The Brick Pile

Five years ago I replaced my original foundation (from 1909) and removed a chimney that acted as a vent chase (for a floor furnace and wood burning stove).

Both were made of brick ("unreinforced masonry"), together they created a heckuva pile.

I've begun in earnest to sort through the heap, scraping away the disintegrating mortar, tossing the broken pieces, restacking the rest. Delightedly, many are "clinkers", bricks that became mishapen and irregular, vitrified, in the firing process.

The "clinker" name comes, supposedly, from the sound the bricks make when knocked together, owing to their increased density.

These odd lots were often discarded, until practitioners of the Arts & Crafts movement began to prize their organic, pre-industrial non-conformity.

Last year, I took a few hundred and laid a patio. This year maybe I'll make an horno, and then next year a giant tower that'll reach hundreds of feet up into the sky.....

Maybe I should just keep scraping.