Thursday, December 21, 2006

As The Stones Stack

UPDATED with a better current shot. Lighting is everything. And a view from way way up above.


Pausing to pile on more rocks acquired from further bed preparation while being peppered with questions, the consensus of many observers was revealed. They like this thing.














People are saying this is really cool and interesting. Everybody asks me what it is, he says.

Do they say they like it before or after you tell them what it is?

I just tell them it is a pile of rocks.














This is not just a pile of rocks. This is an Organized Pile of Useless Rocks. OPUR for short?

How high can this thing go, he asks? I am thinking maybe of having a load of rock delivered to finish it if we have to.

I guess they really like it. I don't think we will need more rocks delivered.

I did not level the ground before I started stone stacking. Is that why the first attempts at pyramids crumbled?

To my eye it has a tilt that may need to be corrected by adding some fill dirt around the base on the left hand side. We'll see how I feel as it comes closer to the end of the rocks. I will make the top level to the eye.

I am not philosophically adverse to a Leaning Organized Pile of Useless Rocks or LOPUR for short.















It sits at the end of what will be a two car long gravel parking space for the Ohana unit. It sits at the entry to the stairs from hell that lead to the heavenly pool. It is a major focal point that separates two functions in the landscape.

From the two decks of the main house 25 and 35 feet above, it has begun to take on a presence.

They like it. I think they really like it.

4 comments:

chuck b. said...

I'm impressed with your stacking! Did you study dry-stacking? It looks like you did. I'd like to attend some dry-stacking workshops.

Christopher C. NC said...

Lots of rocks, lots of observation of real rock wall builders and lots of practice and error in the form of a catastrophic collaspe of my second major cairn production in my own garden.

Anonymous said...

What it is, is interesting.

You know that people like to look out across a scape and see something that is both strange AND not foul. A view of a steel mill is strange but not so good.

I think you should continue to trust your gut.

(I'd keep calling it a "cairn" though... it has more value that way. And then I'd nvent some faux research of how King Kamehameha (the Great) and Queen Liliuokalani had such a ceremonial cairn erected on the night of their wedding... or something. And I'd say it with a straight face.

Now... if it were me... and I knew that THEY knew that this was originally a pile of useless rocks, I'd show up one day with a history book. I'd let it be known I was reading it. Then, a few days later, I'd say "You won't believe this but King Kamehameha and Liluokalani had a ceremonial stone "pile" erected... and it looks JUST LIKE THIS."

Then THEY can have the idea for you.

And you become a God.)

-

That's my 2 cents

Christopher C. NC said...

A good story is always worth inventing.

I had to turn the comment code back on. The spammers went nuts with anonymous link field comments in just three days. When did marketing and advertisers lose good manners?