{"id":15554,"date":"2017-01-04T08:08:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T15:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=15554"},"modified":"2018-02-10T19:23:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T02:23:40","slug":"snow-cold-lure-desk-bound-drone-to-go-exploring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/01\/snow-cold-lure-desk-bound-drone-to-go-exploring\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow, cold lure desk-bound drone to go exploring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-15554\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"15554-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Junk-cars-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Junk-cars-1-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A mountain of junked cars collects snow at Schnitzer Steel, a recycling business on Sixth Avenue North. Click on the arrow at top right for more photos.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Ice-house-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Ice-house-1-771x502.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Freeze it and they will come. In front of the picnic shelter at the city's Shiloh Conservation Area, ice fisherpersons set up shop inside a tent.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Steam-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Steam-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Steam from the Western Sugar plant, left, and the Phillips 66 refinery fills up the sky.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Birds-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Birds-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Birds gather on a strand of barbed-wire, which made them look ever colder, in Lockwood.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Geese-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Geese-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>These geese appear to have camped out on top of one of the enormous piles of sugar beets at the Western Sugar plant for the warmth.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Solar-polar-1-771x385.jpg*771*385\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Solar-polar-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Solar panels, polar cold at the Bullseye Feedlot on Duck Creek Road.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Laurel-refinery-1-771x411.jpg*771*411\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Laurel-refinery-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Seen from atop the Rims, there's no mistaking the CHS refinery in Laurel.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide8\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Plow-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Plow-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A snowplow works to clear the upper parking lot at MetraPark. It must be the biggest lot in Billings, no?<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide9\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Stranded-1-771x434.jpg*771*434\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Stranded-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>\"Call me in the spring,\" this car with Butte plates seemed to be saying. Montana Convention Center parking lot.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide10\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Horses-1-771x508.jpg*771*508\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Horses-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The expression on this horse's face looked like a plea: \"This jacket is all right, but if you wanted to give me a ride I'd take it.\"<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide11\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-River-Stream2-1-771x422.jpg*771*422\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-River-Stream2-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The Yellowstone River near the Duck Creek Bridge was ice-cold, but quite a bit warmer than the ambient air, creating the steam.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15554-slide12\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Xmas-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-Xmas-1-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The spirit of Christmas was still alive at this house on the South Side.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 15554, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/01\/snow-cold-lure-desk-bound-drone-to-go-exploring\/', 12 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>Tuesday afternoon, I almost felt guilty, staying inside as much as I had\u00a0over the past few days.<\/p>\n<p>I thought how terribly\u00a0I&#8217;d miss the cold and the snow when the Chinooks returned, as they always do. So I went out looking for lasting images of winter, as reminders of what we had when we don&#8217;t have it anymore.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not that I really got <em>out<\/em> much, since this was a motorized tour of wintry Billings, but I did have to go out into the snow and cold at least briefly for each photo. To take a series of photos I ended up not using, of the Yellowstone River at the fishing access in Lockwood, I tromped through knee-deep snow in my hiking boots. I should not have been wearing my hiking boots.<\/p>\n<p>The most surprising scene that caught my eye was the ice-fishing tent on the pond nearest the parking lot in the city-owned Shiloh Conservation Area, west of Shiloh Road opposite the giant Scheels store.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know why I was surprised, since I&#8217;ve seen plenty of people fishing out there in the summer, but this just seemed odd. And I guess technically it was, since no one else was doing it. I heard at least two voices inside the tent. I thought briefly of talking to their owners, but my notebook was back in the car, back where I wanted to be.<\/p>\n<p>Something else I had never seen: geese, hundreds of them, gathered on top of a mountain of sugar beets at the Western Sugar plant. I suppose no matter how cold it gets, that giant pile of organic matter is going to be giving off heat, enough to meet the small\u00a0needs of a downy goose.<\/p>\n<p>To get another series of photos that ended up on the editing floor (because they were all pretty lousy), I went to the spot on the north side of Swords Park where the city deposits snow scooped up from city streets.<\/p>\n<p>Not 15 minutes later, my phone alerted me to a freshly delivered Facebook message. It was from a gentleman I know who happens to operate a city plow. His message said, and I quote, &#8220;I hear you were snooping around our snow piles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Such is life in the surveillance state.<div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday afternoon, I almost felt guilty, staying inside as much as I had\u00a0over the past few days. I thought how terribly\u00a0I&#8217;d miss the cold and the snow when the Chinooks returned, as they always do. So I went out looking for lasting images of winter, as reminders of what we had when we don&#8217;t have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[5329,183,5330,5331,39],"class_list":["post-15554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","tag-chs-refinery","tag-metrapark","tag-phillips-66-refinery","tag-schnitzer-steel","tag-yellowstone-river","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21420,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15554\/revisions\/21420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}