I have a couple of interesting things for you this morning.  I had an e-mail from a friend in Cabot with a link to e-bay and this picture.  It was a postcard sent in January, 1917 from a man in Cabot to friends in Barre.  The name on the porch, or "piazza," as it was called in those days, is plainly "Shiloh."  Why anyone would name their cottage after a very bloody Civil War battle escapes me, but I guess the owners had their reasons.  I have gathered lots of original names of cottages around Joe's Pond, and "Shiloh" is very familiar to me, but I cannot find any direct reference to it except this snapshot that seems to have been taken from a spot on the West Shore.

Perhaps the sign is still on an existing cottage and that's why I feel I know it, or perhaps it's because of this snapshot.   I hope someone will read this and help me identify where the camp was and who owned it.


Much more current is this video posted on YouTube, titled, "Snowmobiling in Vermont," made last weekend by Tim Hebert (No. Shore Rd.).  Tim takes us up to the northern end of the pond where he accesses the VAST trail and then heads down the trail towards West Danville, getting off near the beach and returning to his starting point from the first and second ponds through the narrows (!) past the boating access and then up the pond and home.  It feels like you are riding along with him - a little scary sometimes, but really interesting.  Thanks to his mom, Pam, for sending us the link, and a big thanks to Tim for making the video.  Incidentally, Pam just put a big "Vrooooom!" on the subject line of her e-mail this morning.  Indeed!  I don't know for sure, but I suspect Tim had to speed up the video a tad to get it to fit the format on YouTube, so it looks like he's going faster than he really was.  Great fun, anyway.


We are enduring a little more snow today - light snow showers all morning, but not amounting to much so far.  The temperature is hanging out right around the freezing point, and even though it isn't bitterly cold, it's still dismal outside.  Woody hasn't been interested in going out at all today.  He's been fast asleep all morning, not even bothering to come to look out the window.  I think cats have some inner mechanism that lets them know when the sun is shining.  I'm pretty sure they can't tell the temperature - Woody all too often teases to go outside on sunny, below-zero days.  He joins us, I'm sure, in hoping we're nearing the end of those kinds of days very soon.