Busy Tuesday: murals, rails, bugs, and more

I was wrong in my last post. The mural project is not finished. The missing mural that I mentioned is under construction on the side of Janet's Kitchen. Below is a picture I took last night after the County Council meeting.

 On Tuesday I noticed that most of the rail crossings were closed. Below is what the Jefferson Street crossing looked like in the morning.

 A CSX crew was replacing the rails and tie plates but not the ties. (Ties were replaced in 2009.)  In the picture below a crane is moving an old rail off the rail bed.

 Below is a better view of the machine shown above. This was on the Cullen Street crossing. The Mattheson, McKinley, and Webster Street crossings were the only ones open.

 A few hours later I was back. The pavement at the Melville Street crossing was being torn up. The crew was working from west to east.

 There was a line of little machines, each doing one task. I did not get close enough to see what each was doing, but near the front there must have been a machine or two removing the spikes.

 The workers had been bussed in, probably from a nearby motel.

Here is another look at a line of machines.

 By this time new rails were being put in place at the Cullen Street crossing.
The machine below was near the train station and I asked the operator what it did. He said that it heated the rails as they were being laid. This process for some reason helps prevent the contraction and expansion of the rails as temperature changes. There is information about this on Wikipedia here.

Nearby was this truck on the rails. It welds the rail segments together to create a continuous rail.

 In the evening the rail line was still closed as were the crossings. The line of machines was on a siding and a long stretch of boxcars was on the main line. I do not know how CSX is re-routing its normal traffic.

I noticed these pretty caterpillars in my garden on Tuesday. They were feeding on dill, which grows as a weed in my garden. I think they will become swallowtail butterflies (unless they move to my carrots, in which case they will not become butterflies).

 I have been annoyed by the Japanese beetles but the damage I am suffering is small compared to what I saw happening in a soybean field north of town.

 A lot of the corn is still very small. The state of crops in the Midwest and the strategies that farmers are using to maximize their income given the awful weather this year should be a big news story. However, the mainstream news is located on the coasts and we hardly exist in their world view. On Tuesday night I heard an estimate that 10% of the Pulaski County farmland never got planted this year and the figure for Jasper County is 5%-10%. Some of the corn and soybeans were planted as a cover crop, and to take advantage of whatever government programs address cover crops, they cannot be harvested for grain. However, they will probably not mature this year, so that will not be an option.

There were meetings in the Court House that lasted from 5:30 until 9:00 Tuesday evening. I strolled through the farmers market before I went to the first meeting. There were vegetables for sale. It was Pet Parade day at the farmers market.

Weston Lake has reformed after the three or four inches of rain that Rensselaer received on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

 Saint Joseph's College is tuck pointing the chapel. Apparently water is leaking in and ruining plaster. The bathroom project at the Historical Society Museum hit a snag when Menard's sent the wrong cabinets and refused to correct their mistake, saying that what they sent was what was ordered.

The mural on the retaining wall is lighted at night. Because the County Council meeting did not adjourn until 9:00, I checked it out. I prefer the day view.

South Shore Convention and Visitors Center has released a short youtube video about the murals that has some drone shots.

A short summary of meetings this week: On Monday evening the BZA granted the special exception needed for the solar park near Wheatfield. In Tuesday's joint Commissioners-Council meeting, Mr Culp announced that the Health Department would not be moving to the former PNC building but rather to the former Youth Center on Sparling Avenue. The Council heard a presentation about the revitalize Rensselaer project that the City wants to happen, some of which will involve County property. (Expect a more complete report in a future post.)