It’s all about resources.

My job title contains the word “resource”. It’s a fascinating word. People throw the word around carelessly; ironically, people are frequently careless with resources.

I’ve had about a decade (!) to observe behavior in this park, and I’m finding that it’s helpful to view the most awesome and irksome behaviors through the lens of resources. Because there seems to be a remarkable abundance of both bullet points and anecdotes, I’ll judiciously use both to approach the subject:

Rain, spring, sliding hillsides.

The Fowler trail provided a nice excuse to break out some equipment and move some rocks off trail. Nothing huge, but a welcome respite from the ordinary.

Before

Whipper snappers trying the griphoist

After

Fun and done.

Ceci n’est pas un pirate.

I’m an Awesome Pirate! 2015, large format laser printer paper adhered to concrete. A “gift” of the artist.

Lurking Shaman, 2015. Water on concrete.

Hey, front range banksy guy! My found art from removing your “pirate” is better, more poignant, and more fitting than your swashbuckling. Hah.

Keep Gettin’ it Done.

Perhaps inspirational talk for those kindred spirits who like to get things done.

There will be times when there is something that should be done, and it’s something new to you. Maybe it’s repainting your house, maybe it’s building trail, maybe it’s fixing your car, maybe it’s going after a patch of invasive weeds, … There will be a lot of times when you’re “it” – for various reasons, you’re compelled to at least make the decision about how it’s going to get done.

And there’s usually a choice about how that thing should be accomplished:

1. Let it slide
2. Hire somebody
3. Learn new things, make mistakes, accept imperfection, but get it done.

I’m a big fan of number three, but there are pros and cons to each approach.

It’s done!

My first (mostly) solo, decent sized wall. She is complete.

My favorite assistants arrived right after I’d pinned the copes.

There’s a fantastic quote about long journeys – I can’t remember who penned it or the exact quote, but the gist is: We set out on a long journey, and upon returning to port, realized that the greatest discovery we’d made was ourselves.

Some thoughts after the fold:

When life gives you jerkons, make benchonade.

Just about a week ago, one of the local residents wandered up to a wall I’m working on. She was very upset that I’d finished the top of a portion of the wall with copes, and was furious that she couldn’t sit on the wall and rest her cup of coffee on one of the through stones anymore. (Long story short, the copes were in place because I was tired of “helpers” stacking stones on the wall.)

I’m getting used to being chewed out by the locals, but it’s never very fun. I assured her that I’d build a bench at some point, explained what copes are and what they were for.

This is what the copes looked like:

Wall with copes.

A few days later I got a chance to get back to work on the wall, and about six feet of copes were gone in the exact spot she pointed out.

On the one hand, there’s a good lesson there. I’m trying to build a wall that will last a hundred years; the reality is that it’s a very popular trail and that wall might not even make it through the winter. Perhaps people are inspired to play, but dangitall, I’m tired of finding what people do to that wall when I’m not working on it. It’s like a sand mandala – a meditation on impermanence – but with big rocks and no nice monks to hang out with.

On the other hand, there’s a good lesson there. I realized I can’t fight park visitors, especially nearby residents who basically have 24/7 access to the park. So I took the challenge on and made something bench-like.

Bench.

I’m about halfway between Zen and “meh”. Let’s call it Zeh.

Fears.

I spent few interesting months working next to incredibly popular trails. And frankly, I spent a little bit too much time with everybody involved, including me. Some blather about fear after the fold…

Poop. (NSFW, I guess)

Found some poop on the Fowler trail this week:

Fox?

Bear

In Defense of Wooden Steps.

Generally, I like to build with stone. It’s fun to work with, looks great, and when done well, stone structures last and last.

But stone has its limitations. I’ve spent the last two weeks building a pretty massive staircase out of pressure treated lumber.

Here are a few of the reasons I chose lumber over stone for this project:

1. It’s a big project that had to go fast. Building this beast out of stone would have taken months even if the nearby rock was good for building.
2. The nearby rock is copious, but it’s also crapious. There are some semi-decent rock sources within a few hundred yards – but the transit time would have doubled the project length.
3. The bottom of the stairs is near the path of the spring water flow. That’s not insurmountable, but would have easily added weeks of build time to divert the drainage and build an ample footing.
   

   Base of the stairs – there’s 10? 15? feet of gravel and rip-rap underneath that bottom stair.

4. The slope is made of mineral soil mixed with ball bearings. My hunch is that with the significant weight of stone steps and no bedrock in sight, stone stairs would eventually slump into the hillside. Wood stairs with stringers should float on the surface.
5. Wood stairs facilitate rebar anchors. Every tread and stringer has multiple 5′ lengths of rebar hanging into that slope.  There wouldn’t be an easy way to anchor that much stone.
6. Small crew size, and delegate-able tasks. In fact, for most of the build, the crew size was… me. I’m very lucky to get occasional busloads of helpers from Boulder County Justice Services. It worked well – I didn’t have to train anybody: me build, you haul timbers.

And if you’ve read this far, you deserve to know that the Rattlesnake Gulch trail is open. Get out and hike/ride it quick – fall weather like we’re having makes it one of the best trails on the front range.

And if you’re looking for more incessant chattering, here’s a copy of the bulletin pictured next to the stairs.

Wow, and wow. And then some more wow.

Saw this over at John Shaw-Rimmington’s blog this morning:

Beautiful work…

This work is stunning. The backstory is that the waller, Sean Donnelley, did this all with a very limited source of rock available on site. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the humbling experience of walking up to a bunch of rock, thinking “hey, I’ll build a wall with what’s here”, and a few days later realizing that I only succeeded in slightly rearranging some rocks and inventing new curse words.

I’ve had plenty of time recently to reflect on hubris – my own and others’ – with regards to walling. It is very easy for the uninitiated (and incurious) to imagine that building with stone is trivially easy. “How hard could that be?” “It’s just stacking rocks. Whatever. “If I had that rock, I could have built that wall.” I think  Mr. Donnelley’s work blows that kind of narcissistic thinking out of the water.

Bravo.