When you walk through New England woods, you often come across stone walls. They are a reminder that the region is more forested now than it was 100 years ago. The stone walls used to delimit pastures.This one is in Rocky Narrows, a Trustees of Reservations property in Sherborn, MA. The video below is the view from King Philip's Overlook (with someone flying a toy plane).
5 comments:
I spent many a happy October vacationing in New England BC (before kid), and as a gardener, was always envious of those walls. Paired with the fall foliage, they are something to behold.
nonlocal
(reprinted from a Facebook comment)
Hey Paul! This is my Hood! We live in Sherborn, quite close to Rocky Narrows and walk the dogs here frequently. Indeed you are right about the growth in forest--scattered throughout woods in Sherborn (including on our own property) are walls which date back to much earlier farms--it's fun to come across them and imagine what the land used to look like.
Huh, I never knew stone walls used to all be in fields!
Well good - I've learned something today. My work is done.
I grew up in MA and had these walls in the woods behind my childhood home. I used to play there and think of the people that may have lived and worked there so long ago. I live out of state now and miss all that history. Thank you for bringing me back for a moment!
Also, I'm not in the medical field - not even close - but really enjoy reading your blog.
We have these stone walls because New England soil is best suited for growing rocks. New ones appear every year as the frost heaves them up from the glacial till. Dig a hole in New Hampshire and discover why they call it the Granite State.
I always think about how much work it was to extract and move those boulders manually with shovels, fulcrums and levers, using oxen or horses, the tractors of those times. A cubic yard of stone weighs about 3000 pounds.
The toy plane video is a little scary. You can now have your own Predator drone, just like the CIA.
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