Barre 2-Day Intro builds a sense of accomplishment and optimism

Six men and six women came to the Stone Trust training site at the Vermont Granite Museum to learn the five basic rules of dry stone walling. How do you build a beautiful wall that will stand the test of time?

About half of you arrived from towns in Vermont, a couple from New York City, and several from southern and central Connecticut. For the most part you came with no experience building with dry stone, although one enthusiast has built walls into his home landscape. We imagine that most of you are “generally handy,” as one participant described himself, and also that you aspire to “creative functionality.” Enjoy putting what you learned about building a freestanding dry stone wall into practice on your projects!

A bit of history about the Stone Trust @ Barre. In 2018, Brian Post, Jordan Keyes & Alex Hoffmeier offered Walling Day at the Vermont Granite Museum. Eleven people came to learn the basics. In 2019, Jordan created two more opportunities for aspiring wallers to come learn the craft. Alex and  Jamie Masefield each taught one of the two introductory workshops with him. The pandemic interrupted programming at the Vermont Granite Museum (VGM), so no workshops took place in Barre in 2020 and 2021. In the spring of 2022, Jordan took on the role of site facilitator for the Stone Trust and helped put into place an agreement with  VGM that forecasts offering the complete Curriculum in Dry Stone as the next few years unfold. We hope you’ll come back!

Speaking of which, in response to a request we have scheduled 2.50 Intro to Stone Shaping Workshop (1-Day): September 10, 2022. It is a next-step workshop for those of you with projects ahead. Depending on what you’re planning to build, another next-step workshop is 2.40 Cheek End Workshop – October 8 & 9, 2022. This is where you learn how to finish your wall with a sturdy vertical wall end. You probably got a sense of it watching Henry build.

Thanks to all of you for making the trip and enduring end-of-June weather that one participant described as intense. Indeed, it’s a good thing to have pop-up tents to protect people from weather conditions, in this case high temperatures and clear skies–a high UV index.

Thanks, too, to Jordan, Alex, and Jake for creating a well-paced, responsive, enjoyable learning experience. We very much appreciate the dual expertise of our waller-teachers.