12-10-2011 - Waiting for the Steel

 You ask particularly after my health. I suppose that I have not many months to live; but, of course, I know nothing about it. I may add that I am enjoying existence as much as ever, and regret nothing.

Thoreau - letter, to Myron Benton (31 March 1862) 

This morning's walk to the summit was just after the moon had set.  Warmer in the valley below, as I neared the top, it got noticeably colder.  Even the small puddles of water such as you see in the picture below on the road were frozen - black ice awaits the unsuspecting!  It wouldn't last long as the sun's rays quickly melted it, but still the wind put an icy chill in the air.  No workers on the summit this morning.

When I reached the Up Summit Road, I ran into an old friend - actually we don't even know each other's name - who frequents the mountain almost as much as I.  But this time something was different; his Golden Retriever was not with him.  Never seen without him, I asked as we chatted and exchanged greetings this morning.  He had to put his friend down due to complications with his back legs and bladder.  That aside, we had a nice short visit.  Surely we will meet again, old friends on an old mountain.

I actually didn't see a whole lot of change in the construction site as you can also note by the work of the stone mason from week to week.  The cab is pretty much the same.  No ladder and no handrails.  I have to believe this is the constraint facing the project at this time.

As I write this entry, I sent an email to Mick, the stone mason, and he confirmed that two things now face the project and neither of them are good.  First, the hand railings are "weeks away."  And secondly, the temperatures are dropping as the winter season begins.  He feels that he will have to wait until Spring to complete his work.  And he can't finish without the hand railings in place.  That could be into January or February.  Nope!  Not going to happen.  I may have seen the last bit of progress for the year, at this point.

Icy Approach to the Summit

Those are icy spots on the road ... best keep off to the shoulder.

Twin Towers

NE Corner

The holes for the hand railings are obvious.  No railings .... no stone work!

Old Glory in the Summit Chill

Sun Rise in the East

NW Corner

NE Corner This Morning

Now, take a look below at last week's picture - the same!  Even the wooden plank and the plywood with the rocks are the same.  Nothing has moved - for what now is obvious.

NW Corner Last Week 12/3/11

And, not much difference from the previous week as well!  Well, I can say it is not as cold as it was then!  On the picture below you can see the snow and ice from a brief storm that weekend.

NW Corner Thanksgiving Week 11/25/11

And we see the same thing on the western wall.  A different angle but one can see that the stone mason has made little or no progress.  The rocks that are in place are exactly where he left off a week ago!  I am sure he is waiting for the hand rails.

Western Wall This Morning

Western Wall Last Week 12/3/11

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No progress at all.

No Change Here

This scene probably won't change until one day, the old tower will simply disappear!

Still Viewing Daylight

Finish Facade Detail

SE Corner

Since the hand railings only impact ramp areas, the southern wall (left) is pretty much complete.

Stone Mason Tools in Bucket

This bucket of tools is just about all I could find as evidence of the stone mason!

High Pressure Teak Planks in the Yard

These appeared over the past week.  I wonder where they are going ... up in the cab?  It almost looks like they ran short and this is an additional shipment of planks.  The main load has been gone for several weeks now.

The Ever-present Water Tank

Some things never changed since May.

More Steel??

Wonder where this is going.  I didn't see this last week.

Where Does This Go??

Nor did I see this one either!  I hope nothings missing in there; these look like important pieces to this jigsaw puzzle!

Well, it's time to call it quits and go home.  Besides, my hands are freezing.  I have to get down lower on the mountain so my hands can warm up.

View towards Worcester

12/03/11 - Early December Progress

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!

6:59 am

Ice Melt - Mt. House Trail

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.

Sunshine Brings Light to the Towers

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.

Northern Wall

The northern and western walls are almost complete - with exception of the openings for the hand rails.

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.

Western Wall - Ground Wire Trench Now Filled

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.

Cross Beam

Completed Cab

Southern Wall - Door and opening in the roof

Southern and Eastern Walls

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.

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).

11/25/11 - Post Thanksgiving Day Visit

“...be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.” 

Henry David Thoreau - Walden

Two That Escaped the Table This Year!  Nice Camouflage.

On a beautiful early morning ascent on the day after Thanksgiving, it was real nice at the base of the mountain, but hiking on Mountain House Trail, it gradually changed to cold and windy as I approached the summit.  [Note:  the time indication on the pictures is one hour later than reality; I had forgotten to turn back the clock on the camera.]

Wintery Approach to the Summit

Perimeter Fence Ice Crystal Bed

Ice Crystals at the head of Old Indian Trail

No sun yet so the ice crystals sparkle in the rising sun ... soon they will be gone for another day.

As we know so well now, the project is way behind schedule.  For that reason, workers were assembling on the job site when I arrived.  The winds were blowing and they hunkered down in their trucks until "the boss" arrived.  On my approach, one said, "We have to be here!"  ie.  what's your excuse?  And this conversation was taking place inside the perimeter fence.  I asked if I could close the gap and take some pictures.  No problem!  

We talked for a few minutes and in addition to temperature talk, there was talk of other employees on the project who are afraid of heights!  and heights in the wind!  Evidently going up in lift basket to the cab, the wind has a tendency to induce a bit of swaying to the basket, at times dipping like a roller coaster.  And I also was able to learn about plans for the future when the railings, the ramps, and the access ladder arrive.  The construction crews will be using the Administration Road access once the Up-Summit Road is snow-bound with operations from the Polar Mountain Ski boys!

I asked about the "hanging chad," only to learn that the hanging metal beam was planned all along!  And now it makes sense!  Two things have to be done before the job is complete:  painting the underside of the cab and assembly of the ladder for the Rangers.  The "chad opening" is to allow the lift basket a point of entry to the inside of the framework.  As a matter of fact, one of the workers was the "painter."  He even had on - over warm weather clothing - the usual white painter's jump suit.

His painting job consists of the interior and the exterior of the cab, but NOT the steel framework of the tower.  That is complete as is!  This is somewhat surprising.  Why leave the steel beams exposed to the weather?

I also learned that the assembly is completely by bolts.  They have a special torque wrench that somehow breaks off the end of the bolt when the thresh hold amount of torque is applied.  That sounds kind of neat. 

So, what's new this week (a 2 week report actually).  For one thing, Mick is making slow and steady progress on the stonework.  The north facade today is completely iced over.  And not much sunshine will penetrate as the day wears on.  That must have been quite a rain shower that froze up the past couple of days.  The East and Southern faces look rather dry.

Another thing that struck me is that with the work being done in the cab, I can see the cables going from the cab to the interior bunker.  Look closely at the vertical supports of the tower.  The silver tubes house the cables. 
 

Communications Cables on Vertical Supports

Eastern Facade Awaits the Railings

 As you can see, the eastern facade is complete with exception of the holes for the hand rails.

Doorway - Southern Facade

No Roof on the Observation Bunker yet.

I thought I might be overdoing my welcome so I didn't actually enter the door, but clearly the communications center is inside this bunker.

Lift Basket and Control Panel Detail

NW corner of the bunker

Sunny to the east (The sun just came up), while to the north the facade is icy, cold, and dark.  If you look closely, you can see the ice on the north face.

North Facade All Iced Up

And Mick is going to keep working on this?

Twin Towers ... for now

NW corner

Western Facade

 On this side, it even looks  cold!

NE corner of the facade.

 And that's it for this week.  Down below today in the valleys of Worcester County, temperatures reached the 60 degree mark.  Surely it warmed a bit and working would not be quite so difficult.  I know they weren't really looking forward to going up in that wind and cold.

Happy Thanksgiving to All. 

11/13/11 - Stonework Facade Continues Upward

Read not the Times. Read the Eternities. Conventionalities are at length as bad as impurities. Even the facts of science may dust the mind by their dryness, unless they are in a sense effaced each morning, or rather rendered fertile by the dews of fresh and living truth. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

Henry David Thoreau - Life Without Principle - 1863

 Today was a beautiful day, and, although the leaves rest on the lawn, front and back, small household repairs await, and shirts lay to be ironed, the pull of the summit was too strong.  My wife said, "Go."


The road is closed, but that didn't stop folks from hiking to the summit on this beautiful Autumn day.   I found the crowd to be happy, cheerful, talkative, and yet, from the summit, as it does to us all, we turn to the still of the scene.


The stone facade creeps ever closer to the top of the observation deck.  The steel chad hangs motionless, the trench for the grounding cable is still open, and the 9/11 flag still flies proudly.

November Skies

The Old "Hanging Chad"

It would appear to me as if each beam is attached to the rectangular plate by a series of three bolts and possibly a weld.  But for sure, it can't stay where it is!  We'll keep watching for the repair.

Detail - Chad

Grounding Cable - West Side Wall

Ramp - West Wall

Medieval Fort Weapons Ports

Well, that's what my first thought was!  Actually, this detail of the South Wall, enables us to study the work of the stone mason.  Remember that the openings are for the connection point of the hand rail which has yet to be placed on the structure.  In general, we see large stones, small stones, long stones, and short stubby ones, all carefully and skillfully placed.  But, above each opening, we find a common theme - the KEYSTONE to the arch.  As the mason built around the points at which the railing will be secured to the interior wall of the facility, he had to ensure that the wall would not collapse about the topmost point of the opening.  This is clearly done with placement of a broad hefty stone across the width of the opening; this stone bears the weight of those above it as it is supported in turn by a column of lesser rocks at either end.. 

Arch with Capstone - Detail - North Wall

More Tools of the Stone Mason

Stone Mason Tools

NE Corner - More Stonework

Remembering 9/11/01

Shingleless Cab

Not a good picture, but just to remind me that the shingles are not yet on the cab.  I am not sure how that will go with the crow's nest yet to be placed up there.

One of My Favorite Locations for the Shoot

South towards Worcester

Lots of visitors today made the trek to the summit.  In a general survey over the weeks, I would say that most people were unawares of the project as they reached the top.  I told many the story of what was happening and they were eager to hear it.  Of those who knew of the project, I would guess that the vote on acceptance comes about right down the middle - 50 - 50 ... approve, disapprove!  

And Henry David Thoreau?  I think he would approve!