Iceberg analogy

      On the surface it was about the size of two dinner plates. Probing around it with the rod I use to pry out rocks revealed a much larger rock. Returning with a shovel and a crow bar I went to work. After clearing the dirt off the edges and top I found a place where the crow bar could get purchase for a pry. Pry I did without even being able to make the rock wiggle. The tip of the iceberg analogy fits for obviously this is much larger than revealed by its surface. . How did farm tillage implements avoid this stone?  Because the top is rounded perhaps they slid over it. 10,000 years ago a glacier deposited it on this hillside and there it has been ever since. Now it is something for me to play with. Working until I tire I leave it assured that it will remain until I return.

    This experience made me think of my grandfather, Lars Negstad. He began homesteading in 1885. On the land were many large rocks, much too large to be moved with horses. With my Dad when I was a boy I saw a flat rock with hole through it in a rock pile on the farm. When I asked Dad about that hole he explained. His father would chisel a hole deep into the rock, fill it with black powder, ignite the powder and fracture the rock. The pieces could then be removed. This was before dynamite. Even as a boy I recognized the labor it would take to chisel a rock so I asked Dad how long it would take. He said he probably could do it in a day.  It boggles my mind to think of the labor and tedium to accomplish this, pounding for a day on a chisel. It also explains the sledgehammer we had on the farm with the working surface rounded into a mushroom shape.

Takk for alt,

Al

                  The field that holds the stone.