Back in about 1990 I decided that I wanted more grass to mow, What was I Thinking???? anyway I got a local fellow that lived down the road to bulldoz a section of light woods that was growing up by the garden and behind the house. I pushed the woods back enough to put in a grape arber [ That has since fallen down, 2 concord grape vines still grow there ] and I also wanted a fire ring that would be some what secluded from the road. I had him remove the trees and brush and then make about a 3 foot cut and make a level area below the cut. I wanted to build a stone wall there. I looked and looked for stone at any kind of a reasonable price but could not find any. Then one day I happened to be sitting at the Sportsmans Club talking to a fellow that I knew and he managed a farm for a Big Wig Doctor locally. The Doctor had torn down an old stone building on the farm and used the stone to stone his fireplace and patio at his Mantion House on the farm. Did I mention that this Doctor worked on all of the Steelers in Pittsburgh? Anyway he was quite wealthy and he wanted the rest of the stone and debre from that building out of there. My friend said that I could have all the stone just for hauling it away. That sounded like a deal to me, so I hired a Back Hoe and a Tri Axle Dump truck and hauled 6 or 7 Large Dump truck loads of stone and debre out of there and had it dumped at my place. I also told the Back Hoe operator to clean everything up for him and to make the place nice when he was done. Only 3 loads would fit near where the wall was to be built, the rest I dumped over by the old pavilion some distance from the house. Turns out that the 3 large dump truck loads pretty much built the 70 foot wall so I have a bunch of stone stock piled for future projects. My Mother and Dad wanted to help me with the wall, we started building in about 1991. I had dug a deep footer and poured cement below frost line so I had a Great footing to build on. The work was slow, I was working and Mom and Dad were getting old, Dad was 70 at that point. We would do about 2 bags of cement and lay what ever stones that much morter would hold. It took several years to complete the 70 foot wall and steps. The wall is pretty much a monolith and has not moved or cracked. It is about 3 foot high at its highest point and tapers down to about nothing on both ends.
Here is what it looks like today. The level area used to end at the fire ring years ago, looking left was just a drop off. I have been filling in to extend the level area for low these many years now. Anything I can get
for free, The Township has brought me many loads of burm materials that they scrape out of the ditches along the roads locally. I have also been dumping the rocks that I dig out of the garden below the wall and that has helped extend the level area by about 4 feet. When I put in the fire ring I did it temperary, You know, permanant but sub standard,
I just layed out a bunch of stones that I had laying around there in a 4 foot circle, I had planned on digging them into the ground and formalizing the ring, but I never did get to that. The 2 flower pots are left out all year because they are heavy and hard to move, you will notice that I put in landscape timbers at an angle from the wall to the top of the steps. Those areas were filled in with lillys of the valley, because I had a bunch of it, and because it will grow with out alot of sun. That allows me to mow along the top of the wall with out having to trim anything. I can just sit on my be-hind and mow right along every thing. It is wonderful.
Here is a winter picture. We enjoy haveing friends over and burning Bon Fires. I have to pick up alot of fallen sticks and limbs from the many large Maple trees in the yard, they make great fires. My sons also enjoy haveing their friends over and sitting around a nice large fire. At this point I do not burn as often as I used to, but it is still a treat to sit out at night in that secluded spot and watch a fire.