He and his father-in-law and partner in crime, Mike Theim, have even named a few. There’s the Manta Ray, all smooth, flat and dark, a perfect bridge, and the Eyeball with its white ring and dark center that appears to be watching you.

These rocks and a few thousand others can be found in the dry stone walls Stephens has built and seeded around the land he bought that had been part of Theim’s property in Watertown. The walls are varied; some are long, some are short, some are straight, and there’s a beauty of a wall that curves from both the east and the west, book-ending an impressive mortared stone arch.

Looking at them, you have a sense of disconnect, as if you are in another place and time, perhaps England during the time of the Romans. They are substantial structures made from the earth, and they have a great but quiet beauty.

There were no walls on Stephens’ property five-plus years ago when he and his family moved into the new home they built there, and he describes the first dry stone wall he created as “a cleaning project run amok.”

With the thought that, “Part of moving in is making the place your own,” he set to clear out an overgrown mass of honeysuckle. Lying in wait underneath were piles of stone heaved from the earth over the decades and tossed from a nearby farm field.

Stephens didn’t plan to build a wall that day, had no experience with the practice, had no need for a wall. But build a wall he did.

“I dug a bed and started stacking,” he says.
Thinking man’s effort

Stephens is a man with a big smile and great enthusiasm. To look at him, though, one would hardly think you are looking at a man whose idea of a good time is hard, physical labor. He is a whirlwind, and describes himself as “a man in motion.”

When told that Stephens is a chemist by profession, Pennsylvania-based certified waller James Asbury was not surprised. “Building a stone wall is very scientific. It’s more difficult on the mind then the body,” he says.

Featured in such publications as Garden Design magazine, Asbury has seen the demand increase for dry stone walls at his company, Mountaineer Stone (www.mountaineerstone.com), and his services are booked for the next two years.

A dry stone wall uses no mortar. Because it is held up by the weight of each stone, placing the stone is of prime importance, not unlike fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. The waller starts the two outer sides first and then fills in the middle of the wall. The walls narrow as they rise to the top, meaning big stones belong on the bottom, medium stones in the middle, and flatter pieces called capstones are placed on top. Longer through-stones go from one side of the wall to the other. These stones tie the wall together and are put in place throughout for stability.

Finally, “You can never have too many shims,” Stephens says, speaking of the fist-sized rocks used to fill in the unseen center of the wall.

According to Charles Koch, senior landscape architect at Wandsnider Landscapes in Menomonee Falls, dry stacked walls make up approximately 90% of all walls used by landscapers in the Milwaukee area. While wet stone (mortared) walls, allow greater flexibility in design and the ability to match the brick or stone used in the home’s construction, the typical cost is about $150 per face foot, vs. $35 per face foot for a dry stacked stone wall.

Typical freestanding dry stone walls are low, perhaps 3 feet high, and you can expect to use a ton of rock for every three-plus feet of length. Stephens estimates his longest wall, which took 6 weeks to build and includes the arch, required 100 tons of stone.

He uses only locally found rocks for his walls, including quartzite, sandstone, limestone, granite, gneiss and feldspar, borrowing moving equipment when needed to transport rock to his land. He once asked to borrow a Bobcat from a neighboring farmer, who agreed on the condition that Stephens remove the rock from his field. Stephens smiles in satisfaction at the memory of his good fortune that day.

While he gets some help from his father-in-law, mother-in-law Pat, wife Sunshine, and young daughters Sophie and Lucy, most of the thousands and thousands of stones in these walls have been touched, lifted, handled and placed by Stephens himself. He is modest in his accomplishment, saying, “Anyone can build a wall if they have the patience, the back and the rocks.”

According to Asbury, professional wallers must also be able to make quick decisions based on the process. “To finish a profitable wall, you pick up a stone once.”

Stephens seems to have that rule down pat. Demonstrating his skills, he turned a pile of rocks into a 2-by-1 foot section of wall in about a minute, every stone nestled tightly against the next.
A natural look

While many but not all of Asbury’s walls are made of flat, Pennsylvania limestone, which has been quarried, Stephens’ job is complicated a bit by the fact that most of his stones are fresh from the field and have few flat surfaces. Splitting stones is sometimes necessary for the right fit-and a 6-pound stone hammer he found for $3 at a rummage sale is a treasure – but he prefers the natural look of unsplit stone.

Some of Stephens’ creations are used to mark a boundary, some to separate a garden from the high trees beyond. All add great character to his land, and to the delight of his daughters, provide homes for some highly entertaining chipmunks. If his walls were to find their way into the city, he predicted they would be well suited for an informal or natural garden.

And while Stephens’ walls are true to the free-standing structures most people envision when they think of dry stone walls, Asbury noted they are used more often these days as retaining walls. Designed to hold back a section of earth, Asbury cautions, “They should not need the earth to hold them up.” His largest job to date was building a set of retaining walls that required 30 trucks of stone at 24 tons of stone per truck.

Stephens said, “The beauty of a stacked wall is that it floats and moves with the earth.” This explains its durability and the fact that a dry stone wall can last for centuries with little maintenance. Practically speaking, Asbury notes, “You build the wall and in 10 years of owning it, there may be one day of maintenance; the older they are, the better they look.”

Asbury loves building stone walls. “It’s my occupation and my preoccupation,” he says. “It’s a handcraft, it reflects a previous time, it’s artistic.”

Although not his occupation, wall building seems to have a similar hold on Stephens. He does not read or watch TV or play golf; at the exclusion of most other things – save his family and his job – he walls.

Stephens remembers his grandfather who was a mason and wishes he could see what his grandson has turned to; he thinks he would be proud.

After building the stone walls on his property, Stephens says, “I feel connected to my place.” He concedes he likes the idea that the walls he has built will last for centuries. “Those stone walls will outlast me, they’ll outlast my house,” he notes. And the satisfaction of his words is palpable.

source : www.jsonline.com By PEGGY DEVITT KATZ