Exciting New Development About to Emerge in the Heart of the Flint Hills Region of North East Kansas
After a long absence from martincooney.com, I am back to announce that Kris and I are now happily relocated to a beautiful part of North East Kansas called The Flint Hills, and best of all I have some exciting news to announce. At this very moment, as I write these words, steps are being taken to tear down the remaining debris of a hundred-year-old red brick filling station in order to build it back up into a walled garden that will not only contain my new stone carving workshop, office and gallery, but host musical performances and provide visitors and locals alike with a relaxing place to unwind.
When we left Aspen, Colorado, back in June, Kris and I set ourselves the goal of finding somewhere that I could continue to pursue my stone carving career and where we could thrive, prosper and be happy. There will be many upcoming posts relating to the village of Alta Vista, population just over 400, and its scenic surrounding area, but right now let us focus on the reason why we have chosen this lovely place to live; namely the chance to help create a truly exceptional space located in a beautiful corner of rural America.
The man making all this possible is Ben Kormanic, who owns and operates a Kansas Post Frame Construction Company, K Construction, and he deserves much credit for showing the confidence and foresight to invest time, money, labor and resources in the project. Please visit his website at kcon.build and see for yourself the quality of his company’s work.
The plan is to create an inviting cloistered space that will allow for a multitude of useful and entertaining features. Raised beds will grow delicious fruit and vegetables as well as beautiful flowers. Hanging baskets will set a verdant tone in the seating area, and the stage will entertain when utilized by musicians, while providing an elevated vantage point for seated customers enjoying the comfort of the shady entrance area to relax and unwind. The koi pond that greets arrivals at the front entrance will be enhanced by a herb filled rockery and topped with lightly splashing fountains to provide a refreshing soundtrack to the proceedings.
Please click on an image to enlarge.
Already, without the features that are about to be employed, to step within the historic walls is to experience a shift in atmosphere from the exposed streets that lay just outside the building, into a quieter more hushed atmosphere contained within, provided by the open sky that surprisingly greets the visitor instantly upon arrival.
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So, what happened to the roof? Well, after many years of sagging decay the whole structure was aparently carefully lowered and dealt with – expertly so, if you ask me – without tearing down or damaging the walls, even going so far as to stack the various reusable parts upon the sturdy concrete floor. There has been a lot of speculation as to what exactly we were going to do with such a roofless building; replace it with another (very expensive) roof cover? Tear the whole thing down (God forbid!), or what? Well, I’m sure that no one could quite imagine what Ben and I have come up with, and neither will you until I attempt to explain, to the best of my ability, just what is about to transpire over the coming weeks and months.
As mentioned, the first task is to gut the place of its remaining junk and debris; and that is being dealt with by Ben’s men right now. Then the task of installing the walled garden will begin.
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First the outbuilding containing my stone carving workshop, the office, showroom and public toilet will be constructed, the stage and public seating area will be tackled, and finally the koi pond, raised beds and vending area created after which the task of installing the garden will commence.
And what an exhilarating prospect that is, for Kris and I have long imagined a walled garden such as this, and sometimes we have to pinch ourselves that, at long last, the moment has arrived. For down through the years, we have assembled quite a collection of heirloom vegetable seeds, all of which are tried and tested strains and varieties that will, unlike their hybrid counterparts, provide generations of replacement seeds. I feel that all of my previous gardens have been but a precursor to this moment in time.
But, on a personal point, most of all I am so very looking forward to setting up and working from my own banker mason / stone sculpting workshop and getting stuck into carving the abundant local limestone, or Native Stone as it is known around these parts – for that is the reason why we are here, after all. We didn’t just pick a name out of the hat and decide to move here. No. We chose this region precisely because it produces some of the finest carveable limestone in America, and perhaps the world. And I should know, because I have carved plenty of varieties in my time, but Kansas limestone has always proven superior in its characteristic, charming golden hue and willingness to ‘keep an edge’, as we say. That is, it won’t pluck or collapse when demanding features are carved into it – but more on that in later posts, right now we will stick with the details of the old red brick filling station’s remarkable transformation.
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The time frame for all of this couldn’t have worked out more conveniently, in that the next four months – November, December, January and February, will no doubt prove to be the garden’s down time, as the Kansas winter will now take over to quell all outdoor growing, musical events and all but the most routine maintenance. But by March we should be up and running so that next Spring, Summer and Fall, The Walled Garden of Alta Vista KS will be in full swing. Musicians will be singing, people dancing, food growing, folks chatting, relaxing and talking, children playing, koi fish swimming, flowers blooming, fruit trees budding, and limestone carving!
In fact, perhaps the only year-round activity in the place will be that of my stone carving, which no Kansas winter I suspect will deter – but I suppose we will see. Maybe, in the height of summer it will actually be too hot and humid to carve, as from experience I know that in July and August temperatures soar and remain in the high nineties and hundreds for days, even weeks on end, so, there’s that. I’ll try using large fans and plug in coolers but, if it’s too hot, then it’s just too darn hot, and that’s that. But it still leaves ten months of the year in which to carve, so I shan’t be greedy, and perhaps during summertime I’ll learn to take it easy.
In closing, there is much to say on this subject but at this point you should at least have an idea of just what is going to take place here in this quiet village nestled in the heart of the lovely Kansas Flint Hills. In some ways, it has all come about so very swiftly, and in other ways it has taken me a whole lifetime to get here; depends on how you look at it. But stay tuned to see how all of this works out. Wish us well and promise yourself that, one day when we are up and running, you’ll head out here and visit the walled garden for yourself. There are lots of lovely places to stay very near here, and tons of things to see and do – I promise, you won’t be bored, and you will not regret your decision to spend some time in the lovely, the glorious, the remarkable history laden North East Kansas. Remember that name: Flint Hills. Look it up – you’ll be surprised, unless that is you are fortunate enough to live here, ‘cause then you already know.
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Coming Soon: The Walled Garden of Alta Vista KS
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Thanks for visiting martincooney.com
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