The Rural Voice, 1991-10, Page 39(ALmnR)
NOTEBOOK
of course, rough stone fitted together as
solid and perfectas you please. 0, some
handy mason may have cracked off a
piece of granite to fit, but mostly these
were field stones the way they found
them — cleverly matched and custom
constructed into plumb basement walls,
well liners, chimneys, fences, and
embankments.
Some are works of art. Some are
plainly "make -do." Some are fortresses
which make you wonder who were these
artisans and how did they do it; who
taught them this trade and so many
others as well?
Running from that old foundation is
a drainage ditch which leached away
rain water from the basement. The ditch
is maybe four feet deep by 50 feet long,
and is filled with aggregate -size stones,
topped with sod. Can you imagine the
work it took?
"My Dad and brothers dug the
trench," remembers our 87 -year-old
neighbour, "and us kids filled'er up with
rocks. It musta took us a couple of
summers, I suppose ..."
Today a backhoe, front-end loader
and dump truck could install that system
before nightfall — which only increases
my appreciation for all that it took to
make things work in days gone by. As
with all that was hand dug, hand cleared,
hand crafted, there are countless stories
to be sten in the stones around us.
When I was a boy on vacation, my
father and I used to tour the cemeteries
around Tenants Harbor in Maine, to
read vignettes of what sea coast life was
like during the last several centuries.
The grave stones spoke of salty sea
captains who outlived several wives,
sometimes many wives. Seafaring was
a dangerous trade which snuffed out
many a life, but child -birth and
consumption took more. Statuary of
Iambs and cradles, fam ily monuments to
one man and a large family of his pre -
descendants were common place . .
One headstone I remember better
than the others. It said: "Passing
through this vale of tears, only now is
heaven begun."
Each monument or marker was a
story of toil and tears, of hard times and
L
pleasures beyond the daily
experience of so many of us who live
sP
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OUR CREW IS READY AND
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A good drainage system
• allows fields to be worked earlier
• improves soil conditions to promote plant growth
• improves fertilizer efficiency
• aerates the soli
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• faster soil warming
• extends harvesting
• minimizes erosion
• allows better crop rotation and planting of higher
yielding crops
• increases land value
Ron McCallum 887-6428
We install maga
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887-6428
WALTON
OCTOBER 1991 35