Luddite

Here's the remnants from the great mudslide of '03. The dirt is so wet it looks less like mud and more like a nasty gruel you'd serve to inmates or grade school kids...

On the left you can see the rocks which collapsed. That little white thing is actually the waterfall drain pipe. Luckily it's tough PVC and can take the abuse of a rock avalanche.

I'd like to point out another invaluable tool. Since this has ended up being a non-powertool job it only stands to reason that I use some low tech device for moving boulders.

Being New England we have more than enough rocks, but most of the nice ones hide in the woods and have to be dragged out kicking and screaming.

To save my back (did I mention I have a bad back?) I constructed a rock sled. This one uses four old cross-country skis, which can be picked up at the dump or any yard sale for less than a buck. Attach them together with hardwood braces, attach a couple of sturdy ropes, and you have a sled which makes it relatively easy to slide boulders across the lawn.

Our neighbor, a master in rock wall building, constructed his sled using a galvanized roofing panel, bent in half around a hardwood plank like a large, steel toboggan.

Here are the tools I've been using:

• shovel - a quality shovel is your friend
• hardwood planks - leverage is king
• rock sled - wish I had a team of huskies
• steel rod, come-along, nylon straps - for hard to move boulders
• jerry-rigged earth compactor
• hoe - good for shaping and scraping
• wheelbarrow
• aspirin - I ain't no spring chicken...

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