Epilogue on 'the wall'

Climbed down last Monday to finalize this chapter of restoring the view of the wall

"as the composer intended."

There is more dirt there, I know, but no more mortared rocks placed by human hand below those now revealed.

Rootlets and dirt form a matrix that glues itself into the nooks and crannies of every course of rock and mortar. They say gravity is the attraction of matter for all other matter and that it is one of the fundamental forces in the universe. This stuff is sticky!

Before I climbed down with my rope and harness I lowered two hoses: one of compressed air and one of water.

The plan was to use an old tuck pointer tool to dig out the grout joints packed with dirt and roots, then blow out the loosened dirt with air, followed by a washing with water. Once the water started flowing the difficulty and messy factor was sure to rise, so I was saving that for last.

Hey, there's somebody down there!

Look out below!

I started at the top and worked my way down with each phase of the cleaning, letting the rope and harness have my weight as I swung back and forth across the wall face. Once I'd finished scraping with the tuck pointing tool I climbed back up and adjusted the rope, gradually playing it out as I worked my way back down with the air hose, then the water hose. Before washing with water I took the shovel and shoved off all the accumulated tailings from the ledge at the base of the wall. There's a five foot high pile of dirt on the beach below now, so I'm hoping for a really high tide before I schedule a day for restoring the beach to the view "the composer intended."