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Posts tagged ‘House Renovation’

Coup de Cœur – Part Six: Do you see what I see?

An occasional series chronicling the tale of the renovation of a former medieval watch-tower in southern France …..

The previous owner of the house was a photographer of some talent.  He could make the silkiest purse out of a lady pigs ear, of this I am certain.  When we looked at his wonderful images on the numerous websites that carried Maison Carrée to her adoring public eager to stay for a few days and sample the delights of his culinary skill as well as the comfortable and welcoming interior she offered, we never once worried about wall coverings.  Downstairs was pristine white and upstairs had some sort of nice neutrally wallpaper.  When we arrived to view what turned out to be the Wreck of the Hesperus, one of the stand-out moments was the realisation of what that nice neutrally  wallpaper actually was.  Not wallpaper in fact.  Not fabric.  Nothing so outré for our Monsieur.  Nay, nay and thrice I say nay … he’d gone a whole new road – a positive Route Nationale, a Motorway, an Interstate Highway.  I can imagine the sprightly conversation he had with himself inside his head:

‘What shall I cover the upstairs walls with?’

‘How about floor, old chap ..?’

‘You genius!  Floor!  Of course – floor is the way forward for these walls.  And shall we perchance wallpaper the floor?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.  Obviously not.  That is an absurd notion’.

And so it was.  Laminate clip together floor.  But not just any laminate clip-together floor.  Oh no!  This was laminate clip-together bargain basement, below economy starter range floor.  The floor that the salesman guides you too first before pointing out that absolutely anything at all that you choose from here will be better, even spending tuppence halfpenny more and thus securing himself an extra portion of fries on the commission he earns.  That sort of laminate clip-together floor.  And it had been slathered all over the walls.  Look closely at the top picture …. do you see what I see?

Having done as bidden by the kind M. Terminateur so that his crew could busy themselves ridding our roof of those pesky vrillettes we occupied ourselves as best we could, whenever we could (remember it’s a four hour round trip from North West to South West tip of le Cantal on winding backroads descending and scaling deep gorges and negotiating tight épingles (épingles de cheveux being hairpins) and though I am presently living in the land of mahusive distances and ludicrously cheap fuel, I honestly think it’s a stretch  for a daily commute that you aren’t getting paid for.  I was polishing the staircase for entertainment one day when there was a thunderous crack followed by a thud, and a whisper later, a riotous crash.  I dropped my bottle of special wood oil and rushed up the stairs (killing the chances of the oil drying to a gratifying sheen in the process) to find HB² looking frankly irritatingly smug.  He had taken a crowbar and jemmied a generous sliver of the offending floor from the wall and underneath looked rather  interesting.

He proceeded to slice his way through both the front bedrooms and the back one – the one with it’s cleverly placed shower delivering to a spontaneous auditorium at the back of the house for the ladies of the village, should he decide to give of his famed full frontal peep show once more.  I’m considering selling tickets if we get desperate enough that we need extra funds.  By lunchtime the walls were fully delaminated and revealing the secrets of their pre-veneered days.  My nerves were in shreds because this stuff was razor sharp and entirely rigid.  Two Brains clearly should have been wearing a helmet but instead favoured an interesting series of movements that echoed accurately St Vitus Dance to avoid being brained or scalped by the merest slither of a second.  We had a car full of laminate to take to the lovely man at the déchètterie with the enviable view.   After two p.m.  Obviously.  This is rural France and everything stops for lunch.  For two hours.  It took multiple trips in Franck our trusty unalluring but reasonably priced car and a deep and meaningful conversation to ascertain whether this vile material computes as wood.  It doesn’t.  It is to be viewed in the same way as a carnivore regards nut cutlets.  It simply is not meat.  Nor indeed wood.

Do you see what I see ….? It’s Franck skulking sneakily waiting for his next load of laminated booty

Meanwhile back at the ranch The Brains was eulogising over what had been uncovered.  Previously we had paid scant attention to the one unplastered wall on the stairwell merely having a cursory discussion over whether we should give it too a smooth finish.  But in  that deluge of lethal laminate everything changed.  It was akin to the moment in Carl Sagan’s Contact when Jodie Foster sees the universe with fresh eyes from a beach somewhere out ‘there’ that she has landed on after being lunged through space at a squillion miles an hour.   In the comedy shower-closet bedroom are exposed the same  glorious planks, cut by someone with an eye for rigidly even lines that rivals my mother’s.  By way of explanation – my mother is a wonderful letter writer but has always shunned the slip of lined paper popped under the page to guide the pen evenly approach and consequently, although she commences elegantly (even now in her mid-eighties) she rapidly starts to wander at an angle so that by the time she reaches the bottom of the page she is writing at a 45° slope.  It’s a  foible that no-one ever mentions, but all notice.  These walls were clearly made by a kindred charpentiere.  They are of tongue-in-groove construction, about 9″-10″ wide and slender.   They slot together very well sporting the odd large flat headed nail to complete the perfectly rustic and rather naïve effect.

And still the excitement continued.  The layout of the house, and we had assumed the original layout, was a small landing with doors at right angles to one another.  One into a bedroom with a square double doorframe through to a further room and the other into Peeping Tom’s Joy – the room with the freestanding shower in front of the window.  But taking the cladding off the walls had revealed a door from PTJ into the back bedroom.    This poses new questions about how we lay out the upstairs.  Our thought process is fluid and a teeny bit erratic so this revalation just adds a zesty new spritz to the operation.

On the other side of the wall were further, piquant delights – loose hessian overlaid with several layers of historic wallpaper.  A couple of florals, a groovy grey linear embossed which immediately took me back to the dull horrors of my childhood and my favourite, a sort of squarial pattern each square containing a picture – a flowerhead here, a windmill there, there again a boat, and even the makings of a medieval town.  I wonder about the person lying in bed looking at the pictures – I wonder if they had ever travelled from Marcolès and whether they dreamed of getting on that boat and searching for treasures in far-off lands.  In fact we know that a very tall Russian lady lived in the house for decades last century – maybe she was put in a boat to cross the sea or maybe her journey escaping White Russia as a small child was overland.  Either way it must have been arduous, gruelling and not a little frightening.

I am reminded of another house long ago and far away in England.  The girls and I lived in the grounds of the, by then closed, only Jewish Public School in the country (US readers Public School obscurely means Private School in  England).  Carmel College.  There was a house called ‘Wall House’ which was perfectly invisible except for a front door with a letter box.  In it lived a very very grand Russian lady of advancing years who wore astonishing velvet and brocade ensembles which cascaded to her ankles and conjured up vivid reminders of an age so bygone that I never knew it.  She invited me to take tea.  I was seated on a glamorous and very upright silk upholstered  chair.  She called out in Russian and clapped her jewelled hands smartly whereupon and instantly  in the corner of the room a shabby bundle of cloth shifted revealing a remarkably decrepit and faintly moth-eaten man.  He bowed and moved into the kitchen from whence he returned after a pause during which she and I continued a rather formal and resolutely non-probing conversation, bearing a silver tray complete with very ornate fine porcelain teapot and guilded and delicately painted teacups with their dainty matching plates on which were slices of terrifically inebriated fruit cake.  He served us sombrely and then went back to his corner, disappearing like the Psammead into his quicksand of sheets.  I suppose he had been with her all his life.  The world is full of surprises and some of them are quite uncomfortable.

Anyhow, there was a statuesque Russian lady for many years in Marcolès.   Hold that thought.  Particularly the height.  Because the other curiosity hidden behind the disgusting veneer is a series of oval holes.  You might remember there is one that casts down on the stairwell from the privy giving it an air of anything but privacy.  But there are more.  Some have been boarded over and some stuffed with newspaper.  But why?  They are reminiscent of those holes you stick your head through on an English Pier and have your photo taken as a pin-up girl in an eye popping bikini or a muscle-bound man in striped bathers.  The odd thing is the height of them.  If you wanted to stick your head through them you would have to be a VERY lanky lady indeed.  I imagine they were crude internal portholes to let some light into the middle of the house but I rather like the image of a Frenchman on stilts, complete with compulsary moustache peering through various cut-out holes just for laughs.

PS:  When I arrived back after taking the very last load of the offending clip-together laminate flooring to the dump (and we have kept a plank as a grim reminder of the way it was) the elderly couple opposite were arriving back from a toddle out.  They meandered across the street and asked me how it was going.  Oh, really good I regailed them.  We’re progressing well with the clear out of all the dreadful things – can you imagine, he had cheap laminate flooring on the walls.  Lunacy – he was clearly mad.  They nodded in that slightly absent way that polite people have and took their leave.  As they opened their front door, I swear I could see laminate flooring on …. the walls.  Just another oh bugger moment and a further reminder to self to keep thy big mouth shut.

The bonus is entirely to indulge my mother and the child-me that she raised – she used to play Johnny Mathis to us on the gramaphone in the drawing room on rainy days amongst so many other 45s of Unicorns and Doctor Kildaire, Nellie the Elephant and Dusty Springfield and Ferry Cross the Mersey and Doris Day, as we puzzled our puzzles, stuck our fuzzy felt and honed the skills required for taking tea with grand ancient Russian ladies  by making our own tea party for the teddy bears.  Those halcyon days when I didn’t question her lack of ability to keep a straight line when writing her comments on my report cards or the milk order because she was just simply ‘My Mummy’ ….

If you enjoyed this you might like to catch up on previous installments by typing Coup de Coeur into the search box in the side bar.  The more the merrier at this party – so much more fun that way.

Coup de Cœur – Part Five: Perhaps he’d like to come inside

An occasional series chronicling the tale of the renovation of a former medieval watch-tower in southern France …..

And so it came to pass that we had an almost cleaned out interior.  One little thing kept bugging me, though.  As hard as I tried, the floorboards in the  grenier just refused to be clean.  I swept them, mopped them, swept them some more and mopped them again and again but everytime I thought I had banished their dusty film so it came back.  The thing is this.  Sometimes even I can be a teeny bit unobservant.  The me, who prides herself on having the most point perfect eye for detail can fail to see what is slapping me in the face with a leather glove and blinding me with with an eye-achingly bright light like a Gestapo Officer up close and far too personal.   On the other hand it took The Myopic Brains moments to notice when he arrived on one of his famed flying visits from wherever on the planet he was saving stardust.  ‘See those holes, darling?  The holes in the charpente which you have so eloquently been likening to the ‘Bottled Spider’ image that Antony Sher conjured when playing Richard III at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1980s.  Those holes, my love – they are worm holes.’  This was an epic ‘oh bugger’ moment for us both.  Up to that point we had been convinced that the house had no major issues and that it was simply a matter of stripping back and restoring and that the most taxing issue would be where to place the bathrooms.

Woodworm is a serious issue in any culture.  I have yet to recover from my mother breaking the news to me at 23 that she had burned my doll’s house (a 1920s treasure that was home to my imagination during the decades of growing up and which I had assumed would house my dreams forever).  It took me years to forgive her so perhaps those that are devotees of the idea of Karma are now looking sagely (and, perchance a little self-righteously)  at me and quietly explaining that she, karma, is a bitch and will always eventually, and probably when you are least expecting it, bite you in the bum.  In France the major issue is Capricorne or Longihorne as some will confusingly call it.  Like turmites they will strip a house systematically and thoroughly and are impossible to get rid of.  If you are infested with Capricornes there is no choice but to have all the woodwork replaced and even then, like all good terminators there is a good chance that they’ll be back.  They are lethal.  My husband is a Capricorn.

We called in to see the mayor.  He pulled his phone from his pocket, twirled it idly in his fingers like Gary Cooper in ‘High Noon’, performed some sort of sleight of hand scroll of the screen with the finesse of a seasoned poker player and found us two numbers.  Writing them extra carefully and clearly he looked at us with the heaviest and gravest of expressions and wished us heartfelt good luck and godspeed in our quest to get a verdict.  His last words echoed in our agitated minds … ‘l hope for your sakes it is not capricorne for these would indeed be a severe catastrophe’.

Bug Man Number One was more local being only 30 km away rather than the 180 km trek that Bug Man Number Two would have to make and by good fortune he was able to rendez-vous at the house in two days time.  We barely slept for those two days …. I convinced myself that if I had had the sense to recognise what the issue was a little earlier with my mop now propped in the corner eyeing me mornfully, all would have been well but since I was wearing the dunce hat and sitting on the naughty chair I had condemned the house and it would probably have to be burned like my dolls house.  And the village would hate me because it is their emblem, their symbol.  In fact any entente cordiale between Britain and France (tenuous at the best of times, let’s face it) would crumble and there would be friendly and then unfriendly fire.  Probably a war.  There was little doubt in my mind that I had brought about The Apocolypse.   And it was all my fault.  And The Bean.  She’d been there all the time and she hadn’t done anything to help.  If in doubt, blame the dog.  So I did.  But it didn’t help.  My guilt was my straight jacket.  I couldn’t eat nor sleep and consequently when we arrived for the meeting on a freezing cold February morning I had all the aesthetic appeal of mouldy baguette slowly decaying in a murky puddle.  In truth distinctly less appeal than that.  And a stomach that was growling and gurgling like a Grizzly Bear that has indulged in a barrel of rotten apples  because although I was not hungry, it was.

The man in question let’s call him M.  le Terminateur had the air of an unsuccessful travelling purveyor of quackery in the wildwest.  Wire-rimmed spectacles, slightly stooped and with a long face that was, well … long.  Slightly melancholy.  And he carried a bag – bigger and baggier than a briefcase out of which he produced an archaic looking probe.  He advanced up the two flights of stairs brandishing the prod before him, his expression  the epitome of ideal had he been an undertaker – sombre, dignified, subdued.  He spied the offending beam instantly and with no clues from Two Brains who was seemingly glued to his side, and poked it with aplomb.  He then peered solomnly at the beam and turned to walk back downstairs.  The twittering fool that was me almost fell backwards down the stairs in my haste to get out of his hallowed way.  I managed to effect a perfect study of a grovelling buffoon as I silently implored him to give us good news.  We gathered before him, we mottly three, The Bean, having grasped the severity of the situation, showed solidarity by prancing on her hind legs and adopting her most appealing expression. He delved again into the inky depths of his cavenous bag bringing out a piece of paper and a pencil.  On it he wrote one word and then handed the pencil to my husband to write down our details which he already had but just to be certain, you understand, so that he could send us an estimate.  It was only after he had left as stealthily as he had arrived (and after a total of less than 10 minutes in our house) that I dared to gibber at my husband to let me see the paper.  The word written was Vrillette.  I had no idea what it meant but I knew it didn’t spell Capricorne. I knew for now, my beloved is the only Capricorn of note in my life.  And the weight of my guilt felt less tortuous.  For now.  I am a mother so I am, of course, hard-wired to guilt but nothing so extreme as the fear of having to torch the jewel of the village need trouble me for the moment.

Of course that was not the end of the story.  When the estimate came through it was with an instruction that all the floor boards must be lifted leaving only a few to walk on.  The men would come and inject the charpente and spray the poutres (beams) only when the space was prepared.  We spent a total of 3 days working tirelessly together to get the rest of the do-it-yourself insulation out … I’d done my best but it was not good enough – the whole area had to be dust free.  We wrenched up floor boards, saving what we could and ditching the worst and relaid them in a rather fetching patchwork but without nails  which are themselves beautiful – long, crude, simple and mostly unsalvagable – to hold them.  We brushed and we hoovered using the little lightweight upright vacuum cleaner that my mother had given me the year before.  She is a little eccentric it must be said, and when I mentioned that I had left my wonderful hospital-quality, state of-the-art, all singing and frankly nifty dancing model with a friend in England and it felt a little churlish to ask for it back, she revealed that she had 4 hoovers.  All brand new.  None used because she also has a cleaning lady who has her own hoover.  I chose a sweet little bagless number and drove back to France triumphant with her nestled in the boot of the car.  This diminutive lightweight beauty has become one of my best friends.  I feel very attached to her – she makes life so much more bearable not having to sweep all the time.  A girl can only take so much Cinderella chimera after all.  You will understand, therefore that my marriage nearly ended when it appeared that the brave little beast had died in action due to the sheer mass of dirt she was being expected to inhale.  HB² had no comprehension that he had murdered  my precious. Anthropomorphising household equipment is not in his remit.  Fortunately both for him and for our marriage she had simply had a perfectly understandable hot flush but my grief did prompt him to go out and buy a cheap, cheerful and above all mighty macho and potent sucker-upper.  My Little Engine That Could is back in the civilised confines of our appartment leaving Wild Bill to rule the wilds of Marcolès.  And rule he did – spotless, dirtless and dustless in no time at all.  We were ready for the coming of the bug-men.

We waited and waited.  We waited some more.  And then we waited.  It is an often commented on fact that in France, if you aren’t actually breathing down the neck of the workman of choice they will repeatedly find other things to occupy them.  These can be other money earning jobs or just propping up the bar and putting the commune to rights with their cronies depending on opportunity and how they are feeling that day.  You do have to be prepared to get a little stern.  Actually in our case, we have not experienced this tendency but it appeared that we were breaking our duck with this fellow.  So we got stern (or to be accurate, HB² got stern and I supported him with dignity on the side-lines) and eventually the news came through that phase one was complete.  I should explain that we leave a key with my heart-throb, M. le Maire so that our absence is not an issue if there is a need to access the house.  Since vrillettes are all but invisible to the naked eye, I will just have to take M. le Terminateur’s good word that the operation had been a success.   But we do now sport plastic tubes that look a little like rawl plugs all over the charpente.  They are ugly and I dislike them and we will try and find a way to disguise them but I am not so churlish as to be ungrateful for the fact that they have saved the roof.  That is good fortune indeed.

Whilst the coy little waiting game was being played out I continued to clear through the remaining cupboards.  Nothing could have prepared me for finding a gun.  I’m very scared of guns.  I think that is a sensible approach.  My good sense told me not to touch it – I became convinced that it was loaded and might simply go off at any moment.  So there it stayed and I avoided going into the room it was in until The Brains returned some weeks later.  He assured me that Wyatt Earp himself, Doc Holliday indeed and least of all Marshall Will Kane could do no damage with it because, darling,  it is a toy.  Which you will see from the photograph is obvious.  I fear the delirium that our predecessor suffered from may be contagious.

PS:  The title could only be stolen from Spike Milligan:

Today I saw a little worm
wriggling on his belly.
Perhaps he’d like to come inside
and see what’s on the telly

PPS:  If you want to catch up on the previous instalments, simply type Coup de Coeur into the search box on the top of the right hand column and it will find them for you.  Clever stuff so clearly not made by me!

Coup de Cœur – Part Four: Whistle While You Work

An occasional series chronicling the tale of the renovation of a former medieval watch-tower in southern France …..  Part One is here, Part Two is here and Part Three is here   The events in this episode took place a little under three years ago.  How time flies when you’re having fun, n’est-ce pas?

As often happens once you have overcome the initial excitement of something or other and reality cloaks you in its slightly constricting mantle like a heavy woollen duffle coat a couple of sizes too small, or a pair of pinchy stiff leather shoes, you need to knock on the door of fortitude and ask for her help.

This was the moment to be gracious to Lady Tenacity.  We were SO thrilled with the news that the house was empty and once back in France hightailed it pell-mell down the road to Marcolès from our present home further north.  In fact our rented flat is in the far north-western corner of le Cantal and Marcolès is in the far south-western corner.  It’s a two hour drive each way but it’s a really lovely two hours passing glorious views of the Monts du Cantal and diving into deep tree lined gorges and delving through glacial hills. It never fails to delight us.  In the back of the car, making life less than comfortable for The Disgruntled Bean were the various accoutrements of operation clean-up.  We picked up more en-route and The Bean became ever more peeved.

Thus began the most relentless and mostly thankless of enterprises.   HB² took up a floor-board in the attic which is planted in our collective imagination as being a wonderful tranquil master bedroom and serene relaxing place when the house is eventually finished.  He discovered that our predecessor had used sawdust for insulation.  It doesn’t work.  That was abundantly clear.  The house was, is bitterly cold.  Of course the fact that the same  happy fellow had ripped several of the radiators off the wall in his spiteful retribution against those that dared to buy the house that he wanted to sell doesn’t help the refridgeration factor but the ingenious insulation wasn’t productive either.  And in places it had provided a gleeful nesting place for some or other rodent.  One that had made it’s hideaway complete with a variety of different flavours of nut.  Mercifully it was not in residence as we set about getting rid of the wood filings.  We took out something near to 30 bags from the attic. The black full sized dustbin lining bags not, for clarity, little carrier bags for shopping.  It was back-breaking and necessitated wearing a mask and goggles and the white hooded clean suits that a friend had donated to the cause.  I felt like a Ghost Buster but without the joy of a Marshmallow Man to distract me.  About half way through the exercise, husband returned to the US leaving me to continue the clean-up, now with a looming deadline brought on by a discovery to be shared in a later post.  It was winter, it was still a four hour round trip and my romantic little project began to pall noisily.

As a bit of light relief from the attic, the husband had braved the cellar.  Despite the valiant efforts of the town ouvriers there was still ample room for improvement.  Another 20 or so bags of rubble and wood and general stuff from centuries of life came out.  But what was revealed was magical.  So magical that it is worthy of a post all of it’s own … and for that you will have to wait.

Meanwhile, Madame Balai (Mrs Mop) as I was rapidly re-branding myself was cleaning the whole place through.  The dirt of ages dissolved under my unrelenting mop and bucket and  whirling micro-cloths which I brandished with all the skill of a champion cheerleader.  The rather horrible floor on the ground floor looked marginally less horrible and the stairs and wood floors on the first floor began to look quite majestic.  I cleaned the curious loo which sits at the top of it’s own staircase complete with red carpet which I’m afraid we consigned to a black bag all of it’s own for percieved and probably, let’s face it given the abhorrent provinence of the previous occupants, solidly sensible reasons. Bizarrely it has a window to the rest of the house which begs many questions which I have not yet had the pluck to ponder.  I bravely tackled and proudly conquered the bathroom.  The loo in there is not fixed to the floor which gives an added frisson of excitement to those brave enough to use it and the bath is the very same bath that was given it’s own fanfare by the previous owner as being big enough for three, something I care not to dwell on having met him.  And I cleaned the shower on the first floor.  This was genuinely a labour of love.  The shower is a particularly odd feature of the house being on a podium in what has been the master bedroom.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for the facilities-in-a-bedroom approach favoured by many chic boutique hotels and will indeed have a tub and a pretty sink in the master bedroom of the finished house but this is simply incongruous standing with all its plumbing displayed to the world like a brazen flasher and has no virtue except for a dollop of comedy value.  However, whilst we go through the process of renovating and restoring and generally swishing and swooshing the house back to the triumph it deserves to be, a working shower is helpful.  I donned protective gloves, mask and goggles for the job because when I lifted the slats and revealed the tray it had clearly and absolutely NEVER been cleaned.  I removed the sludge and hairy deposits of the antecedent thoroughly and zealously dredged the drainhole and can categorically state that I have seldom, if ever, been so fully disgusted.  And I have lived a little.  Indeed, I may still need some sort of therapy to truly achieve catharsis.

Now you will gather, I hope, that my husband loves me.  And to show his love that very day, he announced that a refreshing shower, after all my hard, and victorious toil in conquering the swamp pit, was just the thing he needed.

I left him to it and took The Bean for a stroll round the village.  As I was walking back to the house I had a thought.  I ran it past The Brains on the way home a little later.  As casually as I could.  I just wondered.  Foolishly I was certain.  But I did wonder.  If he had remembered to close the shutters on the window whilst he was showering.  Since the shower is right in front of the window.  The relatively large and low window.  Of course he must have.  Mustn’t he?  No?  Well that was an eye-full for the town then and in particular the very elderly lady opposite  …. remember the house has absolutely no land to buffer it.  I’m frankly amazed that M. le Maire hasn’t had complaints.    Or maybe he is just too polite to mention it.  I cringe at the thought that maybe the town ladies might be anticipating regular matinee and evening performances.

I didn’t count the number of times I went down, with the increasingly testy Bean, to clean.  It was many severals.  And it was groundhoggishly tiresome in that everytime I got it looking spruce, I had to drag more bags of rubbish and rubble through the spick and spanness and my fragile effect was royally spoiled.  But all clouds are silver lined in world of me – you just have to keep those peepers peeled and embrace the good when it falls in your path as it invariably does.  One of the shiney pieces of silver in this story is the man at the déchetterie or waste disposal point if you will.  He has the most amazing view of the mountains from his little wooden hut and he takes his job very seriously.

Actually in my experience most of the people that work at such places, with or without breathtaking views are thoroughly nice – or at least they are in England and France.  I have always been treated kindly by them.  And this fella with his bella vista backdrop is no exception.  He helped us with bags and bags of wood dust and yet more of rubble and some of indescribable and unspeakable impurity and always (having asked where we were from on our first foray) said emphatically ‘vous êtes de Marcolès, non?‘ he being in St Mamet-la Salvatat, the next commune over.  It rather feels as though being from Marcolès in some way explains our undoubted lunacy.  I like him.  The Brains was less enthralled though when swinging a large and heavy bag of wood-dust into the vast metal skip, it split above his head and spewed shavings over him in a comedy moment of epic proportions.  Or at least my laughter was epic.  He remained stone-faced.   In fairness, I did not escape unscathed … as you can see from this fetching picture of me complete with dirty lines effecting comedy whiskers.

When the walls were washed down, inevitably, given the age of the paint, much of it flaked off.  The Bean should be less cantankerous about the place if she takes the time to notice that one of the slivers that snowed down onto my lovingly tended (a thousand times so far) staircase is an exact silhouette of Her Beanship.

PS:  Of course the title is Snow White who righteously contended that if you whistle while you work the task will be easier, speedier and far more pleasant.  It may be relevant that I can’t actually whistle ….

Coup de Cœur – Part Three: I beg your pardon …

I’m no magician and smoke and mirrors are not part of any repetoire I possess however much I might sometimes wish they were.   In arrant contrast, it was abundantly clear that the incumbent owner of the house was a maestro of the art.  What greeted us was a filthy mess though there were still a number of rather lovely pieces in the house.  But we had this feeling, this sense that it can be, will be, beautiful again.  We signed the Acte that made us the legal owners exactly a year after we first viewed it.  A year that will remain forever tatooed on my little brain and a year that provides the reference for a novel in progress in my head.

Three months after signing the Acte, the process of cajoling the previous owner (who mostly spends his time in Marseilles and seems mostly to be unable to leave his bed though he was beyond vigorous when we met) to come and take what he wanted from the house before the start of les grandes vacances on 1st July or thereabouts, was ongoing.  The village had been totally and remarkably supportive of us and we had agreed that they could use the ground floor as an Office de Tourisme and that they could revert to the years old tradition of using the house in their famed Nuits de Marcolès.   In France if the owner of the effects wants them you have to dance a lengthy gavotte before you can retain them or eject them.  We danced.  The village stowed things upstairs to make way for their tourist office.  We continued to dance.  The summer festivites came and went.  We still danced.  Le Monsieur came and went sporadically and things disappeared.  He was clearly suffering from the cold further south in Mediterranean Marseille because he decided to rip the radiators from their moorings excavating chunks of wall with them.  All this is legal by the way.  We carried on dancing.   Finally about a year ago word came that he had taken all he wanted.  Exhausted, we threw off our Red Shoes and stopped dancing.

I drove south to my newly empty house.  Wind back.  Empty?  Nah!  Every stick of junk he possessed was  still there.  Somehow my enchanting house, the place I fell in love with on the internet, remember, had turned into a cold, unwelcoming landfill site.  We had known it was impossible to walk across the grenier (attic) floor, my husband had kept the worst secrets of the cave (cellar) from me on the basis that the ladder was dodgy.  Lies, all despicable lies – I’m quite the mountain goat on the quiet and I bound up and down ladders quite nimbly, thank you.  But I chose not to argue, nor look, frankly fearful of what I might find.  The truth was far worse than any imagined fiction.  And sandwiched in the middle of top and underground floors are two others, which somehow seemed to have sprouted their own detritus.   Abundantly.

Enter the town.  Monsieur le Maire de Marcolès is officially my hero.  His assistant can clearly trace her ancestry to celestial angels.  The town would see to the emptying.  The least they could do in the face of our saving their jewel (they call it their emblem) … well actually they didn’t need to, but my goodness me we snapped their hands off with the speed and certainty of a Kingfisher skewering it’s supper.

The town workers (generally referred to as les ouvriers) set about their task.  They fitted it in between their routine and other jobs.  I journeyed down after a month and was overjoyed.  A week later I went again and could not believe what greeted me – there was even more debris than the week before.  This bizarre and unwelcome routine continued for weeks.  Smile-despair-smile-despair.  Every single time I thought there was nothing else to unearth, the jolly ouvriers found more.  Not that I was complaining, they were moving the damned stuff.  And it was just stuff.  Lots and lots of stuff.  The physical incarnation of a clearly disturbed mind.  The demented collection of a frenzied, and almost certainly certifiable magpie.

In November, we were in the Mairie (town hall, if you will) discussing something or other with the beatified assistant when the chief ouvrier came staggering in.  He looked at us, shrugged the most glorious gaelic shrug I have EVER seen and told us we were entirely and clearly mad to have taken on the house.  The beatifeic one laughed angellically.  I felt sick.

Christmas loomed.  We were to spend it in England.  HB² arrived at my mother’s house on Christmas Eve.  On Christmas Day (his birthday incidentally), he checked email.  The beauteous creature who is the assistant to the mayor of Marcolès (I’ve recommended her for canonisation) had sent us a note:   ‘The house is empty.  Happy Christmas’.  We danced.

PS:  The picture shows me clasping a rose.  A rose plucked by the Mayor the first time we showed him inside a house he remembered from his childhood throughout his adolescence and for a large chunk of his adult life when it was always, always part of village festivities.  Until the previous denizen moved in.  The rose-bush flourishes on the side of the house.  The Mayor has taken it upon himself to keep it tended in our absence.  And tells me whenever he has pruned, or re-fastened it to the wall with a liberal sparkle in his eye – sparkling at ladies being something I have noted, he is more than rather good at.   I may not have been promised a rose garden, but I beg your pardon – I got one tended by the highest official in town!

And just because I can and I fancy giving you a bonus … here’s Moira Shearer again but this time strutting her red shoes  to Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control’  … let’s face facts, I know the feeling.

Catch up on the previous installments of this noble saga here which contains a link to part one


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Last Updated: August 22, 2018

Video Poker Speed Records

The purpose of this page is to document the known fastest video poker players. I have two records, one for play on a single machine and one on two machines. Here are the current record holders:

Machines Speed* Record Holder Date
One 2,262 Dr. Antonius 11/1/2017
Two 2,544 Ken 10/17/2017

* Speed measured in hands per hour.

  1. Play will be measured over a period of approximately ten minutes.
  2. All play will be recorded on video to verify accuracy.
  3. For any mistake, three hands for every 1% loss in expected value will be deducted from the total hands played, as determined by our video poker hand analyzer.
  4. Play may be on any five-card draw game. This would exclude games like Pick 'Em Poker and Double Down Stud.
  5. Only single-play games. What matters is decisions made. So, please, no more inquiries about 100-play video poker.

Single Machine Record

The current record holder is "Dr. Antonius" with a speed of an amazing 2,262 hands per hour. He chose to remain as anonymous as possible but you can at least see his hands pressing the buttons in this video of his record-breaking performance.

Before Dr. Antonius challenged him, "Ken" was both the single-machine and double-machine record holder. Here is Ken's performance at one machine.

Finally, here is an honorable mention to "gerbackk" for a speed of about 2,032 hands per hour on a 10/6 double double bonus machine. I have not gone through the entire video yet, nor checked the play for accuracy.

Double Machine Record

The record playing two machines at the same time is held by "Ken" at an incredible rate of 2,544 hands per hour. Ken kindly agreed to be on camera for an interview as well. Here is the video of his record-setting attempt.

Just for fun, I did another short video of Ken playing from a wider shot. Here is playing at an even faster rate of 2,590 hands per hour. However, since this test wasn't over the required ten minutes, we don't consider it an official record.

Seeking Challengers

If you're confident you can beat either of these records, please contact me. You can reach me through the "contact" form here or at my forum at

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Square Enix celebrate over six million units sales

SQUARE ENIX is proud to celebrate over six million shipments and digital sales of NieR:Automata™, the action role-playing game.

NieR:Automata™ was developed in collaboration by PlatinumGames Inc. and created by acclaimed director YOKO TARO (Drakengard®), composer Keiichi Okabe (TEKKEN / Drakengard), and producer Yosuke Saito (DRAGON QUEST® X).

About NieR: Automata

NieR: Automata tells the story of androids 2B, 9S and A2 and their battle to reclaim a machine-driven dystopia overrun by powerful weapons known as machine lifeforms. Following the game’s initial release in 2017, NieR:Automata has shipped more than six million physical and digital copies worldwide and has received critical acclaim across the globe for its deep, captivating storyline and fantastic blend of action-packed and high-speed battles.

NieR:Automata™ was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam. To don’t miss any latest news about NieR: Automata follow the creators on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and the official website.

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Send me real-time posts from this site at my email
Mark Holder

Twitter: Just Relax

Twitter (TWTR) failed to deliver on revenues, but the reaccelerating of DAUs will lead to the eventual stock rebound. DAUs surged by 21 million over last Q3 to 145 million versus 139 million in the prior quarter..

A 20% decline here is far too much.

Disclosure: Long TWTR

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Empathy: A Human Value Against Violence

The boom on the concept of “empathy” can be attributed to the rise of HUMANISM and the influence of CARL ROGERS, who claimed that empathy is a necessary and sufficient condition for psychological change. We now get to consider Empathy as a Human Value Against Violence.

Most authors agree to describe empathy as the ability to share affection, and this emotional response contributes a moral reason, that is, a reason that contributes to pro-social behavior. Thus, the roots of morality are in empathy, so empathizing with potential victims and sharing their discomfort, moves people to acting to help. Thus, moral development is characterized by the cultivation of moral affection or empathy. According to this theory, we can distinguish four developmental levels of empathic feeling evolving from a global empathy in which the child does not differentiate himself from the other; to a level of empathy in which the other person does not even have to be present and it is sufficient to have the information of a given situation to empathize with her. So, and as children develop the ability to form social concepts, they can also empathize with the difficulties of an entire group.
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QST 2/21 on Insertion Loss

In a recent QST article, (Gable 2021) gave the following advice:

Self-SWR is commonly known as Insertion VSWR. The article contains several errors in definition of SWR, Return Loss and Insertion Loss… but suffice to say that he uses \(InsertionLossdB=-|s21dB|\).

In the example given above, VSWR=1.2 means ReturnLoss=20.8dB (and |s11|=-20.8dB).

InsertionLoss in this case is due to input MismatchLoss (failure to capture the maximum power available from the source) and Loss (conversion of some energy to heat).

Let’s check the last statement in the quote by calculating the scenario using Calculate Loss from s11 and s21.

InsertionLoss of 0.5dB in the presence of input VSWR=1.2 (|s11|=-20.8dB) has Loss=0.4637dB. We can calculate the power lost in the switch itself as heat as \(P=50 (1-10^{\frac{-0.4637}{10}})=5.06 \: W\), somewhat less than Gable’s 5.8W. (Since the calculator gives loss as a numeric value of 1.113, a simpler calculation is \(P=50 (1-\frac1{1.113})=5.07 \: W\).)

Note that the inferences of these measurements with a VNA apply to sources that are well represented by a Thevenin equivalent circuit with Zth=50+j0Ω. Most ham transmitters do not comply with that requirement, and the power output under mismatch is best assessed with a directional wattmeter.

It is difficult to understand why QST would publish an article that purports to drill down on these effects when it is not based on sound concepts and theory.


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Best Price refrigeration

2m Industrial Safety Guard Rail Barrier Bollard

2m Industrial Safety Guard Rail Barrier Bollard

At OzSupply Australia we are proud to stock Surface Mounting Industrial Safety Rail Guard Steel Bollards Factory Rails. These rails are made from Steel and are very sturdy and strong and at 2m they cover a long length. These rails are suitable for car parking, warehouses and building and rails where you just need to prevent a accident. The base is a solid welding base mounting base plate and is durable.

Industrial Steel Guard Measurements:

  • Material: Steel
  • Width: 2000mm
  • Hight: 200mm
  • Mounting Base Plate Diameter: 150mm
  • Tube Diameter: 76mm
  • Steel Thickness: 3mm
  • Colour: Yellow

  • Designed for protecting Car Parking Bays, Buildings and Warehouse
  • Solid Round Fully Welded Mounting Base Plate
  • Durable and Extra Heavy Duty Use


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• P47 Ultrasonic Sensor
  • Dimensions

Bulk discount rates

Below are the available bulk discount rates for each individual item when you purchase a certain amount

Buy 5 - 9 and pay only $258.00 each
Buy 10 - 24 and pay only $244.00 each

3 - 5 weeks delivery

  • Sensing Distance: 100 - 600 mm
  • Output1 x NPN (N.O.)
  • Connection: Cable, 2m
  • Set Point Adjustment: Potentiometer
  • Housing: M18, PBT
  • Features: -

• Distance measurement of moving machine parts

• Detection of moving objects made of all materials, including glass

• Presence detection of objects and humans

• Counting of objects with various shapes

• Completeness control of objects in bundles (bottles in a box)

• Level measurement of bulk goods storage and liquids in silos and containers

• Winding and unwinding control of rolls in paper-, coils- textile industries

• Web tension control in a multi-level working process

• Sorting control by measuring the height profile of packaging items

• Position control by measuring the stacking height and overlaps on loaders

• Area Monitoring

• Collision avoidance in the case of automated guided vehicles


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Point72 Ventures

Chris Jackson

Stamford / New York

Chris Jackson is the Chief Operating Officer for Point72 Private Investments, the holding company of Point72 Ventures. He is focused on improving the group’s financial and operational infrastructure, which includes financial and strategic planning, valuations, reporting, and internal policies and procedures.

Prior to his role with Point72 Private Investments, Chris was the Executive Officer for Point72’s Market Intelligence and Point72 Ventures teams for two years. Prior to that, he was an Executive Officer for the Firm’s Long/Short Equities business and the Head of Finance Analytics for Point72.

Earlier in his career, Chris was a manager at Ernst & Young Consulting and worked on their Credit Risk and Capital Management team. There, he focused on helping bulge bracket investment banks navigate post-financial crisis regulatory reform.

We have a massive opportunity here to shape and create.

We are surrounded by extremely talented forward-thinkers, and our job is to help our teams and our founders grow the next great company. We have an incredible mix of talent and resources. That’s exciting.

I believe in transparency.

Encouraging directness and for people to share opinions – especially contrarian ones – allows for progress to be achieved much faster, especially in a growing organization.

Small talk cheat sheet:

Sports analytics, Mets baseball, golf, sci-fi movies, appetizers.

I’m a little competitive.

I played a lot of team sports growing up, which helped awaken my competitive drive. I want my team to win. My job is to put our organization in the position to do so every day; it’s what is constantly on my mind.


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Coaching supervision: how it works

There are two methods of coaching supervision:

  • One-to-one telephone support for intensive, quality time

    • Typically, one hour every six to eight weeks, depending on your level of experience and the number of hours you spend in coaching each month

  • Group supervision for greater breadth

    • Typically, half a day every six to eight weeks (the programme can be tailored for organisations that wish to establish an in-house supervision group). The group comprises up to 6 coaches, made up of either external or internal coaches, who each learn from the experiences of others

Many coaches choose both methods of supervision for maximum benefit.


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eBay Guides - Jewelry Selling Guide
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 Reviews & Guides

      Reviews & Guides home page

Jewelry Selling Guide

Tags:  selling | jewelry | watch | ring | goldWrite a guide!

Got a collection collecting dust? Jewelry box getting full? Need a new style? Got your eye on a new gem? Whether you're an experienced jewelry expert or simply looking to sell a few of your unused pieces, eBay makes selling Jewelry fun. Showcasing your bracelets, necklaces, and earrings, and rings to millions of buyers makes it easy to earn extra cash on eBay..

Cash In on Jewelry

Cash In on Jewelry

Many Jewelry lovers successfully use eBay not only as a place to find unique Jewelry pieces, but as a way to help fund their growing jewelry collections. Whether you want to adorn yourself with diamonds and pearls, update your look, or save up for a meaningful gift, selling on eBay is the perfect way to earn extra money. Swap out your unused pieces—that costume vintage jewelry you only wore once or your extra set of pearl studs—and buy yourself a new beautiful treasure.

What's It Worth?

Already have an item in mind? Visit Jewelry & Watches Seller Central to find out the average selling price of similar items on eBay. You can also search completed listings to see how others are selling similar items.

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Find Out What's Hot in Jewelry

Find Out What's Hot in Jewelry

Millions of buyers come to eBay in search of Jewelry—in all styles, materials, gemstones, and colors. The following provides just a small sampling of the myriad of Jewelry that you could sell on eBay. To get a real-time view of what’s in demand, what buyers are searching for, and what items are selling the most, visit Jewelry & Watches Seller Central.

There’s an endless array of materials used in jewelry making—from diamonds and rubies to platinum and gold to even glass beads and leather. Thousands of pieces of jewelry made of all sorts of materials have been sold on eBay. Popular types of jewelry include:

Along with different materials, jewelry comes in all sorts of pieces. Here are a few jewelry pieces that are popular on eBay:

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Get Top Dollar for Your Jewelry

Get Top Dollar for Your Jewelry

Once you have an idea of what you’re going to sell, it’s time to think about how to attract Jewelry buyers. Here are the top tips from eBay’s most successful sellers.

Help Buyers Find Your Items with Keywords

Keywords are a great way to attract buyers to your listing, especially when used correctly in your Listing Title. Listing titles are used by eBay’s search engine to pull up listings during a search. Use your 55 characters wisely, and try to anticipate what buyers will be searching for. Find out what is being searched right now with our list of Top Jewelry & Watches Searches. Be sure to include common search terms like “diamond” and “gold,” when appropriate. State important characteristics of your item—what it is, material, brand, size, certified if applicable, and condition. Of course, you should only include keywords that are relevant to the item you are selling. You can also search current and completed eBay listings to see what other sellers include in their titles.

In your Listing Description, make sure to include both basic information and details about your item. A good description is concise, well organized, and easy to read. Create bold section headlines, bulleted lists, and be sure to restate the information featured in your title plus more details such as dimensions and sizes, original retail price, estimated value, information about the collection it belongs to, authentication, grades (such as cut and clarity), and any other interesting features. You can also insert photos or links to videos that highlight the unique attributes of your item. Think about your listing from the buyer's perspective. The more information you provide, the more likely the buyer will be to place a bid on your item.

Here are some terms commonly used by other sellers to describe their Jewelry pieces. Make sure you only use a term when you are sure it applies to your item.

  • New In Box (NIB): Unworn jewelry that remains in its original packaging or box is new in box.

  • New With Tags (NWT) or New Without Tags (NWOT): Like pieces that are new in box, jewelry that has never been worn or used can fall under new with tags and new without tags. Jewelry that has never been worn can fall under NWOT. If price tags or branding tags are still attached to the piece, your item is NWT.

  • Gently Used (GU): Gently used fabrics have been washed and possibly used, but appear new and have no signs of wear and no flaws.

  • Poor: Jewelry pieces that show major wear and cannot be worn are in poor condition. However pieces in poor condition might have desirable elements and parts. Make sure to be very clear about your item's condition when listing an item in poor condition.

  • Carat (CT): Carat is a measurement of size for diamonds and precious stones.

Do Your Research

If you don’t know much about your piece of Jewelry, a little research can help you understand what you are selling which can lead to a higher return. Examine your Jewelry for any signatures, markings, dates, engravings, or brands. Try to learn about the company or maker that your pieces belongs to—stones and materials used, production era, production company, and rarity. All of these details will give you a better estimate of your item’s value, and educating your buyers can increase the attraction of your item.

When selling a Jewelry pieces that contain expensive stones or materials, or that are is potentially worth a lot, it may be worthwhile to get your item appraised and authenticated. Authenticating your Jewelry not only provides you with a good estimate on expected sale price, but it also builds buyer confidence. Third-party graders and authenticators are qualified, experienced professionals who pledge to provide unbiased opinions.

Note: Opinions expressed by evaluators are theirs alone. eBay does not examine items listed on its site and does not have the expertise to evaluate items. eBay cannot guarantee the findings of any evaluator — authentication and grading are difficult, often subjective matters where experts themselves occasionally disagree. Each of the companies listed on the Opinions, Authentication, and Grading page that provides authentication and/or grading services is an independent company, and eBay is not responsible in any way for any action, inaction, opinion or service in connection with these companies. You should review the credentials of each company and use your own judgment before using any company's services.

Showcase Your Jewelry with Great Photos

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words! Photos are the closest you can get to putting your Jewelry in the hands of potential buyers. Here are some tips on how to best represent your item:

  • Choose the Right Background:

  • Use a contrasting, solid backdrop. By placing your Jewelry on a solid black or white backdrop, you draw a buyer’s immediate attention onto the item. This is easily achieved by hanging a bed sheet or placing poster board behind the item. Use a plain, colored fabric backdrop to make your item stand out. Most importantly, avoid background clutter that can distract buyers or confuse them regarding what you are selling. If you are selling more than one item in your listing, take pictures of the set as a whole and of individual pieces.

  • Cover All Angles: Take pictures from multiple angles and distances, zooming in on important details. Make sure highlight any signatures, dates, and details. Zoom in to show textures and colors. Always include photographs of any flaws—it gives the buyer a clearer idea of what they are bidding on and builds buyer trust.

  • Use Proper Lighting: Natural light tends to give the best representation of your item, however direct sunlight can have the nasty effect of shadows. Find an area that receives indirect sunlight. Try taking your item outside on a sunny day and photograph it in a shady area. If you can't seem to find an area like this, or would prefer to use indoor lighting, try surrounding your item with desk, overhead, or floor lamps. Above all, avoid using your camera's flash which causes distortion and shadows.

  • Add Gallery: Including a Gallery photo with your listing is extremely important for success. You can attract attention to your item with a photo next to your listings in search results. In addition, when a buyer uses “Picture Gallery” to look at search results, your listing will be shown. Your Gallery picture should be a very clear, uncluttered view of your item. Since it is the only photo visible on search pages, make sure it provides a good representation of your item.

Maximize Profits with Low Priced, No Reserve Listings

Auction style listings are a great way to create excitement around your Jewelry, which in turn can develop into a bidding frenzy among buyers—which could result in a higher selling price for you. The keys to a successful auction style listing are to get your first bid and encourage bidders to continue bidding.

  • Low Starting Price: Getting that first bid is critical, as other buyers are generally more likely to jump in if they see there are already bids on an item. To do this, many sellers prefer to set an opening bid below what the item is actually worth. Try beginning with a low starting price—such as 99 cents—to jumpstart bidding activity.

  • No Reserve: Be careful when setting a reserve price. Buyers may lose interest in an item if they place a bid and find it doesn't meet the reserve. Because they do not know the reserve price, they may assume the seller is simply asking too much for the item. To prevent this from happening, try listing your item with "No Reserve." Items sold with "No Reserve" typically attract more buyer interest, as buyers know that they will actually win the item if they are the high bidder.

  • Accept PayPal: Buyers want to know that they can pay securely when making a purchase on eBay. By accepting PayPal payments, you can build buyer confidence and help protect yourself. PayPal transfers payments to a bank account of your choice and notifies you when a payment has been received. Best of all, PayPal offers free online tools to make managing your payments easier. You can even print shipping labels and track your shipments.

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Ship Your Jewelry

Ship Your Jewelry

Specifying reasonable shipping and handling costs in your listing is essential for smart selling—and it improves your search ranking when buyers sort by total cost. Never leave a buyer wondering how much shipping will cost.

Calculate Shipping Costs

Often times, shipping costs will vary by distance. To make sure your shipping charges reflect this, incorporate a shipping calculator into your listing. With the shipping calculator, eBay can automatically calculate the shipping cost for your buyers based on the size and weight of your item and the buyer’s location. You can also program the calculator to add in the cost of packaging materials and your handling fee, if any.

Select a Service Option

To protect both you and your buyer against loss or damage during shipping, consider purchasing shipping insurance for your package—especially for higher priced items. Shipping insurance is available through most shipping companies, and can be purchased while you pay for shipping. You can factor in the cost of shipping insurance into your shipping cost—but make sure you state in your description that you are doing so. Buyers want to know that they are paying extra for shipping for a good reason.

Package Your Jewelry Securely

After your item sells, you are ready to ship it off to its new home. Make sure you package your item safely and securely. Use bubble wrap, foam, or other packaging materials to make sure your item is not damaged during its move. Here are a few steps to think about:

  • Wrap It: Individually wrap items and provide lots of cushioning (bubble wrap, peanuts, foam, corrugated dividers, or crumpled paper). Do not use newspaper—the ink can rub off and damage your items. If any pieces could be damaged by water, make sure you wrap them with a layer of sealed plastic or place them in a waterproof Ziploc bag.

  • Box It: You can order free USPS Priority Mail boxes right on eBay—the United States Postal Service will even deliver them right to your door for free!

  • Seal It: Use strong tape designed for shipping, rather than masking tape, cellophane tape, string or paper over-wrap. Once you’ve sealed up your package, you can pay for shipping and print shipping labels right from your PayPal account. You can even request a pickup from USPS or UPS, saving you a trip to the Post Office or UPS location.

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Build Your Reputation

Build Your Reputation

Communication is the key to a successful transaction. Make sure you’re available before, during, and after the sale. Answer any questions about your item promptly. Include a thank you note in your package—it’s a great way to surprise and delight your buyer and encourage them to leave you positive feedback.

Always Leave Feedback

Feedback is extremely important for all eBay users. Consistent positive feedback lets buyers know that you manage transactions well and that you care about your reputation. One way to help ensure good feedback is to communicate well, represent your item truthfully in your listing, and be polite. Also remember your buyer’s feedback score is as important to them as yours is to you—so be courteous, thoughtful, and truthful when leaving feedback.

Express Yourself

Be more than just a username to your buyers. Introduce yourself through your About Me page and MyWorld. Add pictures, keep track of your favorite buyers, and tell the community about your interests and collections. Show your expertise by writing Reviews & Guides. Connect with other Jewelry lovers on the Jewelry & Gemstones Discussion Board. Remember, be yourself—and have fun!

Sell for a Cause

Support your favorite cause and enhance buyer trust and loyalty at the same time. eBay Giving Works listings tend to sell at higher final prices, because buyers are more willing to purchase, and often pay more for, items that benefit a nonprofit. Get more exposure and receive a receipt for your tax-deductible donations!

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How new baby River is helping Joaquin Phoenix heal from brother’s death

While they have kept the birth date of their first child top secret — and, in fact, still have yet to confirm the news — it was no surprise to anyone who knows Joaquin Phoenix, 45, that he and his 35-year-old fiancée, actress Rooney Mara, named their first son River. The baby’s namesake, of course, is Joaquin’s big brother, actor River Phoenix, who tragically died in 1993.

“River is the largest influence, to this day, on Joaquin’s life,” said one Hollywood casting director who’s worked with him over the years. “Whenever his brother’s name is mentioned, Joaquin’s face goes far-away looking. You can visibly see the pain. Still. It’s always there.”

The baby’s existence was revealed by documentary director Victor Kossakovksy at the Zurich Film Festival on September 27, when Joaquin — an executive producer on Kossakovksy’s documentary on farm animals, “Gunda” — couldn’t attend. But then, privacy has always been one of the younger Phoenix’s hallmarks.

“He’s one of the most intense and best actors of his generation,” said a screenwriter who’s known him a long time. “But Joaq hates interviews, distrusts media, has a small tight-knit group of friends, rarely goes out — he doesn’t even relish rehearsing with other actors. Many of his co-stars never even get to know him! I think he enjoys being a mystery. He’s even a mystery to himself.”

Actress Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix
Actress Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix. Last month, Mara gave birth to the couple’s son, River — named for Joaquin’s late brother.Corbis via Getty Images

With Joaquin’s Academy Awards acceptance speech this past February, the public got a glimpse into his inner life when, after 30-plus film roles and three previous nominations — he took home his first Oscar, as Best Actor for “Joker.”

“I have been a scoundrel all my life, I’ve been selfish. I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I’m grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance,” he said, choking back tears. “I think that’s when we’re at our best: when we support each other … When he was seventeen, my brother wrote this lyric: he said, ‘Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.’”

When he died at just 23, River Phoenix had already been a bona fide movie star for seven years, lighting up the screen in such films as “Stand By Me,” “Running on Empty,” “Mosquito Coast” and “My Own Private Idaho.” He wasn’t supposed to overdose on cocaine and morphine on a Hollywood street corner.

It was actually young Joaquin, only 19 and then still known as Leaf — a name he’d given himself — who made the infamous 911 call on Halloween 1993.

“He’s having seizures!” Joaquin can be heard crying while River convulsed in front of the Viper Room, the Sunset Strip nightclub co-owned by Johnny Depp. “Get over here please, please, cause he’s dying, please!”

By the time paramedics arrived, River was no longer breathing.

River (on the top bunk) with a young Joaquin in 1985.
River (on the top bunk) with a young Joaquin in 1985.Getty Images

“The night River died is forever burned into Joaquin’s consciousness,” said an independent film producer who’s worked with Joaquin and known him for many years. “It has a lot to do with how intensely private he is and how he tries to keep every aspect of his personal life secret. He’s just always afraid of revealing his hurt.”

As a kid, Joaquin wasn’t all that serious about acting, despite small roles on TV shows like “Hill Street Blues” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He had a scene-stealing role as the troubled Gary in 1989’s “Parenthood,” a film directed by Ron Howard, then took a prolonged break from Hollywood.

But after his brother’s death, a switch flipped.

“It was only because of River’s encouragement — and his memory — that he decided to really go for it,” the indie producer explained. “If River hadn’t passed, I’m not sure Joaq would have gone full-tilt into films. He could have been a veterinarian, a minister, a musician. [All five Phoenix siblings] played music together as kids.”

In a “60 Minutes” interview this past September, Joaquin revealed how River “awakened something in him” when he was a teen: “He told me to watch ‘Raging Bull’ — and that changed everything.’”

Talking to Extra in 2019, he admitted, “I started acting when I was very young, and as a teenager, I wasn’t interested in roles that were available at that time. So I grew disinterested. [River] gave me a lot of confidence and was insistent that this was something I was gonna do. I couldn’t deny it because he seemed so certain.”

After “Parenthood,” the indie producer said, “Joaquin was offered a bunch of teen roles but didn’t want to take them. It wasn’t till River passed that he felt the need to act again. He felt like it would be an ode to his brother to do the thing River loved.”

The Viper Room the day after River's death. Fans left flowers, candles and notes at the spot where he collapsed.
The Viper Room the day after River’s death. Fans left flowers, candles and notes at the spot where he collapsed.Getty Images

The Phoenix clan — including sisters Rain, Summer and Liberty — weren’t raised in anything close to a conventional family home. Their parents, John and Arlyn Bottom (Phoenix is a stage name), were serious hippies, dedicated members of a Christian cult called Children of God that believed in preaching free love, among other things. The family had a nomadic life, growing up in Venezuela, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Their father, who passed away in 2015 from cancer, reportedly had a problem with alcohol. “Those kids never felt safe, though they were very close to their parents, who encouraged their love of music,” said the producer.

It was River, the oldest, whose job it was to go out and sing and play on the streets, busking with Joaquin to be able to afford food. In the late 1970s, John and Arlyn extricated themselves from the cult, eventually settling in LA. River began acting and singing at age eight, with his siblings following suit.

The late talent agent Iris Burton, who discovered the Phoenix kids after their mother begged her to see them, once told an interviewer that River believed Joaquin was the one with the biggest gift: “River said to me, ‘Joaquin is better than all of us.’”

The Phoenix family

Phoenix Family At Home
JOHN: The Phoenix patriarch (3rd from right) died from cancer in 2015, 32 years after this family photo.

Getty Images

2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones - Arrivals
ARLYN: After her 1997 divorce from John, Arlyn remarried in 2001. Now 75, she founded the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding.

Getty Images

The Art of Elysium presents John Legend's HEAVEN - Celebrating the 11th Anniversary - Red Carpet
RAIN: Now 47 and single, she is in the band The Causey Way with sister Summer.

Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Art of Elysium Heaven Gala, Los Angeles, America - 09 Jan 2016
LIBERTY: A married mom of five, she's 44 and works with her mom on the nonprofit center.

Matt Baron/Shutterstock

The Art Of Elysium 8th Annual "Heaven Gala" - Arrivals
SUMMER: Divorced from Casey Affleck, the 41-year-old has two sons with him.

2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones - Arrivals
JOAQUIN: The 45-year-old Oscar winner is engaged to Rooney Mara.

Getty Images

Outdoor Portrait Of Actor River Phoenix, 1991.
RIVER: The actor tragically died from an overdose in 1993 at age 23.

Getty Images

Up Next

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‘We very removed from the entertainment world,” Joaquin told “60 Minutes,” adding: “River was a big movie star, but we really didn’t know it till he died.”

After his death, an old friend told The Post, “There were helicopters hovering over the family’s house. And the public outpouring of emotion opened their eyes to how exposing fame can be. They’d never even looked at movie star magazines.”

To this day, Joaquin has no social media, no assistant, no entourage.

“Joaquin modeled himself after River. He idolized him,” said the indie film producer. “River had a lot of disdain for Hollywood fame. He wanted to be anonymous. It left him confused about his career, but he also felt responsible to take care of the younger kids. When River died, Joaquin took over that role.”

The story goes that River wasn’t even supposed to go to the Viper Room the night he died. He and actress Samantha Mathis, his girlfriend, were just dropping off Joaquin and Rain to see a band.

“Joaquin’s always felt like, if he and Rain hadn’t gone, River might still be alive,” the family friend said.

In a documentary, “Brothers: River and Joaquin Phoenix,” posted to YouTube earlier this year, Joaquin confesses why he feels compelled to talk about River’s death to this day.

“Death can be traumatic,” he says softly. “But that’s not the end of the story. What the eff is the point of going through something if you can’t share it? None of us have the answers. But I experienced it.”


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Welcome to Page St Labs

Bringing clarity and new possibilities

Welcome to the Page Street Labs "newsletter". Page Street Labs is an organization dedicated to bringing clarity and new possibilities in artificial intelligence and related technologies. Every week our inboxes are flooded with AI newsletters, so why do we need another one? First, this is an un-newsletter.  Think of it as a magazine with sporadic issues.  Each issue focuses less on news and happenings in AI and more on developing a deeper understanding of something of broader interest. Every issue has a singular focal point, though we may have occasional experimental sections. We will dive deep into one topic and bring out novel findings, new ways of looking at existing things, providing a synthesis of subject matter typically limited to a few experts, but in an accessible language. Each issue aspires to bring a level of creativity/expression and scholarship that lies at the intersection of a typical literary journal and an academic journal, to create more informed conversations around the topic. The standard length of an exposition will be somewhere between 2,000-10,000 words. All writings come from wetware than GPUs; if we use generative AI technologies for writing, we will explicitly call those sections out.

Head over to our first issue covering mental models for thinking about breakthrough technologies like GPT-3 without giving into hype.

Also, tell your friends :-)


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Marketing Tips, Res...
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Marketing Tips, Resources, And Concepts On Starting And Promoting Your Business
Marketing Tips, Resources, And Concepts On Starting And Promoting Your Business
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Newly Discovered Species of Pseudo-Horse Lived 37 Million Years Ago

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Credit: University of the Basque Country

Researchers at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country describe two palaeotheriidae mammals that lived in the subtropical landscape of Alava

The UPV/EHU's Vertebrate Paleontology research group has described two new species of palaeotheriidae mammals that inhabited the subtropical landscape of Zambrana (Álava) about 37 million years ago. Their atypical dental features could point to a difference in environmental conditions between the Iberian and Central European areas.

Although hypomorph mammals (or equids) are currently represented by only one genus ("Equus') and just a handful of species of horses, donkeys and zebras, they were more diverse during the Eocene epoch (between 56 and 33.9 million years ago). One of the most widespread groups in Europe, which was an archipelago at that time, were the palaeotheriidae, named after the genus "Palaeotherium," described in 1804 from fossils originating in the quarries of Montmartre (Paris) by the famous French naturalist George Cuvier.

The international Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology has recently published a paper on a study led by Leire Perales-Gogenola describing two new species of palaeotheriidae mammals that inhabited the subtropical landscape of Zambrana (Álava) 37 million years ago. Together with their collaborators from the UPV/EHU's Vertebrate Paleontology research group, they described the new species Leptolophus cuestai and Leptolophus franzeni, naming them in memory of the paleontologists Miguel Ángel Cuesta from Palencia, and Jens Lorenz Franzen from Bremen, specialists in mammal fauna of the Eocene epoch in Europe.

Palaeotheriidae (or pseudo-horses) were represented across the European archipelago by more than half a dozen genera, more than half of which were endemic to the Iberian island, and became extinct during the climatic-biological crisis of the Eocene-Oligocene transition, also known as Stehlin's Grande Coupure. Palaeotheriidae were mammals similar in terms of body shape to today's horses, but smaller in size. "Can one imagine animals similar to horses with three toes, the size of a fox terrier, a Great Dane and a donkey living in a subtropical landscape in Alava? Many of these pseudo-horses have been described at the Zambrana site," said one of the team members Dr. Ainara Badiola. "Examples of them are the Pachynolophus zambranensis and Iberolophus arabensis species, which were first specified in this palaeontological enclave."

The two new species not only expand the fossil record and the biodiversity of palaeotheriidae fauna, but also display dental features atypical for equids of the Eocene. "Their molars have a very high crown and are covered with a thick layer of cementum. This type of dentition, also present in other endemic Iberian palaeotheriidae, could be indicative of a difference in environmental conditions between the Iberian and Central European areas, with more arid conditions or less dense or closed forests and the presence of more open areas in Iberia," explained Perales-Gogenola.

At the end of the Eocene in Europe, forests of an intertropical type gradually disappeared, giving way to plant communities of a more temperate type with more open areas. Modern horses or equids appeared in Europe later on during the Miocene (23-5.3 Ma). Their dentition, with very high crowns, is adapted for eating vegetation with a high grit content (grasses). The new species Leptolophus cuestai from the Upper Eocene site at Zambrana (Álava) also displays molars with atypically high crowns, similar to those of some of the earliest equids in Europe.

In addition to its palaeobiological interest, the diverse fossil association of mammals from Zambrana, which comprises primates, rodents, marsupials, carnivores, artiodactyla and perissodactyla, provides new information on the climatic and environmental changes that occurred in Europe and in our environment over geological time.

The UPV/EHU's Vertebrate Paleontology group is currently immersed in the description of more palaeotheriidae material, which could facilitate the description of new genera and species with unusual dental features among the equoid perissodactyla.

More information: Leire Perales-Gogenola et al, New Leptolophus (Palaeotheriidae) species from the Iberian Peninsula and early evidence of hypsodonty in an Eocene perissodactyl, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2021). DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2021.1912061
Journal information: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology


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Everyday Menu

Be sure to check out our Daily Specials!

Multi-grain, Marble Rye, Sourdough, English Muffin or Bagel

Fried Egg Sandwich  –  $3.00
Fried Egg & Cheese  –  $3.50
Bacon, Sausage or Pork Roll & Fried Egg  –  $4.50
Bacon, Sausage or Pork Roll, Fried Egg and Cheese  –  $5.00
*substitute turkey bacon add $1.00

All of our salad dressings are homemade
Balsamic Vinaigrette (House Dressing), Caesar, Herb Vinaigrette, Asian Ginger Vinaigrette, Honey Curry, Red Wine Vinaigrette, Ranch, Lemon Vinaigrette, Thousand Island, Blue Cheese

The House Salad – Mixed greens, tomato, cucumbers, olive medley, craisins, dried apricots, candied walnuts, creamy goat cheese and croutons served with our homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette.
$11.75  /  Jr size $8.75

Bollywood Salad – Mixed greens, diced Granny Smith Apples, raisins, candied walnuts, tomato, cucumbers and shredded carrots served with our popular Honey Curry Dressing.
$11.75 / Jr. size $8.75

Mediterranean Salad – Mixed greens, tomato, cucumber, olive medley, Feta Cheese, roasted peppers, chickpeas and pepperoncini served with our homemade light Greek Lemon Dressing.
$11.25  /  Jr. size $8.35

Tossed Salad – Mixed greens, cucumbers, tomato, olive medley, carrots, broccoli and croutons served with a dressing of your choice.
$10.25  /  Jr. size $7.25

Chicken Caesar Salad – Mixed greens, Roasted Chicken and croutons served with our homemade Caesar Dressing. $11.75  /  Jr. size $8.75

Club Salad – Mixed greens, Monterey Jack Cheese, bacon bits, tomato, cucumbers, olive medley and your choice of Turkey, Roasted Chicken or homemade Tuna or Chicken Salad, topped with a dressing of your choice.
$11.75 /  Jr. Size $8.75

Roasted Vegetable Salad – Mixed greens, seasonal roasted vegetables, goat cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds, tomato, and French Fried Onions served with our Herb Vinaigrette Dressing.
$11.75  /  Jr. size $8.75

Asian Noodle Salad – Asian noodles with julienne red roasted peppers, chopped broccoli and shredded carrots marinated in our Asian Marinade (soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, vegetable oil, sesame oil and sesame seeds), tomatoes, served on mixed greens with our homemade Asian Ginger Vinaigrette.
$11.25 / Jr. size $8.35

Chef Salad – Mixed Greens, Tomato, Olive Medley, Ham, Turkey, Swiss Cheese, and Hard Boiled Egg served with our House made Ranch Dressing. $11.75 / Jr. size $8.75

Add Chicken Salad or Tuna salad to any salad: add $2.25

BOWL – $5.50  CUP – $4.50

BOWL – $5.00   CUP $4.00   QUART $13.25
Be sure to ask about what’s in the ladle.

Palermo’s Cubano – Our Famous Roasted Pork, Ham, pickles, Swiss cheese and spicy brown mustard grilled to a perfection on a fresh Cubano Roll. (hot peppers optional) $11.50

South Philly Special – Roast Pork, Provolone Cheese and sautéed spinach served on a fresh Steak Roll. Spice it up with some hot peppers! $11.50

Poppies’ Grilled Cheese – A combination of Cheddar, Swiss and American cheese with bacon and homemade Tomato Jam grilled on sourdough bread. $10.75

Mimi’s Favorite Tuna Salad – Our Famous Tuna Salad (made with white Albacore Tuna), American cheese, sliced pickles, spinach, tomato and our homemade Honey Mustard grilled to a golden brown on multi-grain bread. $10.75

Breads – Sourdough, Marble Rye, Multi-grain, Panini Roll, Cubano Roll (add $0.75)
Wraps – White, Spinach, Wheat,
Gluten Free Wrap (add $1.50)

Just a Sandwich – Your choice of bread, lettuce, tomato, with Roast Beef, Turkey, Chicken, Tuna Salad or Chicken Salad.  $9.50

The “Palermo Club” Sandwich – 3-Layers of lettuce, tomato, mayo and bacon with your choice of Turkey, Roast Beef or Chicken on toasted club bread. $10.25.  Other breads add $.75

Corned Beef Special – Corned Beef, homemade coleslaw and our 1000 Island Dressing served on a marble rye bread.  $10.25

Havarti Dill-light – Havarti Dill Cheese, Turkey, Chicken, Tuna salad or Chicken Salad, tomato, cucumbers and mayo served on multi-grain bread.  $10.25

BLT – Bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo served on toasted sourdough. $7.50.  Add Turkey $2.25

Chicken Caesar Wrap – Lettuce, Roasted Chicken, Crispy Fried Onions and our House Made Caesar Dressing served in a white wrap. $10.25

Tex-Mex Wrap – Roasted Chicken, guacamole, Spinach, Pico de gallo, hot peppers, Shredded Cheese and Chipotle Mayo in a spinach wrap. $10.25

Buffalo Chicken Wrap – Lettuce, Tomato, Roasted Chicken, Blue Cheese Crumble and our house made Buffalo Sauce served on a white wrap. $10.25

Replace bacon with turkey bacon: add $1.00
Add roasted chicken, chicken salad or tuna salad: add $2.25
Extra bacon: add $2.00
Extra cheese, guacamole or hummus: add $0.75
Hot peppers: add $.50

Breads – Sourdough, Marble Rye, Multi-grain, Panini Roll, Cubano Roll (add $0.75)
Wraps – White, Spinach, Wheat,
Gluten Free Wrap (add $1.50)

Florentine Wrap – Roasted Chicken, Provolone Cheese, spinach, bacon, roasted peppers and our Honey Mustard grilled in a wrap of your choice. $10.50

Grilled Reuben – Your choice of Corned Beef, Roast Beef or Turkey topped with Swiss Cheese, Sauerkraut and 1000 Island Dressing. $10.25

The Italiano – Spinach, tomato, roasted red peppers and Mozzarella Cheese served with our homemade Basil Pesto grilled on a Panini roll. $8.50. Add Chicken $2.25

Palermo’s Grill – Turkey or Roasted Chicken, bacon, tomato, Cheddar Cheese and 1000 Island Dressing grilled on marble rye. $10.50

Seasonal Veggie Wrap – Roasted seasonal vegetables, spinach, Mozzarella Cheese, hummus and tomato grilled in wrap of your choice. $9.50

The French Connection – Turkey Breast, Ham or Roast Beef. tomato, Brie Cheese, Brown Mustard or Raspberry Preserves grilled in a wrap of your choice. $10.50

STEAK SANDWICHES All steak sandwiches served on steak rolls. Cheese- American, Provolone and Swiss Sauteed Onions (add $.50)

Plain Steak – $9.00 Cheese Steak – $9.75

Chicken Steak – $9.25 Chicken Cheese Steak – $10.00 Buffalo Chicken Cheese Steak – $10.50

KID’S MENU Served with chips (Under 12)
All Sandwiches served on White Bread. All other breads add $0.50

Grilled Cheese $3.95
Peanut “Bubbers” & Jelly $3.95
Chicken Tenders  $5.25 (comes with Honey mustard or BBQ Sauce.)

Regular or Decaf Coffee ~ $2.00
Regular or Herbal Tea ~ $2.00
Freshly-brewed Iced Tea ~ $2.00
Bottled Iced Tea ~ $2.50
Soda: Coke, Diet Coke, Ginger Ale, Sprite ~ $1.00
Bottled Water ~ $1.00

DESSERTS (in the case)
Carrot Cake – $3.50
Brownies – $3.50
Home Made Cookies – $2.00 or 3 for $5.00


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Dry Stack Retaining Wall

By P. Allen Smith

The Garden Home Retreat sits on a hill that slopes toward the Arkansas River. This feature of the landscape offers a breathtaking view, but also creates a challenge of controlling soil erosion when designing a garden.

When looking for a solution to this dilemma I simply followed the advice of English poet Alexander Pope and consulted the "genius of place."

Between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries the land had been used as a farm and traces of the terraces built back then can still be seen today. These lines etched into the landscape gave me a series of contours to follow for building a series of dry stack retaining walls. This terracing creates broad sweeps of level ground, an elegant solution for gardening on a hillside.

I chose to use dry stack stone walls for their historic appeal and for a few practical reasons as well. Dry stack walls are built without mortar, the stones are stacked one on top of the other. This makes them naturally draining, which is important when using a wall to retain soil. There is no need to build a foundation below the frost line because the loose stones can shift slightly to accommodate frost heave. This flexibility also means the wall is not subject to frost damage. And best of all, the dry stack method is less expensive than mortar-based walls, which appeals to my frugal nature.

I chose Course Doctors out of Flat Rock, North Carolina to install the dry stack walls at the Garden Home Retreat. I had come into contact with this company while working on a local landscaping project. I got to know their team of experts firsthand and was very pleased with their stone work. Their specialty is golf course construction and renovation, so I knew that the 425 feet of wall that I needed would be right up their alley.

Of course not all dry stack wall projects are this extensive. For smaller constructions the process is straightforward enough to do on your own, but there are a few things you should know before you get started.

  • Dry stacked stone walls are usually constructed against a hillside. Though, freestanding walls are stable up to about 3 feet in height.
  • Stone is sold by the ton on wooden pallets. The stone yard will offer delivery service if needed.
  • When you order the stacking stone also purchase crushed stone for leveling your foundation trench and for filling in gaps. This material is also called stone screenings, stone dust or fines.
  • There are 3 basic shapes of stone: round field stone, relatively flat stacking stones and uniformly cut dressed stone. Each shape will give you a different looking wall. Try to match the style of the stone with the style of your home and garden. For instance, a dressed stone wall is very formal and would be out of place in a rustic setting.
  • Essential tools for the project: level, string, wooden stakes, long handled shovel, hammer, chisel, wheel barrow or garden cart, level, gloves.
  • Useful tools to have on hand: back brace, knee pads, sledge hammer for large stones, tiller.
  • Each layer of a dry stack wall is called a course.
  • When putting your wall together mix the stone sizes throughout the wall rather than using only large stones at the bottom and small toward the top.

Here are the basic steps involved in building a dry stack stone wall.

  1. Draw the wall to scale and measure the length and height. Most stone walls are about 1 foot wide so when making your calculations you can assume this measurement. This step will help you calculate the amount of stone you will need.
  2. Visit a stone yard, select and order your stone.
  3. Measure and outline the wall using wooden stakes and string.
  4. Dig a trench of anywhere from 6 inches to 1 foot deep and 2 to 3 inches wider than the base of the wall.
  5. Fill the trench with crushed stone up to the soil line to create a level foundation.
  6. Lay one course at a time, fitting the stones closely together. Offset each course so that there are no large vertical spaces in the wall. Fill in gaps with crushed stone or dirt.
  7. Reserve an amount of large, very flat stones to use as capstones to top off the wall.

Good to Know: The Course Doctor’s Expert Advice on Constructing a Dry Stack Wall.

  1. The choice of rock is very important. Angular, flat, stacking stones are much easier to work with than round field stones.
  2. For the long term stability cut your foundation trench into native soil rather than loose bedding soil. The native soil is less likely to move around or settle.
  3. For walls that are above 3 feet tall you want to create a 3 to 4 inch lean back into the soil. Do this by stacking each progressive layer about 1/2 an inch back. This will prevent the soil pressure behind the wall from pushing the stones out over time.