> Northern California. When we lived in "Wine Country" they were all over
> the
> place like an invasive weed! Now we are up in the Alps where the main crop
> is rocks <g>
>
In VIctor Hanson's "The Other Greeks" he cites an instance where a city
dweller was passing through the high marginal land and came across a farmer
piling
rocks to make retaining walls for his terraced crops. When the traveler
asked
him what crops he was growing, the farmer replied "Aches and pains."