shorter end of the wall reaches from the footer up to (and slightly past) cap height. Since this photo was taken we have reached cap height at several points on this wall.

Barely visible in this shot is a knockout section in the middle of the wall, where the various pipes and wires to run the air conditioner snake down. We have built clean corners on both sides of the knockout and the home owners intend to run boards over the wires, to allow easier access for repairs or replacement.