A Masochist's Wall.

About the title: "Mauer" is just a German word for wall. It's a "masochist Mauer" b/c only a masochist could derive satisfaction from so much back-breaking work.

This is a blog about building a rock wall. It's to be done with the dry-stone method (w/o mortar), and will enclose my garden in a 42' by 25' wall of 42'' in height (not including a 5'' foundation).

Normally I would say that such a topic would be too uneventful to justify a blog. Yet my wall is destined to be different. Truth is, many others have built rock walls in the past, but unlike me, they usually had a good reason to do so, like getting paid or b/c they have mad skills and the rock was just sitting there... None of this applies to me. I can't easily articulate a valid reason for building a wall that requires so much work, I'm not getting paid, my dry-stone skills are still severely limited and none of the rock was just sitting there. In fact, it would require an insane amount of back-breaking labor to scour 30 tons of workable limestone from nearby creek beds with only a sledge, a pick-axe and my 1986 4x4 Nissan pickup. (see the next post, Getting the Rock)


Why I'm Building a Wall:
The short answer to this is that I visited Switzerland in June of this year for the European Soccer Cup. While there I noticed that the Swiss seemed to take pride in the fact that their buildings, sidewalks, roads, fences, etc were very precisely built with extreme attention to detail. Not only that, but they were made with quality materials and were made to last, something I cannot say about most construction here in the states. In particular I noticed the stone work, which amazed me most of all (See below pictures).















(Bern, Switzerland)














Upon coming back to the states I had a strange desire to build something out of stone. I had previously this summer built a small retaining wall for a planter next to our cistern. Now I wanted to build something bigger, and I wanted to make sure it was done right and most importantly, last a very, very long time. That's when I came up w/ my idea for a rock wall.

The Plan:
First I had to come up w/ a place to build the wall, so that it would make sense to other people when they found out that I was building it. This especially applied to my wife, who I figured would probably want to know why I was intent on dumping 30 tons of rock in the yard. I reckoned that the best place would be the garden (see below).

































Of course I would have to get the rock first and then dig a shallow trench for a foundation. ...not mention hammer out the fine details.