June 20th, 2016: Balls, Stone Balls

Living is the age of the internet we see pictures of cool stuff all the time. Things we like but would have never seen because
they're a continent, or even half the world, away. When I saw these beautiful stone balls I was surprised the builder/artist is a
local guy. Well not local like in my hood, but local like Eastern PA, maybe 75 miles from me. Plus he does a lot of work much closer,
along the "main line", close to Undertoad's neighborhood.



The dude goes by the name Devin Devine, which is probably a nom de plume, and he has a landscaping company that does beautiful
stone work. We've seen many examples of beautiful stone walls and landscaping, but I haven't seen dry laid balls like this.
I'd tell him how impressed with his work I am, but hesitant to say Hey man, I love your balls.



That center one is under construction. As much as I like the landscaped yards with the beautiful walls and stone features. I also
realize how much more difficult it makes yard maintenance. I've seen the TV shows where they swoop in and do yard make-overs
with water features and stuff that looks like a Disney World beer garden. Then when the show's in the can, they move on leaving
the homeowner to learn the hard way just what they've gotten themselves into. Best wait till you're rich enough to have a full time
gardener/groundskeeper or two.

Leaving aside any jokes about testicular fortitude (that I'm not awake enough to think of on my own quite yet), this guy would LOVE my neck of the proverbial woods. A lot of those stones look like naturally-broken shale or slate, probably shale which is less hard, less dense, and more likely to break into small pieces. That's why slate is the one used for chalkboards--it does a much better job of being processed into large thin sheets without shattering. The shale around here--and there's LOTS--comes in a wild variety of colors. Just about an hour away from my apartment there's a huge outcrop right upside Interstate 90 that is partly purple, partly green, a little tan here and there, all in thin layers, and sometimes "intrusive" layers of things like chlorite (bright sparkly non-crystalline green) and calcite (mostly either white or salmon-colored). And there's a pullout right next to it, big enough for a few semi trucks . Even if Devin does shape the stones by hand, which looks possible from the pics, shale's easy to handle that way too.

I'd never want a place with a "yard makeover". Ugh. Gimmee a stone retaining wall 40 feet long and 15 feet tall at one end so I can slap together the right ceramics and turn it into a mosaic of a Sarcosuchus with the words "Do Not Enter Unless The Crocodile Knows You" between its teeth. If you've never met Sarcosuchus...here ya go: http://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aQ8Mjrd_700b.jpg and with the skull of a modern croc: http://tinyurl.com/zs4aysa

I never thought I'd hear myself say something like this, but, I like that guy's balls.

PA is the slate and shale capitol of the world, along with 95% of the Anthracite in the western hemisphere. There are mountains of slate/shale, tailings dug out of the coal mines over the last couple hundred years.

Rock stacking in many forms is a popular and accessible activity.
Before I read the comments, my first reaction was how short of raw materials my area is.
Youse guys in the slate are lucky. Let's see what you make.

I make IOtDs.

I make ppl angry.

I cut wicked farts. And piss people off.

I'm just a girl who cain't say no.

Beautiful balls ... I did some marketing with that company a few years ago. His balls were never mentioned.