Topping out

I've been building a wall to keep the cows out. This bit is in local stone - schist - because it butts up against the end of the farmhouse and I thought it would look better than the wooden fence I plan to have elsewhere.

It's been going up slowly for the last fortnight, as I have been using a lime-only mortar (NHL 3.5) that takes a day or two to harden, so it's easiest to build it up a couple of inches, then let it harden properly before adding any more stones. We've had some sunny days so I have had to put wet sacking on top to prevent it drying too quickly.

The last stones, to top it off, are very heavy. The lightest one I managed to get up to the top of the wall unaided. The next one I had Tony to help with (our combined ages - 140 years or a little more). The last was the heaviest of the lot, and it had to go into a corner where it would be difficult for two people to handle it.

So out with the Black and Decker Workmates and a length of alloy scaffolding:



I didn't think of taking pictures immediately: I started with the scaffold board virtually on the ground, and made sure that the stone was slid to one end before lifting the other: first to the footstep on the righthand Workmate, then to the crossbar, lifting the other end appropriately in between. Thank you, Archimedes.



Up at this level it was all a little wobbly: mostly because the ground here slopes in two directions. I had moved the stone fully onto the righthand Workmate before moving the lefthand one in and up.

Here it is about to be slid onto the wall:



And this last picture shows it in its final place. Not mortared in, of course, as it is pouring with rain today and the mortar would just wash out.



It fitted into the gap I had left with a millimetre to spare. Now I just have to level it and get some mortar underneath, and the wall will be done. Though I may decide to grout the joints a bit more to get a smoother result.