We have sad news today.  Linda Livendale's mother, Joyce Noyes, passed away on Sunday.  Linda and Charles recently purchased the Bare cottage on Route 2, and I'm sure Linda has many friends here at the pond who will want to be in touch with her.  Her address is:  9W Skylark Terr., Barre VT 05641.  Our thoughts are with Linda and her family. 

Our weather has been what I'd call "awful" all day.  We've had rain, sleet, and freezing rain making a real mess out of roads and washing away what little snow we had.  Our hillside is not quite bare yet, but I expect it will be by morning.  There is more rain in the forecast for tomorrow, although it may freeze up overnight, and tomorrow's temperature will be in the mid to high 40s before the thermometer will head downward again to near zero Friday night.  From then on we might have more "normal" weather with warmish days and cold nights for a few days.  The roller-coaster weather pattern that has been the rule all this winter continues.

The Town of Cabot was out late this evening sanding and salting the roads.  There is still ice on the roads from the last rain we had, and although we got about an inch of wet snow overnight, that has all washed away, along with much of the sand that was on the road, so back roads may be very slippery.  I haven't walked Jamie and Marie's hill for a few days - just too icy.  Besides that, today was too darned wet.  

With all this rain, Larry has decided to wait to put the Ice-Out block and flag out.  There will be a better time to do that, I'm sure.  Garey Larrabee at Hastings Store told me yesterday lots of people have been wondering when it would be out and are watching for it.  It really is very early to get it out.  Last year we put it out on the first day of spring, March 20.  Of course, last year was a lot different that it's been this year.  We had plenty of snow and continuously cold weather from December on without even a break for a January thaw.  Some years it's been after April 1st when the block went out, because usually the weather is just too cold and there's absolutely no sign of melting going on.  Not so this year, and I guess that's why people are thinking it should be there already.  We are confident we have plenty of time, even though it sure looks like spring right now.  We'll keep you posted.