New Look on Cabot Plains Road

As you head west after the intersection of Cabot Plains Road and Bolton Road, at the Plains School House, you'll see a nice sugar woods on your right. Immediately following that stand of maples used to be a fairly densly forrested stretch with a mix of evergreens and hardwoods, and scrub brush. This has been harvested during the winter, with much of it turned into wood chips. It is the Labree property, and although I don't know for certain, I suspect Ms. Labree decided to cut off the timber after the devastating Thanksgiving Day wind storm of 2004. Many land owners in the area are still cleaning up after that erratic storm. Above are pictures taken in January showing some of the lumbering going on.

Dog Abductions in Area

Good news for one local family in the area. Wendy Fayen owns the hardware store in Danville and lives in St. Johnsbury where her 6-month old Labrador retriever disappeared on January 16. Due to the rash of missing dogs lately, the Fayens thought they would never see their pet again. This week an anonymous woman saw one of the pictures Wendy and her family had posted in Marty's 1st Stop in Danville and alerted the police as to where she had seen a dog like the Fayen's "Katie", not far from the Fayen's residence. Apparently the puppy had strayed to a neighbor's and, communities being somewhat impersonal these days, the neighbor wasn't aware the dog lived in the neighborhood, although they said they were trying to locate the dog's owner. The Fayens are thankful to have Katie back, and the puppy was happy to be reunited with her family.

We are happy for the Fayens but authorities caution pet owners to keep a sharp eye on their animals.

Here's an update from Evelyn Richer on the new building going on at the end of Sandy Beach Road. Evelyn sent pictures of the house being moved into place and one of the house as we'll see it from the pond. Thanks for the news, Evelyn, and I'm betting Rachel Lewis is really, really pleased with her new home on Joe's Pond. It's a great spot.

This cool little guy was caught on film by Jason Randall at Joe's Pond.

The weasel, wearing his beautiful winter white ermine coat, was looking for a meal. A hapless mole was living near the foundation of the Randall home and found himself on the menu. Jason was able to watch the "kill" outside the lower level window of his home on West Shore Road.

A rare glimpse into what goes on in order for animals to survive in the wild. Thanks, Jason.

Isn't it amazing what some people will do for fun or profit? Cabot has had a rash of mailbox bashings going on in the past weeks - a considerable amount of damage done all over town, we're told. Then last week there were reports of pet dogs being abducted in the St. Johnsbury and Danville area. Who knows what the thieves have in mind to do with the poor animals? People are being advised to keep their animals close and know where they are at all times.

We were snowshoeing in our wood lot today. The air was brisk, but we were able to stay out of the wind and were very comfortable. There is at least a foot of snow in most places because our land slopes to the northeast and doesn't get the sun as much this time of the year. We are always interested in how the wildlife is doing. Today we were excited to see moose tracks in several places, we thought perhaps there may have been more than one. Of course it could have been just a lone moose confused about what direction to take . . .

There are always lots of bunny tracks, and of course coyote and/or fox tracks. We have a hard time distinguishing between a coyote and fox. We didn't flush any partridges today, but as we were coming home we found where the wild turkeys have been hanging out just in back of our house where there's a good supply of dried ferns and swamp grasses to forage on. Until the last couple of days there was open water as well, but with temperatures near zero the last couple of nights, the runoff has turned to ice in most spots.

We thought we saw deer tracks, too, but they weren't fresh and we've had a little snow over the past couple of days so it was hard to tell. I've been told deer and moose don't hang out together; but I expect the moose was probably just passing through. The moose in the picture is the one that hung out around West Danville and at the beach a few winters ago.

Evelyn Richer writes: (2/6/06)
Just in case you were wondering if anything is prowling in the woods at night . . . this guy was only passing through last week. Not a great shot, but a reminder that there is life "outside of the box" (or warm house). Ray was ready for this one but this guy wouldn't come out into the clearing far enough for a better image, so Ray just took a snapshot when the coyote was done "playing" with him.

I heard this weekend the ice in Joe's Pond is about 20 inches thick. That's kind of amazing considering all the warm weather and rain we've had. I'm going to try to get more information from local fishermen to verify this. If you ice-fish on Joe's Pond, send us your take on the ice thickness by clicking on "comments" here.

Good news from Don Walker.

I spoke with Don this morning - he came home from Dartmouth Hitchcock Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, Feb. 1, and is doing very well, he said. He complained that getting dressed is like a "day's work" and he's really tired - but Audrey says he could hardly expect anything else after such an invasive operation. The doctors said he'll be ready for tennis and golf in about three and a half months - pretty good timing, wouldn't you say? Having a heart valve replaced is no small deal, but I'm sure Don will be good as new in record time. In the meantime, I'm sure he'd like to hear from any of you, and he'll be looking forward to seeing you at Joe's Pond in the spring.