When I designed terraces for the gardens at the Monks of New Skete, delineated and retained by large boulders I had no idea where the boulders were to be found. I just assumed they must be available. If not on the property then from some of the quarries north of us, near Granville.
But everything the Monks do is done on a budget and a tight one, it seems, so Stash (Stavros Winner) and I walked their property looking for very large rocks. And we found plenty, but not nearly enough, on the grounds near the residence of the Companions of New Skete. Meanwhile I began checking on prices from the quarries, delivery costs etc. until I got an email from Stash. It was entitled, The Mother-load.
Mother-load indeed. It so happened that back behind the living quarters of the Monks where an old trail runs through the woods ancient Green Mountains rise up as a ridge several hundred feet above the forest floor and scattered about at the base and half way up the slope were hundreds of huge, shale boulders, some ten feet long and weighing several tons. Here was our source, free, except for hauling them about an eighth of a mile down to the site.
This is a story, and a new one, but the boulders tell a far more ancient story. The grain in this rock is clearly visible and shows of the continental drift, the moving plates and gigantic collisions of massive bodies of land that occurred so many thousands of years ago. In many stones we see a herring bone pattern with the grain reversing itself several times.
Note the folds from the tectonic plate crash ions ago
Using a large backhoe and a large loader the boulders were ‘harvested’ from the mountainside and brought down to the site.
