Chuck Banshee wrote:

Another lesson learned was that 5-gallon buckets are just too small to
mix mortar well! I will go to Home Depot tomorrow to buy a concrete
pan!

Yes, mortar tubs are handy. If you don't have a mason's trowel - the "V"
shaped trowel - get one. A largish one.
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In addition, forms are MANDATORY! I tried doing it without a form,
but, in the middle of laying the first two stones, I found myself
hastily building a form just to hold the two inches of mortar back!

Gotta ask, why are you using two inches of mortar? I'd think a bed combed
out with a 1/2" trowel would be plenty (might have to butter the bottom to
even up).

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Along that vein, it's helpful to have two jobs going at once. The
first job is the critical one. The second is simply a place to dump
the extra mortar

We make "rocks" (cobbles) from excess mortar. Use them stacked to delineate
flower beds sometimes. After they weather and get mossy they do indeed look
like rocks.

--

dadiOH
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