R. K. STONES

R. K. STONES is tucked away right behind Mona Hospital on Bareth Road. It’s a handy location because most people know the hospital, so they can find us pretty easily. The yard is usually full of different stones and slabs we’ve brought in. It gets quite loud around here with the cutting machines running and the trucks pulling in and out. Bareth Road is always busy, so there is a constant hum of traffic in the background. We spend our days out in the yard, checking the stock and talking to the drivers. It’s a lot of manual labor, moving pieces around so people can see the patterns and colors. We don’t have a big showroom or anything like that. It’s just the outdoor space and a small shack where we keep the books. When the rain comes, we have to cover everything up quickly, which is always a bit of a scramble. Most of the staff has been here a long time, so we just get on with things without needing much direction. We see a lot of local builders and people working on their own houses coming through. We just show them what’s in the piles and help them pick what they need. It’s a straightforward way to make a living. There’s no corporate talk here, just plain conversation about stone and delivery times. That’s just the way things are at our spot behind the hospital. We just keep working until the sun goes down and then close the gates.