tristan is a great big brother

i spied tristan and kassi hanging out together in the kitchen. he had taken one of the photos of my parents down and was showing it to kassi. he said "see kassi this is grandme and grandpe, they are daddies mommy and daddy." he is so cute and kassi just adores him. they chase each other around the house giggling about 30% of the time. it's kinda noisy but glorious fun none the less.

mike and i went to get some gravel yesterday and the quarry was closed to the public. What a lame thing to have happen. i'll have to borrow one of Ben's trucks and a flat bed trailer and get some from the quarry myself. it will work out because i'd like to get some crushed lime sand also. i guess a few trips are in order.

the driveway needs a layer of gravel, i'd like to set the posts for the barn using gravel, there are several little places that could use some drainage soil, and i would like to have some around for my concrete plans.

gravel list
drive way
walkway to house
drainage around barn
drainage around root cellar
areas close to the house foundation
foundation for chimney

the sand would be used for mortar, cob and adding to the garden. the soil in the garden is dense and could use quite a bit of sand.

sand list
foundation for chimney
mortar for chimney
mortar for slip-form foundation for barn.

i broke the handle on the post maul. it was because of dry rot on the handle. it wasn't because i missed and hit the handle or that i was swinging extra hard. it just finally gave-way. the stupid handle cost eleven dollars. if it were just a regular sledge hammer it'd almost be better just to buy a whole new sledge. this is such a disposable economy we live in. it is counter to recycling and re-using anything. i guess it mostly has to do with economy of scale in manufacturing of the most purchased item but it is really disappointing to a person that prefers only replacing the broken part of an otherwise perfectly good hammer.

as for the rock ring question from way back. we simply make a ring out of woven wire, set in the place where we want the rock ring and fill it with rocks. we have learned a few tricks, being sure to place larger rocks on the exterior, using much smaller rock as the in-fill and shaping the fence and ring as we fill it. the smaller rock as the in-fill creates stability. the larger rock on the exterior closes the fence holes and looks nice. shaping the fence and ring by brute force as you fill it is very important. streching a fence to an unfinished rock ring is always a bad idea. proportions are also quite important the ring must be squat enough to be stable but tall enough to look nice. there is a balance that must be achieved. i've seen plenty of rock rings toppled because the constructor attempted a tall slender rock ring and filled them only with larger rock.