I used to do stone work projects on a trail crew in Lake Tahoe. Very cool work. VERY hard on the body. Residential work would be less so, as you would have materials delivered rather than found and/ or made (we had to make backfill. Starts with the big hammer with the big rocks, as you got smaller chunks, you moved down to 4-5 pound hammers to make golf ball sized 'crush' to 'chink' in all the tiny spots as tight as possible.).
One retaining wall I speadheaded was on a steep cross-slope to support the 'pocket bulldozer' we were using to cut that one trail, to be finished by hand. The 14K Sweeco had to come down off of a boulder where it dropped 3' or so. The wall had to have the foundation dug in, then built up. It was around 15' wide and took several of use at least a full day to build.
I've been wanting to build some cool retaining walls at home, but we don't have the great granite to build with that made up the bulk of Lake Tahoe. We have basalt, which is crumbly and roundish, so most walls are less structured (aka more piled than stacked), until you get into machine sized rocks and selected, quarried stones. Something about that, and that its so much work to do by hand on top of tree work.
I hope to do some work around our bonfire pit this summer. We have had a request to have an Oly bonfire for a friend coming back to visit this summer. We are known amongst our friends to have bonfire parties where some people don't ever sleep, and to have the giant tree swing and...
Dahlia will have the best tree swing 'on the block'.