Sunny Day, Snow On The Mountains

Don Nelson took this aerial photo of the temple earlier this week.  I know some of you have already seen this posted at LDSChurchTemples.com.  If you poke around there, you'll also see Don's aerial shot of Payson's Temple.  There is a lot to see in this picture.  It appears this is a bonus week, as the Church posted a new video about temples.  Interior views and photos of the tabernacle's interior are at this link.

The planter on the north side took me totally by surprise on Tuesday, and it's been fun to watch.  Notice the green rebar staged near the forms.  Sandbags are holding everything in place.

This cam photo taken a few hours after I left the site shows the rebar being placed.  Remember that green coating keeps the rebar from rusting.

Rebar is being prepared for the fountain on the south side.

Don captured it in his aerial shot.

The east side remains hidden from the cam or aerial views.

The brick is now snug against the cove edges on the gable.

I've been watching these two areas since the white sheeting came down last week.

I checked on the watercourse along the south side.  I handled it better today than I did on Tuesday.

A nice wide row of quartzite will be pretty along here.

I zoomed in on the north watercourse. It appears the men removed a layer of brick on this side while the white sheeting was up.

Workmen were slso removing forms from the pavilion this afternoon.  Notice new concrete in the foreground.

Two pumps worked all night to cover the rebar.

I learned something interesting.  This picture from Tuesday shows this area before the concrete pour.  The longest lengths of the green rebar weigh 352 pounds and take three men to handle, which they do with aplomb.

Let your eyes follow the forms under the red tension cables to the center of the picture, which would put you, or me, to be exact, at First West. Now imagine that you are directly under that spot, facing back this way.

This view from the underground garage shows what that area looks like underneath.  And lest anyone think I walked into a construction area, my camera just zoomed in.

The forms keep moving south, lickety-split.

The crane keeps backing up.

Look at the opening in the pavilion wall where the workman is hanging near the crane on the right.  The opening is where a beam trench joins the wall.

These trenches in the forms are deep.

The trenches turn into beams.

The area of concrete  along the center right was poured this morning, too.  The walls along the south lot are also being poured.  The rectangular-shaped cut-in along the east wall will be for ventilation equipment.

Work on the steeple was very interesting today.

The winter-hardened banner along the construction fence shows us detail on the steeple.

Carpenters are working on that detail right now.

I think we are really going to like this.

Slate is crawling up the roof of the northeast tower.

Our mountains were a particularly beautiful backdrop for the temple today.

A blog reader invited me to visit the Provo Daughters of the Utah Pioneer Museum this week.  I saw a beautiful painting of Fort Provo by pioneer Samuel Jepperson.  Fort Provo was built on the site where the museum is, now Fifth West.  

Samuel painted another painting of an earlier fort, Fort Utah, which was built in 1849 closer to Utah Lake.

Samuel also painted this picture of the old tabernacle, which stood a little northwest of where the planter is going in on the north lot.

Above the doorway to the original tabernacle was this lintel, which currently has a home at the DUP museum.  At some point it will be moved back to the temple site.

I am not nearly tall enough to get a good picture of Moroni and our mountains.

During the Depression, the government hired men to carve terraces in the mountains above Provo with the hopes that the snow would remain in the mountains longer.

These terraces can be seen near both of Provo's temples.

Well, if you are looking in the right direction.