How to Build a Stone Wall

The end of the final day of the workshop. Phew!

The end of the final day of the workshop. Phew!

If you live in a place where there are a lot of stone walls you’ve probably admired them. Dry stone walls are timeless, classic, and stand as testimonies to historic and cultural traditions that have been usurped by strip malls and housing developments that hollow us of a sense of place and belonging.   Perhaps you’ve thought about having some built on your property, or, if you have stone at your place, you’ve thought of building some yourself. If you’d like to know more about the history ,the dynamics and details of constructing dry stone walls, that is, walls without mortar, you couldn’t do better than to sign on for a workshop with Andrew Pighills.

Andrew will be teaching a week-end long, dry stone wall building workshop on Saturday and Sunday, April 28th and 29th at Stonewell Farm in Killingworth, Connecticut. For more information please contact me at: mb@mbeckerco.com and I will send you registration materials.

Intelligence should trump Trump

Back in the day, many years ago, when I was working for a company that did decorative painting, I was called to a Trump property job. The project was to ‘marbelize’ a red fire indicator; a red-painted device in a public space intended to visually stand out so that, in the event of a fire, someone could pull the switch and alert the Fire Department to a fire emergency. The job descriptive was to camouflage the device so that it would be indistinguishable from its marble surroundings. Donald Trump wanted this to be made invisible. He wanted the space to shout elegance and affluence and he thought that NYC’s building codes infringed on his right to create an environment of luxury. As a poor artist, I balked, philosophically, but performed the service of camouflaging the said fire alert device. In the event of a fire in this public place, no-one would be able to find the very well camouflaged fire alert device. Do I feel bad about this? Yes. Does Donald Trump? Absolutely not. Why not? Because he is a creature without a conscience.  This is what I know about Donald Trump. He is a creature without a conscience. Buyer beware.