04-28-21 02:15 PM - Post#909962    

Saw this story on the news up here in New England:

Octagenarian has spent a decade of his retirement restoring Massachusetts stone walls

Bill Doherty, 87, of Westwood, has spent his retirement restoring and rebuilding them. He's been doing the backbreaking labor of selecting and arranging the stones to build sturdy walls without mortar or cement for about a decade now.

"This is better than sitting in the rocking chair," he said. "They always say exercise is good for longer life. I believe in that."

04-28-21 03:49 PM - Post#909965    

"I don’t lift with my legs, I think that’s an old wives tale," he said.

Less Hercules, more Achilles.

04-28-21 06:35 PM - Post#909971    

The link wouldn't open for me, but I Googled "octogenarian stone walls massachusetts" and found the video on WCVB tv. Great story.

Whether you drive by tract houses on the outskirts of Boston or wander through the National Forest here in Vermont, you’ll find stone walls built by farmers before barbed wire became common in the 1870s. I’ve always wondered how much wall a guy could build in a day. I found out this winter.

A friend gave me a book about reading the local landscape which explained that when farmers plowed their land in the spring, the previous winter’s freezing pushed rocks left by glaciers to ground level. When a plow struck a rock, the farmer picked it up and put it in a pile. Later, he used those piles to build walls—10 to 20 feet a day. I'd seen those piles for years, knew nature didn't put them there, but couldn't explain them.

04-29-21 08:54 AM - Post#909986    

It's here:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/octagenarian- bill-doherty-has-spent-a- decade-of-his-retirement- restorin...