This is the page where I am going to post stories about what happens to me in my little world of stones. I make fun stuff. I meet interesting people. And learn fascinating things. Sometimes things go way wrong. Sometimes things go right. Comedy, drama, tragedy, triumph. This page will have it all. It may even sometimes include a video. The first story is called…

The Gravity Globe

No mortar

No cement

No epoxy

No concrete

No superglue of any kind

No fossil fuels

Just a pile of rocks

And gravity

Organized

To create a work of Art

The concept is a simple one. I want to make a globe; a perfect circle, or as close to perfect as possible. But I only want to use irregular pieces of fieldstone held together by gravity to build it.  My goal is a structure that is five feet (60 inches) in diameter at all points across the middle.  But I don’t know for certain if it’s possible because the laws and rules of cantilever and gravity will be challenged.  The bigger the globe, the bigger the overhang, the greater the stress on the break points of the cantilever.  A five foot diameter globe will require a lot of overhang.  Is it too much?  Perhaps the project is not realistically possible.

I map it out using graph paper and break it down into manageable parts. I will build fifteen stone circles.  Each circle will be four inches thick but with different diameters.  I will stack the circles on top of each other as I build them. According to my calculations, the bottom or first circle should be 28 inches in diameter. The middle or eighth circle should be 60 inches in diameter.  And the fifteenth or top circle should be 28 inches in diameter again.  That works out to 32 inches of cantilever on 28 inches of base.  Is that impossible? I don’t think so.  As long as the whole thing is tied together with gravity.

On Monday, I start the project. I work in the light cold rain.  I prep the site by digging out the sod in a five foot circle and I add a wheelbarrow of gravel to the dirt. I also gather the fieldstone and pile it all around the outside of the circle.  I handle, touch and look at every single stone as I move it from the pile by the road to around the building site.  But I don’t start to build yet.  The rain grows heavy in the early afternoon and I go home. Tuesday has bad weather too; apocalyptic storms with heavy downpours. I stay home in bed and wait for the rain to end.

On Wednesday, I start to build with great confidence and enthusiasm.  “This will be easy,” I tell myself. I just have to follow my graph; measure each circle and grow the globe one stone at a time. I have to keep everything balanced and build up slowly, one layer, one circle at a time. The key to building with dry stone is gravity. Every single stone in the structure has to lean towards the center of gravity of the whole structure. The challenge of building a stone globe is; the visual center of gravity is the very center of the globe.  But the structural center of gravity is where the globe touches the earth.  Reconciling this contradiction is… the mystery, the magic, the meaning of the stone globe project.  The building process is a metaphysical mind bender.

Cantilever pulls one way and gravity pulls the other.  But I follow the plan and apply the theory. I measure each circle and stack them together.  When I finish for the day, the structure is 20 inches tall and 48 inches in diameter. It seems pretty solid… well balanced.  But now I am at the tricky part of the process. The middle third will have intense cantilever and intense gravity.  I will have to push the possibilities of physics and engineering.  Can I do it?

Thursday is the crazy day. I nearly lose my mind. I’m working on the impossible part; the middle third and I’m trying to follow my mathematical plan.  It’s mid-day and I am just past the half way point with a 30 inch tall structure that is about 60 inches in diameter. That’s when I hear my cell phone make a loud noise. The phone is inside my backpack which is over by the tree on the other side of the worksite.  I’m expecting an important message about tonite’s dinner so I put down the rocks that are in my hands and the hammer too. I walk over to the tree for my bag and retrieve the phone to check the msg.  But as I open the phone to look, the battery totally Dies in my hand. The phone powers off and makes a sound like I’ve never heard from a cell phone before.  It’s a loud crack followed by a boom. Oh shit oh no, I turn around to see and my creation collapses before my eyes. It is a horror and a disaster.  My heart sinks deep down to the bottom. I failed. I flopped. I can’t do it. My beautiful creation is a pile of rubble…

Should I give up? Maybe this project really is impossible. Am I fooling myself with delusions of possibility?  Of course not.  I know I can do this. I must have messed up the gravity. I didn’t do enough criss cross with the rocks. I rushed it and got sloppy.  I was over- confident… Too full of myself. I must repent and be humble.  I must respect the stones and respect gravity. I can do this… I clear away the rubble and start again with a new base that is 28 inches diameter and 4 inches tall. And then I build the next circle up just a little bit wider at 34 inches.  Up up up I go. I focus on the gravity and make sure there is lots of criss-cross between rocks… interdependence. I have to make the rocks really fit. The many make the one and the one makes the many. The moment is intense and the moment lasts all afternoon. Every single rock is unique.  I have to find the right place for each and every stone. How does it all fit together? I finish the day at 20 inches tall and 48 inches wide.  I am literally at the exact same place I finished yesterday. Today didn’t happen.  Today didn’t exist. It seems like a completely wasted day.  I accomplished nothing. I could have stayed home in bed. It’s like I passed through a time warp and lost a day.  But still, my body is sore and my soul is exhausted.  I did something to make me feel this way but it sort of seems like I dreamed the whole damn thing.  It was like some kind of a mythological ordeal…I shall have to offer up the entire day as a sacrifice to the gods of Stone…

Friday is the day of destiny.  I am working on the middle third of the globe again.  The same part that caused the whole thing to collapse yesterday.  Does too much cantilever and too much gravity make it impossible? No!  It just has to all be tied together perfectly.  There must be Interdependence or it will never work. Can I do it? I don’t know.  But I believe yes.   The temperature is cool but the bright sun is intense. I strip to my short sleeves and work Bare handed.  I feel the stones with my fingertips. The atmosphere is charged with electricity and my body is poised and taut for action.  But my motion is fluid and smooth. How to describe the sensation of working a day in the zone? The soul is on fire. Everything is cranked up and up. It’s like hitting a hot streak in the championship game. It feels like energy flows through my hands and into the rocks as I place them within the whole. But it’s not energy.  It’s gravity; the force, the bond, the mortar that holds it all together. I am but the conduit that the force passes through.

The trance continues throughout the day. There is intensity of concentration and intensity of focus.  I am totally immersed in the process. Nothing else matters, nothing else exists. Rocks and gravity flowing together into a created state of interdependence. I am the mechanism that makes it happen.  Gravity in, cantilever out.  Criss-cross the joints. Keep everything balanced.  About mid-day, I pass the half way point.  When the structure is 30 inches tall and 60 inches wide, the structure is at the most precarious point. Now the circles of stone start to shrink smaller and gravity tightens with each new rock. The structure strengthens as the force spins inward. My confidence grows and my belief intensifies as the afternoon progresses. The globe is getting stronger and stronger with each new rock. I am getting stronger and stronger with each new rock. I pass through some kind of psychological barrier and crack open a hole between dimensions. The light within shines bright. Ecstasy… Rapture? There is no better feeling. I am the stones and the stones are me. Together. We make the globe.

When the sun sets on Friday, I am two thirds done.  The structure is 40 inches tall and the diameter at the top is now 48 inches. It all seems very solid and stable.  It is very tied together.

It won’t collapse now. I put away my tools and go home for the weekend. What a weekend! 

I celebrate Halloween with my family.  It is fun, fun, fun but I can’t stop thinking about the unfinished globe. Will it fall? Collapse? I don’t believe so. But the first one did. What if this one does too? What if it really is impossible? What if my globe is now a pile of rubble? When I see it and work on it, I know it is strong and stable.  But far away at home my brain races with paranoid thoughts.  What if? Oh no? I can’t stop thinking, wondering, worrying. Happy Halloween.  Sunday is a crazy weather day as the region is battered by rain and strong winds.

Oh no, oh no; I pace the house wondering, worrying and imagining the worst. What if? Oh no, oh no…   Please God, if you are out there;  Don’t let the globe collapse…

On Monday morning, I have a thirty minute drive from my house to the place where I am building the globe.  I am anxious and nervous all the way there.  Bright sunshine and cool air will make perfect work weather if the globe is still standing to work on. But what if it isn’t?  Should I give up if it collapsed? Or try again… No way; it can’t be collapsed. I can’t build it any better. On the final drive up the hill relief washes over me as I see it standing there. Happiness wells up inside of me as I park the truck and walk over to it. The force flows through me as I pick up my stone hammer and start work on the final third of the globe. What a day!  It is a peak human experience; the high of highs; the victory dance. Each new rock in the final third makes the structure stronger and more stable. The danger of collapse lessens and fades with each and every rock. I’m going to make it. I’m gonna do it. It’s  gonna work. The glory, the joy, the triumph;  by sunset on Monday the stone globe is complete.

I go back on Tuesday to clean up leftover rock and finish small details. I take photos and enjoy.

How about that? I built a stone gravity globe. Now that’s what I call a satisfying work experience.  How good is my life?