Thursday, November 29, 2012

Mont St. Michel Revisited

I'd visited Mont St. Michel on my way back from a conference a couple of years ago. This time a conference included a guided tour as part of the social activities...



There is a major project underway. Mont St. Michel used to be surrounded by water when the tides came in, but several decades ago, they built a permanent road out to it. The road caused sediment accumulate more quickly and the tides no longer come in as far. Now they are digging out the road and a bunch of the sediment and building a bridge that will allow the water to flow once again...

Part of the village on the way up the stairs...

Views from the top...




Many of the stones had symbols carved in them. We were told to that this is how the contractors got paid...





Our tour was a little rushed. As we moved from room to room a member of the staff came along behind us locking the doors. We had to leave so that the nuns and monks could begin their evening services...

The tidal flats are massive, but the scale is hard to grasp until you notice little dots moving around and realize they are people...




This wheel is attached to chains and a sleigh that was used to bring supplies up the very steep hill. What I didn't know from my first visit is that during the time that it was used as a prison, prisoners walked in this wheel like hamsters...




Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Harvest 2012

I went home for a visit last weekend. Fall is more advanced there...




My dad and brother were trying to get the corn off of the bottom fields before hurricane Sandy came for a visit. I tagged along for a while and took these shots of an old house nearby. It must have been glorious in its day. Now its appropriate for Halloween...




The chimneys look like they could fall off at any time...

The outhouse is considerably newer than the house because it was rebuilt after a fire some years ago...

The pump probably still works...

My brother runs the combine while my dad shuttles grain wagons back and forth to the bins...
 















Google maps shows these bottom fields as lakes. Most of the time they aren't...






Corn stalks entering the combine head and being torn apart...


This is the corn coming into the combine...

Riding back home...

The corn being dumped into the new bin system. This corn is going to spend a couple of days in the wet bin (i.e. the hopper bottom)...

The auger takes the corn to the elevator where it is lifted about 80ft and flung into the distributor. The distributor determines what bin it goes in...

This is the nearby creek that is probably flooding today...

All of the corn did make it off of the bottom fields before the end of the day...



Playing with the fisheye lens...






The control panel for the augers, elevator, etc...

View from the top of one of the bins as they transition from the bottom fields to one of the hills...


Hopper bottom bin with the fisheye lens...

Bins and the elevator...