Original oil painting by: Grandfather’s wife
Stone. Grandfather says he thinks it’s one of the substances that’s been intertwined with everything mankind has done from time immemorial.
There was the interaction of the Alps, elephants and Hannibal in 218 BC. Somewhat later, there was Grandfather’s struggle with stone outcroppings when he prepared the foundation for his house.
He decided to cop some stones from the earth and set them upright in his house, where they didn’t go willingly. Tons of the stuff, one chunk at a time, for two years or so.
Circa 1980: Grandfather can’t build a stone wall in his house. Architects and code enforcement people most places would likely tell you that.
But Grandfather had the “good luck” to choose living where those “authorities” aren’t.
On the other hand, there was Uncle Orley, great-great grandfather’s brother, who built his fireplace on the house floor; it burned through and fell into the cellar. Grandfather guesses Uncle Orley needed another kind of luck.
Anyway … Stones tied with hay baling twine to reinforcing steel mesh and concrete poured in he gap, wheelbarrow full by wheelbarrow full and rising course after course of stone …
The archways had to be laid up over a supported form …
After about two years, Grandfather finally “cast” the last stone …
Sir Edmund Hillary said he climbed Mount Everest “because it was there.” Grandfather built his wall because it wasn’t.
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is a nonagenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here. This article was originally published on 25 January 2018.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
The gut you see in the last picture is gone. Took about two years, same as the stone wall, of calorie counting. Once again : Do it yourself. “Expert” TV diets are a fraud.
Get the calorie count for a defined amount of ‘most every food from the USDA website and eat only the amount you require each day. Keep track on paper!
For me it was 1800 cal./day most of the time, down as low as 1200 during “stalls” when the weight didn’t decline at a steady pound a week. Use an exercise routine to avoid excessive muscle loss.
My weight dropped from 286 lbs. (about the weight you see in the picture) to just below 200. I didn’t feel well at that weight, so I let it drift upwardly again to 202 or so, where it stayed for some time.
BTW, The BMI is another fraud, IMO, particularly for older people – it calls for my weight at my height to be 185.
I reached full height at about age 17 and weighed 178 pounds. There is a picture of me back then, in a future episode of “Grandfather Says”. I now weigh about 128 – a little cushion against illness at advanced age, and am comfortable there
Woops! “128” should be 228.
It takes a lot of courage to dive into this kind of project. Do you ever consider the impacts of getting in a position where you mess things up and get to a place you can’t get out of?
No, I try to see where I’m going and stay out of trouble. So far, I’ve been successful.
As a father, I’ve taught my kids along those lines and they have all of their fingers and toes.
Built my first house, and wanted a stone veneer on the front. Got a price, and that made me into a stone mason…..ahahahaaa.
Building here on the farm, we went with brick because it is a whole lot faster to lay, and gathering up the amount of stone it would take would have been months worth of work. Good laying stone for veneering has to meet certain sizes (thickness wise) and have a fairly flat face to work with. Round, basketball size stone just don’t cut it.
Do have several dry stack (no mortar) stone retainer walls here on the place….but well away from the house. Had one leading down the basement initially, but one day I passed a copper head snake sunning himself on one of the stones…and by the time I got to the basement door (75′), passed 2 more. Snake “condo” got replaced with a traditional, solid masonry wall.
One thing about the mountains where I live, and RD does…..rocks seem to spring from the ground !
And Andy is lucky: His spring rocks.
“…gathering up the amount of stone it would take would have been months worth of work.”
Tell me about it!
When one of my daughters was studying to be an RN, I carried her home across two mountain ranges every weekend and stopped near rock slides to pick up flat rocks, coming and going.
A few came from what the Scots call “freestone dikes” (No that’s not a lesbian peach) that survive from the days when this part of WV was subsistence farmland. Andy, you call them “dry stack stone walls”.
How do I know the Scottish name? Well, when I was a patent examiner a visiting British examiner, who happened to be a Scot, ID them that way around Warrenton, VA where they are beautifully maintained on “old money” estates.
“Sir Edmund Hillary said he climbed Mt. Everest, “because it was there.” Grandfather built his wall because it wasn’t.” A pretty darn poetic sentence if you ask me.
Thank you, Jason.
Here’s an oldie that might be before your time : “I guess I’m cut out for poetry. My feet are Longfellows”.
That’s fantastic! I greatly enjoy reading your posts. Meaning no offense to the other talented authors on this site, your posts are always my favorite. I firmly believe that this country, and this world, would be a better place if more people my age would look ahead in life, fifty or sixty years into the future, and endeavor, between now and then, to become a multi-talented, honest, and hard working individual like you made yourself.
Thank you for all that you do.
Well said, Jason!
Thank you, Jason.
I heartily agree that looking to the future and developing an independent way of providing for it will serve young people well. They will find it’s most enjoyable, along the way, not just self-denial in the present.
Now, 4 1/2 years after writing this I am mostly sedentary @91 years of age, but I still take satisfaction from living in my “monument” (a wise counsellor who helped me after Grandmother’s death called it that). I mostly live in my family room these days and look at the woodwork there every day and think: “I’m glad I did that, while I could”.
If you are going to devote all the effort it takes of build your own house, plan it to live in it as long as you can:
https://lenpenzo.com/blog/id58566-grandfather-says-some-thoughts-on-building-a-life-long-homestead.html
I was going to say, “128? He’s a haint. Ghosts have learned how to use the internet.”.
Beautiful work Mr. Dave.
You posted a great life truth. “I’m glad I did that , while I could.”.
Thank you, Bill.
I am still amazed that I’ve been messaging a haint.
Since I mentioned it in my last post, I’ve asked Len to post a picture of a corner of the family room showing a little of the woodwork (thanks, Len).
The door frame is post and lintel style with pediment and a flared crown. The crown molding around the ceiling is an ogee with drop board and dentil molding between (not very clearly shown, I’m afraid), with a picture rail a few inches below it. The glass paneled, walnut doors came out of a house in Dayton, Ohio, which was torn down to make way for an interstate highway.
not exactly woodwork *chuckle* but the fish head came off a lake trout I caught while fishing off the shore of Crystal lake in Michigan at 1:30 in the morning, during a driving snowstorm. I was the only one on the beach, which surprised me (in a manner of speaking) since the fish were biting pretty good then. The deer head is off one I shot while demonstrating that my son’s rifle actually was well sighted in (he had complained he missed an easy shot and I explained he had yanked the trigger).
The furniture is old-timey pieces I picked up her and there, over the years. The old oak roll top desk was from a railway dispatchers office, late 19th century. It is obsolete now (who writes letters longhand or on a typewriter, anymore?) but it still serves to hold sundry little household items.
Woops! I forgot the wainscoting below the chair rail. Originally, virgin pine sheathing in an old log house in Culpepper Virginia. One board was marked 1864. It was coated with layer upon layer of paint and wallpaper when I got it. I hired a floor refinishing man to remove that with a floor sander.