Building a Stone Cairn

The sound of water gently trickling over a bed of stones. The smell of rich earth mixed with fallen leaves and branches. The feel of damp air in the cool shade of the trees. The warmth of a patch of sunlight reaching down through the tree tops.  "Let's erect a cairn as a marker to commemorate how special this place is to us, this place we call Maple Grove. Let's erect it to the glory of God and give thanks for all His blessings."

Building a Stone Cairn

When we moved six years ago, we faced a lot of clean-up on our property.  As we had to do some excavating, we found a lot of stones and stacked them in piles according to size.  We were sure we would find some creative use for them in time.

The first thing I wanted to do with some of the stones was to build a cairn.  Cairns are man-made heaps of stones that have been erected all over the world since ancient times.  Varying in size and complexity, they serve as land markers. Some were built to mark graves, summit tops, or trail ways.  Others marked the location of historical or memorable events. A carefully built cairn will stand perfectly balanced without the use of cements or adhesives.

I chose a very large, flat stone (rock) to serve as the base for our cairn.  Then I chose varying sizes and carefully balanced them on top of each other, interspersing a larger one in between a stack of smaller ones.  As I neared the tops, I used increasingly smaller stones.

The trick is to keep it level and balanced.  You should wear heavy shoes when you're building a cairn (definitely not flip-flops!) and be aware of where your feet are.  It if topples over while you're working on it (which it most likely will, a couple of times), it could really hurt if those stones land on your feet.

This cairn has been standing in perfect balance for six years. I built it to serve as a monument to the greatness and goodness of our God, a memorial for us to recount the ways He has blessed us and to testify to His mercy and faithfulness.

"When your children ask their fathers in times to come,

'What do these stones mean?' then you shall let your children know. . .

 that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever" 

(Joshua 4:21-24).

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Building a Field Stone Sidewalk

They say that if you're in a hurry, a sidewalk ought to be smooth and level. But if you want to slow things down a bit, keep life simple and enjoy the view, a stone walkway can help you accomplish that!   Following is the tale of how we built our stone walkway with stones we found on our property.

During an excavation project, we collected the field stones that were uncovered on our property and set them aside, stacking them in piles of small, medium and large sizes until we were ready to build our sidewalk.  (While we were waiting for the excavation work to be complete, I had fun building a cairn with some of the stones.)

Our yard was already dug up from the excavation; if it had not been, we would have had to lift up the sod. As it was, we outlined the shape we wanted with rope and laid down landscape fabric to deter grass and weeds from growing.

We filled the area with limestone gravel, raked it, and started laying down the stones.  We used larger ones on the edges and scattered in the middle, then filled in between with medium and small stones.  It was like putting a puzzle together! (A puzzle without a picture to look at!)  The stones could be wiggled down into the gravel to form a more even top surface. After all the pieces were in place, we filled in between the gaps with pea gravel.

When finished, we planted grass seed around it and added some landscaping plants (sun-loving ones for our setting):  Blue Fescue, Shasta Daisies, Mums, Asters, and Coral Bells.

A stone sidewalk encourages one to slow down and look around, so add something pretty and interesting to pause and admire . . . like flowers, or chickens!

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Building a Paving Stone Sidewalk

If we could do it, you can too! Our front sidewalk is much longer than our back sidewalk, so we decided to use paving stones instead of field stones.  The paving stones gave us a smoother, more even surface.  We decided to extend it across the front of the porch and wrap it around the side.  (Later we removed the porch railing and ended up with a larger porch area.)

First we marked out the shape of the sidewalk with spray paint.  We removed the sod, laid down landscaping fabric, a layer of limestone gravel, and then a layer of sand.  That all has to be tamped down before you start laying down the paving stones. You can rent a tamper from many hardware stores.

We decided to curve the shape of our sidewalk leading from the porch to the driveway.  This design gave it a little more interest than a long straight sidewalk. We used boards to frame the straight part of the sidewalk in front of the porch and landscape edgers for the curved section.

The end result is a sidewalk that encourages you to slow down and take it easy.  Some landscape plants and a porch swing are additional encouragement for taking a break and relaxing. That's our goal--to make life simpler and more relaxed.

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