Michael writes about Lindy's Crate:
>I'm usually in Maine the last two weeks in July.  I frequent the Owl's Head
>Transportation Museum (I was a motorhead and wanted to design cars before I
>became an architect).  Would love to make the site visit with you.

OK, I'll mark it down, keep me posted on your Maine trip. We'll keep the
rest of you preservationeers posted on our plan to visit Lindbergh's
Crate/Cottage.

John Leeke

Ken writes:
>at Pumapunku possibly used a mortar composed of clay, lime and sand in
3:1:1
>proportions. The workers of the Instituto Nacional de Arqueologia stated
that
>it was extremely hard to remove the stones that were bonded with this
>material.
>
>Has anyone here encountered, or played with, such a mortar mixture?

We frequently see brick chimneys set with clay mortar here in northern New
England. Sometimes lime was added, and sometimes sand and fines are present
too, although we have never had one of these mortars formally analyzed. The
stuff is *very* tough. on one project the codes officer was objecting to our
use of a matching clay mortar to do some chimney repairs on the grounds that
it would be too weak. We had him stop by the site and handed him a chisel
and hammer and invited him to see what the mortar was like in the original
200+ year old mortar and a test panel of our replicated mix. After about 15
min. of hacking he had only loosened one brick and could not get it out. He
immediately approved our methods and materials. Very tough stuff.


John Leeke, Preservation Consultant

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