Men at heights (part 109)

Yesterday I noticed a man at heights, and if you have read this blog for a while, you know that I always stop for men at heights. Watching workers high above the ground attracts me like a new restaurant attracts Little Indiana. (By the way, did you see her post on the new Rensselaer restaurant, Jamie's Cafe and Banquets?)

The worker was covering up the old  McDonald's ad with something new.

The billboard comes as folded sections of paper that are unfolded and put in place. I do not know what kind of adhesive is used, but the worker did not seem to be applying anything. He just lined up each piece, unfolded it, and smoothed it. It was a quick process.

You can see the Burkhart name on the bottom of the billboard. According to the Burkhart website, Gutwein Motors is paying $468 to have their sign here for the next four weeks. (How did we ever get by without all the information that is readily available on the Internet?) And if you want a machine like the one that probably produced this sign, you can buy it from Burkhart for $8,000.

Mystery Photo

The Rensselaer Republican had some mystery photos that were quite difficult a month or so ago. Here is a picture that would make a good candidate for their contest. Do you know where it is?

Update: The answer is in this post.

The signs can stay another week

Again this year the storefronts downtown are decorated with signs urging the Bomber football team to victory. On Saturday they responded by winning the sectional championship, defeating Wheeler, which came into the game come into the game with the same perfect 11 wins and no losses that the Bombers had.

It was a classic sectional championship, with Rensselaer rated number one in the state and Wheeler rated number four. What surprised the sports reporters from Northern Indiana was not that Rensselaer won, but that they shut out Wheeler, which had averaged over fifty points per game this season.

This Friday the team will travel to Bremen for the regional championship. Regardless of what happens in that game, the football team has had a terrific season. It is interesting that two other Hoosier Conference teams are still alive in the playoffs, Tipton and West Lafayette. Tipton will be leaving the conference, but Central Catholic will be joining, and Central Catholic looks like it is the team to beat in class 5A class 1A.

I recall that many years ago the SJC baseball team made it to the finals of the NCAA Division II tournament, but lost. Their success made some of the team members just about insufferable the next year. I hope that success on the sports field is being handled better by the Rensselaer football players.

My candidate for cleverest sign is the "Bank on a Win" sign at Lafayette National Bank.

My candidate for best artwork is the sign in the Balvich dental office.

Field work

I was south of Rensselaer this week taking pictures and noticed some really interesting clouds.

OK. Actually I took the picture of the tractor and noticed the clouds later. The big tractors take up almost the entire road.

A bit further down the road I saw people digging in a harvested field.

They were installing drainage tile. This area is almost a mile west of US 231 where there are some houses that have water problems with big rains. Habitat for Humanity wanted to build out there but were told not to.

I wonder where the tile is from. Recently I found that there Francesville has a large factory making drainage tile. As I have written this blog, I have learned a lot and have become very aware of how much I do not know about this area.

This beautiful stream in not a river or a creek. It is the Howe Ditch, which joins with Carpenter Creek a mile downstream and then empties into the Iroquois. In some parts of the country, the farmers must irrigate. In our area they must install tile and dig ditches to take away excess water.

Addendum: On a completely unrelated note, I learned today via my mailbox that the Big Top Flea Market has a new owner, Clint Johnson, who took over from Howard Marshall. See the article here, with one of my pictures.

Used to be a house here

The other day I was traveling down Airport Road, and as I approached the intersection with SR 114, I noticed a bulldozer. Then I noticed that the soil had been smoothed, not plowed, and it struck me that something was missing. The last time I had been here, there was a house on this corner, and it was now history. It was listed and pictured in the Jasper County Interim Report, which rated it notable, saying it was built around 1915, was well preserved, and "featured a full-width front porch with doric columns."

The house that was being demolished on Rachel Street is now totally gone and all that is left is dirt.

The same is true for the house at the five corners near the Church of the Nazarene

A few days earlier they were still hauling out the old debris and bring in the new fill.

So much destruction should be balanced with some construction. A week or so ago they workers were still laying concrete blocks for a wall of the hospital expansion.

In some news from Facebook, the Ritz Cinema is for sale.