With our town auditing duties nearly over, Diane Rossi and I are now concentrating on other, more interesting endeavors. Diane is skiing as often as she can - but it's been pretty cold and windy, so not as enjoyable some days as it could be. We tapped Liz Harvey to fill Sherry LaPrade's term as auditor when Sherry became a "snowbird" and moved to Florida. Liz came to the job mid-term, but has pitched in and been a big help. She says she is happy to have free time again as she and her husband, Doug, want to get in more ice fishing. As for me - I have a pile of Historical Society material waiting to be sorted, scanned and catalogued, but before I do, I have another pile of newspapers and magazines I've neglected for several weeks.

I ran onto an interesting article by Bill Christiansen, former science teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy, in the January 2007 North Star Monthly. In the column, "String Worth Saving," on page 24, Bill explains how ice is formed on a lake or pond, the difference between cloudy and clear ice, and what the booming sounds are all about.

"The old timers referred to this sound as 'the lake making ice.' . . . ", he says. But this is not quite the case. According to Bill, that rumbling and booming is caused because, ". . . As the ice forms, air bubbles, snow crystals and other 'impurities' create stresses in the lattice. When the stress reaches a critical level, the energy is released with a 'boom'. The release of stress in one place creates new and higher stress levels in another, and they too are released and the sound rumbles around until the system reaches equilibrium."

Anyone who has lived on Joe's Pond during the winter knows the thunderous sounds. When out on the ice, it is quite unnerving, especially when it seems to follow you as you walk or ski across. I really prefer to listen with my feet firmly planted on solid ground. Bill Christiensen mentions how when he was growing up near a lake it was common for automobiles to race, skid, spin out on the ice. I remember a very few times that would be possible on Joe's Pond because the ice must be clear of snow, and that has only happened two or three times in my memory. I recall one winter about 1946 when we could skate the whole length of the pond, and another time in the early 80's when Fred and I were living at camp. And even those years the ice was clear for only a few days before snow came to blanket it and spoil the fun.

You may also be interested that I have once again been contacted by a reporter about our Ice-Out Contest. This time it was John Curran who writes for the Associated Press in Montpelier. Mr. Curran is doing a piece on the recent warming trend in New England, and asked for contacts for our Ice-Out Contest, which I gave him. I'm asking that he alert me when/where the article is published. I'll keep you posted.

Along that same line of thought - I haven't heard anything from Rob Cohen who wanted to do a documentary on the Ice-Out Contest. Again, I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, here are pictures of snow in the night. Yes, sometimes we can't resist and we take a walk in the moonlight.