Being a programmer by trade I had never done any hard labour, but when I moved into my new house about a year ago I decided to give dry wall construction a go. First of its a great way to keep fit, I have constructed about 20 meters of dry retaining wall around half to a meter high and around 30m^2 paving all from granite I have found on the block. Though now I have run out of good quality lose granite i have started to quarry out a large rock outcrop at the back of the block. The outcrop is conveniently fractured to produce some very good sized and shaped rocks, that I then roll down to where they are needed. Apart from nearly losing a finger when a block slipped I get great satisfaction from finding a fracture, working it open with steel wedges and finally breaking it lose. Working with the natural fractures provides a beautiful surface to the rock. I to have great appreciation for those that create dry stone walls and the like but look on with dismay as people waist good stone when they use concrete to hold their wall together. Gravity is more the adequate to do that.
