The Stone Trust, NH hosted the last medley weekend of the year in October, offering workshops to help build skills in a four-day period: an introduction to dry stone walling, stone shaping, retaining walls, steps and stairs, and flatwork. Wallers came together from all over the Northeast, as well as Ohio, New York, and Virginia. The four days included a mix of people–those who wanted to learn for projects at home and those who wanted to advance their professional skill set. A medley weekend creates an ideal learning environment. People with all different experiences and interests work together and learn from each other.
The medley started with a 1-Day Introduction to Dry Stone Walling workshop. It was a beautiful fall day and perfect for learning the five basic principles of dry stone walling. Instructor Pete Ryder described it as “truly, the calm before the storm.” On Friday, people could choose between a Stone Shaping workshop and a Retaining Wall workshop. The weather held out for most of the day, until the end of the workshops, Then it rained for the next day and a half.
So many people wanted to join the retaining wall workshop that we opened a second workshop on Saturday. Corporate Member Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes sent a few crew members to the retaining walls workshop as part of ongoing training for members of their employee-owned landscape design-build company.
A Flatwork workshop was also scheduled on Saturday. You all had an unlucky day with the weather, but you stuck it out to learn the skills you came to learn.
Nice weather returned for the last day of the medley weekend. A small, but enthusiastic group of wallers learned to install stone steps and stairs. You can see in the pictures that they built standalone steps, instead of steps into a landscape–great practice for projects to complete on their own.
Whether wallers joined for one day or multiple days of workshops, everyone developed a greater portfolio of walling skills. How exciting to imagine your dry stone creations!
Thank you to our many instructors. First off, thank you Pete Ryder for being the site champion of the Stone Trust NH and organizing and instructing throughout the medley weekend. Thank you to Michael Papile, Ron Neil, Curtis Gray, Torben Larsen, and Michael Weitzner for your time in effort to instruct, despite the weather.
