Trimming Grass and Weeds Around
Old New England Property
(Antique) Granite Landscape Fixtures
Part Sixteen
"The History of the History"
"Ahhh...."
What happened next is that... for
the majority-most of ‘old stone wall’, once ‘piled’ “THERE”... no one... at
all... ever... ‘did’ anything else “THERE” or even “WENT THERE”. And I mean ‘exactly there’. SURE THERE COULD be a chance ...he and
her... courting... of a mesmerized moment of love blossom ‘sit there’ or a
climbed-over-there-while “GOING” “HUNTING... etc. Otherwise the piled field stone ‘just sits there’. Of course I know a few 20th
century men who related how they ‘punched a hole in that wall’ to ‘get in’ with
their (logging) ‘equipment’ to “CUT” the ...still virgin (?) forest PAST the
“EDGE” of the old ‘cleared field’.
And other bulldozer stories of ...stone wall destruction.
One of the...
Number
topper ‘killers’ of stone wall is the word
“FILL”
Meaning
a ‘ready supply’ of “ROCK” that may be gathered to
“FILL”.
What
ever one wants to PAY MONEY to have
FILLED.
“Access
that” (roadside section of ‘old’ ‘stone’ ‘wall’) became, from 1890... to this
day... a ‘for fill’. “Road”
“building” as a ‘serious consideration’ for ‘using’ (‘driving’) the automobile
(including “truck”)... very quickly ‘needed fill’ and found that fill ‘cheap’
right there beside the “ROAD BUILDING”.
Once...
though.. the removal of the ‘stone’ ‘wall’ (piled field stone) that was...
“EASY” to ‘access that’ ‘cheap’ ‘beside the road’... they (the road builders)
“let off” from “taking” “the wall”.
That was not before ALL and “any” ‘old wall’ that could be cost
effectively accessed was ‘taken’.
“Roadside” stone walls today... ‘show this happened’ to THEM THERE but
IF
One
travels a few (twenty-five to fifty feet) PAST any point of ‘easy’ ‘access
that’ “FROM THE ROAD” one... usually ‘breaks free’ back into ‘undisturbed’ old
pilings of field stone. Pervasive
DOES denote how much road side access “OLD WALL” became “FILL”.
It
(‘if one travels’) is also the source of the epic “stone wall” narrative titled
“IF YOU GO INTO THE WOODS JUST A LITTLE BIT THE WALLS THERE ARE
BEAUTIFUL”. The ...pervasive
problem with that being that one... has to ‘go into the woods’; “off
pavement”. The bugs. “Getting lost”. Twisting those puffy pink ankles
because one ‘has’ ‘flip-flops’ “ON”...
That’s fine; just leave the old stone wall alone... it doesn’t care that
one’s ‘off pavement’ status is... ‘down’
Also
the old piled field stone does not care ...or resist... the idealities vision
of a ‘bucket’ (a large yellow painted machine used in road construction; a
‘front end loader’, that goes... “beep, beep, beep, beep” when ‘it’ ‘backs up’)
being able to ‘scoop up’ “THE WALL” accessible from the road. THIS vision is stymied by the ...simple
engineering conundrum of ... old stone wall... refusing to scoop up well. Old field stone is... as it was when
first encountered by the lone man in the field a quarter millennium ago...
‘difficult to move’.
That’s
fine for that means that very quickly ‘in the woods’ away from ‘easy cost
effective access... ‘old’ ‘stone’ ‘wall’ is ‘no’ ‘one’ ‘there’.
I
Am
tired of having to ...crust over... like a pie... the... popular... vision...
of ‘old New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures’ within this
vignette of chapters (blog posts) pontificating upon ‘old New England’...
‘granite’.
I
am tired of having to do that.
OVER
and over the solution to preservation of old New England granite has been
strongly suggested by I to be “leave it alone, keep a fixture “hidden away” and “do not mention” it at all. These personal and professional actions
to take are, again, the solution for ‘old’ ‘stone’ ‘wall’. Too. If one has old stone wall on old New England property...
Shut
up.
If
one ‘visits’; a ‘goes there’... go alone.
Quietly
enjoy the forest landscape AND it’s ‘old New England property (antique) granite
landscape fixtures... ALONE.
“Study
you say?”
“Yes”
IF
one wanders on property with hidden ‘old New England’ granite upon it.
I
am not the voice of this. I also,
am not the misbehaving miscreant with flip-flops, pink ankles, weed killer,
weed whacker... cut granite driveway lamp posts and
HORRIBLE
open mouth utterances that drop dreadful crumb trails leading always to the
SAME ...their... ‘pot of gold’ of THEY
KNOW
NOTHING.
Harvard,
2000**********: “Increasingly, people live in or near (New England) forest
and often own small areas of woodlands, yet their connection to and
understanding of the land, its forest and its wildlife is at an (sic)
historical low”
In
new and old New England.
Old
New England property (antique) granite landscape fixtures... from ‘stone’
‘wall’ to... half buried propped up on edge well cap stones to... sit-on rocks
to...
“Those
God damn TOMB STONES they make and sell FOR STEPS”
Is
not directly treated by Harvard herein but is ..indirectly treated... for, as
we very well understand... there ARE (antique) granite landscape fixtures...
ON... old New England property and THAT IS WHAT this
Book
“FROM
HARVARD”
Is
about; the history of the
History
Of
the
Old
New England property...
Landscape
fixtures
From
pre- (English) settlement to... puffy pink ankle flip-flop... ‘visits’.
TODAY.
I
am slowly introducing this book.
It is ‘too good’ for the reader just now. I will come back to and build with the book. Right now... WE are still fussing with
‘stone’ ‘walls’. I just want the
reader to know that ...there is... an ‘are of’ ‘people’ who ARE
AWARE
Of
old New England property
Landscape
fixtures;
Their
history and the
History
OF
their history.
And
that these people CARE.
If
YOU bulldoze an old stone wall... someone does care. We cannot stop you but we do care.
Who’s
the first person who cared and studied ‘old New England property... landscape
fixtures?
Harvard,
herein... defaults back to Thoreau.
Did
he... old stone wall?
Did
he ‘see’ ‘that’ (old New England property [antique] granite landscape
fixtures)?
Did
he see them as “antique” “then” (1850’s).
Did he die understanding old New England property?
Harvard
seems to feel... Thoreau...
Had
the feel
Of
the feel
That
is now the history
Of
the history
Of
old New England property
Landscape
fixtures.
But
did Thoreau have... good taste?
And
does Harvard have good taste?
Too?
When
one is before a ‘beautiful’ (section of) “Old” “Stone” “Wall”... often... ten
feet down the wall and... or... ten feet UP the wall ...that wall... isn’t that
“BEAUTIFUL”. I explained that as
‘things’ ‘happen’ (Part Fifteen).
That; the ‘BEAUTIFUL’, is what happened ‘there’ ‘then’.
A little further was, “LIKE”, an off day... in mid-May
Of
a 1740’s
Colonial
day.
Enjoy
the “WALL” of piled field stone “THERE”.
Mark one’s little black book of ‘good ones’ ‘old granite sites’. Leave quietly. Say nothing. Go back when you ‘feel like it’ to ‘visit’. It’s ok to take a few photograph...
especially as they remind you later that
“It’s
really not the same”
As
being there.
A
sit-on rock IS interesting to look at but
....Butt...
makes more sense when... ‘sit-on’.
********** :
Foster, David R. and O’Keefe, John F.:
NEW ENGLAND FOREST THROUGH TIME.
INSIGHTS FROM THE HARVARD FOREST DIORAMAS. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, MA, 2000., pg. 19.
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