Rocks...

As I promised earlier, here is a picture of the garden with all of the stones that I had hoed up and raked to the edge. (You'll probably have to click on the photo to be able to see it.)

Granted, this really doesn't look like much to the untrained eye. I will tell you that the "wall" ran along this side of the garden and across the far end.

Yesterday I began the arduous task of removing these rocks with the help (thankfully) of my dad, who came up with a very clever method that helped to make the job more efficient. I didn't quite get finished - I had to quit early to get ready for praise band practice last night at church.

However, I did manage to get approximately 2/3 of the rocks up.

Would you like to see how many there were? I thought that you would. Here you go...

That was enough weight to make the truck bottom out when I drove through an intersection last night. Just so you can get a feel, the truck is a Dodge Dakota and the stones are piled to over half the height of the tailgate and extend all the way to the back of the wheel wells. The rocks between the wheel wells are gravel-sized.

As I have looked at this, I don't think that there are QUITE as many as I took away on the first load, but it is plenty!

This time when I unloaded the rocks I began to grade them a little bit. I separated them into Small Medium and Large. I wish I had thought about doing that the first time. It would have made my building project much easier. (I am planning to build a stone wall around a raised bed for growing some blueberries.)

This project isn't quite finished. I still have a row of rocks about 45 feet long to get up. I'll be glad to have this chore complete! By the way, does anyone know a geologist or gemologist in the NC Piedmont? I have found some interesting rocks that I would like to have identified.... It would be a shame to put a priceless gemstone into a retaining wall!