Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?
Henry David Thoreau - Maine Woods-Ktaadn (1868)
Coming into contact with a changing nature today - the forest primes itself for the coming snows, the sound of the hunter's gun from a nearby hillside, a cluster of male pheasants, ice melting in the trail but soon not to melt, a dog's bark in the distance, wind gusts blowing from the north, and a late rising sun. Winter is coming. Contact!
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| 6:59 am |
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| Ice Melt - Mt. House Trail |
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| Ring Necked Pheasant - State Bird of S. Dakota - living in Massachusetts! |
And the mountain comes to life for me, for the animals, and for the towers. No workers present today.
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| Sunshine Brings Light to the Towers |
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| NW Corner and Flag |
The north facade and the flag. I wonder however, why the wooden support for the opening on the facade here? In the openings below, the mason used larger flat stones. Evidently this opening requires a longer area that has to be supported.
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| Northern Wall |
The northern and western walls are almost complete - with exception of the openings for the hand rails.
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| Western Facade |
I wonder if the lack of completeness on these two sides is due to the cold temperatures ... never getting direct sunshine to heat the walls. While Mick did say that he could not work on the facades bedlow 30 degrees, a friend of mine who is also in that business said that it is probably a stipulation in the contract, because, the mortar can be mixed and additives mixed so that one can safely work at temperatures around ° F.
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| Western Wall - Ground Wire Trench Now Filled |
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| Completely Painted Underside of Cab |
Gazing at the structure today (the hanging chad still in place), I noticed a horizontal bar strung across two external beams to form a triangle. this is repeated on the next level down as well. These (my guess) are probably supports for the stairway that will be in place for Rangers to reach to cab.
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| Cross Beam |
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| Completed Cab |
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| Southern Wall - Door and opening in the roof |
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| Southern and Eastern Walls |
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| Site of the Test Wall - gone |
This is the site of the "test wall" that Mick built to check the stone and the patterns that he might work with on the facade. Notice the bales of hay still protecting the survey marker.
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| Old Cab ... New Cab |
From this picture, one can see that the shingles now appear to have been placed on the roof, except for perhaps the lower level. Maybe the xxx will be attached there.
And a final look over the landscape to the south ... including Worcester ... as the sun mounts the sky on its preset path to the west where it will disappear below the horizon in 8 hr. 15 minutes (4:15 pm).
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