Minus Nine

You might think doing stonework in the winter would be terrible for efficiency. And you’d be right. Winter adds hours to every day. Pulling back frost blankets in the morning to uncover stone piles and half-built sections of wall, only to cover them all up again before leaving at sundown. Jumpstarting equipment with cold batteries. Shoveling snow for a full day after a storm. All of it takes time away from actually building the wall.

But there is one underappreciated efficiency boost: it’s too cold to talk.

Our jaws aren’t frozen. Dave and I are physically able to speak. We’re working on separate walls on opposite sides of the house. For us to talk, one of us would have to make the roundabout trek through the snow-shoveled path. Then we’d both have to stand there with toes and fingers going numb and no work getting done while we chat.

So we don’t. We keep working to stay warm. And to get the work done, but the cold is a nice bonus motivation.

We talk for a few minutes in the morning. Again before lunch, when we retreat to the warmth of our own trucks. And for a minute or two at the end of the day. That’s it.

I’ve seen more of the wall Dave is building from the pictures he posts on Instagram than I’ve seen in person. By the time I finish my section of wall and walk around to his, everything’s covered with frost blankets for the night.

I don’t know Dave very well. Actually, I hardly know him at all. And I haven’t gotten to know him any better on this project. But I know he does good work. And I know I don’t need to look over his shoulder. It’s one of the best parts about working with other wallers.

I can’t wait to see how the finished wall looks on his feed.