The Accidental Mason

Although masonry is something of a family institution for us at this point, it is not an activity that I have personally engaged in. Until now.

Rocks are something we have in great abundance here. Not only are there nice white limestone rocks in the ground at various spots on our property, but there are larger ones that just litter the roadsides. It looks as if when they spread the caliche on the roads here, they push aside the larger rocks in favor of smoothing out the smaller ones. Thus, every non-paved road is lined on either side with the rejected larger rocks. A. picks these up whenever he has his trailer out and brings them home.

So then we have free building material.

Now, I'm not going to start fussing around with mortar or Portland cement and all that stuff, but if I need a border for my newly-created flower bed so it doesn't get trampled by rampaging children? I have rocks.

We won't talk about the fact that the actual flowers didn't come up in the flower bed. Let's just focus on the nice border, shall we?

Or when A. plants some olive trees and doesn't want them to be trampled by those same rampaging children? More rocks.

No, we do not live in quite a warm enough climate for olives, but A. has a plan for protecting them in the winter. Fingers crossed.

Or when A. plants a row of tiny peach seedlings* that will definitely get trampled if not protected and could also use a little shelter from the relentless wind? Rocks to the rescue.

Please ignore the carpet of weeds, thank you.

I did all of those small enclosures myself, and I can see the appeal of stonework. It's very satisfying to fit all the pieces together. Kind of like a puzzle.

That said, my hands are definitely too weak--and my child-free time too limited--for any sort of large stone project. So I'll leave the chicken coop to A. and continue with my little protective rings. 

* At least, we think they're peach seedlings. A. planted about 90 unlabeled pots with various kinds of stone fruit pits, apple seeds, and who knows what else, so it's going to be a bit of a surprise. They're almost definitely a stone fruit, though.