Informative pics Tim. I'm going to learn how to post pics someday soon.
A friend of mine quarries granite or schist at the bottom end of his hillside in N Milford Ct. splits out pcs he can barely pick up w the Prentice loader on the log truck.
I'm in northern Westchester County, 1.5 miles from Ridgefield CT.
All barns I've worked on or seen have had dry fieldstone except for more recent rich man's gentleman farms which sometimes have cut stone foundations, dry or mortared. Recent = very late 19 century and 20 cent. And also bldgs moved in 20 cent onto new poured concrete fnd.
Fieldstone fnd. can be shallow and quite subject to freeze/thaw movement. I say the bldgs are "floating" on them - quite often steadily sinking, as well as grades build up over the years. We restored one barn in North Salem NY where grade at uphill end had risen 18" in approx 40 yrs, partially burying walls and blocking doors. Lack of maintenance for not being used any more. It was a stick framed gambrel roofed hay, horse and cow barn, We repaired and upgraded it by building a hybrid TF/LVL load bearing frame within that picked up the loads that had broken the orig light wt framing. Water damage contrbuted greatly to structural failure at the usual spots. We also dug and placed new masonry footings and piers at our new point loads.
"House built on a weak foundation will not stand, oh no!" Harry Belafonte
Can you swim in that quarry?
Steve