How did we miss the day of rest?
The feeling of being on vacation has thinned a bit today. This morning we headed up river to the quarry for another load of rocks for "the rock wall". It was decided that flat rocks work better in building a wall. Not that the previous rock collections didn't have some flat rocks mixed in...there just wasn't enough.
This is an official Federal Forestry (or is it BLM) rock quarry and for a $10 monthly permit you can bring out a ton of rocks. Now a ton of rocks sounds like a huge amount until you weigh the truck at the scales. This we do ever so often out of curiosity. I think that we have exceeded that by now...
The mornings are cool and perfect for this kind of trip. The Umpqua River is so clear that you can see the bottom of it in the slower moving parts.
And we forgot to throw in the lunch and fishing poles!
The quarry is a short drive from home. Most of the trip is on Hwy 138E which follows the North Umpqua River. This time of morning there is hardly any traffic and you feel the road is all yours. The last mile is on a graveled logging road which should be graded in spots.
Entrance to quarry
Doesn't look like much does it? But there is plenty to pick and choose from. First criteria is shape, second is color, and third is the most important - weight. If you can't lift it, it does not go in the truck! There is a story to tell with the third part: a few trips past we brought a trailer and a hand dolly. The rocks we loaded were slightly larger as Bill could load them on the dolly and wheel them up into the trailer until... I was in the trailer trying to help him pull the dolly uphill... when he realized that the rock was just too heavy for both of us he said, "let go". Well, I took that to mean 'take your weight off the handle of the dolly'. There has to be theory to quote about a light object hanging on to a heavier object that is suddenly let go... it was not a pretty sight! Bill, to this day, still swears that he caught me!
In search of the perfect flat rock!
We really pick through the smaller piles but this side of the quarry has some pretty colored (criteria #2) rocks. We did get a fairly good size load of flat stones for the rock wall project (aka Sue's project).
On the way back Bill asked a question regarding how I felt about vanity. Since my answer fell into the middle ground he pulled into the Steamboat Inn and we got out and had breakfast. (Picture two old people in grubby clothes, woman with no make-up, truck filled with rocks) The Steamboat Inn is famous for Zane Gray and fly fishing.... and the food is great also.
And they let us in the front door!
What goes up must come down so after breakfast we headed back down the river to home. When it came time to unload and move some of the rocks into the back yard I realized we must have had a ton of rock or close to it.
And this is the beginning of "the rock wall".
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