Love this summer weather.  My only complaint is that the black flies are so bad.  They may not bother quite as much at pond level, but up here at our house, they are relentless.  

Speaking of pond level - I've heard the water is quite low right now.  It could be the power company is anticipating tomorrow's rain storm, which forecasters say could be very heavy and cause flooding.  We've had lots of rain until this past week, so I would have guessed the pond might be unusually high, but not so.

Our new deck is finished.  Bill Jones did a great job - or really, several jobs - getting the deck done and  also the wall where the mice lived fixed - plus a few things that needed repairs we didn't know about until he dismantled the old deck.  These are "before" and "after" pictures. We love it - and we'd like to be able to  enjoy it more, but for at least a few more days we will probably have black flies pestering us.  They are traditionally here between Mother's Day and Father's Day - but I don't suppose they check their little fly calendars to know when it's time to quit bugging us, so I'll need to be patient for a while longer.  And hibernate.  I noticed today there are a few square-tail flies around, too.  They bite, but don't poison me like black flies do.  They are more of an irritation, flying their crazy circles and dive-bombing into my hair.   


I hope people who are registered to vote in Cabot will do so on Tuesday.  This is an important issue and a hard one to decide.  I can see advantages and disadvantages to voting for a school merger.  I don't believe Montpelier has all the answers to improving education in the state, and taxes have a habit of moving in only one direction - up - no matter what course of action towns take, so it's really hard to know what is best for the children and/or us taxpayers.  Whatever happens, we'll live with it, and over time it will all work out, but it's certainly a hot potato right now.