When my friend, Lauren, found out I like to play with rocks, particularly stacking them for walls and steps, she asked if I'd be interested in repairing the wall in front of her 1910 house. Her actual question was, "How big of a rock can you move?"
This is the one she had in mind, and it didn't seem too onerous to return to its previous position as a capstone.
The firewood scaffolding method got it almost in place to flop over on top of the wall, but I was working alone and needed another set of hands for that. I thought this made for a fine picture to send to Lauren to let her know I was done.
Fortunately, I brought along my come-along and there was a tree close enough to anchor it to.
Unfortunately, the rock on top of the wall a couple down from the one I was lifting was out of my view and I couldn't see it getting pushed off the wall by the one in between. I think it was one crank from falling.
An hour trying to get this additional inch.
Another hour to flip it around so the correct face shows.
All the capstones are back in place. They have enough support so they aren't likely to fall any time soon. I'd like to switch out the new rocks I put under the caps with ones that match the original stones and are stacked better structurally. Lauren says I'm funny.
Maybe she'll leave the beach someday and come see the repairs, and how much more pleasing it will be to have structural rocks that match.
And maybe someday, I'll get around to finishing this little wall I started at our house back in June. My back has recovered from carrying some of those rocks up from the creek.
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