A Reminder

 It's Holiday Time! Christmas is almost here and then we'll be getting set for a New Year, with lots of interesting stuff going on, no doubt. We love the holidays, but there is also the very serious undertone of concern over problems here at Joe's Pond. We have been watching closely (and actively participating in discussions) about whether wake boats may be eventually banned here. I think it's safe to say that a large majority of people around the pond would like to see them gone. Here is a reminder message from David Kidney (North Shore Road):

Friends,

The hearing on our petition to prohibit wake sports on Joe's Pond went great.  Every speaker, and we had a good number,  supported our petition.  Thank you to all who spoke.  You all were terrific.

It is time for the final push.  Written comments are due by December 23rd.  the more we have supporting our petition the better.  So, please write a comment and get your spouse, kids, and friends write one.  Send it to anr.wsmdlakes@vermont.gov     Make sure you put "Wakesports" and "Joe's Pond" in the subject line.

I submitted my comments today.  A copy is attached.   Please do not be intimidated by the length of my comments.    If anything, mine are way too long.  The more typical comment would be a paragraph or two.  Anything to let the ANR know that you support prohibiting wake sports on Joe's Pond.   If you have had negative dealings with wake sports, (while on the water in your vessel or swimming, to your shoreline, to your dock, or ...) make sure to include these experiences.

A number of you have sent me the comments that you have already submitted.   Thank you for doing so.  Now I'd ask you to encourage others to do likewise.

I know we are all busy with the Holidays.  But here is our chance to do something good for our beloved Joe's Pond.   

Thank You,

DavidDavid Kidney Comments On Petition to Prohibit Wakesports on Joe's Pond

So take a few minutes to write a letter expressing your concerns (whichever way you lean). It doesn't matter if you live on the pond, visit occasionally, or have warm feeling from having spent time here in the past - if you have any connection at all to Joe's Pond and appreciate it's charm, please consider voicing an opinion. To relative outsiders, it may not seem that important, but for those of us here, having wake boats banned would mean waterfronts will be less damaged, the pond's bottom won't be continually churned to spread contaminants, people will be safe swimming, canoeing, fishing, or kayaking, the buoys Jamie Dimick puts in place each summer will be less likely to be knocked off their mark or their chains broken, he will not have to watch out for super wakes when he's trying to set the buoys from the pontoon boat, and we might even be able to launch our wooden inboard again. It has been about three summers since that has been in the water because it got battered from being tossed by the wakes when it was tied up in our boathouse. 

It is important for as many people as possible to weigh in with personal stories, complaints, or comments. It may help secure a real "gift" for the health of our lake and peace of mind when in or on the water here - a change in law so that wake boats are no longer allowed here. 

Right now we have a very "Christmasy Joe's Pond" - completely frozen over, and already there have been an ice fisherman out on the ice, a hang glider, cross-country skiers, and even a skater on the ice yesterday before we had another three inches of snow overnight. They are all living dangerously, I think, but this happens every year. People get out there way before some of us watching from shore feel it's safe. With the warm weather swings and few very cold dips in temperature, there can't be much ice out there.

Today has been in the low to mid-twenties and quite windy. I was outside briefly this morning to shovel off the deck and measure the snow. The mail didn't come until late this afternoon and I decided I would leave it in the mailbox until tomorrow. The temperature began going down at about noontime and is now 17 degrees now. I expect it will be in the single digits overnight. We had some very welcome sunshine today, but boy, that wind! Since I started writing here tonight, the temperature has dropped about 4 degrees - and still heading downward.

I'm busy with the few preparations for Christmas I still do. Everything seems to take longer now than it did ten years ago. I have totally missed the deadline for getting mail out, so my holiday greetings will be emails to friends and family this year. Sometimes that happens - my excuse is that it was an unusually short period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  I'm definitely not as good at scheduling my time as I used to be. Things like lunches with friends, runs into town for appointments or whatever (and more frequent nap times when at home), have seriously interfered with getting things done in a timely fashion. It's a good thing I'm not responsible for hosting the family Christmas Eve gathering - I probably wouldn't be ready until New Year's Eve!

Stay warm, healthy, and safe. Be happy.

A Newsy Day!

Here is a reminder: 

 Here is the link to the hearing [which was held on Thursday, December 12]. This link will also allow you to submit written comments, which are due by December 23rd.   For anyone who did not speak at Thursday's hearing, please consider submitting a written comment.  The more comments we have supporting our petition the better.

 I am also pleased to announce that Cabot has now joined with the JPA and the Town of Danville as a co-petitioner.  Their Select Board voted unanimously to do so.  This gives us a lot of momentum.  Let's keep it going by submitting as many written comments as we can.

 Thanks,

David Kidney

________________

I was amused to find an article in today's Caledonian Record about our neighbor, Littleton, New Hampshire using the Joe's Pond Ice-Out Contest as a model for one of their own. I've lost count of the number of communities across the nation who have copied our contest - all with our blessings. I'm pretty sure most of them ran for a few years and then were abandoned for one reason or another. We are fortunate to have such dedicated groups over the years who do the hard work to keep the contest going. We wish the "Friends of Remich Park" all the best and that they have plenty of ice to work with. I copied a bit from the much longer and more detailed article:

LITTLETON — After no ice to speak of in the winter of 2024, Friends of Remich Park (FoRP) is hoping for enough ice in 2025 to support the first-ever planned ice-out contest on Dells Pond, modeled after the longstanding contest on Joe’s Pond in West Danville.

The money raised by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit FoRP, formed in the 1980s and revamped after the new playground project in 2020, will go toward programming and other needs.

“We have a new fund-raiser, it’s called the ice-out, from Joe’s Pond,” Jocelyn Nute Corell, president of FoRP, said during a presentation to the Select Board on Monday. “We’re trying to copy it because it’s such a good idea. We had a whole plan to do a run-through last year, and there was no ice. But we had everything all ready to go.”

By Robert Blechl, Caledonian Record, 12/13/24

**************************

I have been watching four very large, healthy wild turkeys that apparently have taken up residence on my lawn. I have a couple of very old ornamental apple trees and one small crab apple tree there that provide lots of fruit for critters. One year I watched a mother bear browse under mu crab apple tree while her two bear cubs romping in the branches overhead. Squirrels also love nabbing the little apples that stay on the branches all winter, as have lots of partridges, deer, and turkeys over the years. It is pretty funny watching those big turkeys trying to balance on the smaller branches, but they manage. In fact, they roosted in one of the ornamental apple trees last night. When I raised the blind this morning, they became alarmed and a couple dropped to the ground and ran while the other two took flight from the tree, landing by the bushes along the roadside. 

They also feed under the large evergreens on my front lawn sometimes. I'm not sure if they are getting seeds from those trees or if they are picking up seeds that the chickadees and nuthatches have dropped.  Some years turkeys have enjoyed picking up seeds from under my window bird feeder, but yesterday I watched as one approach to about six feet of the area under the feeder and after several minutes of consideration she turned back to the apple trees. I try to be careful not to let them see me as that frightens them away. I'm happy to have them around. Sometimes they just stand on one leg in the sun, head tucked under a wing, I assume taking a nap. Their hearing and eyesight are very acute so even a small noise or movement will spook them. I know it's silly, but I have arranged on curtain to hide my chair so I won't disturb them as I sit in my recliner. I was glad that there was only a trace of snow to measure this morning so I didn't have to go onto the deck. Sometimes in the past I've gone out on the deck unaware the turkeys were around and the noise their wings make when they take flight has really startled me. Hard to tell who is more alarmed, them or me!

I have been doing a series of articles about Cabot history for the Cabot Chronicle. Over the years the town has had 15 school districts all numbered according to different sections of town that at one time or another had enough youngsters to warrant establishing a school. The first three, Cabot Plain, Cabot Center, and Lower Cabot have been published - Lower Cabot will be in the January issue. Now I'm working on District 4 which is the West Hill area.

The first school in that section of town was called the Kimball School District - because the Kimball family lived nearby and likely donated land for the school. I'm not certain what year that school was established, but probably very early 1800s. The population shifted and Kimball School closed in 1886 and a new school was built at the four corners where West Hill Pond is. That building is still standing and is owned by the Cabot Historical Society. At our meeting this past Monday, Vice President Brittany Butler told us she has taken several groups of young students to the West Hill School this year and they are in awe when they see what one-room schools were like. 

The building is a treasure trove of history with desks, books, maps, blackboards, water pail, and wood stove that were either part of that original school or some just like it. There is even an outhouse in the back - no longer functioning as it originally did, but it represents that era. 

I'm very familiar with West Hill School. We've had many meetings there in the past, and I've taken tour groups there during Fall Foliage. I went to a one-room school on Cabot Plain that was more "modern" than the restored West Hill School in many ways (it had electricity and plumbing!), but there were things in common, too. Especially I remember the roll-down map cases that hung over the blackboards. There were a variety of perhaps five or six maps - one of the United States, one of Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. and each could be pulled down like a rollup windowshade. Above the map cases there were large cards printed with the alphabet in cursive that displayed both capital letters and lower case. They were there as reference when we learned penmanship.

The schools all had an American flag in the classroom and we pledged allegiance every morning. The Plains school (photo at right) had a stage and a basement with a big old wood-fired furnace that belched smoke into the room, but little heat. The basement area was somewhat finished off and on really cold days when snow was sifting down on us from the big multi-paned, loose-fitting windows, our teacher would allow small groups to go to the basement to study. It was warm there, especially when the cook-stove had been used for hot lunch preparation. 

We all got a chance to help prepare those lunches and clean up - an early introduction to home economics. We had government "surplus commodities" to supplement what our parents contributed. Sometimes the government supplies sent to the schools were hard to work with, but the teacher and older girls figured it out. I recall that some items were pretty bad - powdered milk that could really only be used for cooking. I think some of that was probably sent home with students and was likely fed to the pigs or calves. Our taste buds were used to fresh farm products. We liked things like the raisins, prunes, and the concentrated orange juice wasn't too bad, but if it hadn't been for our PTA donations of canned vegetables, meat, fruit, and maple syrup, the hot lunches would have been pretty sad. In those years, the PTA (Parent Teachers Association) was very active on Cabot Plain. (Photo right shows the Plains School today.)

The older boys at school had to stoke the furnace and split wood sometimes if we were running low.  When the wind drifted snow against the front door and filled in the path from school, they had to shovel. We had a janitor who did those things in early mornings or after school in the afternoon, but most days he was busy attending to things on his farm so his sons, who were students, filled in for him. Our janitor was Fred Maynard who lived a short distance from the school. When I was in school, there were several Maynard kids going there, too. Frederick and Martin were 7th and 8th graders; Theresa and Kenneth were about my age, and younger kids, Virginia and Darcy were all in school at some point during the years I spent there. Their oldest brother, Ernest, was the first casualty of WWII, when the plane he was a gunner on was shot down in France.

Those years were farm years - all of Cabot Plain was under cultivation with every home a functioning, productive farm, and almost every family had lots of children. There were cows in pastures, horses pulling mowing machines in broad fields or sleds with wood or milk on board, roosters woke us up in the morning, and food scraps went to the pigs or chickens before we knew what "composting" was. After World War II, things changed. As happened after the Civil War - after WWII ended, young men either didn't or couldn't return to the farm. Aged and exhausted farmers gave up or died and their land went on the market. This photo was taken of the Maynard's farm in 2012, before it was finally taken down a few years later.

Snow Report and Time Check

 We lost a good share of our snow yesterday. We had rain all day, sometimes really heavy. A few streams got close to flood level but here at Joe's Pond we are ok. The roads were messy, going from darned slippery to miserable slush and now a lovely coating of about an inch of fluffy new snow on top of granular, crunchy stuff that fell as the temperature began to drop around midnight. I measured 2.44 in. of precipitation total this morning. There was a mix of water, solid ice, and snow in the measuring tube. I thought there was a full 3 inches of ice in the bottom, but 2/3 of that was water. It really didn't get very cold - just in the high 20s overnight, so the water in the tube didn't freeze all the way. It took two cups of hot water to thaw everything out so I could measure. (I subtract whatever amount of water I have to use to thaw the ice.) There was snow and ice clinging to the inside of the tube and only a small layer of snow, but it all has to be melted and measured. I clean off the outside - that doesn't count.

I've had an interesting week. On Monday the Cabot Historical Society had a meeting at Willey Hall. Our building is normally closed from late October until spring, but in addition to that, this fall the building was condemned as being unsafe. The supports underneath have rotted out - only two out of 12 original posts remain. This is a serious situation, but we have a very competent Building Committee working on it, so with some luck (and probably a good piece of change) the work can be completed next spring and we can get back into the building.

Also this week I had a very nice email from Bruce Jacobus. Some of you long-time Joe's Ponders may remember when Dale Jacobus owned the Ray & Ginny Johnson cottage that is now Kim and David Kidney's. It has been nice connecting with Dale's son, Bruce. Bruce knew my former in-laws, Dot and Bill Dimick, and his father and grandfather both worked at Fairbanks Morse Scale Company back in the day. I never knew them but heard the name often. Turns out Bruce has followed my blog for a long time. Very nice to know.

Yesterday I had my usual appointment that rolls around every eight weeks or so for my eye shots. The appointment is in the morning so Jamie can get me there, back home, and still get to work in St. Johnsbury by mid to late morning. Everything went as scheduled, and when I got home I settled in my recliner to stay quiet with my eyes closed (they are dilated and feel irritated as the anesthesia wears off). They settle down usually within a couple of hours, so by noon they were much more comfortable and I was hungry. I made my lunch and watched some TV. I  was so comfortable I decided to have a little nap. Not unusual for me after lunch, but yesterday I slept soundly and when I awoke it was almost dark outside! That was a complete loss of a whole afternoon - not that I had anything terribly important to do, but still. So much time lost. I had some emails to answer and a few things to take care of around the house, so everything got delayed, including my supper and getting to bed last night. I checked the weather at midnight, just as the rain was turning to snow. A long day, but I missed a good share of it!

Today the sunshine we had earlier in the morning has disappeared and I expect there may be a snow flurry or two as the morning progresses. I'm showing 30.4F. One of my tasks today is to check the garage thoroughly to see if I can find where one of my mouse traps disappeared to. On Monday I noticed one of my traps had a mouse in it, but I didn't want to deal with it then as I was on my way to the CHS meeting. However when I looked for it the next day, it was gone. The only explanation I can come up with is that the weasel may have found it. It isn't important except I want to be sure there isn't a half-eaten mouse body rotting away somewhere in my garage. I haven't caught many mice lately, perhaps because the weasel is having good hunting. There are several openings large enough for one to get in - but that might not allow getting out with the trap in tow. They are clever and determined little beasts - and dangerous if they feel threatened. 

My USPS notice of arriving mail today shows that Fred's cousins Alan and Sally Brown, have sent me their annual Christmas newsletter. I look forward to that each year. Alan and Sally used to visit when they lived in upper NY state, but now they are permanently in Florida where some of their family is, and they don't haven't come north for several years now, so the newsletter is a great way to catch up with them. This was a reminder that if I'm going to get greeting cards out, I'd better get going on it - the holidays will be here before we know it. In about two weeks we'll celebrate Christmas and then get ready for a new year! Lots to do - so little time.

Did I mention I have a solar-powered, jimmy-rigged star on my flag pole? I cobbled it together using a length of heavy electrical cable and a string of solar lights. It is more or less held together with clear packaging tape (and a bit of duct tape, of course!). I attached it to my flag pole rope and ran it up to the top. The solar unit isn't pointed in any particular direction - the whole assemblage kind of swings in the wind, but so far it has had enough charge to operate each night and seems to be holding together in spite of the foul weather. Look for it if you are going by at night! If the weather isn't too messy I may try to get a picture - each night so far we've had rain, snow, or deep cold, so I haven't wanted to be out there!

More Snow and Things to Do!

 We received another six inches of fluffy new snow this weekend - the good news is that the temperature has moderated and there is almost no wind. There was even a little sunshine to brighten our landscape yesterday, but today we are back to gloomy and expecting some fairly foul weather with snow and freezing rain mix later this week. This could present some danger of flooding.

I checked my snow-measuring post on the back lawn this morning. The snow has slid, melted, or been blown off the thing and I could easily read the numbers showing 12 inches of snow on the ground out there. I've recorded about 18 inches of new snow over the past week, including Sunday, for a total of 18 inches. Factor into that the wind and normal settling of what was mostly very fluffy, dry snow, and 12 inches seems about right. It isn't the kind of snow for making snowmen or having snowball fights, but I bet it is a delight on top of the man-made stuff at ski resorts! The ski and boarding season is getting off to a good start and hopefully the mountains will be getting snow, not rain later this week.

Christmas is almost here and communities are showing decorations and lights. 'Tis the season for concerts and Christmas sales and bazaars at churches and other organizations. Danville citizens are decorating the common, and on Thursday there will be the annual "Stroll-Around" in the village where various shops and organizations will be open to the public or showing their best Christmas decorations.

Patty Conly, director at the Danville Historical Society, invites everyone to visit this Thursday (December 12th) during the Stroll Around when they will have an Open House beginning at 5 p.m. with special exhibits, live music, and light refreshments to celebrate the season. I know from experience - Patty and the historical society team always do a great job and the house is warm and inviting. You will find vintage decorations, special exhibits, and great food - plus a very cheerful team of elves ready to show you around.

Speaking of historical societies - Cabot Historical Society is having an important meeting this afternoon, Monday December 9, at 2 p.m., Willey Memorial Hall. There are important decisions needed regarding repairs to the historic old building (about 180 years old). Anyone who is interested is  welcome to attend. 

The public library and town offices are also located at Willey Hall (see photo, right). The library will be open from noon to 6 p.m. and the town offices are open 9-5 if you have business with either of them, and stop by the Historical Society meeting. If you cannot join us in person, Seth has set us up so you can participate in the meeting from home on your computer. You will find information on the above link.

 

Remembering Pearl Harbor and More

 Another cold day here, but a bit of sunshine made it seem warmer than it really was. Funny how just a little sunshine can take the edge off! I don't think the temperature got very far out of the teens all day after starting off in the single digits above zero. The best part was that there was no wind today. I took some pictures of my porch last night - it caught a lot of snow! I looked at my snow post this morning thinking I would find out how much snow is actually on the ground out in the open, but the entire post was plastered with snow so I couldn't read the numbers I had so carefully drawn on it, even with binoculars. I forgot to check later today to see if the snow was still sticking to the post, but I expect there wasn't enough warmth in the sun to melt it. I'll check again tomorrow. However, we are expecting more snow tomorrow, so I don't  imagine I'll have any better success. We have been promised a warming trend by the middle of next week - but along with that a "mix of snow and freezing rain." Winter is here!

This is Pearl Harbor Day - the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the day the United States officially entered World War II. There was no television then - we heard the news on crackly radio broadcasts with "live" broadcasts relayed from the West Coast. Reports were transmitted sporadically throughout the day and from that moment on, lives were changed forever throughout the nation. I was very young, but I remember the anxiety as adults were discussing the reports in newspapers, and I recall hearing the radio broadcasts. Neighbors and relatives were in the military and my classmates and I gathered scrap metal, milkweed pods, helped in "Victory Gardens," and bought Savings Stamps and Bonds. Goods were rationed and everything had to be carefully conserved - there were few civilian goods being manufactured or produced as factories converted to war materials. I especially remember when oleo margarine was introduced as a substitute for butter. It came in a one-pound flat box or sometimes a tub and was snowy white. There was a little packet of dye that had to be  mixed with the white concoction to make it look like butter. Once it was well mixed, it was ready to be used on our toast or whatever. It was fine-tuned over time and some brands were better than others. It was much cheaper than butter but after the war was over Vermont, being a dairy state, made it illegal for restaurants to use oleo in place of butter. So many regulations, so many changes during that time, but we adapted. I came across an amusing article in Vermont Digger about Vermont and WWII.

The pond is silent under a sheet of ice and snow, but concerns about wake boats continue as a petition for prohibiting their use on our comparatively small lake has been presented to the State of Vermont for consideration. There is an informative article in today's Caledonian Record about that.It is important for people who know and love Joe's Pond to know about this and make your opinion known either in person or by writing a letter. You will find all that information in the article.

Enjoy the snow and winter weather - ski resorts are gearing up and anticipating a great season. Snowmobilers will be returning soon with trails snow-packed and groomed. Most local folks already have their winter tires on, but we still have to watch out for the unsuspecting visitors on non-believers on our roads who think winter driving is no different than any other time of the year in Vermont so neither slow down nor bother with winter treads. Those are the ones we see in the meridian of the interstate or find nosed into a snowbank on a curvy back road. Of course, we have our local yahoos who probably have winter treads on their pickups but no fear and little common sense. They usually get their comeuppance in due time. It's called a learning curve!

 

News From the North Country

The last couple of days and nights have been cold and wintery. As a result, the pond is almost entirely frozen over - the first two smaller bodies of water are completely frozen and Shelly Walker reported to me today that the cove where she lives froze over today. There is open water in the broadest section and at the narrows between the third pond and the middle pond. That may close in tonight. Tuesday night Shelly had 7 degrees at her house and I saw a low of 9 degrees here and it's going to get very cold tonight - with wind. Blizzard conditions! We have a few inches of very light, fluffy snow on the ground (I measured 4 inches this morning which brings the total for the past few days to about 5.5 inches. The ground seems to be pretty well frozen, unlike some years when we get lots of heavy, wet snow and the ground doesn't freeze very deeply at all. This was all light, very dry snow because it's stayed quite cold.

Those of us who have lived near the pond know that we generally see the pond freeze and reopen two or three times before it closes in for the duration. That said, it has happened a few times that it froze over in December and we didn't see open water again until May or June! We have a cold stretch coming in the next few days, but then a stretch of warm weather next week, so probably most of our ice will be gone again.

 Dotty Noyes had a birthday last month, but we couldn't celebrate it until yesterday due to conflicting busy schedules among the four of us, Diane, Cyndi, Dotty, and myself. We missed having Sherry with us, but she is basking in the sunshine while we struggle with snow and winter boots. I missed Sherry's birthday and then my own earlier this fall - but I was on hand for Dotty's Tuesday. She chose to go to Moose Look Restaurant in Concord for lunch, and that was a fun trip. The place wasn't very busy, the food was very good, and we had a really nice time. Happy Birthday, Dotty!! (Photo, from left to right - Dotty, Cyndi, Diane, Jane.

I especially enjoyed being able to hear everyone - I had my hearing aids tested and adjusted recently, and immediately noticed a big difference. Unfortunately, my hearing had diminished since my last checkup - just a fact of life - but today I've been turning down the ringers on my phones, adjusting the TV  volume down, and notice house noises I hadn't heard before. Plus, the Croc-style shoes I wear around the house make a pretty loud squishing sound that is really annoying. I may have to retire them. When they were new, I wore them to an appointment and as I walked into the waiting room an elderly gentleman commented, "Your shoes need oiling!" They are some sort of synthetic material and I don't think oil is the answer. They are as loud walking on carpet as they are on wood or cement. It's a built-in annoyance.

We have recently had three deaths associated with Cabot. John Greaves, who was a few years ahead of me in high school, passed away last week; Nettie Thomas, who I haven't seen for many years, but who was in school about the same time, also died; and Winton Goodrich, son of Sally and the late Walt Goodrich, and brother of Miles and Glen Goodrich, passed away last week. It's tough to lose someone any time of the year, but I think it is especially difficult when it happens close to a holiday. My thoughts are with these  families as they process losing their loved ones. 

I cut some boughs and put together a couple of Christmas decorations yesterday, one for my front door and one that I'll probably pin to my deck. I don't decorate much for the holidays anymore, but I do like to have a little something Christmasy around. I thought of putting up my artificial tree, but that would mean I'd have to get out ornaments to trim it - and somehow that seems like just too much work. I talked myself out of it. I'll just enjoy watching all of that tree-trimming excitement in Hallmark movies instead. 

Today middle son Bob and I went for lunch at the Village Restaurant in Hardwick. This was the very first time we have been there when they were not crazy busy. Maybe it was the weather. While we were there, several fire engines went racing by - engines from Woodbury, Wolcott, and several others went by. As we left, one was ahead of us heading east on Route 15. It turned onto the East Hardwick Road, so we drove out that way to see what was going on. It turned out to be what looked like a barn fire towards the north end of the village where there are several other buildings. We didn't want to be in the way, so we didn't try to get very close - we will find out about it on the news tonight, no doubt. 

If you must be out and about tomorrow here in the north country, be extra careful. Roads could be a bit slippery and if the forecast is correct and there's a lot of wind, there could be whiteouts with blowing snow. Enjoy the snow!

 

 

Ice Day!

We awoke to a day of freezing rain and ice-glazed everything this morning. Our road (West Shore Road) was glare ice. I first realized how bad it was when I saw an SUV slowly creeping down the road past my house at about 7:30 a.m.. Pickup trucks the same - the guys who generally whiz by here on their way to work were inching along at 5 or 10 mph, just hoping to stay out of a ditch.

My lovely new driveway had a glassy sheen and I knew it would be treacherous, but I had an appointment for my car at Danville Service Center that I had made in early October, so I really didn't want to cancel and have to wait another month or six weeks to get in (they are very busy changing tires from summer to winter treads, studding them, right now). They had a delivery of more tires while I was there - their little waiting room space was pretty much filled with big fat heavy-treaded tires.

Jamie has studded tires and came to my house to rough up the surface of my driveway a bit by driving up and down it a few times before he went to work. That was a huge help - I didn't slide around at all backing down my steep driveway to the turn-around or making the turn onto the roadway. Still, I was cautious. Our dirt road was truly a challenge. The road has to be crowned to keep water from puddling and making mud, and the ditches have been deepened to handle all the excessive water flow we now get from rain storms, wo if you begin to lose control on the icey road, it is very likely you will end up in a very deep ditch with no hope of getting out without the help of a wrecker. I made it out just fine and on the way home I was pleased that Cabot had sanded, so all was good. It was about noon when I got home and my driveway was ok - didn't spin a wheel. I was glad to be back home, safe and sound.

Since I was out and about, I decided to stop at the Danville Historical Society to see if Patty and Debby were there. They are normally open Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I thought perhaps road conditions would prevent them from opening today. Not so. Patty was there and Deb and Judy came in later. We needed to sign more books (West Danville, Vermont, Then and Now, 1781-2021)  and that is always good news. Our book is still selling and Patty said they expect a surge in sales for Christmas. It does make a nice Christmas gift. Patty and I, along with the late Dot Larrabee and Jane Larrabee, spent lots of hours together researching and writing - eight years, to be exact. Those years went by altogether too quickly and in the course of that time we lost both Dot and Jane. We are sad that neither of them got to see the published result of all their work.

Speaking of loss, we lost our neighbor, Barb Pupino last week. Barb died last Wednesday after a long battle with lung cancer. She worked at White Market in St. Johnsbury for a very long time and I know they miss her there. I miss seeing her - she was always upbeat, even after her diagnosis. She was a very special lady. I haven't heard details, but I expect that Barb's husband, Mike has gone to be with relatives in the NYC area. Mike has serious health issues and I'm sure his family will feel more secure having him nearby rather than way up here in Vermont all by himself. We will miss them both.

Here is a message from the Vermont Lakes and Ponds team:

Directions to make a verbal comment at the December 12 wake boat hearing

<ANR.WSMDLakes@vermont.gov>

Hello,

I am reaching out to inform you that the link to register to make a verbal comment at the upcoming public meeting --to receive comment on four petitions proposing amendments for lake-specific changes to the Use of Public Waters Rules governing wakesports on Waterbury Reservoir, Lake Fairlee, Caspian Lake, and Joe’s Pond—is now available.

 If you would like to sign up to make a verbal comment at the public meeting in Montpelier on December 12^th,  either in-person, or over Microsoft Teams (virtually), please register at the following link: https://forms.office.com/g/eJumwGQquz

 As a reminder, written comments may be submitted to anr.wsmdlakes@vermont.gov . Comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on December 23rd. IMPORTANT: when submitting a public comment, please include the word "wakesports" in the subject line AND the specific petition (lake) for which you are providing a comment.

 The comment registration link is also available on the public meeting webpage, which has additional information about meeting time, location, and the meeting agenda: https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/lakes-and-ponds-rulemaking/121224meeting

As a reminder, copies of the petitions, along with any updates and pertinent information regarding rulemaking will be available at the following link: https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/lakes-and-ponds-rulemaking

 Thank you

The Lakes and Ponds Team

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There was some confusion when we first posted about that meeting a few weeks ago. The meeting on the 12th is for the public and it will be interesting to hear what others are saying; however if you don't want to go online or attend in person, you can send written comments until December 23rd. After that date the information gathered will be used to formulate proposed new regulations to be presented to ANR.  Hopefully, the legislative body will address the proposed changes sometime during the 2025 session. We will keep you updated.

We are quickly closing in on Thanksgiving Day, so I'll take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for checking in on my blog. I know that some of you have been following it for years, and I do appreciate that and also your comments. I am very thankful for the friends I've made through the blog, and for so many loyal readers. You are the best!