Stone Clearing With Richard Herring - Chapter 1

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

Rock, Paper, Scissors - it's 7.42am on November 12th 2018 and Richard is setting out on another dog walk, but unbeknownst to his stupid family there will be something else going on, Stone Clearing. In this first proper episode Richard passes on some basic techniques of stone clearing as well as demonstrating how to keep your identity and what you are doing secret from the non-stone-clearing idiots. There are no rules, but he will give you some anyway. Also you might worry slightly that he doesn't have long to live, but don't worry he will pass on this task to his children on his death bed. This episode is really for beginners only. For more tips on stone clearing and photos of the cairns go to richardherring.com/warmingup and look around a bit.

Stone Clearing with Richard Herring Okay, I'm just going out dog walking. I'm not doing anything else. See you later. It's important, of course, that my family don't know. If anyone knows what I'm doing, including my wife, my daughter, they don't suspect. That was quite a clever way of me to put them off the scent there. Anyway, quick. Welcome to the proper first episode of Stone Clearing with Richard Herring.

Now, I should say straight away, this is going to be a podcast largely about basic techniques of stone clearing. If you are a more experienced stone collector speaking, then you may want to skip this, go to later episodes. We're just going to cover how you get started really. And as the series progresses, I'm sure we will go on to more complex techniques. You may just occasionally, I might of course just do something more complex and you'll discover that's a technique. A lot of young stone clearers say to me, they're overwhelmed, they're rich. How do I even do this? This profession, this vocation, you know, do I, am I placing stones?

Am I throwing stones? Am I just trying to get the stones off the field or am I trying to build some kind of structure? Can I kick? If I throw the stones and they miss the pace I'm aiming for, am I allowed to move them? Hey, come on, relax guys. Honestly, just, you're picking up as you go. To be honest, there are no rules. There are some moral codes, I think, which we will get to.

But you'll find your way, the stones will teach you. And believe me, after a few weeks of stone clearing, when you've found your place in the universe and understand your place in time, you'll realise nothing you do has any meaning. So, it really doesn't matter how you clear these stones, or the matters that they're cleared. And I suppose the basic tenet of, just about quite a big bit of concrete there, which is right at the opening to the field. I've never seen it before, so I just moved it to my main care, and that was interesting. I mean, the basic tenet of stone clearing is, you've got to clear the stones.

You've got to get the stones off the field. Anything else doesn't matter. And yet, sure, you can, it can be random the way you throw the stones. So, I've just chucked a pile of five or six stones, little pebbles really, into the brambles. Maybe one day that'll become a wall, maybe it won't. The wall is sort of peripheral in every sense. We're trying to get all the stones off. At the end, we want to have this field.

I mean, I don't know how many stones are on this field. It looks like a lot. I mean, it doesn't look any different than when I started. Look, even here, even right by one of my main cans, I just stepped out three feet, and I picked up three stones the size of big plums. You'd think I would have found those in the eight weeks I've been doing this, but no. So, the thing is, be patient. The stones are patient.

You must be like the stones. The stones are complacent, though. The same thing that you can't do this. They're not worried, but you can do it. So, be patient like the stones, but don't be complacent. That's probably one of my rules. Now, there are no rules, but that's probably one of my pieces of advice. You're just trying to get the stones off the field, first of all.

That's by any means necessary. And yeah, sure, that can mean, hey, let's make some interesting cans. Let's make a wall, but it can also mean, let's just get these fuckers. Excuse my language. I'm very passionate about this subject, off the field, because nothing else matters. And for me, some people say, is it crafted the wall, or is it random the wall? And it's both, okay? You're allowed to create little pockets where you know that things will go,

but also, look, there isn't time. Time's on your side. You don't have to worry about picking up every stone the first time you go around. You can pass them. These stones will still be here tomorrow, probably joined by more. I don't know where the new ones come from, but be just be patient. Just wait. And yeah, someone's like here, look up one of my better little collections

and stone under a bush there. That is starting to build into something. But come here, Wolfie. But also, you will find, randomly, over the many years you'll have to do this sport. When you call it sport, it is a sport in some ways. We'll get onto that. That those walls will begin. They will appear, even if you aren't trying to make them.

There's a dog walkie coming up here, so one of the things I have to do is try and keep what I'm doing very secret. Wolfie's back on the lead. There's two nice leather doors coming up. And Wolfie is slightly soaking himself. I'll just pretend I'm not doing it properly. Come on, Wolfie, good girl. Hello, how are you doing?

Good, yeah, fine, thank you. Good girl, come on up. There we go. They're nice, they're your friends. Come on, Wolfie. So she didn't suspect a thing. And what I quite like doing is just when the dog walk has gone past, no idea what I'm doing.

I pick up a stone when their back's turned and I can carry on my merry way. They're numb the wiser what I'm doing. Well, you know, I think this is, I haven't planned what I'm going to say with any of this. You may have worked that out. Because just the thing with this is to relax, to get into the spirit of it. I guess that's what I'm saying. A lot of younger stone killers, they want the wall there straight away. That's not going to happen, my friends.

They want to clear the stone straight away. That really is not going to happen. If you start doing this, you've got to accept that you're doing this for the rest of your life and passing it on to your children just before you die, even if they don't know what you're doing at the moment. Just on your deathbed, you must tell them. And so I thought, oh, and there's a little rule for you. This is a moral code, not a rule, because there are no rules.

A little way I live my life. I try to pick four or five stones up every time I go to the field if they're small enough. But if you drop a stone that you've picked up as you, I've got very tiny hands as many as you know, they're exactly the same size as Hermione's from Harry Potter. If you need handguide. So if I pick up four stones of one force to the ground, that stone has to be re-picked up.

You can find it. I think it's important that you move the stone. That it gets picked up again and gets placed off the field. It's a moral code, except in one occasion, which happened to me yesterday, I wish I'd done yesterday's walking away. If there are some other dog walkers coming and you have an armful of stones, it's very important that you put those stones down so they don't discover your secret identity. And we may come across some of the piles that I've had to drop.

I dropped two piles if they were very slightly more for dog walkers. One is a group of ramblers who said, you've dropped something and I thought, oh no, they saw me and it turned out I dropped my glove. It was one of those moments that comes along once in a lifetime as a stone player and I was kicking myself but I didn't have it recorded. So at the moment I have five rocks in my hand stones, two of them, a decent size off the field actually,

three of them that I'm redistributing from the pile that was kicked over. So where was I before I was so rudely interrupted? I mean, that's it. It's the patience of it, I suppose. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you do because you will be dead. It's going to take a long time to do this. I say the only real thing you're trying to do is get the stones off the field. You can place them but that will take time.

And really, if you get all these stones off the field, there's going to be a huge wall there regardless of what you do. So I think for your own morale it's nice to create little pockets, little cans, create nests, that's what I call them. The very start of stone collecting you'll find. You've gathered five or six stones together, there's one just here. It looks like a nest of eggs, so I call that a nest. It's a little bit of poetry.

What we've got here, I thought it might be a big, like weirdly, just sometimes in the path that you've trod a lot of times you can find some pretty good stones. So I've got two quite muddy stones there. But of course, the beauty of removing stones from the field is that once they're off, the rain will cleanse them of any excess soil. Try not to take too much soil off the field if you can, because that's obviously the opposite of what we're trying to do.

We're trying to create a field of soil. So yeah, so it's that patience. It's that understanding of your place in the universe. You are nothing. What you're doing here is a tiny little v-sign to the universe. You're attempting to move stuff. So yeah, you can pick, you can kick. You can have some fun with this.

What I can't do on a long path across the field, if I find the right size stone is just to try and kick it as far as I can. See if I can basically dribble that like a, or a golf, I suppose. And as many as few kicks as possible to the edge of the field. You're trying to get these things off. You can throw them. If you're a little bit away from the shoreline, as I like to call it, you can throw them, but please do be careful.

Make sure nobody is around. No, the dogs are around. We don't want any accidents occurring with this. Just pop out because you remember that I've got to be collecting stones. I mean, the podcast is peripheral to this. And yeah, people ask, Rich, do I go for the stones that are just lying on top of the field first? Am I allowed to dig stones out? The stones will let you know how you choose the stone you want out of the billions here,

the one you're going to pick. The stone will choose you, I think. Don't be worried about leaving some behind, but sometimes you get a strong feeling you have to get a particular stone. If you get that, get that stone because that is the field telling you it's time for that to come out. Should we prize the stones out of the ground? It's an interesting question. Now, a lot of stone clearers will feel differently to me on this.

I feel mainly the stones know. They'll let you know if it's time to come. If one is not shifting, maybe it's time to leave it. But sometimes, if it's a whopper, or if it's slightly resisting you, I will still try and take that big stone. Can you use a trowel now? A lot of the traditional stone clearers are not going to agree with me on this. I think you can use a trowel.

I've got a trowel in my pocket. It was originally just for digging up sort of buried dog shit. But I found it quite useful, again, with those big stones. I found a really big one yesterday. It wasn't coming out. A bit of leverage from a trowel can just help pop those out now. Again, some traditional stone clearers will say that it's sacrilegious, not help the stone on its journey.

A stone is like an apple. If you know when it's ready to be picked, it will let you know when it's ready to be picked. And I concur with that to a degree. But I think sometimes you need to force the stone a little out of the ground. Some are reluctant to leave. Some are the big ones, especially. And the big ones are the prize. But the small ones, they're your daily bread.

They're still your duty to get those small ones. Don't just go for the big ones, because otherwise you'll be left at the end of all this. I've just thrown two pebbles the size of fingernails off this field. I know a lot of people laugh at that. What's the point in that? Well, 20 years time, I'm going to be laughing at you, and I because I won't have to pick those two up in 20 years time. I've done it now.

So, yeah, that kicked it. It's fun to try and kick them off. Again, that's random. For me, that's what it's all about. It's about no rules. It's about doing it every way you want. You might find your own technique. Hey, look, I've only been in this for two months.

I do feel I am the world's expert on this. Maybe I'll come back in. You'll listen to this in four or five years time. Richard's really learned some stuff about how much he knew about standing clearing. I like to play a game where you can try and kick them off the field without picking them up. That's good fun. Obviously, that's random. And I like to, there's some kens that I will mainly throw towards.

There are some kens that I will carefully place stones on. Morally speaking, I think it's good as far as it goes to stick to those rules with that can. But the rules are bendable. Sometimes you might throw a big stone and miss the can. I think, oh, I really want that on the can. Do you leave it in the wrong place? It's rolled off the field a bit. It's up to you.

But I feel a little bit that if you're throwing them from a distance, they know where they're going to land. So if you're throwing even quite close to a can, I'll come up to one now that I really like, which is a tree with a slope underneath it. And I'm trying to sort of create a can, but a lot of the stones obviously roll away from that. I'm trying to show you now what I'm talking about.

Oh, I found quite a good one. Just by chance right here. That's a sort of spike-alicum, sort of stalactite stone, sort of weird. So it is a bit of flint still, and most of these are in a weird shape. So there we go. I can see four or five stones there littering the base of the tree.

That one hit the branch, came back down. That one's up there on the mound, and that one again hit the branch, but came down. Very quite a random. None of those hardly two stones touching in that can, but all in the basic right area. Here's a good example. This is a stone.

Oh, see, I had to struggle to get that out. Some stone clearers will be furious. Just the sound of me trying to prize quite a small stone out of the ground with my finger. I haven't brought my gloves in my pocket today, but it's not that cold today. It's much better to work with fingers, I have to say, and to feel the stones and carry the stones for a while,

feel those stones in your hand. Look at this. There's a very small hassle half here, which is obviously, I don't need to tell you, means going into the stone ocean to pick out some stones you've noticed poking out of the sea. And yeah, I found a lovely little supply of four or five apple sized stones here.

Really good ones. I'm concerned that there is another collection of stones underneath another tree here. Again, quite a random collection. Hopefully, and I think that will take a few years to build that. I'm with you. There's a stone here on the edge of the field covered in moss that is the biggest stone.

I think it might be a lump of concrete. I don't know if someone's placed that. I mean, that's the biggest stone I've seen on this field, but someone has already moved that. I cannot claim that as my own, and I can't obviously put that into. I think, for me, again, morally speaking, it's wrong to move someone else's stones. You can add to, as my main concern is, it's actually in addition to someone else's.

But I think we have to respect, even if we disagree with their methods, I think we have to respect other ten builders. A lot of people, obviously, emailing in saying, oh, I'm going to come to the field and take your stones apart. Each night, well, good. Do it, because what we create here is the work of every single person adding or subtracting to this is creating more art. You could not defeat this.

Also, good luck to you. I'd like to see you move as many stones as I'm moving. If you've got the patience to do that, good luck to you. That was a couple in one go there, right into the holly. But that's it. That's part of it. Maybe someone will come and destroy this all one day, but the destruction is part of the art.

We're trying to create a venglorious, secret thing here that will somehow still one day resonate through the ages and keep my name alive beyond the existence of everything you've mortals have done. So it'd be nice if the walls survive. But if they come down, that's part of it. It's the ebb and flow. We cannot defeat nature.

That is what you're going to realize here. We can attempt to corral it. We can attempt to make it fit our purpose, but nature will survive these complacent stones. They can be afford to be complacent up to an extent because they know they'll be here when we're gone. They know that just the movement of the earth will undo eventually anything we can do.

Even the Great Wall of China one day will be but a pile of sand. But this Great Wall of Herring hopefully will last longer than that. It's just a message to the future. Just a message to say, hey, yes, our lives are finite. Yes, we are forgotten, but sometimes we can project our soul forwards into the future a little bit. It's a kind of time travel. I don't think I'll be here to see the year 25-25,

but will my stones? Well, they will be with my wall. Probably not, but maybe. Maybe someone in 25-25 will walk this field or probably go along and hover aboard of some kind. They'll see even just the remnants of one of the walls and they'll wonder who I am. Maybe then they'll go to the British Library,

look up this podcast, which I assume will be in there. Oh, that's what it was. Richard Herring, what a guy. That's what I'm hoping for. I'm sorry, this is about techniques. This podcast is not about me. And none of this is about me. As you saw, my family have no idea what I'm doing.

I think my daughter would be proud of me if she knew what I was doing, but I don't want her to find out. And that is very important. Keep the secret. That is please do not attempt to contact the farmer. Do not attempt to try and find out where I am. Find your own field. If you know where I am, please do not tell anyone about it.

Secrecy is everything in sound clearing. And I hope you will respect that and not tell anyone. And I suppose some other rules. It's very important if you are going to go on to a field that is not your property, that you do not tell the farmer what you're doing, because they'll probably stop you. A lot of people are telling me,

hey, Rich, the stones have been put there deliberately to aerate the soil to help the stuff grow. A, bullshit. There's too many stones on here. B, nothing I can do is going to get rid of all the stones, even though that's what I am going to do. And C, it doesn't matter what the fucking farmer is doing, who's my language,

because this is about something bigger than his farm. This is something bigger than this year's pea crop. This is about the future. It's about art. So don't tell the farmer, just get on and do it. If the farmer sees you, you have to come up with some excuses and you won't get into that into a future process.

If other dog owners suspect what you're doing, you must come up with excuses. I'm tired out picking these. This is a very second. This is one of my favourite parts of the field. Unfortunately, it's quite popular. So it's quite difficult to clear effect something. What I like to do here,

this is again breaking my own rules a little bit. What I like to do is pick a handful of stones across this top section of the field. Go to the cairn that I've created. Incidentally, you can see pictures of many of the cairns that warm me up. RichardHaring.com.slash. Warming up for the beginning of November.

You can go through there. There's a lovely cairn here, but what I like is so many stones in this part. There's longer energy, no dogs or animals around. You can place some, but then I like to try and clear some from the field as I go. There's me throwing three.

Where they land is up to them. That's what I'm saying. You're aiming for the cairn. There's a sport to this. There's a bit of fun. What distance can you get from that one? It's just bubbled nearby close enough to be part of the cairn eventually, I think.

But there's just some lovely stones here. The time-saving, that's the thing. So again, it doesn't matter if the stones miss the cairn you're going for, because you're getting them off the field. That's the point. Even if you don't get them off the field, you get them close to the edge of the field.

And that is, again, all we're trying to do. You can keep your flim flam. You can keep your walls. I'll let you off the lead on it before he says. He's afraid, isn't he? Wolfie likes this as well, because obviously she thinks it's part of her benefit. She chases the stones a bit.

Please be careful if you have a dog. I've only hit her once or twice with a few kicks, you know. So I'll press it on her. There's a lot just on the path here, which some people say, well, those are good ridges. Those are for the people to walk on. There'll be chance to put smaller stones on the path.

And so I'm still far away enough now, but none of these stones are going to the... Oh, that one did hopped onto the cairn. He obviously wanted to be there. Now, this is an interesting part of the field. I've tended... I used to go all the way around the edge of the field. Now I take this diagonal path across the field,

sometimes veering off to the right, sometimes going completely diagonal, which I'll think I'll do the complete diagonal today. I realise there's just an embarrassment of riches here. And in fact, the further path beyond the central cairn, it can even... If you could have heard my excitement yesterday, I'd discovered how many treasures there were.

It was lying on the ground. It's like you were a gold digger in the Klondike, and you just came across a field scattered with gold, but better than that. Because these stones, their munchy value isn't important. So it is large, I think, eventually. It's about creation,

and clearly. So the danger is, A, there's a little brow of the hill, so you're collecting stones. I had a good armful of stones. You may come across them on the first part of the diagonal. A dog walker came. That's where you break your rule.

You have to put those stones down. You mustn't let... If you're seeing carrying an armful of stones, then other people are going to work out what they're going to see you with stones. They're going to see other stones. So you have to put them down, then. I'm just picking some up.

We're sort of halfway to the heart, so a quarter way across the field. You have to decide when you're going to start picking stones up. You've got to carry them. If you see someone sees you, you're going to have to put them down. Also, they're heavy.

It is good exercise. Despite my breathlessness, that breathlessness comes from the hard work. This is a very good exercise routine, and that's one of the excuses you can use, which I have used with people when they've seen this. This is an exercise thing. I can't get to the gym.

It's quite a clever excuse, but it's also true. There's billions of stones here. Which ones do you select? Do you let them select you? Sometimes you'll see a tasty big one that you can't resist, like I did yesterday.

I dug it out. I don't think it's made it to a can yet, because I don't know where it is. Is this where I dropped my stone? Just so perhaps it is. Here's my collection of stones from yesterday. So now, I will pick them up and add them to my pile,

and hope nobody else comes. The dog is licking my face, as I try to do my important work. Then, as I got to the second half of the field, I picked up another bootiest and bountiful collection of stones, and some ramblers came past, as I said. Again, I had something though,

so we'll go and collect those. They'll be heading for a can that's in the far corner of the field. I can see a dog walking in the distance. I hope he doesn't start coming this way. I might just speed up, as I don't want these stones to have to go down the floor a second time.

I think he's far enough away, though. He won't go to work out what I'm doing. We may get to meet him. So, yeah, so, that's it. I hope the technique is coming across. There is a technique, but there's no technique.

There's just bending to pick another one there. Again, why that one out of the hundreds and hundreds of decent stones? This one's like half an orange in size. Something just told me it was time for this one to come. If that dog rooker is coming up the diagonal, I may abandon my plan

to rescue the ones from yesterday. It's a game of chess, as well as everything. You have to be good at throwing. There's sport. You have to be good at bending and carrying. There's exercise element to it. You have to be cunning. You have to come up with good excuses.

If the dog wants to leave in the field, that's beautiful. What luck for us. So, here at the central can, which I haven't yet photographed, it's a telegraph pole. I'm trying to create stones all around it. I think this could be an impressive sight in the end.

So, I'm just flinging a few from the path nearby. It doesn't really matter with this one, as long as they land far away. They'll still probably eventually be one-day part of the can. As I say, there are some just beauties around here. I mean, it's just like the soil is... ...estumed. So, there's another four or five that have made that.

So, let's go and see. Oh, there's a nice one there. I wonder if that was a bit far away. I wonder if I can throw that. The beauty of throwing towards this central one, as well, is there's absolutely no danger as long as you've got your own animal under control. If you are...

You can just ramble and do this. Of course, like those weird ramblers yesterday. That one got close enough. There's another day. Time is on your side here. That's what I'm saying. If you throw, you don't hit your destination. As long as the stone is clear and nearer to being off the field

than it was before you started, you've done good. Oh, and there, see, that was a... Oh, Wolfie's going for that one. That was a terrible throw. Wolfie's got that stone and it's gone crazy for it. Perhaps recognizing it as an aberrant throw. That one might be the exception that proves the rule that maybe I've lost that one for goodness.

But eventually, if you succeed in your endeavours, of course, every stone will be off this field. So, it doesn't matter even if you throw on further onto the field. That's for you in the future. You'll find that. Maybe you'll remember. Go, ah, this baby. Try and remember each stone.

They all look quite similar. I mean, don't name them. That's going too far. But there's something about these stones. There's something... Even the ones that don't want to be taken off the field, they know it is their destiny to go. And the thing is, it's this.

It's the choir. It's the piece. You're not in a rush. You're not one of the commuters on the Bakerloo line. You're not going to an office to tap in lots of numbers to a computer. But at the moment, you're not. You're out here on the field.

Don't stress. This is to de-stress you, this whole thing. This is to make you happy, to be at one with nature. And when you get to this part of the walk, if you've got this far into this podcast, well done, it's here that you start to feel this connection with the planet Earth. The realisation of nothing matters,

but we can still try to make things matter to us. I don't know where. I think I'm looking for the stones I had yesterday. I mean, maybe those ramblers scattered them. I thought I'd left them in quite a good pile. So maybe I'll just get some different stones today. That's the danger. Again, people sometimes are here to prevent you doing what you want to do.

I thought I'd have hit those. Yeah, definitely by now. I must have walked past them somehow. But as I say, we're on this part of the field where, literally, if I told you where this was, a hundred centuries would be down here tomorrow to clear these stones because it's just too delicious. It's too...

You know, that's it. You get to the point where you have an armful of stones. You become greedy like a Nazi trying to run away with all the treasure in an Indiana Jones film and going back into the fire to get one more. And that's when you're doing stone clearing wrong. That's when the one nearly fell, then that was it for me. When you're doing stone clearing right,

you get half an hour in and you hit this element of bliss where you understand your own insignificance and your own temporary significance that any attempt to create significance is pointless but is wonderful. So let me try and show you. I mean, there's quite a good size stone here that I'm going to try

and got football golf to the edge of the field. Wolfie's joining in. That's the third kick. You're just going to try and... When you have one of these and this one's a bit too big, actually, it's hurting my foot. Wolfie's going crazy for it. When you have one of these, it is important

that you kick it all the way. That's my philosophy. You can't move it by hand. You've decided to move this one by foot. This is a little bit too big. Footwear is important. I'm just wearing some wellies today and regretting it

because my feet are taking a batch in. It had big walking shoes on as I think many serious stone clearers would. I nearly kicked some dog poo then. We'll get on to stuff like dog poo in a future podcast. Wolfie, I don't know if you can hear Wolfie going crazy. She's had a good kick in there. I don't know how many kicks there are.

But look, how far has this stone come across the field? You've joined it. It's been over a hundred years, but for my foot. There is on a quite pathetic can. It's just over-rolled it. That's annoying. It's in some nettles and I'm going to leave it there.

It will be part of the can eventually, but it isn't now. That's the sort of thing you can do. That can, I managed to carry seven rate stones there across the field. I don't know if they were my ones from yesterday. I feel not. Maybe the Ramblers took them somewhere else.

My pathetic can is getting a bit better. This little run of the field, back towards my house, has some of the worst pickings. You get that wonderful time where you can't believe your luck. Your arms are full of stones. You feel like you could go back

a thousand times down that path and that would still be the case. And then you hit this place where it's all tiny stones. I've managed to pick up an orange stone. It's kind of weird. It's not the shape of an orange. That's the brownie orange.

This is when it's quite good, but you aren't that many around. You can contract the stones. Excuse me, work out what you're doing. I just picked up a stone that's half the size of the one I had. It's a bit like a large chess piece. It looks like that. Enjoy them.

The stones aren't too cold today. The earth is not freezing. I've spotted another good stone. You'll be counted. It's a nice little crop here. You think you're in an area where there aren't many. And then suddenly you find a pocket, a nest,

a natural nest, I suppose you would call. But you're not like some of those guys who go to bird's nest and take these stones away. You're a good guy. Probably, I don't know. Maybe you're causing ecological damage. Maybe you're spoiling the farmer's fields. It doesn't matter.

Don't worry, Wolfie. That's just a dog in a garden there. We're now across the back of the garden to the village that back onto this field. Usually I put these stones into the wild. And especially along this stretch there's very little in the way of kens.

I didn't come down here that much. And it's just wild there. Anything you throw in, it's going to take a long, long time to form itself into anything that looks like a structure. But I'm going to take them to the ken. One of my exits from the field.

It's not the exit I'm going to use today. I'm going to take you a little bit further. Yeah, this one's coming along quite well. This is one that's entirely me, I think. You can probably count the clips there. It's still pathetic after two months that that's as big as that one is.

But the next one we're coming up to is amazing. This again, just make your own rules, have your own fun. There's a little National Trust marker some way from the path here. And I like to just pick up quite small stones as well. Doesn't have the big ones.

We're about 10, 15 feet away and see if I can hit the post but also create... Oh, that did bounce against some other stones that one nearly hit the post. Oh, that one didn't quite hit the post. You know, you make it a game, enjoy yourself. Always be on the lookout for other dog walkers. If anyone sees you doing this

they'll think you're weird. Missed that one, went off the field completely. You can hear the click on that one just at the base of the monument. And so it's creating again another random ken. I like the random one's the best. I think in the end much the wall will be random.

As I say, the nests, the kens, they're just there for your morale. Because otherwise, you'll be I don't know, two and a half months into this. What the fuck am I doing? People will say to you as well, that's the thing. If they find out what you're doing, they mustn't do. You're insane, what you're doing is impossible.

You know, you're clearing 200 stones a day off the field. But there's a billion stones on this field. It would take, I think it's about 20 years if you're doing 200 a day, you would get to around about a million. The other day, you can do your maths on this.

I mean, it's not an exact science, because I don't always take 200 off. And that's not always in one go. Sometimes coming back a second time. Sometimes I take more than that. Sometimes I don't come to the field. Tomorrow I'll be in London all day. I won't have an opportunity

to come out here. That's it. People will think you can't do it. Maybe you can't do it, but maybe you can. This is one of my favorite little kens. I found a monster stone. And that's a good way to start. When you find a monster, put that down somewhere.

You'll know where it is when you pass it. Even if you chuck in a couple of little ones on. But there's actually, weirdly, two or three plum sized stones, I guess, again. I'm tossing towards that. And that's... Again, at the moment, it doesn't look like much.

At the moment, someone could have come here three months ago, looked to the field, assessed it for stones. They could come back now. They would say the same number of stones on that field. And, you know, to the nearest million there are. To the nearest 10,000 there might not be.

But if they looked at the edge of the field, if they looked closely, they would see these little communities of stones starting to grow. They would certainly come to the ken that I'm coming to, which is, like, I think actually beyond impressive. I'm going to try and find some bigger ones. I'm headed out a little bit into the field.

Again, I don't know the ethics of this. Again, they're not important. Just to try and find a few slightly bigger stones to put on the major ken. But these are not anything like the ones I was carrying across the field. I had about seven or eight of those in my arms.

I've got five or six of these, and they're just in my tiny hands. But it's worth contemplating. And again, another technique. If we get to these kens, if we see something has rolled down, if we see someone has disrupted it, are we allowed to move it? I think in this case, yes.

But if you are throwing the stones, you have to make your own decisions about this. And this is a beauty. There's some real big beauties on this ken. It's a couple of feet high in the middle, but it's stretching around both corners. It's giving a real example of what the wall could be and will be.

Again, there was a little ken here when I started, but it was likely one that we just passed that was describing pathetic. And now, I mean, you couldn't miss this. And you also couldn't miss the fact that there's no longer a ken. It's stretching in two different directions.

Again, check the warmingupwithshane.com. It's one of the, and it's like in the last couple of days, so it's November, the 12th of the day, so maybe November the 10th, the 9th, and you can see some pictures. Now, sometimes if there's nobody around and they thought that tree

was a person, a dog walker, but it isn't. There's not very many dog walkers around today, which is good. I'll sometimes walk out along this the path that goes across this centre between two of my major kens, really, and just look for some big ones, because there are some quite big ones on this path

and try and bring them back. So this is not part of my dog walk. This is genuinely me taking a detour just to pick up some stones. That one didn't take much pricing, that was definitely right. Oh, that's a disappointment where when you look at C1 in the ground, you think, that's going to be a good one, and then it

literally is just what you can see. It's just the top of a stone that's been cut off. I'll drop my doggy bag, poop bag, and yeah, there's some nice ones here. So we're going to have five or six nice big stones, a little bit out into the stone ocean to pick up this one. Is this going to be a good one?

I mean, it's a medium one. I like it much better than it was. And yeah, I mean, you see, you think, then this is the problem, you can suddenly get bamboozled. And that's a nice one. That's a black piece of flint that could even be missed. But that is the site. It looks a bit like the Millennium Falcon.

It's the size of a toy Millennium Falcon, but not like the really big one. You'd get just one for the smaller figures. That's probably the best way describing that. So yeah, we're coming to the end of the walk. I'll take you down this last path because

it's quite an interesting one in the fact that some parts of the field are covered in stones and some parts of the field you really have to look. Oh, look, here's another stone quite close to the pile. Is it one? Can I get there in one? I don't know, but it's close now.

Just those loose stones that can be kicked. It's fun to kick them. Yeah, and I've got it. Yeah, just onto the edges. I'll put those ones that I just picked up right on this edge of coming down this field to show where the wall will head.

And when that's a proper wall, someone will notice it and someone might go, I don't want a wall in my field in front of my rambles and stuff. And that's when it might be destroyed. But if that happens, it's part of the art.

They'll be destroying art. But anyway, as we come down the hill back to where we started and look at this. There's leaves everywhere. And again, we will talk about false sightings in another podcast.

We don't have time for that now. But you think they're stones and they're not. That's basically what I'm saying. But there's really hardly anything here. Then occasionally you go, oh, where did that one come from? Those tiny stones. And again, these tiny stones will have to come off the field.

I mean, they're sort of fingernail size. I do have a few nice beginnings of piles from some big ones I did take off earlier. But you'd really have to head a little way out into the stone ocean or a station. You'll get used to these terms

as you get more into this hobby and craft. Yeah, you know, like you'll suddenly just see a couple of little brownie ones like this. I mean, there's four or five here just on the edge. The stones are here, but they're tiny. Remember, you can pick up six of these.

Hold those in your hand. It's one stone. That's what you've got. If one reasonable size stone, put them all down together. That's what I'm talking about. It's the patience. It's not like, oh, I need to get a big wall now. I need to get all the stones off now. You've taken five stones off the field.

There was a billion stones on here. Now there's 999,999,995. That is how it and then if you do that every day, take five or three days, you can see how quickly it'll be down to 9,999,999,090,000,000. So it's

it's you know, you know what I'm trying to say. But yeah, so what I like about this little stretch is that I'm building a wall, but there's also a ditch towards the end and I'm trying to fill that ditch with stones or the dog walker behind me.

That's what you have to watch out for. And they're going a different way. It's going to be okay. Just keep quiet. I'm just going to pretend I'm tying my shoe lace with my main boots and just pick up a couple of tiny stones just to show you what I mean in this bit. So you have to be careful because the

I'm not sure about throwing stones on someone else's property or removing the stones from the field. There's a ditch here. Listen to this. Hear that? There's about 20, 30 stones down there. But I hope one day that this ditch will be just full and flat. And then the wall can grow on top of it.

Of course, it is just surrounded by a wire fence with quite big holes in it, so it will be difficult. But we will make it. That's the thing. Again, patience is realizing none of this matters. Keep an eye out for dog walkers. As you just get to the bottom of this field, there are a few more.

The stones have rolled down. There are a few more, which I like to pick up and put on the the opening can, which is interesting because on the way in that can is very much. Let's see what we can throw onto it on the way back. Rules change. You can place.

I will show you. I've got four stones in my tiny right hand. I've got four much smaller stones in my tiny left hand. Eight stones will be added to this can on top of the ones I threw towards it earlier. And we're back to where we started. So I hope

you've enjoyed this. I hope it's helped you sleep. For those who use it for that, I hope it's given you some advice. I hope professional stone clearers haven't been patronizing. I've got two upset about some of my more modern techniques. And there we go. You can hear the clicking

of stones. That is the sound that every stone clearer likes to hear. So I hope you enjoy the podcast. Wolfie, come here. Good girl. Let me just hear right in the past. I mean, how these appeared.

Oh, that's not that big. They can go in there. There's a whole one. I've just dropped one. You'll remember the rule. You've got to get it to the can there. There it is. I hope you enjoyed it. There will be more of these. I'm going to do them weekly.

I feel like I should be doing them daily. There might be too much for some of you. And the time goes on. There will be many of these. So I hope you enjoy it. Remember when you're playing, papers is a stone. Always play stone. That is, I mean, the first time.

As long as the person you're playing against doesn't know that's what you're doing. If you did it every time, I think they'd pick it up pretty quickly and, you know, just play paper. And we'll be back with more stone clearing very soon. Thank you very much

for having me involved. We'll be done at the end of the part. Thanks for listening. Bye.