This reporter caught the action on the Garberville Town Square this morning: Local stonemason Kyle Schlagenhauf (in the blue hoodie, below) spent the last 18 months carving a slide into a 12,000 pound blue schist boulder. The boulder is from the Eel River bed and it is estimated to be some millions of years old.

Schlagenhauf brought the boulder to the Town Square this morning. His goal was to get the boulder in place before the upcoming Oct. 4 Harvest Fiesta fundraiser for the Town Square, and he accomplished his goal this morning with his team of two other men.

The guy in the beanie and orange vest is Matt Driscoll, another super stonemason. The dude from Don’s Auto Parts donated the articulated heavy duty loader for the morning. Mark Mullins is driving the loader.

There is a rad front page story in this week’s Independent about the boulder and Schlagenhauf’s experience with trying to carve the boulder in some cool way for the Town Square. (Unfortunately the Independent content is not online.) Schlagenhauf tried to carve a tunnel through the boulder, but it was too hard. He went through a lot of tools and a lot of time. Ultimately he carved what is a really sweet slide for the kid’s play zone in the grassy area of the Garb square.

“Every stone has a disposition,” Driscoll said this morning about the blue beauty.

Mullins, a donator and Town Square lover, says: “We’re not harvesting right now — we’re out here doing stones.”