Maine has fertile rolling farm fields, lots of deep, vast forest sections.

The Maine land ideal for raising critters, growing crops to feed the population. The woods to heat and build a home with in Maine. But besides the rich soil to produce sustenance, the timber, rocks are part of the landscape in Maine.

Some places in Maine more than ever you notice the rock outcroppings.

The craggy rock bound coastline is one popular tourist venue.  You see the rocks, the table land heading to the peak of Mount “K” too. Where only the hardiest vegetation can survive.

The blueberry barrons of Downeast is another spot hot with rock. Bald spots poking up and out of the ground with acidic soil. A sour PH. Those rocks that limit the use of the Maine land. Just like farming headlands that stick up and make planting, cultivation and harvest impossible.

But all those rocks that head to the surface on Maine land.

Needing to be picked and removed. Escorted to rock piles that form in the woods or used as fill in low sections of roadways. Or to create pretty obvious boundaries for properties in Maine. Nothing like a long rock wall to make where the line between the real estate pretty Helen Keller obvious.

For farming machinery to operate without being jammed or damaged. The rocks have to find a new home. Be escorted one by one to another area to sit and wait. For someone to retrieve and reuse them. That is where I am this morning as I eye a large outdoor brick fireplace.

The fireplace structure pieced together with mortar and rows of masonry bricks back in 1975.

But like most things in life, wearing out. The weather winning the battle of water tight and straight as an arrow. Now become sagging, missing pieces that keep the structural integrity sound and solid. The decline is increasing and it has been time to do something positive.

I don’t want to replace the outdoor fireplace with another one of brick though.

Avoiding all the mortar that if not sealed and maintained, will in time dry out, fall and flake again. So making a fireplace that is going to see out my time on Earth and without a big expense is the mission.

Parting with three thousands dollars to carbon copy what is there is not going to happen. Too many other projects when you own a set of farm buildings in Maine needing the financial lubrication, attention.

A local land owner had four pieces of property that he wanted to know the value of and the payment for services.

Granite curbing, pieces of the wonderful building material. That will get a new purpose in life the barter for payment. Help yourself time. To recreate a use. Beyond what the granite slabs spent the majority of it’s life since sliced and slid into the ground along a roadway to define it.

Or used in an old time cellar Maine house foundation before concrete forms and pouring walls became the standard building practice. Granite and the right hand picked stones to create an outdoor fire pit for cooking, for entertainment.

To create the crackling sound, dancing flames and release of all those positive ions on a hot summer night on a Maine lake.

So now how to put together using the shapes of granite I have to work with make it like solving a puzzle. A little Tetris, part geometry, some spacial relations exercise in the gray matter.

All toyed with carefully before moving the very heavy pieces into place.

So L3 and L4 don’t suffer too much from the try this, how about that arrangement combinations. More involved them just trying a couch or bed on the opposite wall to see how that feels for the room flow.

Inspiration from Pinterest helps the stone work granite fireplace discovery.

The Internet is an amazing source of how others in the same quandry use the quarry stone to create outdoor fireplaces. So much of what is online concentrates on inside swanky creations. Where all I am after is something that creates a chimney draw to whisk the smoke away to not sting the eyes of the circle of chairs surrounding it this summer.

To shelter the blaze and provide for grates to slide into place. To cook not just enjoy the radiance of heat from and light from the wood burning on the end of a stone patio setting.

Making something lasting from the most basic, natural materials is Maine ingenuity using what you have to work with today.

Rocks are plentiful in Maine on edges of farm fields, gravel pits and offer a work out to put into place, a new service.

Adding order and new purpose to anyone with a way to transport them. And the patience to one by one put them into place and enjoy for years to come.

If you have been there, done that with rock’s send me a ping.

Love to hear about the success and what you would have done differently if given the chance again to work with rocks. Stay tuned for finished product images once I get it figured out and set up.

New inspiration for the stone project fireplace from an ad in the Bangor Deadly this morning.  I may have to take a trip to Calais where pink granite is plentiful and practically free for the asking. But the weight transporting I found out building a front set of steps at my family home was pretty heavy.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton ME 04730