39 Vhalar 719 – No Stone Unturned
When Brent and his brother Ted arrived at the abandoned Alivilda quarry, it was a lot greener than he had expected. Weeds and mosses had overgrown the rocky mountainside and what looked like the road in was now filled with tall grasses, ferns and wildflowers.
“Are you sure this is the place?” Brent asked hesitantly, using a crowbar to sweep away ferns and the leafy underbrush.
“Oh definitely. Mountains are sometimes jagged, but not like this.” Ted replied with ease and pointed to a sharp cliff face. “See that over there, the vertical drop. That’s where they must have stopped chiselling into the stone.”
Where Ted walked with calm confidence, Brent was still worried about getting enough stone for the repair project. He had made all the plans for the 40th of Vhalar, with volunteers, food, and most importantly the morale of the village. This was when the old Ardiechy stone wall would get repaired. But at the same time, he was worried that with just Ted and himself, they wouldn’t get enough raw materials for such a big project. Ted had frequently reminded him that it was just repair work and they weren’t building a brand new stone wall, but Brent had his doubts.
“Here we are!” Ted announced.
“This is it?”
“Cut it out Brent. This is the place. Now help me clear away some of this underbrush. They say the quarry hasn’t been used since they built the stone bridge in the middle of Alivilda.”
That would have been a very long time ago. Brent had never considered when the bridge might have been built. It was as if it had always been there, but rationally, just like any other building, it must have been constructed at some point in Alivilda’s history. But most other buildings in Alivilda were made of wood and often thatch for the rooftops. So it was no wonder that the quarry didn’t remain in operation.
With thick leather working gloves and sturdy boots, the cartographer began clearing away vegetation, fallen branches, the dense cover of ferns and the occasional large stone. As the two men worked, it started to look more and more like a quarry with wide open areas of hard rock and some parts cut deep into the mountain slopes.
Brent was relieved that they had indeed found what they were looking for, but now seeing all the exposed bedrock, it seemed like a monumental task to extract the rock. There was only the rare isolated stone, and the rest they’d have to remove from the bedrock?
“How are we going to…”
“I brought tools, Brent. No craftsman comes without his tools. You don’t do your mapping without a compass and ink. So naturally we weren’t going to quarry rocks without a couple of sledgehammers and a crowbar.” The elder brother gave a wink and gestured to their cart with faithful Tony the horse waiting near it.
“How about you go fetch them, and don’t forget a couple of iron wedges too.”
When Brent returned with the tools, Ted took one of the sledgehammers with one flat side and one pointed side, and spun it in his hands.
“First thing you want to know about rock is that it’s strong, but it’s brittle. That means if you hit it a certain way that it doesn’t like, it’ll crack. The second thing you want to know, is that rock has natural lines and curves to it. Just like a pretty girl, stone has cleavage too. And you want to make use of that cleavage for splitting it.”
The elder brother bent down over some of the exposed bedrock and ran his fingers over the natural grooves of the stone. Finding a line where there was a natural edge to the rock, he stood up, lined up the spike of the sledgehammer, and gave a might blow to the rock. The metal and stone clanged loud against each other and Ted gave another swing. This time it struck deep into the rock. As Ted gave a hard yank to get it out, some of the stone crumbled away.
“This is where the wedges come in real handy. Place one inside the crack and give the hammer a swing with the flat side this time.”
While Brent liked to think he was in shape, he was no match for his brother who was constantly doing physical labour as part of his work. The cartographer squeezed the iron block into the crack and carefully lined up the hammer before giving it a good swing. But other than the loud clang, the rock didn’t break away.
“Harder! Give it all you got!”
This time Brent lifted the sledgehammer high up in the air and used the weight and momentum to swing hard upon the iron wedge. There was a loud crack and Brent jumped out of the way as a large piece of rock came loose.
Pleased with himself, he moved the wedge to another indent. But this time as he swung, instead of the rock coming apart it was the piece of iron that went flying.
“You gotta make sure it’s secure and sometimes that needs a bit more work with the pickaxe,” Ted advised. “But look here, I bet we can pry this sucker off.”
With the crowbar in hand, Ted slipped the bottom into the gap in the rock. Using his weight, he levered another hunk of rock away from the rest of it.
The two men took turns hammering into the rock, breaking off pieces, and carrying them back to the cart where Tony stood grazing. It was exciting seeing the power of the sledgehammer do a number of the rock face, but after an hour of work Brent was beginning to feel it in his arms and back. When there wasn’t an obvious split in the rock, Ted would draw out lines using a chisel. He made repeated taps with a smaller hammer to the narrow spike and chipped away at the rock face. These specially done rocks Brent stayed away from, since Ted said that they would be needed for any serious repairs where the shape of the stone mattered.
Brent tried his hand at chiselling a line, but the precision combined with the required strength resulted in more bruises than straight edges. Tap, tap, ouch!
By midday, both men were wiping sweat from their foreheads despite the crisp Vhalar air. They sat down for a well-deserved bite to eat but unfortunately their pile of stone only barely covered the bottom of the cart. At this rate, they were going to be there till nightfall and maybe even later. Brent looked around at the old quarry. There had to be a way to speed up the process. So far, they had mostly been chiselling downwards into the bedrock, leaving the cliff-like edges untouched. Ted had said something about not wanting to start a landslide. But wait a moment, isn’t that what they wanted to free up more rock?
When Brent broached the topic with his brother, Ted was initially reluctant. “But Ted, we could soften up the cliff face by chiselling sideways, then do some impact blows from the top until there are cracks, and only then do we use the crowbars or wedges to do the final separation.”
Ted was still a bit reluctant, but decided that they’d give it a try. At first it needed a lot more brute force than Brent’s plan originally sounded like. But then the brittleness of the rock started kicking in with more and more impact blows, and both men had to be careful not to get caught off guard as the rock pieces broke away from the cliff face with tremendous force.
Brent was elated, but at the same time he needed to keep himself in check due to the danger posed by the sudden sliding or tumbling of rocks. Although they slowed their speed in terms of hammering with the sledgehammer to remain cautious, they were breaking off pieces just as fast or faster than before.
With rocks piled high in the cart and Tony harnessed up, Brent and Ted were exhausted but excited to bring back their haul. Except as the horse started to walk forwards, the cart didn’t budge. Even with Brent and Ted pushing the cart forwards from either side, they only got it to move a few paces. The rocks were heavier than either of them had anticipated.
“How about we bring half a load today, and get the rest first thing tomorrow morning?” Brent suggested. “In fact, I’ll ask one of the Ardiechies if we can borrow his horse too.”
They would need to get up early the following morning, but as Brent worked to unload the cart, he was pleased with their work. There would be enough stone for the repairs. Ted had also selected some white flakey rocks which he called limestone. These were apparently a key ingredient for the mortar they were going to use, and they were included in the first cart load.
Brent was both excited and anxious for the next day. It was happening. They were going to repair the old wall. Now they just had to see it though.
When Brent and his brother Ted arrived at the abandoned Alivilda quarry, it was a lot greener than he had expected. Weeds and mosses had overgrown the rocky mountainside and what looked like the road in was now filled with tall grasses, ferns and wildflowers.
“Are you sure this is the place?” Brent asked hesitantly, using a crowbar to sweep away ferns and the leafy underbrush.
“Oh definitely. Mountains are sometimes jagged, but not like this.” Ted replied with ease and pointed to a sharp cliff face. “See that over there, the vertical drop. That’s where they must have stopped chiselling into the stone.”
Where Ted walked with calm confidence, Brent was still worried about getting enough stone for the repair project. He had made all the plans for the 40th of Vhalar, with volunteers, food, and most importantly the morale of the village. This was when the old Ardiechy stone wall would get repaired. But at the same time, he was worried that with just Ted and himself, they wouldn’t get enough raw materials for such a big project. Ted had frequently reminded him that it was just repair work and they weren’t building a brand new stone wall, but Brent had his doubts.
“Here we are!” Ted announced.
“This is it?”
“Cut it out Brent. This is the place. Now help me clear away some of this underbrush. They say the quarry hasn’t been used since they built the stone bridge in the middle of Alivilda.”
That would have been a very long time ago. Brent had never considered when the bridge might have been built. It was as if it had always been there, but rationally, just like any other building, it must have been constructed at some point in Alivilda’s history. But most other buildings in Alivilda were made of wood and often thatch for the rooftops. So it was no wonder that the quarry didn’t remain in operation.
With thick leather working gloves and sturdy boots, the cartographer began clearing away vegetation, fallen branches, the dense cover of ferns and the occasional large stone. As the two men worked, it started to look more and more like a quarry with wide open areas of hard rock and some parts cut deep into the mountain slopes.
Brent was relieved that they had indeed found what they were looking for, but now seeing all the exposed bedrock, it seemed like a monumental task to extract the rock. There was only the rare isolated stone, and the rest they’d have to remove from the bedrock?
“How are we going to…”
“I brought tools, Brent. No craftsman comes without his tools. You don’t do your mapping without a compass and ink. So naturally we weren’t going to quarry rocks without a couple of sledgehammers and a crowbar.” The elder brother gave a wink and gestured to their cart with faithful Tony the horse waiting near it.
“How about you go fetch them, and don’t forget a couple of iron wedges too.”
When Brent returned with the tools, Ted took one of the sledgehammers with one flat side and one pointed side, and spun it in his hands.
“First thing you want to know about rock is that it’s strong, but it’s brittle. That means if you hit it a certain way that it doesn’t like, it’ll crack. The second thing you want to know, is that rock has natural lines and curves to it. Just like a pretty girl, stone has cleavage too. And you want to make use of that cleavage for splitting it.”
The elder brother bent down over some of the exposed bedrock and ran his fingers over the natural grooves of the stone. Finding a line where there was a natural edge to the rock, he stood up, lined up the spike of the sledgehammer, and gave a might blow to the rock. The metal and stone clanged loud against each other and Ted gave another swing. This time it struck deep into the rock. As Ted gave a hard yank to get it out, some of the stone crumbled away.
“This is where the wedges come in real handy. Place one inside the crack and give the hammer a swing with the flat side this time.”
While Brent liked to think he was in shape, he was no match for his brother who was constantly doing physical labour as part of his work. The cartographer squeezed the iron block into the crack and carefully lined up the hammer before giving it a good swing. But other than the loud clang, the rock didn’t break away.
“Harder! Give it all you got!”
This time Brent lifted the sledgehammer high up in the air and used the weight and momentum to swing hard upon the iron wedge. There was a loud crack and Brent jumped out of the way as a large piece of rock came loose.
Pleased with himself, he moved the wedge to another indent. But this time as he swung, instead of the rock coming apart it was the piece of iron that went flying.
“You gotta make sure it’s secure and sometimes that needs a bit more work with the pickaxe,” Ted advised. “But look here, I bet we can pry this sucker off.”
With the crowbar in hand, Ted slipped the bottom into the gap in the rock. Using his weight, he levered another hunk of rock away from the rest of it.
The two men took turns hammering into the rock, breaking off pieces, and carrying them back to the cart where Tony stood grazing. It was exciting seeing the power of the sledgehammer do a number of the rock face, but after an hour of work Brent was beginning to feel it in his arms and back. When there wasn’t an obvious split in the rock, Ted would draw out lines using a chisel. He made repeated taps with a smaller hammer to the narrow spike and chipped away at the rock face. These specially done rocks Brent stayed away from, since Ted said that they would be needed for any serious repairs where the shape of the stone mattered.
Brent tried his hand at chiselling a line, but the precision combined with the required strength resulted in more bruises than straight edges. Tap, tap, ouch!
By midday, both men were wiping sweat from their foreheads despite the crisp Vhalar air. They sat down for a well-deserved bite to eat but unfortunately their pile of stone only barely covered the bottom of the cart. At this rate, they were going to be there till nightfall and maybe even later. Brent looked around at the old quarry. There had to be a way to speed up the process. So far, they had mostly been chiselling downwards into the bedrock, leaving the cliff-like edges untouched. Ted had said something about not wanting to start a landslide. But wait a moment, isn’t that what they wanted to free up more rock?
When Brent broached the topic with his brother, Ted was initially reluctant. “But Ted, we could soften up the cliff face by chiselling sideways, then do some impact blows from the top until there are cracks, and only then do we use the crowbars or wedges to do the final separation.”
Ted was still a bit reluctant, but decided that they’d give it a try. At first it needed a lot more brute force than Brent’s plan originally sounded like. But then the brittleness of the rock started kicking in with more and more impact blows, and both men had to be careful not to get caught off guard as the rock pieces broke away from the cliff face with tremendous force.
Brent was elated, but at the same time he needed to keep himself in check due to the danger posed by the sudden sliding or tumbling of rocks. Although they slowed their speed in terms of hammering with the sledgehammer to remain cautious, they were breaking off pieces just as fast or faster than before.
With rocks piled high in the cart and Tony harnessed up, Brent and Ted were exhausted but excited to bring back their haul. Except as the horse started to walk forwards, the cart didn’t budge. Even with Brent and Ted pushing the cart forwards from either side, they only got it to move a few paces. The rocks were heavier than either of them had anticipated.
“How about we bring half a load today, and get the rest first thing tomorrow morning?” Brent suggested. “In fact, I’ll ask one of the Ardiechies if we can borrow his horse too.”
They would need to get up early the following morning, but as Brent worked to unload the cart, he was pleased with their work. There would be enough stone for the repairs. Ted had also selected some white flakey rocks which he called limestone. These were apparently a key ingredient for the mortar they were going to use, and they were included in the first cart load.
Brent was both excited and anxious for the next day. It was happening. They were going to repair the old wall. Now they just had to see it though.
