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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Dec 15, 2008, at 6:41 PM, EarthNSky wrote:

> Well, will someone, please, describe this to me?
> > > http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/moving_big_rocks

First, the guy must own a concrete company or have lots of money, as  
possibly indicated by a McMansion pictured in the distant background.  
He casts huge "stones," blocks of concrete, some as cubes, some as  
long beams that weigh many tons, and then moves them by employing  
balance points. On a concrete pad, one small stone balance point  
(never shown was how he got that stone under there) and a suitable  
horizontal gripping lever and he turns them easily. Add another  
balance point, another stone, and the same turning moves the block by  
the distance between the two stones. A similar balancing system shows  
how he moved a barn three hundred feet, turning it one way and then  
the other. All using only his one person-power.

He is determined--a key personality trait--to build his version of  
Stonehenge--personally, with nothing but shovel, concrete, wood and  
his energy. He is shown lifting a monster beam of cast concrete  
perhaps two feet square in section by twenty feet long and then  
tipping one end of it into a dug hole, then washing sand away from the  
area where the beam touches at the bottom, thereby causing it to  
continue to fall down on that end until the whole thing is standing  
plumb.

The earlier lift is accomplished by creating a balance point, then  
putting weights on one end of the long beam until that end goes down-- 
think really big teeter-totter--then adding another piece of wood just  
at the raised side of the balance point thus created by the tip. Then  
the weights are moved to the other end until that end goes down. Back  
and forth, adding more spacers until the monolith is raised to the  
desired height. Not shown is how he gets the initial balance point  
placed. On dirt I guess it could be created by digging at the center,  
placing the first balance point block, then digging away material in  
both directions out to the ends so the unit could be tilted, thus  
beginning the lift.

There is a shot of two such stones standing erect with another monster  
across the top of them. Not shown was how much forming and scaffolding  
was necessary to move the beam sideways onto the uprights after the  
lift.

It is suggested that these methods were used to build Stonehenge and  
maybe the pyramids. It's hard to explain with few words. Keep the url  
and watch it at someone's house that has high-speed connection. One  
might think of this as folly but he sure seems to be enjoying the  
exercise. And if a homesteader ever needs to move something heavy,  
this is one way to do it.

I prefer Magnolia.