Lost in the Fog

This week involved 2 big road trips.

There was an all-day fog on Monday when I went to the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. It was also foggy on Friday's trip. (photo Meg White)

Friday, I went to Victor Oolitic Limestone Company near Bloomington, Indiana. This is how they cut quarry blocks into slabs. It's called a Belt Saw, and it moves down a geared track to get into position for a new cut.

This is a vacuum lift for moving individual slabs.

The 2 blocks on the left are for St. Theresa Cemetery, which is the main reason for the trip. I rounded out the load with the 2 eight inch slabs, that weigh about 4,000 lb. apiece. I only use my old truck (shown) for handling stuff around the studio. I rented a flat bed truck from Penske for hauling the load.

It's rained constantly for the rest of the week. Meg snapped this photo of water backing up from the flooded Ohio River, in the swamp below our house.

Meg snapped these photos during the freezing fog on Monday. ( ...send dead flowers every morning...)

(...send dead flowers by the mail...)

(....send dead flowers to my wedding...)

Victor Oolitic stone quarry

The main task for this week involved finishing the Home of the Innocents project. But, there was a gap in the action on Tuesday, and we used the opportunity to make a trip to Victor Oolitic near Bloomington.

This picture shows the radical difference between the blue-tinted St. Louis layer of limestone that lies over the top of the buff Salem Limestone layer that yeilds the tight-grained Indiana Limestone. The St. louis layer is full of cracks and seams, and is only good for gravel.

It's difficult to get a perspective on the scale of their operation. From this hill top, you can see about a 100 acres filled with quarry blocks and cut stone.

There is a huge selection of quarry blocks - row after row. I wanted to find 40,000 lbs of stone to make up a semi load. I was overwhelmed with choices, as it's all good stone.

While I searched the stacks for stone to buy, Meg photographed this strange stone. Petrified Sliced Bread?

This 24,000 lb. piece is 1 of 2 blocks that I found.

The next day, we received the granite bases for the Home of the Innocents project.

There was this ring around the sun, while we unloaded the stones.

It was late Saturday afternoon, before we finished attaching the 6 plaques and the 2 bronze sculptures.

I was in the mood to party! - and conveniently...Steve McMillen was hosting a Halloween bash across the road. About 20 Jack-o-lanterns led the way to the bonfire.

Thor made an appearance. Hopefully, I can get better pictures of the other guest, like Pope John, Captain Jack Sparrow, and so many strange and wonderful creatures.

Things got weird...(let's do it again!)