When life gives you rock.......

If you live in Pueblo West you have come to know the word Shale. It's hard to escape. If you buy a lot to build on part of the inspection process is hiring a back hoe and digging a hole. This hole will tell the builder if the lot is build able. The county health department then inspects the hole and decides if and what kind of septic system can be put in and at what price.

Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. It is characterized by thin laminae breaking with an irregular curving fracture, often splintery and usually parallel to the often-indistinguishable bedding plane. This property is called fissility. Non-fissile rocks of similar composition but made of particles smaller than 1/16 mm are described as mudstones. Rocks with similar particle sizes but with less clay and therefore grittier are siltstones.

Shale is the most common sedimentary rock.

 Clever things home owners have done with shale.

Drainage along the side of the house at a low point.

Landscaping for the side of the hill.

                                                                                  Lining the side of the driveway.