Yikes! We had a pecan tree removed that was too close to the house and were left with an ugly view of the HVAC condenser. Time to build a little drystack wall.
So I got to work…in the mornings while there was still shade. It was hot – 85 deg F by 9am. I got myself a caffeine water and when Steve came home he asked why I was drinking beer so early in the day. No wonder I was dizzy walking out to the shed. There might be some of you who wonder how a beer drinking professional would not know the difference between a beer and water. In my defense, I didn’t really like the flavor of the caffeine water nor the ‘not my usual’ beer. The cans were sort of similar colors and on the same shelf in the frig. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
First comes the footing. I dug the stones into the ground and leveled them out. Two photos show the leveled footing without hearting and then with hearting. For drystack to work, you pack in the gaps with smaller rocks called hearting using the largest stones you can to fill the holes. They need to be hand placed and wedged in. As the wall settles, the rocks support each other and lock in place.
The cheek ends need be straight up and down so I used some chopped limestone that one of Steve’s friends (thanks Chris) had collected for me. So for the second level the chopped limestone is perpendicular to the limestone in the footing and the field limestone is packed in and leveled then hearting added. Some crazy shaped rocks there.
Next two levels are the same story, chopped limestone laid perpendicular to the row below then arrange and level the rocks and finally add the hearting.
The four courses were finished with flat heavy cap stones. Finally the wall was topped off with heavy holey limestone for the coping stones (thanks for the holey rocks Weishan). The little wall end view picture shows the batter, each course is slightly narrower than the one below. Well, except for the cap stones, of course.
It’s kind of an ugly wall, but I like it a lot! And it will stand for a lot longer than I will.