The plan is when we're done with the bottom of the pond I'll take the excavator and our road will become the top soil and fill behind the wall.
While we haven't changed the foot print of the pond, it's still it's original shape. We have drastically modified it's capacity. Which means according to a friend a serious tax advantage for the client because we've changed the gallonage retained during flood conditions.
These guys are day laborers. For some reason or another they're not part of the everyday workforce as most of us know it.
I pick them up every morning and I pay them every night. Our relationship is tenuous at best. I have no obligation to pick them in the morning and they have no obligation to accept my offer of employment.
What is disappointing to me is how others treat these men. To say I feel shame to share citizenship with some of these employers is an understatement.
But of course there is some reward for me in this. What some see only as a body to guide a mower I've had the good fortune in finding an artisan who has taught me how to work stone.
One of the men has done hard time. Not something we've talked about, he knows I know by the way I've checked him over. He also understands that I don't judge him so much for what he has done as I do by what he can do. His treating me as boss has modified to over the last couple of weeks where he now treats me as a friend is as gratifying to me as any aspect of the project.
I understand it's egotistical of me but I see finding good in a man not unlike finding good in a stone or a piece of wood. Most people look at a stone and see nothing but a rock. They makes judgements about people just as quickly and without anymore consideration.
It's their loss. And there is some justice in the outcome. Their life is poorer, as it should be.
I've been asked via PM (private message) about drilling holes in stone. It's such a good question that I believe we need to share it.
Here's what I've found out about it.
1. I use regular concrete bits. Well, I say "regular" and what I mean is "regular Hilti bits".
We've found out your bits you buy at the hardware store will drill ten to twelve half inch holes three quarters of an inch deep in our granite boulders we're mounting on the wall. The Hilti equivelant will drill at least ten times that many. At Home Depot the Bosch bit is about seven dollars and the Hilti (in the rental department) is thirty six dollars.
I have an account at Hilti and pay about twenty for the same bit.
2. Granite is the hardest stone I've dealt with. Sandstone is much softer and limestone is a piece of cake.
3. I use a two part epoxy I get at granite countertop supply stores for attaching the pin to the stone. But on this project I'm using a polyurethane product from Home Depot. It seems to work just fine. It costs a lot less but the working time is hours instead of minutes like I have with the expoxy.
4. Stone isn't like wood. With wood you can use a pin just a little bigger than the hole and it'll make a better fit. If you attempt to do this with stone you'll discover the secret they had back in the old days for splitting rock. So for a three eights pin it's better to use a seven sixteenths hole and your adhesive than three eights and three eights.
5. I use a grinder and special disc to prepare stone surfaces for contact. By that I mean I remove bumps and bulges if applicable or cut in corresponding dips and valleys to make two pieces fit.
I noticed in the rental department at Home Depot they now carry the grinders and discs.
6. You really don't gain much besides tool wear and personal frustration from going deep with the pins and their holes. One inch is usually all you need if you're basically using the pin as a dowel.
7. And this is probably the most important tip I have. Listen to the stone.
The stone itself knows more about what works and even more importantly, what works well together. If you listen you'll know what I'm talking about.
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