When Lucas and I go to pick out boulders at the quarry, it’s a bit like walking into a candy store with a 5 year old. He looks at every stone as if it is a person, and when he finds a stone he loves, he’ll pick it, even if it means he has to build a special pulley system to get it into a tough location.

He’s equally fussy about his wall stone, preferring to sift through pieces rather than taking a random pallet, returning to the quarry over and over to find the rocks he wants. He has an artist’s eye for detail and a sculpture’s vision for what he is building.

There are retaining walls, and then there are pieces of art that only an artisan who feels the stone as Lucas does can build. It’s a constant joy to work with him.