THE FLAG IS OUT, THE CLOCK IS TICKING!

I just received word that Ray Richer put the block out and set up the clock today. We are officially in "count-down" mode at Joe's Pond Ice-Out. Evelyn sent pictures of Ray and a reporter from the Times-Argus in Barre. (His article will be in tomorrow's issue, he told me.) Thanks to Evelyn for her update and photos. Her description: Well, it’s out there! The Times Argus showed up… the guy from AP also called and we told him when it was going out but he chose to come tomorrow . . . the truck wouldn’t start so we walked home - it’s been a long day. As you can see we have a new flag - (just call me Betsy Ross)!

I don't know, but it looks to me as if it was a good thing everyone left the ice when they did or they could have become lost in the fog. I wonder if Ray and Evelyn walked home on the ice or went on the road ?

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I had a note from Ron "Butch" Bouchard with a new slant on picking your winning date for the ice to go out. Here it is: We give tickets out to co-workers and family every Christmas and always award a runner up prize to the one who guesses closest from our group, which number around 35.

This year will be the first time our grandson Cade will be involved. He will be one year old April 27. So you might think that his parents would put his birth date and time on the ticket. No chance. They cut and labeled small pieces of paper with the dates of the month. Then they spread them on the floor and he crawled to them and picked his date. They repeated the process for the times and well, his pick (April 10 - 3:35pm) is his pick. If it works, I'm going to do that myself from now on. Butch

Cade may have something there!

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In case you wonder what other activities go on here at the pond besides the Ice-Out Contest, we caught sight of someone either walking or fishing on the ice in back of the islands yesterday. And over the weekend someone made this giant snowman near Craig's cottage. It could have been Bill Rossi - Diane was in Boston at the flower show; or maybe Tom and John? We may never find out, but whoever it was did a great job!

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Dave Parker and Don Walker were on WSTJ this morning. They did a great job. If you'd like to hear that 30 min. interview, you'll find it on the web site home page. Click on the green bar and be sure you have your speakers on.