The Unturned Stone

The trail crew ventured to the Asheville area this week to help the stone crew stage and begin a set of stone steps as part of a trailhead at a mountaintop home. The whole posse posed for a band photo in front of a huge drystone retaining wall being built behind the house.

Miriam and Dave begin laying edging along the sidehill trails. This huge stone will be two-thirds buried, to ensure the longterm stability of the treadway or walking surface. The stone was flown in using a high-line and winch system.

Greg and Dave continue the edging.

Here are a couple more in-progress shots from Jeremy’s retaining wall. The leaves blanket the stone pile, making every attempt to find the perfect fit an exciting process of discovery.

The wall wraps the upstream culvert before fading into the opposite stream bank. It ties into a small boulder, hidden under the fallen leaves.

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The view from our new ‘office’ in Waynesville. Hills peek out of the morning fog like islands at sea.
Photo by Carmen

Since completing the River & Rock House, we have started two drystone projects around Asheville. Jeremy’s house is undergoing significant renovations, including an expansive addition of living space, an extension of the driveway and relocating a small runoff creek in the frontyard. TUSI will be completing several projects with Jeremy over the coming months.

The first project involves creating a retaining wall that traces the relocated stream in front of the house. The wall will top out at three feet high and wraps over two culverts. We are building two stiles- stone steps that jut out of the face of the wall- to let Jeremy and his family get easy access to the creek, which is already crawling with frogs and salamanders. Stiles cantilever out of the wall and are held firmly in place by the mass of the surrounding stone and backfill. Stiles are an old Yankee tradition, with roots in the United Kingdom of course, for deterring livestock from escaping their pens. This detailed write-up explains the differences between cow, sheep and coffen stiles and how to repair them, if you happen to live in Cornwall.