December 21st.  Winter began with heavy rain, then partial clearing.

 

December 22nd.  A rare treat: a Barred Owl (Strix varia) up close.

 

 

 

 

 

December 23rd.  A little color before dawn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 25th. Light Christmas snow.

 

Snow patterns on thin ice.

 

 

 

Mine were the first himan footprints today, though other critters left tracks.  These by a rodent: Vole or mouse?

 

 

 

The front foot (I think) of something larger, perhaps a fox or coyote?

 

Hind foot of the same animal.

 

A Grey Squirrel's tracks, for sure.

 

Pre-dawn on New Years Day, January 1st, 2013.  Pinpoint view of nearly full moon.

 

Same moon at1200mm equivalent with my Canon SX50HS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dawn.

 

January 3rd.  The United Distillers chimney was slated to come down today.  A few last views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some structural damage was visible at the crown, but...

 

...the most serious problems were at the base where the bottom two tiers of brick were badly deteriorated.

 

Manafort brought in this heavy duty "poker" for the demolition job, but...

 

 

 

...it wasn't tall enough to do the job without endangering the operator.

 

January 7th.  A lower-tech approach, using an extensible platform and workers with jack hammers.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a tedious job, brick by brick, at low temps which caused the jackhammers to freeze up periodically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By noon on January 8th, the hand work was complete; the chimney low enough to be tackled by the big "poker".

 

In a matter of minutes, the chimney was reduced...

 

 

 

... to a compact pile of rubble.

 

...and even that was further reduced to smaller chunks.