Trimming Grass and Weeds Around Old New England Property (Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures - Part Thirteen - "OFF... Over There" - (A)

Trimming Grass and Weeds Around

Old New England Property

(Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures

Part Thirteen

"OFf... Over There"

(A)

            When I am down inside the cellar hole (Part Nine)... and stand up straight... I ‘see over’ the foundation cap stone before me... “off” to “over there”.  When I first looked over the cap stones... outlining the top of the cellar hole... I denoted the ‘drill hole’ marks along the edge of ...each... cap stone.  I knew that these neat rows of evenly-spaced-by-eye... only... hand drilled hole halves... for the ‘this half’ of the hole goes with the ‘cut’ ‘stone’ while the other half of that hole ‘stays there’ on the ‘uncut’ ‘stone’.  Meaning?

            There is an ‘other half’ of these half holes... “off”... “over there”.

            If... one can find them.

            So I stood there back at a ‘back then’ and... “Well they didn’t bring these (the cap stones) UP HILL to get here so that rules out TWO sides of the compass.  THEY... did not go very far if that could be at any all avoided...:  That rules out the ‘over across’ on the third compass point for it is... relatively FLAT that way with NO ROCK LEDGE ‘rising’ in the middle of it and ...after that it... ‘plunges to the sea’... so to have ‘cut stone’ THERE (quarried on the plunge to the sea ‘cliff’) would mean a “having to” “bring these UP HILL” (haul the quarried stone up the cliff) there so... probably... ‘no way’.

            So THAT leaves THAT WAY (of the compass points) and “I CAN’T SEE SHIT” THAT WAY because it is all ‘forest now’:  FLAT ground ‘forest now’ except... “DON’T I?” come ‘down around’ to the... BELOW the (cranberry) bog to... don’t I... COME BACK... IF... I come here (to the cellar hole) to... BE STRAIGHT TO HERE but the (cranberry) BOG ...LEDGE... is BEHIND ME THEN... AND... straight across to HERE (the cellar hole) because it is FLAT from... here (the cellar hole) to there (the cranberry bog ledge...and

            “That’s big enough”... meaning there is enough ‘stone’ there to ...possibly... “quarry” and then... ‘bring it across’ to

            Cap the foundation...

            With quarried cut stone from

            “Off” “over there”.

            So start by looking “off over there”

            First.

            I did.  I went straight back across the level forest floor denoting mentally that the ‘those old fence post monuments’ (Part Five ) ‘come down’ from the HEAD of the cranberry bog and then ‘catch wall’ (join up with a stone wall) along the trace of the ‘old road’ (first road)... bed... to...:

            “IF THAT WAS FENCED at that line... it means... a... so what was fenced was THIS flat forest land so THIS was the pasture going back to the ....cranberry bog...

            LEDGE as a ...natural back wall (fence line) FOR this pasture WITH... therefore... all that cranberry bog ledge in FULL VIEW across a cleared pasture from the ...cellar hole to the “THAT LEDGE” so...

            I gotta... no... that side (to my right) had the FENCE POST monuments come DOWN from the bog head so go LEFT to the cranberry bog bottom... and back up the ledge from there to ...where it is dry; a straight... dry... shot.... from ‘off over HERE’ (the cranberry bog ledge) to ... “OFF OVER THERE” (the cellar hole).

            I start looking.  I am in the middle of the forest... undisturbed (both I and the forest)... looking at a rock wall about... ‘over twelve feet tall’ and about two hundred feet ‘wide’... also “covered with trees”.  What am I looking for?

            The ‘other half’ of the hand drilled holes.

            They are not just ‘sitting there’.  Well they ARE just sitting there but...:  A quarter of a millennium has pass on the surface of this rock ledge of ‘back fence line’ of a once pasture and now fully re-grown forest.  So... even sitting there... they are ‘concealed’ by natural grown UPON the undisturbed surface of the ...old New England property’s (antique) colonial era... granite ...quarry.

            So get out a wire brush and start scraping two centuries of “MOSS” off the “ROCKS”?  Even if one was that much of an idiot a ‘they’... ‘won’t be at it for long’ for... that’s a lot of “CLIFF” to “SCRUB”.

            “SO HOW DO YOU FIND IT” (the other hole halves)?

            First one looks for ‘spots’ that ‘look worked’ (as if a bomb went off ‘there’ along the ‘face’ of the ledge.  Then one goes there to... ‘look in there’.  The word is “IN” of ‘look in there’.  One looks IN to protected, sheltered, tucked, pushed back and ‘facing in’ “ROCKS” and peers upon them with intense directed scrutiny while the bugs attack you CRAZY... hoping to spy... a... (ONE)... drill hole half.

            Where there is one... there are many.

            And that means...:

            “You found it”:

            The  “Pot of Gold” of... old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures:  The colonial homestead’s granite... quarry.  All the (antique) granite landscape fixtures found on the rainbow of an old New England property that ‘sits on ledge’ “COME FROM” this... ledge.

            With the ‘half holes’ ‘on it’.

            Crazy people I know want to... “like” ... MATCH the half holes on a cap stone to half holes on the quarry ledge.  I said “CRAZY PEOPLE”... OK?  But, ah... that IS pretty NEAT thinking huh.  So they do stuff like that.  I mean... there IS an eight footer (foundation cap stone) there (on the cellar hole Part Nine) and to ‘hole match’ it to the ... side of the cranberry bog cliff...:  Don’t worry, we don’t need to ‘match it’.  It’s pretty obvious that cliff is the shortest route to ‘doing that’ (quarrying an eight foot foundation cap stone) and the thing IS eight feet of solid granite so... I’ll let you prove that it’s a ‘come off a boat’ or from a ‘they went into town and BOUGHT IT’ (“IT STILL HAS THE BAR CODE ON IT)*********.

            Instead of matching holes I turn to discussion of... making... the... hole; “drilling” the hole.  For that dynamic concept I move on the timeline from “I” “NOW” ...backward in time to eventually be ‘back then’ (on old New England property) “Off” “Over there” (at the quarry).

            I started with holes... drilled... in granite... ledge... back ‘when I was a kid’.  I, without personal notice, was raised with the understanding that ‘drilling a hole in granite (ledge) was ‘something’ one did so ‘needed’ to ‘know how to do that’.  Before I reached the ‘how to do that’ I encountered “WHY” one “do that”.  This “WHY” was most always a “to put a (an iron) pin in” to “HOLD” a “FENCE POST”.  Or something related to “FENCING” “ANIMALS” on “A FARM”.  Yep:  There they were; iron ‘pins’ “STUCK” “in granite” that, from my youthful vantage were ‘all over the place’ either with fence posts “STUCK” on them or ...just the iron “pin” “STICKING UP”  THIS iron-pin-for-fencing was the “WHY” “DO THAT” of ‘drilling’ a ‘hole’ “IN LEDGE”.  I also add that... it was two decades of life for me before I discovered “other people” “don’t know about this” (iron pins stuck in granite ledge for fence posts and the ‘drilling a hole’ ‘to do that’).

            Today, as I write a half century later I... still... live where iron pins are ‘stuck’ ‘in ledge’ ‘all over the place’.  I... HAVE... fence posts ‘stuck on pins’.  I have just pins.. sticking up.  I have so many pins that I NEVER need to ‘drill a hole’ to “PUT” “IN” “A” “PIN”.  And again... I still must often reconnoiter... to myself... that ‘other people don’t’ have or know of... “pins” and “holes”.  Too.

            I even have an... antique... iron pin stuck in ledge... on my old New England property that ...some idiot... “BENT” “ROUND” and ‘put a ring on it’ TOO... to “HITCH A DOG” to... it.  It is a “BENT” “ROUND” that cannot be ‘FIXED’ (bent back).  Therefore:  “Idiot”.

            From there... the youthful iron pin discernment... I ...discerned... ‘making the hole’... ‘in the ledge’ ‘for the pin’.  This was done by a single man with an iron (held in hand) “STAR” “DRILL”; a usually short thick stubby iron shaft with an “X” of “DRILL HEAD” on the “BOTTOM” that the same man “HIT” the top of with a “HAMMER” with this usually being an iron ‘sledge hammer’ on a short handle.  The man did this sitting down on the ledge with the hole site between his spread legs and HE going at the ‘hitting’... onwards... for... hours: “TUNK-TURN-TUNK-TURN-TUNK-TURN” while... HE... watched from his ...modestly comfortable poise... as farm labor goes... the WORLD... GO... BY.  (a “turn” is a ‘one quarter’ turn of the drill).  Eventually the star drill “tunked” a “DEEP ENOUGH” hole to be a “DONE” “HOLE” ready to have the IRON PIN “STUCK” in it ...forever.  Hammered in... these pins... do not come out.

            Learning of ‘tunk’ and ‘turn’...explained the “HOW” hole mystery and... since that job was “easy” it was hard for a kid to get.  Today... one could “SIT” “DOING THAT” and watch a football game on one’s cell phone... so... it is STILL a hard job to get.  THAT...:  That the drilling the hole... in the granite ledge... is NOT a bad job... AT ALL... IS... important to consider AND understand when WE go back in time to ‘quarrying’ ‘ledge’ to make ‘foundation cap stones’...

            Well cap stones

            Troughs...

            Mill stones...

            Door steps...

            Et al.

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********* The joke being that these days new ‘cut’ ‘granite’ IS sold with bar codes ‘on it’.