LATEST REPORT FROM HOMER ON THE ICE CONDITIONS:

Windy, raining, everything still on top of the ice ! ! ? ?

and from Chico :

AS OF APRIL 30th---4:00 PM, 8974 TICKET HOLDERS ARE OUT OF THE WORLD FAMOUS JOE'S POND ICE OUT CONTEST.

THE CLOCK TICKS ON !

MAY DATE STILL A TARGET. 137 PICKED MAY 1st!

It has been a really dreary day, drizzling rain, temperatures in the 40's, a good day for a nap. Some people just can't sit still, though, even on a day like this. Fred and I went to see Matt Randall in Cabaret, and agree with Diane Rossi - he did a super job. It was hard to believe the confident, professional performer on stage was the same shy young man we've watched growing up across the road from us. Congratulations, Matt. We're very proud of you. It was a great performance by everyone and the audience thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then there are those folks who like a more energetic pasttime on a rainy day. Evelyn Richer sent this photo to us. When we came home about an hour ago, the road seemed to have gotten much worse than when we went out around 1 o'clock. Now we know - there's been lots of all kinds of traffic through our wonderful mudhole on Gardner's hill.
Evelyn says:

Hi Jane,

Ray went out with his camera today, and discovered Jay Chatot braving the mud!

*****

The flag is still up and the clock's still ticking, but it looks as if it could stop any time. Ice is pretty dark everywhere, and all it will take is a little wind to break everything loose. Chico's report:

AWAITING WORD FROM PAUL REVERE OR HIS SARGENT, HOMER.

AS OF APRIL 29th---4PM-----8810 TICKET HOLDERS ARE OUT OF THE CONTEST. THAT LEAVES 612 WHO MAY CASH IN.

THE CLOCK TICKS ON, I THINK ?

A MAY DATE IS IN THE TARGET AREA. THERE ARE 421 WHO PREDICTED A MAY DATE OR LATER. HOLD ON TO YOUR TICKETS.

From Homer this morning:

Hi -

The big pond is still mostly ice covered. Open water is around the islands and down toward Smith's Point, for you who know the pond. Not open there yet. Pallet, cinder block and pallet still look about the same as they did on Monday. In 1992 it was May 6th. In 1989 was May 5th.. In 1994 and 2001 It was May 4th. Beginning to wonder if this will set a new record but I do not think so. It really is interesting because yesterday at 4:00 P.M., 8660 of the tickets dates had passed by.

Good luck to whoever might still have good dates.

Homer

Dave Covell writes: I am trying to keep a steady flow of photos on my site. This year has been fun to watch! Dave's site is www.joespond.com, and we have a link on our home page. Check it out!

THERE'S STILL TIME TO GO TO CABARET AT LYNDON STATE COLLEGE. THERE WILL BE A PERFORMANCE TONIGHT (SAT.) AT 8 O'CLOCK, AND THE FINAL ONE IS SUNDAY AT 2 O'CLOCK.

"Matthew Randall is great!! He's really the star of the show." --Diane Rossi, West Shore Rd.

REPORT FROM CHICO:

JUST HEARD FROM PAUL REVERE'S SARGENT:HOMER.,

DO NOT RIDE YET,ICE STILL THERE.

SO AS OF APRIL 28, 4PM---8660 TICKETS ELIMINATED FROM CONTEST.

THE CLOCK CLICKS ON FASTER & FASTER & FASTER

MAY 1st ICE-OUT COULD BE THE DATE. HOLD ON TO YOUR TICKET.

OUR VISITING BALD EAGLE APPEARS TO BE INTERESTED IN THE ICE-OUT CONTEST. LIKE A LOT OF PEOPLE RIGHT NOW, HE'S IS APPARENTLY WAITING FOR THE CLOCK TO STOP, TOO.
BILL DIMICK HAS BEEN WATCHING FROM HIS PLACE AND FRED TOOK THIS PICTURE. BILL CALLED A FEW MINUTES AGO TO SAY THERE ARE NOW TWO EAGLES - PERHAPS DOING THEIR MATING THING. EVELYN RICHER REPORTS THERE IS STILL ONE AT THEIR END OF THE POND - SO NOW WE HAVE REPORTED SIGHTINGS OF THREE OF THE BIG BIRDS. (Not a great shot, but we've let Ray Richer know and perhaps I'll have better pictures to show you later.)

Comment from Dave Parker: WOW. From loons to bald eagles. All we need is a polar bear now. Also, see comment from Anonymous below -

THE LATEST COUNT FROM CHICO:

HAVE NOT HEARD FROM PAUL REVERE ,SO---

AS OF APRIL 27, 12 NOON---8315 TICKETS HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED FROM ICE OUT CONTEST. 1107 LEFT IN THE GAME.

THE CLOCK IS STILL TICKING,BUT WINDING DOWN.

WEATHER HERE AT JOE'S POND - INTERMITTANT LIGHT RAIN, MODERATE SOUTH WIND, TEMPERATURE 46 DEGREES.

An important visitor to our area:

BALD EAGLE

Ray ended up taking these photos right here from Sandy Beach Road as the eagle was perched on the top of the tree on the little island… They aren’t the greatest but at least a record of it being here on Joe’s… We are hoping the eagle sticks around for brighter lighting… it makes for better shots, because the need to have extended lens power lessens the “light in stops” for the photo…

Ray says his guess is that the bald eagle is an immature eagle nearly five years old, as indicated by the head and tail feathers not being completely white yet…

We wanted to thank Billy Hamilton for calling us yesterday about his sighting of the eagle from his place… that made us keep the “eagle eye” out for him … and sure enough he was back today… Any time anyone has a sighting of interest we always appreciate a call… if there is a saleable shot amongst the images we will give a shot to the person who made the sighting and called us.

Blessings, Evelyn and Ray Richer

LATEST REPORT FROM CHICO:

AS OF APRIL 26,--AT 4PM--8246 TICKETS ARE ELIMINATED

FROM THE CONTEST.

THE CLOCK TICKS ON. 1,176 REMAINING IN THE GAME.

I just rec'd these two photos by e-mail from Jeff Downs who bought the Bodach-Turner place at the head of Sandy Beach Road. He took his pictures from the fishing access - thanks, Jeff - nice shots.

I made it out this morning, in spite of a couple of really nasty mudholes - on Gardner's hill and on the hill just past Barre Avenue going towards Rt. 2.

On my way home, I took some pictures. Click to make them larger. The first is taken from the beach. Ice is mostly gone from the first pond, just a bit near Point Comfort and around some protected edges.

Next I stopped just past Point Comfort to see the middle pond. That is nearly ice-free, too, although the eastern end still has sort of an ice jam. Looking up towards the big pond, there's lots of water showing.

Then I stopped at Ned Hamilton's dock - a good vantage point without going through snow or wet ground. The brook by Ned's is a bit high and is cutting out into the ice towards the flag, but there's still quite a way to go. Looking up the pond, the ice is pretty dark - surely no fisherman would want to trust it at this point.

Then I looked for the block and the flag. I'm not sure what was going on there, but it looks as if slush had built up around the pallet and when the temperature dropped last night, the pallet froze slightly tipped up. No harm done, and the clock is still ticking.

Weather forecast is for rain perhaps tonight, and off and on for a couple of days. That could do the rest of the ice in - but even now, it's hard to say. I guess the big question right now is, will the clock stop in April or May?

Good Morning!
We took the first two pictures on Tuesday morning. You can see the channel that feeds the pond was completely open. There was water on the ice in back of the islands.

Last night, Wednesday night, we had temperatures of 27 degrees or lower here, and possibly it was colder down at water level, so this morning in back of the islands is crispy white again, and the channel has "cat ice" on the backwaters. This is the time of year when we go two steps forward and one back.

Today is beautiful, but probably won't get much above 50 degrees, so melting will be slow.

We hope your day is a good one and if you picked sometime in May for the ice to go out of Joe's Pond, you still have a chance to win the contest.

HOT OFF THE PRESS FROM CHICO -

BELOW WAS MY ORIGINAL FORCAST AND MOTHER NATURE CALMED DOWN ,SO IT IS AGAIN MY FORECAST.WOODBURY AS OF 4/25 IS ICE FREE.JOE'S PER MSG BELOW
Message Friday, April 20: ICE IS DARK ON WOODBURY AND MAY GO OUT 4/25-4/26. IF THAT HAPPENS ,ICE ON JOE'S GOES OUT IN RANGE OF (1WK TO 2 WKS-LATER).LIKE CLOCKWORK EVERY YEAR. MOTHER NATURE HAS LAST WORD ON THESE MATTERS. WINTER IS STILL AROUND MY COTTAGE.THIS NICE SUNSHINE SHOULD TAKE CARE OF WHAT LITTLE SNOW LEFT BEHIND US.

AS OF APRIL 25 -4PM 7993 TICKET HOLDERS ARE OUT OF THE CONTEST. THE CLOCK TICKS ON. 1429 picks left!

Apparently there was some erroneous information out there today that the ice had gone out of Joe's - NOT SO!!! STILL PRETTY DARNED SOLID HERE!

Not much news to report tonight as far as the ice is concerned. It's getting pretty dark, and the water level has come up today quite a bit - we had rain last night after all that very warm weather, and even today it remained in the 50's, so lots of snow is melting and running off the hillsides. Homer told me this morning the ice still looks pretty white and secure at that end of the pond.

Evelyn Richer reports the loon arrived yesterday (Monday). She said the lake is open at their end (Loon Cove). From my house I can see open water stretching along the west shore past Pearl Island. It's still pretty solid behind the islands, though. Just to put things in perspective, Bob Labrie, the guy who started an ice-out contest much like ours in Goshen, MA, said in a recent e-mail the ice there is still on the pond, several days later than it has been in 20 years of record keeping. The block went down on Saturday, stopping the clock at noon. In years past, their contest has been over between one and two weeks before ours. We all agree, though, this has been a different sort of year with records of all sorts set or broken. Bob said there were only 32 picks left when the block went down there.

I didn't get a ticket report from Chico today! I guess he's entitled to a day off, come to think about it. I'm sure I'll hear from him tomorrow and will post how many picks are still left in the game.

The Caledonian Record reported yesterday, April 23, that over 85 Rising Student awards were presented at Lyndon Stat College on March 22, honoring the achievements of underclass students. Three awards were presented for the first time this year.

The Barbara Bona Memorial Scholarship awards were given to Jeremiah Powell of Concord and Megan Danforth of Lunenburg.

The Larkin Lewis Award was presented to Jason Smith of Cuttingsville.

The Richard and Terry Portner Fine and Performing Arts Award was presented to Matthew Randall, of Cabot. (See April 21st post.)

AS OF APRIL 23, AT 4PM---7472 TICKETS HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED FROM THE CONTEST.

TEMP 85 AND WINDS NOW CHALLENGE THE FAST TICKING CLOCK.

THIS MEANS THERE ARE ONLY 1,950 GUESSES STILL IN THE GAME! Here is the ice report as of 11:30 this morning (4/23/07). As I left West Danville, there is open water almost all the way from the narrows to the bridge. A canoe could easily paddle through. However, the middle pond has only a narrow strip next to Rt. 2 showing open water from the 2nd narrows towards Point Comfort. The narrows, some of the north end of the pond near Loon Cove, and where brooks are emptying into the pond have some open water showing, but, as you can see by the photos, there's still pretty solid ice out there. I didn't see the fisherman up behind the big island today, but yesterday he/she spent most of the morning out on the ice in the sunshine. It was nice enough out there both yesterday and today, it's not important whether the fish are biting or not. However, I wouldn't venture out onto the ice at this late date - could be pretty risky.

Did I mention we're back to muddy roads? This is how the hill coming off Rt. 2 looked this morning. There is another spot on the hill by Pat and Mo Gardner's. We've been lucky so far, but these two spots are a challenge.

Click the pictures to enlarge them.

CHICO CARCOBA CHECKS IN:

TODAY 4/22--- 7047 TICKETS OUT OF CONTEST AS OF 4PM.

THE CLOCK TICKS ON---FASTER EVERY DAY NOW.

*****

Weather report: Today has been partly sunny, temperatures in the 60's. Rain expected tomorrow, temperatures still warm.

*****
TAKE A LOOK AT THE NEW ICE-OUT SLIDESHOW.
PHOTOS PAST AND PRESENT.
Click on the GREEN BANNER on the Home Page.

HERE'S A FUN THING TO DO NEXT WEEKEND.
LYNDON STATE COLLEGE TWILIGHT PLAYERS ,
in association with FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS,
PRESENTS CABARET ,
APRIL 27 and 28 at 8 PM, SUNDAY, APRIL 29th at 2 PM. ADMISSION IS FREE.

Lead actors are: Angela DIMILLO, Michael LAPERLE, Pat JANSEN, Jan CLAUSING and Matthew RANDALL as EMCEE.

**Note: Some material may not be suitable for young audiences**

Matt Randall is the son of John and Liz Randall, JPA members on W.Shore Rd., Joe's Pond. This is a press release photo of Matt as Emcee in the show.

THE CHICO CARCOBA REPORT

TODAY--APRIL 21,2007--4PM---6554 TICKETS ARE ELIMINATED AS THEY PICKED WRONG DATE/TIME.

THE CLOCKS TICKS ON.

****

The odds are getting better for the 2,868 picks left.

Weather: Sunny, 65 degrees, gentle westerly breeze.

I had a nice note and pictures from Heather (Corley) Provost:

We're looking forward to summer but must admit we have thoroughly enjoyed our first winter at Joe's Pond - it's been quite cozy. The kids have had fun entertaining friends at the pond when we visit for weekends: sledding, snow-shoeing, relaxing and playing soccer on the frozen pond. This is a picture of our daughter Jennifer and some of her friends from Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington playing soccer on the pond - just a few weeks ago.

There's nothing quite like Joe's Pond! It's great to know that teenagers truly enjoy all the pond has to offer.

Take care and see you soon.

Mike and Heather Provost (Corley/Provost camp)

885 Channel Road (way at the end of the pond!)

I had an e-mail from Walter Ruf in Florida yesterday. Here's what he said:

Warning, I just got a pop up from SYSTEMS DOCTOR! I thought it was from MC Affee, so I opened it and they wanted money to eliminate a number of viruses? I decided that there was a problem and tried to erase the pop up. That did not work and my cp crashed! 300 green ones later I had my cp fixed. I was told that it is very difficult to get rid of such popups. So be careful!

We went to McAfee and had this conversation with techie Mitchell Day in their chat room:

Mitchell Day: SystemDoctor is a rogue spyware application that gets installed by Spyware/malware without asking for permission. This infection can also be accompanied by other malware that changes your desktop background to a fake warning or by Trojans that issue fake taskbar security alerts.
Fred Brown: Does our McAfee anti-virus protect us?
Mitchell Day: Yes, if your McAfee is fully updated.


We thank Walter for the warning, and McAfee for the advice. As Walter says, please be careful!

"Chico" Carcoba, the wizard who logs in all the information from the Ice-Out tickets, will be sending us regular reports as we close in on the winner. I will also try to send photos as the conditions change at the flag site. We took pictures today at about 4 p.m. The weather has been in the 50's with a nice breeze, so we know there is melting going on, but so far the pond hasn's shown it. We were interested in what Chico says about the ice going out:

ICE IS DARK ON WOODBURY AND MAY GO OUT 4/25-4/26. IF THAT HAPPENS,ICE ON JOE'S GOES OUT IN RANGE OF (1WK TO 2 WKS-LATER). LIKE CLOCKWORK EVERY YEAR. MOTHER NATURE HAS LAST WORD ON THESE MATTERS. WINTER IS STILL AROUND MY COTTAGE.THIS NICE SUNSHINE SHOULD TAKE CARE OF WHAT LITTLE SNOW IS LEFT BEHIND.

AS OF 4:00 PM TODAY 4/20/07---/6007 HAVE BEEN ELIMATED FROM THE CONTEST.THE CLOCK CLICKS ON. 9112 WILL BE ELIMINATED ON MAY 1, 4:00 PM.

***

The ice in our little neighboring pond, Molly's Pond, (see lower photo) goes out just about one week before Joe's does. Fred and I went there today and took pictures - it looks a bit further along than Joe's, but still has a way to go. Molly's could be clear in about a week, about the same as Woodbury Pond; here at Joe's Pond, I think it's safe to say the ice won't be gone before May 1, but I would guess we'll have a winner around May 4th, if this warm weather keeps up.

JOE'S POND ICE-OUT CONTEST UPDATE AS OF: APRIL 19, 2007, 4PM-------5213 (MORE THAN HALF) ARE NOW OUT OF CONTEST, AS THEY PICKED DATE/TIME BEFORE THIS DAY/TIME. THE CLOCK TICKS ON!!

The inside scoop on how your Joe's Pond Association newsletter gets published:

Evelyn says: Nahanni is in an “office depot” box lid which is on my lap!! She is watching my other monitor!!! Good Girl!!! She’s in the “inbox” which is really the “in-the-way-box”!!!

Jane says: Woody has his own bed next to my desk. His motto is: "Wake me when it's over". When he wakes up and things are dull, he parks his furry butt in front of the monitor and demands attention.

Makes you wonder how we manage with all this help, doesn't it??

There are a few signs spring may finally be upon us. Here are some pictures we took today on W. Shore Road towards Brickett's Crossing Road. Lots of water rushing off the hillsides into the pond, and temperatures are forecast to be near 70 degrees (!) this weekend. Hard to believe, but we won't complain. That will mean some serious melting going on at the pond.


Not only are the brooks open and running full, there are actually patches of bare ground showing. I stood a while and gazed at the green grass sprouting in the run-off from one of the culverts near the big field where the horses are, just past our house. Look closely at the picture - it's there! No green grass or even bare ground on the horses' side of the road, but that will soon change.

Another sure sign of spring - the town's big grader has been going back and forth on West Shore Road - a beautiful sight to those who live here! Once again, our mud season is past (?) with only mild inconvenience.

Jeff Downs, who bought the Bodach-Turner log cabit at the head of Sandy Beach Road, sent this picture taken at the Danville Town Hall. A glimmer of hope for spring! Thanks, Jeff.

There's a little snow in the air - again! - today. We had some rain, but there's still quite a lot of snow and very little bare ground showing. We were lucky not to have a lot of damage here - the storm may not have been as severe for this area as we'd feared. The wind blew a gale and some things got moved about, but I haven't heard of any significant damage. Three screens on the Rossi's pond-side porch blew out and were damaged, and Diane said an aluminum boat was loose by Rouleau's. She and Bill tied it up as best they could. She isn't sure if it belongs to Ray Rouleau or Phil Rogers. When folks return to their cottages, they may find things have been rearranged a bit.

We're all hoping we won't need to shovel and snow-blow much more this year, but according to the forecast this morning, we're due to get another couple of days with snow later in the week. Diane Rossi sent me this picture - I think she must have taken it yesterday as Bill was heading off to work.

Update on the Storm

We made it through the night without losing power, but this morning there have been some serious "blips" and we've expected to lose power but it hasn't happened yet. We received the following report from Washington Electric this morning:

OUTAGE REPORT

Monday, April 16, 2007, 7:45 AM

Washington Electric Co-op’s crews are continuing to restore power knocked out by the storm that began on April 15. Outages first began to occur mid-afternoon on Sunday, reaching an evening peak of approximately 1,000 members out at 8:00 PM Sunday night. This number was reduced to 384 at 6:00 AM this morning.

However, the heavy rain and wind that have now moved in have caused another round of outages, as wet heavy snow unloaded from trees. WEC currently has approximately 1,100 members without power at locations throughout our territory. The highest concentration is in Orange County, and we have four crews working in the Tunbridge/Corinth/Topsham/Orange area. There are two crews assigned to outages in East Montpelier, Calais and Duxbury, and one crew working in the Walden area. WEC is receiving additional assistance from the Morrisville Electric Department.

WEC crews will continue to work through the day to restore power to people affected by the storm. We expect to make significant progress in the next few hours and will have several hundred restored this morning. However, some scattered outages that involve downed lines or a broken pole will take longer. WEC does expect that a small number of people will spend Monday night without power and has informed those members where we expect repairs will take the longest.

Washington Electric Co-op serves over 10,000 member households and businesses in 41 towns in Orange, Washington and Caledonia Counties.

*****

Liz Randall sent these pictures that her son Jason, our neighbor here on West Shore Rd. tood today during the nor'easter. If you click on the photo you can just make out the white, snow-covered roof of our house in the first picture. The second one I think was taken from the Randall's deck, looking east down the pond. Visibility has been close to zero most of the afternoon. Tonight the wind is howling and we're still getting snow, but now it isn't just falling out of the sky, it's a "sideways" storm with gusts of wind swirling it around, beating against the house.

Liz and John are sitting the storm out on Long Island. Jason lives here and goes to school at Lyndon State. We watch for his lights in the woods below our house. Thanks for the pictures, Liz.

The Pearl Farm in Danville VT has maple syrup this year for $36.00 per gallon. Yummy!
Elizabeth & Bob Sargent
529 Jamieson Rd.
Danville, VT 05828
802-748-1456
e-mail: lizbobs@charter.net

Awaiting another storm, a nor'-easter, which most of us view as just a continuation of our totally tiring, unrelenting "spring" weather.

I could post any of the dozens of snow pictures I've taken in the past 3 1/2 months and it would look pretty much like our view outside today. The snow began here around 8 a.m. and has been coming down steadily all day. At first it didn't seem to stick to our driveway or the branches of our small birch trees, but now with the temperature just about at the freezing point, that has changed. We're told there could be anywhere from a foot to two feet of snow for us in this storm.

On Friday, I posted an e-mail received from Washington Electric Co-op warning of probable power outages, so we're going to lay out candles, oil lamps and flashlights tonight and have extra water stored for drinking and flushing. These precautions have served us well over the years when power outages here in rural Vermont were far more frequent. We congratulate ourselves that temperatures are in the 30's above zero, not below.

Henretta Splain stopped by this morning, and she's concerned about friends on Long Island. Her parents live there, but she said they are located in the center of the island, away from the coastal area and on high enough ground so they should be ok. There are others who are closer to the shore, and we just hope everyone remains safe. I can only imagine what might happen along the coast - we like to visit in Maine and have always thought we'd jump in the car and head to the coast when we knew one of these storms is coming, but I guess we'll sit this one out right here at home where we know better what to expect and where we can look out for our property and our neighbors, if need be.

Did you know - yesterday was the first day of trout fishing season here in Vermont? Reports have been that they are not biting. Also, today is the final day for snowmobiling. I never heard back from Ted Chase whether the Walden snowmobile club had their cookout yesterday or if it's happening today. I believe I read somewhere that "youth turkey hunting" begins about now, too. Our legislature may have to update some of the stop/start dates for sports if the weather continues to be as confusing as it has been this year.

I hope you go to Burr Morse's web page from time to time and read his newsletter. I get them regularly by e-mail and always enjoy them. I think you will, too. If you want to check it out (he's talking about sugarin' today), we have a link on our web site, or just go to www.morsefarm.com

This is what Friday the 13th looks like here at Joe's Pond, Vermont. (Click it and it will be as if you're looking out our window.)

THIS MESSAGE CAME REGARDING OUR NEXT ONSLAUGHT OF WEATHER HERE IN THE NORTH COUNTRY:

Dear Washington Electric Co-op member:

Major Storm Moving in Sunday—Outages Possible

Washington Electric Co-op has experienced few outages due to recent snowstorms, including the most recent one on Thursday, April 12^th.

It is hard to predict which storms will do damage and cause outages, as this will vary based on the type and volume of precipitation, wind speed and direction, elevation and other factors. The type of weather we have had so far this winter has not caused any major extended outages on WEC’s system.

However, a large classic “Nor’easter” is expected to move into our area during the day on Sunday, April 15^th. It is too soon to predict what type of precipitation will occur, but this storm is expected to bring high winds as well. We hope we don’t have any problems, but we may. As always, we urge you to be prepared with supplies (batteries, water, food) in the event you do experience an extended outage.

WEC’s crews will be on standby and ready to go if necessary. We will be participating in a conference call on Sunday morning with other utilities and state emergency management officials to review the most current weather update.

For advice on being prepared for outages and for information about how your Co-op goes about restoring power during major storms, click on the “Outage Information” link on our website: www.washingtonelectric.coop.

Help the 8th grade at Cabot School
get to Washington, D.C.

Bottle Drive
Pickups on
April 14th - May 5th
or drop off at the school before 11 a.m.
on Saturday.

Our next storm (dare we hope it will be our last for this year?) is presently in progress. Fred has just come in from clearing our driveway and reports about six inches since it began around 9 a.m.

It's fairly wet and heavy and we could likely be without power at some point. The forecast is for the snow to change to rain in most places (perhaps not here at Joe's Pond, at least not as soon as lower elevations). The rain will help melt away our snow pack but could mean some flooding in the valleys; or here at Joe's Pond, we could just get more snow. By Sunday it looks as if we'll be getting warmer weather, so we're all thinking there may be an end in sight.

In the meantime, here are some pictures Fred and I took yesterday when we walked on W. Shore Road. We agreed, however, we probably won't be walking there for a while because of the mud. The road is very rough, lots of potholes and there have been muddy spots, but overall, they haven't been all that bad - so far. The additional snow may keep the frost from coming out of the roads too quickly, but will add to the runoff and moisture and then warm weather and rain could wreak havoc. We could be facing serious mud - not fun to walk or drive in - but we're hoping this long, drawn out spring may have the advantage that our roads won't get much worse than they have been. Every town here in the north country is faced with the same problems this time of the year. While some of the roads aren't bad, others are nearly impassable. It seems to depend on how deep the frost has gone, where the underground springs are, the weather, amount of travel on them, etc. Best to stay off them if you possibly can.

By the way - I'm not going to take any pictures of this storm. I'm tired of pictures of snow - I know you all must be, too. I'll try to keep you posted on how much we get here, and later on how fast it's disappearing, but unless there's something very unusual happening - no more snow pictures until October!

Press Release
To: www.cabotvt.us
From: Cabot School Board
Date: April 9, 2007

New Principal Named at Cabot School
After a lengthy search process, the Cabot School Board chose Regina Quinn
to be Cabot School’s new principal at it’s April 2nd Board meeting. Ms.
Quinn will replace Dr. Frank Mellaci, who has served as Cabot’s interim
principal during the current school year.
For the past several years Ms. Quinn has served as Director of Mathematics
and Associate Executive Director of the Vermont Institutes, an organization
working to improve mathematics teaching and learning in Vermont schools
funded by the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of
Education. During 1996 – 2001 Ms. Quinn taught at Walden School. She
began her career in education at Cabot School in 1992, teaching fourth
through sixth grades there until 1996.
Ms.Quinn, who has lived in Cabot since 1992, will assume her duties as
principal on July 1st.

Most recent ice depth at Joe's Pond.

As promised, Ted Chase called this morning after going out onto the ice in front of his home on North Shore Road to auger through the ice so he could measure it. He reports he found a layer of frozen crust on top of about a foot of slush, and then cut through about a foot and a half of "clear hard ice" before hitting water. Ted estimated the layer of crusty snow and slush on top of the ice probably totals another 18 inches or so.

There you have it. We won't be water skiing anytime soon. Our area presently has a weather advisory posted for tomorrow (Thursday) saying to expect a considerable amount of heavy, wet snow and/or freezing rain. We do have fun here in the north country.

This morning I took some pictures of the mountains - Camel's Hump, Mt. Mansfield, the Worcester Range, from the Cabot Plains Cemetery.

Beautiful SPRING morning! We're all going to get outside to enjoy it because the forecast is for more sleet, snow, rain and gloom the rest of the week.

I've been hearing robins, for a couple of weeks now. Some folks thought it was wishful thinking, but this morning they were out in our trees singing up a hymn or two. There is no bare ground to speak of, so they weren't very visible. I did catch this one in our birch tree by the driveway. She kept her back turned to the sun, I think it was her way of showing her disgust at our belated spring. It was 14 degrees here early this morning.

I had the following from Evelyn Richer a few minutes ago:

We don't have the same melt down at all!  Usually we have a very nearly
clear cove down here by now... one year by my birthday the loon showed up to
see if the nest was open... This year the channel above us looks like it is
still frozen over, but the stretch in front of our place is open and clear
for about the width of the channel and that's it... the ducks and geese are
still coming in; common and hooded mergansers, woodies, mallards, the otter,
beavers and muskrats.  The open channel is just past our land... very often
by now it will be approaching the small island.

Last year by the first week in April we had Phil Beattie here excavating our
ponds and I was transplanting some last minute perennials.  We still have a
foot and a half of snow on all our property this year!

I think Ray is right the seasons are shifting here on Joe's...

We went to Burlington yesterday and they have no snow at all!!  It was nice
to visit the "real April"!! We could even smell spring over there.  They had
grass and open water... we sat and watched the cormorants, ospreys and a
very big muskrat above Colchester... That was the "pill" that we needed!!

Well, I hope to enjoy the blue sky and sunshine today... I am sick of
imagining that those little white things in the air are little white
butterflies!!!   :) 

Blessings, Evelyn and Ray Richer

The tickets are all in and counted.
Dave Parker informed us tonight the final count on the ticket sales for the 2007 Ice-Out Contest at Joe's Pond is 9,412. Not too shabby. Another record year.

I have a promise from Ted Chase over on North Shore Road that he will get an ice depth measurement for me tomorrow from in front of his home. It should be representative of the depth overall. I'll report that figure as soon as he contacts me.

Ted also told me the snowmobile trails in the Walden area are about the best they've been all winter. The Coles Pond Sledders snowmobile club will have an end of the season cookout at Lookout Point on Trail 151 on either Saturday or Sunday, depending on the weather. The snowmobile season closes on April 15th, so this will be your last chance to get out there and enjoy the fun with other sports. Ted said he will know by Thursday night which day the cookout will take place, so call him at 802-684-3883, or e-mail him at tedchase@vtlink.net.

Friends will be glad to know Pam and Joe Hebert arrived home today after several months in Arizona, their winter playground. Welcome home, Pam and Joe. I bet you thought you'd miss all the fun of shoveling snow and slogging through mud!

Have you checked the new "ribbon" on the home page of www.joespond.org yet? We now have a map to show where the Ice-Out flag is located on the pond, and some of the roads around the pond are shown and named.