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Rockwalls.biz is the internet communications tool of Walkways and Walls. Located in Ashland Oregon, Walkways and Walls serves the Rogue Valley primarily, but can consult on distant projects. Walkways and Walls has over ten years of local experience on small walls and large – the largest being 1,000 feet of 3 to 4 foot high walls containing seven sets of rock stairways. Rock Walls A dry-stack rock retaining wall holds the dirt from falling or eroding. Terraces cut into hilly areas need retaining at the back of the cut and at the front of the fill. That way, bare earth is faced and contained by the attractive and functional rock wall. Primarily, the wall should be functional. It should be built so as to hold the dirt back, allow water to drain down and out, and flex some as the ground moves. It takes some structural knowledge and skill to build a strong wall. Secondarily, the wall should look good. What makes for a good-looking wall is an aesthetic call. A sloppy wall goes up fast but never looks really good. A well-stacked wall has a fairly flat face with interweaving and interlocking lines, a balance of size and color, is tight, and is battered back to naturally take the force of the hillside down into the base. It is a creative challenge to take a chaotic pile of rocks and boulders and stack them up into something the eye enjoys and that will last hundreds of years. Walkways In many ways, steps and walkways are even more challenging than retaining walls. The work is tedious and difficult, down on the ground, setting flagstones, bricks, or pavers to stay stable, flat, smooth, and aesthetic. Whether the underlay drains, whether the stones are casual or more exacting and formal, and whether steps are involved - all add variables to the job. A personal message from founder, Brad Carrier, regarding labor: I’ve built dry-stack rock retaining walls for ten years and owned the business for eight. On one level, it’s just work for pay. I can work by the hour, or by the bid. But I’d rather work on creative projects that serve the general betterment of persons or society, taking whatever compensation it brings me. Like any job, it is work for money, but such labor is not my main calling – ministry (Unitarian Universalist and my own) is. Rock wall work serves my higher callings. It centers me, strengthens my body (it’s not back-breaking work; it’s back-making work.) and clears my mind. Rock walls leave something visible from my labors, which is far different than sermons given on Sunday and gone on Monday. I like the challenge of taking a pile of jumbled boulders and rocks and skillfully stacking them into a wall that 1) stays standing while retaining soil on the high side, and 2) look attractive. Form follows function. But the essential activity I’m doing comes from my meeting with the Blind Saint of Vrindivan, India in 1973. Swami answered my question about how to effect change in my society (I was distressed about the Vietnam War at the time). He said any action I might take would be caught in the reciprocal realm of cause and effect. I might protest, but it might result in even more war. He advised I devote myself in hard physical labor for the general betterment of people or society and take whatever reward came from it. If I did this, I would feel rested at night and sleep deep. By giving this way I would emit “an invisible perfume of unlimited effect.” That would create unlimited, unreactive peace. Indeed, when I shower after a day of hard physical labor, I watch the dirt go down the drain, gone. It is refreshing. My meditations are deeper. Plus, my body and mind feel better for having worked. Perhaps there is the perfume. In any case, I like the hard labor as a work-out, and I like to leave behind something that looks good, something that could last hundreds of years. I also like working in service, though it is also good for me to earn decent money for having done it. So, while I welcome straight forward work for pay, I prefer doing hard physical work as service. Labor serves a higher calling. -Brad Carrier owner and founder of Walkways and Walls
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