Stone wall - North Haven, Maine

Aug 11

Though I had never set foot on any of them, or even passed near their shores, I’d always felt a connection to the islands of Penobscot Bay. My family has history there. My dad grew up on 700 Acre Island, off Isleboro, where my grandfather ran the boatyard that my great-grand father started in the 1920’s. According to family lore, Sid, my great-grandfather, earned the seed money for the boatyard as a bootlegger, running whiskey down the coast from Canada at the start of the Prohibition.

My uncle lived and lobstered for most his life on the remote island of Criehaven, about eighteen miles off the mainland.

With vague notions of a connection to a part of the state I don’t really know, I jumped at the opportunity for a two day project on North Haven, neighbor to Vinalhaven, an hour ferry ride from Rockland.

My buddy Steve from Firfolk Stonework was up for the adventure as well. We tore down and rebuilt an existing garden wall using only the materials available on site. The limited resources and strict time limit imposed by the ferry schedule made for a fun challenge. We had some great reclaimed granite to work with but had to pirate some field stone from another part of the property to finish the new wall. Maybe Sid would be proud.

I’m grateful Gavin at GBR Landscape Design brought us out there for this phase of the project. I’m already looking forward to going back.