Snow and ice

Our weather has been given us a lot of variety during the past two weeks--heavy rain and snow with temperatures ranging between 0 and 60 degrees. This weekend snow has taken center stage. The two or three inches allow us to see things that are not normally visible, such as crow tracks.

 The cemetery is a study in white and black.

 The thin layer of snow does not make the destruction of the Monnett school look any better.

 There is not much left of the south wing as the new week starts.

 I finally have a camera that lets me take pictures of snow flakes.

The river is interesting. It was almost at flood stage after the heavy rains of last week and has been dropping since. The bitterly cold nights freeze the water along the shoreline, and then that shelf is left as the river drops. On Sunday there were three clearly visible shelves.

The high water levels created ice around tree branches that were dragging in the water, and then when the water dropped those ice plates rose above the river level and were decorated with icicles.

Below is another plate of ice attached to a tree branch.

The Glass Managerie

Saturday will be the final performance of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie at Saint Joseph's College. It has a cast of only four, three of whom are listed in the program as residents of Jasper or Newton counties. They did a good job with it.

I liked the stylized set.

Ribbon cutting at Family Auto Sales

Today was ribbon cutting day at Family Auto Sales. They said that they have been pleased with the reception that they have received in their first month in Rensselaer.

If you want to know who all those people are, you probably can find out in tomorrow's Rensselaer Republican.

If I overheard a conversation right, the Tractor Supply Store will be opening a lot sooner than I expected.

Railing

Much of the railing (if we can call it a railing) for the Potawatomie Park bridge has been installed. It was not there just a few days ago.

Below is a closeup of the part that is on the approach to the bridge.

I recall hearing that the part that will be on the bridge will be clear. We should find out soon.

And on a completely different topic, did you get out today and enjoy the warm weather?

Tearing down the school--Updated

The final destruction of the Monnett Elementary School has begun> (There has been a slow process of demolition going on for a couple of months.) Two excavators were ripping apart the west end of the building today.

 

The mist and dampness of the day were suppressing any dust. The operators were carefully separating out various things from the wreckage, such as the metal. The old gym only had two walls left.

I asked a person who went to school in Rensselaer a few decades ago and she was pretty sure that the school was built in the 1950s, probably the latter part of them.

Update Tuesday: The workers were no doing much more demolition today. Rather they were filling up dumpsters with the debris, which was then hauled away to who knows where.

 I wonder if the workers who built the school ever thought that the administration building, which was part of the original Monnett School for Girls, would outlast the elementary school.

Update Wednesday: Most of the interior of the south wing is now been removed and the north wall of the south wing is gone. The photo below is taken from the west side of the school, and you can see the last of the modules that is along College Ave behind the excavator.

Here is the view from the east side of the building. The south wall is still standing, but there is nothing behind it.

 If the little dinosaur in the playground could speak, it might say, "What a big mouth you have."

Update Thursday: When I stopped by today the workers seemed to be on lunch break. I walked along the south side of the building and found this sign amusing. If you look through the window you can see the pictures of the planets that are on the walls of the north wing.

 Looking through another window, you can no longer see any of the walls of the gymnasium. It is rather amazing at how undamaged this wall is. The roof was ripped off and the walls separating the classrooms have been demolished, but the wall has not obvious cracks and the windows are mostly uncracked.

 I am sure that many of the students will long remember the elephant, turtle, and lizard that decorated the east wall of the south wing. They will not be there very much longer.