This just received this morning - good chance to

clean out your closets, cupboards, garage, or attic!

Donate if you can, but stop by on the Fourth and

look over the items. You're sure to find something

you'll treasure! Great fun! Take your guy and the

kids along, too. There are tools, toys and machinery as well as

household stuff. Go early, get first pick, then watch the parade before

sampling the BBQ and other great food!

Click on the poster at the right to see it larger.

Lots of rain in the night. Everything is damp and clammy, so unless the sun comes out we'll have a little fire to take the dampness out of the house.

I think we should all begin thinking "clear skies" so perhaps by Thursday evening fireworks over Joe's Pond will go as scheduled. No more rain dances, please! Of course, we know we need to be careful what we wish for - next month could bring weather so dry we'll be screaming for rain again . . . I guess we'll take what comes.

We recently got our Washington Electric Co-op newsletter in the mail. There were some interesting articles in it we thought you might be interested in reading, so here is a link: Washington Electric Coop

I thought the information on the HDTV's was interesting, and especially the one on the "smart strip" surge protector. If our refrigerator at camp had been plugged into one of those, we probably wouldn't be looking for a new one. We suspect one of the storms that passed through here last week did it in. The service man who came to look at it, Wayne Lewis, told us because refrigerators (and some other appliances) are always "on," they are subject to power surge damage. We have a lot of our smaller appliances plugged into power strips that we are able to turn off, and we began using power strips to save electricity when not using those appliances once we learned there is a small amount of electricity being used by plugged-in appliances even when they aren't actually in use.

There's other good stuff in there, too, especially for members who will need to know about the new rate scheduling process.

I went with Fred to do our recycling this morning. We found some horses in a meadow along the way, just outside Cabot, and since I needed to drop off a book at the library, we parked in front of Goldie's Restaurant, next to the hardware store. The Fourth of July is big in Cabot. I'm usually there during the parade, but this year I won't be going down until mid-afternoon to be at the historical society rooms. Weather permitting, the Joe's Pond Fireworks will be set off on Thursday evening, and then on the 4th Cabot has their big celebration. We came home by way of Danville Hill and stopped at Edmund Menard's, the
"Bird Man," but Edmund wasn't at home. As you can see, this is a fascinating place to visit. Edmund is not only an artist when he's carving wood, he is a wonderful landscaper and gardener, too. He rigged up the water wheel and it turns constantly, creaking and groaning softly as it turns with the weight of the small stream of water running over it. Along the side of the house are odd bits of wood I believe Edmund keeps on hand for future use, finished burl poles, and various carvings. Everywhere you look there's something interesting going on. Inside his home is a "whole other story," with charming folk art and inovative decorative displays.

After we left Edmund's we stopped for a picture of the farm on the far side of Molly's Pond in East Cabot. It used to be the Nelson White farm, but now is owned by
Matt Lindstrom. It's a very pretty setting, and I'm sure tourists love taking pictures of it. So do we. We looked for the moose, but didn't see him.

Good news for cell phone users - Unicel's request to put a cell tower in the Sousa farm silo on Cabot Plain has been approved by the Cabot zoning board. No word on when it may be installed and become active, but because Unicel seemed anxious to be able to fill that large gap in service between Walden, Marshfield and Danville, I expect it will happen very soon. That will leave some neighbors to the farm feeling threatened because of the possible emissions from such towers, and the arguments were that because of those emissions property values would go down and the silo would be rendered useless for future farm purposes. According to a report in Wednesday's Hardwick Gazette, Unicel made some concessions and the board felt they could issue a permit for the tower. I don't know what the concessions were.

Fred was at camp yesterday cleaning the chimney. Turns out it really needed it. I took these pictures of him on the roof. With the weather brewing up t-storms on a regular basis, he decided yesterday was as good a it would probably get to do it without danger of getting caught up there in a lightning flash. Didn't take long, and it's a good job done.

This poster came in my e-mail this morning. Click on it to make it larger.

A reminder from Diane Rossi -

Luminaries are on sale now through the fireworks on the 3rd (or the 5th) for $1 per bag with candle. There is a supply at Hasting's, or I have some as well as Pam Hebert, Diane Sherwood, Pat Rubulcaba, and Sue Bouchard. It would be nice if we could surround the pond with candle power to help celebrate the Fourth of July!

A busy day here at the Brown house. This morning we had a call from our friend Louise, the lady Fred has been teaching to use a computer. Louise was excited because there had just been two bears on her deck, visiting her bird feeders. She took precautions, though, and closed the curtains so her six cats wouldn't see the bears and be frightened. We've tried to have her take down the feeders, but she said her cats, who aren't allowed outside, enjoy watching the birds and squirrels at the feeder through the windows and she doesn't want to deprive them of their fun. I think she also enjoys the wild life - even the bears!

Later on, Fred's cousin from Cape Cod and his new wife (2nd marriage for both) came for lunch. We enjoyed seeing them and catching up on family news.

Tonight I had an e-mail from researchers at the University of Wisconsin requesting information on Cabot's math whiz kid, Zerah Colburn (1804-1840). We don't have a lot of information on Zerah, but I'll search some of the records and send them whatever I can. Zerah wrote his memoirs, but he wasn't very thorough as far as family information is concerned such as names of his siblings, etc. Mostly he talks about his experiences performing mathematical feats at the bidding of his father who put him on display here in the U.S. and in Europe from the time he was six until he was 18. They never made much money "on the road" and after his father died, Zerah returned to Cabot and introduced himself to his mother and siblings who were struggling to survive having had no assistance from Mr. Colburn in all those years. Zerah taught school for a little while to help his family and then was an itinerant preacher for a number of years. At the time of his death he was a professor of languages at Norwich University, but soon after returning to the United States his exceptional powers diminished, according to historians. Perhaps the scholars doing the research at the university will uncover more information and pass it on to our historical society.

This came tonight - a reminder:

Another steak & Cornish hen community dinner  -
Thursday 6/26 5:30 to 7 PM

You may also be interested in this:  (For children of all ages)

Stories to Really “BUG” You

An evening of “crazy”
stories presented

by Paul Markowitz,
Paula Davidson
& Lawrence Black.

Why not come disguised as a bug?

Cabot Public Library

Tuesday, July 1 — 6:30 p.m.

Free and open to the public. 563-2721

This is really a continuation of this morning's post. Fred went with Bill Rossi this afternoon to check on Bill's new tool shed that's being built over in the Morrisville area. Bill and Diane had been out kayaking this morning and the workers at Jane Milne's (new boathouse) told them there was a lightning strike there during that storm we and Jason Randall took pictures of last night. Jane told them the bolt of lightning came in on two computers and a television - all could be ruined. She took the computers to see if anything could be saved from the hard drives, but won't know right away. Absolutely too close for comfort! Better a tree than the house, though.


Back to the real purpose of the trip. Below are pictures of the type of shed Bill and Diane have ordered. It's in the process of being built now, but won't be ready for a few weeks.

While they were in Morrisville, they tried to find some flowers. Today is our 25th anniversary and Fred thought it would be nice to surprise me with flowers. They couldn't find anything in Morrisville they thought appropriate, so they went to the Flower Basket in Hardwick. When they got there, this is the sign that greeted them. So they came back empty handed; but like folks always say when something like this happens, "it's the thought that counts."

We've had a lovely anniversary day, and no, we didn't go out to celebrate. Fred ordered pizza from Marty's and we will decide when and where to celebrate later on. We didn't get married with a big splash, either - we went to the church in Cabot after work that Friday, and our good friends, Pat and Kathy O'Donnell stood up with us and then we went back home to camp where Pat and Fred went fishing while Kathy and I made supper for all of us, including their three kids, and they all spent the weekend with us.

We lived at camp for 17 years. We were both working in Montpelier and really enjoyed being at the pond year around. Back then there were only a few people living on the pond in the winter - I think we could count four, maybe five. There was nobody along West Shore Road except us. Our nearest neighbors were my parents who lived where we do now. Sandy Beach Road wasn't plowed all winter, Chatot Road was just a snowshoe trail. Back then we got two or three channels on TV with an old bent up roof antenna, the radio didn't get much of a signal after dark in the winter, the only computers were at our office, cross-country skis, skates and snowshoes were required equipment, and the snowmobilers and ice fishermen were the only action we saw.

One year we had very little snow and just about every Sunday we'd skate up the pond to where the Ide camp is now and change our skates for hiking boots for the rest of the trip to the store in Walden to get a Sunday paper. By the time we got back we'd had enough exercise to last the whole week. Other winters there was no skating and we'd take long walks with our dog Clint, often at night in the moonlight, sometimes on snowshoes in the woods, sometimes in the road. There was never any traffic at night, and even in the daytime or during the week we knew just about everyone who drove by. I think there were more snowmobiles than cars, especially at night. Lots of things have changed, but the memories of those early Joe's Pond years always make us smile.

While we were eating dinner with friends last night, a storm rolled through. I showed you the pictures Fred took of the eerie light; this morning Liz Randall sent some pictures her son, Jason, had taken a few minutes later as the storm swooped down over Joe's Pond. Jason was at their house just below us. Storm Clouds

Thanks, Jason and Liz, for sending these.

*****

It's Official! I just had a call from Don Sherwood, JPA vice president, and fireworks will go off on July 3rd from Fred Bona's in back of the islands. Everyone should remember not to go north of the islands with your boats.

Some folks were concerned about where the fireworks would be discharged from, so let your neighbors know the location is approximately the same as it has been for several years. If the weather doesn't cooperate and they cannot be set off on the 3rd, we will have them on July 5th. The way the weather has been so far this year, anything can happen.

Just before the thunder storm tonight, the sun reflected with an unusual light on the hills across from us. Fred took these photos.

Click to make them larger.
The first one is looking up the valley towards Walden. The storm seemed to be coming from that direction. The second shot is the view directly across from us to the Route 15 side of the pond. We can only see part of the lake that is in back of the islands. Not the trees have leaved out, we aren't able to see down the pond at all from our house.

I hope everyone enjoyed the on-an-off-again-rainy-weekend. Today is turning out pretty nice, but if things get warmed up too much we'll be back into the thunder storm/heavy rain pattern.

I've had a message from JPA Association President,Tom Dente, and the group who were going to put on a show "Shakespeare on the Farm" (or maybe that's the group's name . . . ) anyway, they were scheduled for Aug. 16, but are unable to bring that performance to us until 2009. Fred has taken it off our events schedule, so the Pavilion is available on Aug. 16.

I've been very busy getting ready for July 4th at the Cabot Historical Society. I've been able to finish a lot of the material I've been working on and it will be available on the Fourth at the Historical Society Museum. It seems as if as soon as I take one of the boxes of material out of my office and return it to the museum, someone donates more. And that's GOOD! We've just had a wonderful gift of a family history of the Rev. Fred Blaney Blodgett whose family lived in Cabot many years. I have just finished copying his book on the history of his generation in Cabot - a wonderful collection of facts and memories he finished in about 1951 and which the Cabot Library owns but allowed us to copy.

Rev. Blodgett died in 1954, but there are at least two members of the Blodgett family who are members of the Cabot Historical Society. Neither lives in Cabot now, but both attend meetings and other Cabot functions often. I will combine both of Rev. Blodgett's writings in a bound book for our CHS library; the original family history given to the CHS will be preserved and protected. It's a very interesting project and we are grateful to Mary Blodgett Fearon for giving us those family papers to combine with the previous ones.

I must get back to my scanner. I hope you check out the "Lost, Found, For Sale, etc." pages in the JPA section on home page. There have been some changes, and I'm in hope to have more items listed during the summer. It's a good way to recycle stuff you aren't using. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Perhaps you'll find a treasure there.

The following came to me tonight - if you like music, here's something you may want to do:

“Sing Away the Oil Man Blues”

Hootenanny In Cabot

This Friday evening, June 20^th at 7PM, the Cabot United Church will hold the first of its free community “Sing Away the Oil Man Blues” fundraising concerts. This week’s musicians include Sue Carpenter and Friends, and their wonderful mix of folk songs of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s,

also local artist and guitarist Ken Klingler on the 12-string guitar.

The Concert is free, but donations to the church oil fund are appreciated.

Refreshments follow and all are welcome.

The Cabot United Church is located on the Common on Route 215 in Cabot Village.

For information please call 563-2278 or email at fiancp@vtlink.net.

*****

We have been visited by deer today. Early this morning Fred spotted one on the back lawn. It was still quite dark so I've had to fiddle with the exposure in order to see the images, and that always destroys some of the integrity of the photo - but I thought I'd post this one anyway. Click to make it larger.

This afternoon, as I was busy at my computer, something caught my eye out by the woodpile, and there was a beautiful big doe and what looked like a day-old fawn with her. The baby was not much bigger than our cat, Woody. It just happened that Woody was outside, apparently approaching the back yard out of my line of vision. I called to Fred and he went to try for a picture. Just as he went into the garage to get a better vantage point, the doe rushed towards the garage. Then Woody came streaking past the window and disappeared into the woodpile. The fawn was invisible in the grass. Had it not been that Fred was coming out of the garage just then I have no doubt the doe would have chased after the cat. When she saw Fred, she quickly returned to her fawn, all the while keeping an eye on him and the cat who was now meowing loudly and running to Fred for protection. The big mama deer watched, but she didn't seem to be alarmed - she just didn't want that big cat around her little one. She calmly led the little guy into the bushes at the edge of the lawn. Woody took refuge behind Fred and didn't need to be coaxed to come into the house.

Fred realized too late he hadn't changed the setting on the camera from his morning "shoot" so I had to doctor the afternoon shots, too, but I think you can make out the image pretty well.

I guess mothers are alike, whether human or animals, and have great courage in the face of danger to their young. I hope we see this pair again so we can watch the fawn grow up. We usually have one or two to watch each year. They eat our hostas in the spring and our apples in the fall, and in between munch on the grass or our young maple trees all summer. We don't even try to have a vegetable garden - even close to the house they manage to find it. But we love to watch them, especially the youn'uns romping through our yard.

We walked down Sandy Beach Road today to see if the cormorants were roosting on Pearl's Island, but there was no sign of them. Carol Byrd said they saw a bald eagle this morning, though. There are also a couple duck families hanging out at their place. We walked out onto the dock at the Sayers cottage and one of the ducklings swam over to us. They are awfully cute, and it's hard to resist feeding them, but not a good idea, especially later in the fall when they should be heading off with the flock.

I thought you might like to see the lupines by our driveway. They are especially pretty this year. Eventually I want to have a border along the road. Right now there is a blank space in between two really nice clumps of them, so I'll be working on getting that filled in. I picked some about a week ago that were near the house, but they don't last long after they are picked. They are nicer left outside. I have lots of white peonies blooming, but my pink ones are not quite ready yet.

This is such a nice time of year - everything is lush and green and flourishing with the cool weather and daily rain showers. Every now and then when we were walking this afternoon we noticed how nice the air smells. Various fragrances, depending on where we were - flowers, newly mowed grass, new growth on the spruce trees - and then as we were coming up the hill, a faint smell of the farm high on the hill above our house. I guess they were stirring the manure pit . . . to a farm girl like myself, even that was not unpleasant. Brings back lots of memories . . . but for another time.

We went to Cabot today to deliver to the historical society some of the material I've finished working with. I went first to the library to pick up a book I needed, then met Cabot Historical Society President, Bonnie Dannenberg at the CHS building. After we unloaded the car, Fred took a stroll down Main Street in Cabot and took pictures while Bonnie and I discussed my next projects. I've made a slide show of Fred's shots and most of the pictures are self-explanatory. Bonnie had more work for me to bring home, so I'll continue to be busy scanning and archiving.

It was a lovely ride to Cabot and back. There seemed to be a lot going on in town. In the short period of time we were at the historical society building, at least a dozen trucks from Cabot Creamery went by - most seemed to be the ones carrying the whey. There was quite a bit of other traffic, and quite a few people around.

The historical society rooms aren't open to the public yet, although Bonnie is there often during the week to clean. On Sunday afternoons we're going to try to finish the inventory of our collections. Anyone who wishes to help is welcome to come - bring a digital camera if you have one, and we'll put you to work. We'll be there from 2-4 or a bit later. We are getting more items in all the time - wonderful family collections of photos, journals, diaries and utensils from the past. Visiting there is truly a step back in time, and we appreciate so much when people donate Cabot-related items for the collections.

Here are the pictures Fred took today.
Slides

I'm constantly being taken in by weather reports. Last night on the 6 o'clock weather there were clouds and rain forecast for every day this week, with unusually low temperatures - which translated to soggy and cool for me. This morning we have brilliant sunshine, ideal temperature of 70 in the shade - what could be nicer? Of course, the old saw, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute," may apply. The day is young yet.

In the meantime, I've checked my e-mail and was very happy to have another of Joyce Rogers's photos - this time a moose. Of course. Joyce has captured all the big critters on film and about all that's left are the smaller wild things - bunnies, squirrels, foxes, skunks, etc. - abounding in our environment . . . and I'm betting she takes pictures of them, too. This moose, belly deep in grass and dandelions, was at Molly's Pond. I'm not sure when the picture was taken, but I assume earlier this spring. Molly's Pond has lots of shallows and swampy land on its shores and no cottages, so it must be paradise for a moose like this fellow. Thank you again, Joyce.

As I write, the day seems to have deteriorated a little. A few more clouds are moving in - so perhaps the forecasters were right after all. We have off and on dimming as the clouds pass over the sun, and there are patchwork shadows moving across the hills. There may be something more lurking up there, but right now we are enjoying beautiful weather. We've been very fortunate here at Joe's Pond. Surrounding areas north and south of us and west of the Green Mountains have experienced heavy storms, flooding and hail damage. So far, we've escaped.

We spent the morning in St. Johnsbury. Shopping on Mondays is different than towards the end of the week. There weren't many people in the stores or on the street downtown. It was busier in West Danville. Quite a few cars in the parking lot across from the post office. Fred took a few pictures. The brook and penstock, a dog waiting for his master.

By the way, Rt. 2 along the pond has been repaved. It's nice and smooth - and I thought they did it in a relatively short period of time. I'm sure the people who live along that stretch wouldn't agree. The work was going on during some of that really hot weather and cars were lined up waiting to go through, noisy, hot and smelly. But it sure is nice now.

In St. Johnsbury, while we didn't see many people we knew, we saw a couple people who seemed to know us but we don't have a clue who they were. Sure looked familiar, though. They didn't stop to talk, and that was good. I hate it when someone comes up to me and starts talking and I can't figure out who the heck they are. I sometimes try to fake it hoping I'll get a hint as the conversation unfolds, but I've learned that sometimes it's better to just admit I don't know them. Then there are the times I've spoken to someone I was sure I knew - called them by name, even, and it turned out it wasn't who I thought it was. Oh, well.

Fred mowed the lawn again today. He says the grass grows a lot faster this time of the year than a little later on, so he has to keep up with it. Reminds me of last winter when he was saying the snow was building up really fast and he wanted to keep ahead of it so he was snow blowing two or three times a day. I think it's good he had a few weeks to recoup from snow blowing before he had to tackle grass cutting. This is good grass growing weather when it's cool and rainy like it's going to be most of this week. Fred built a small fire in the wood stove tonight to take the chill off. We checked the temperature - 68 outside, 69 inside. And it's damp.

This afternoon we saw one of our neighbors riding her horse past our house. Graduation was this past week in Cabot, so school is out and the youngsters are settling into a summer routine. I used to get to ride horseback in the summers, too, but they were big sweaty work horses and I was usually on board just long enough to get them to whatever piece of machinery they were destined to drag that particular day. On weekends if there was no plowing or haying going on, I'd sometimes ride one and lead the others about half a mile to the horse pasture. We used horses quite a lot, even after we got a Farmall tractor. I had to lead the horse to plant corn with the one-row corn planter each spring. I had to keep the horse following the faint line in the dirt that marked each row, and my Uncle Bob would be following behind keeping the planter upright. My grandfather liked to see nice straight rows of corn. It made it easier to harvest. Later on each summer it was my job to lead the horse to unload the hay. We had a big grapple hay fork that grabbed the hay off the load and the horse would pull it up to the roof of the barn where the fork engaged in a track that went the length of the barn. The man on the hay load held a rope and when the fork full of hay was in the right spot he'd pull the rope to release the hay. A couple more men would be in the mow packing the hay away. Once released, the big fork had to be dragged back the length of the barn and lowered onto the load of hay, so I had to turn the old horse around quickly to let the rope loose and get turned around ready to pull up another fork full. It wasn't hard work, but on a hot day with chaff in the air from the hay, it wasn't always pleasant. If I didn't get the horse back up the drive fast enough, whoever was on the load of hay managing the fork would let me know about it. At the end of the day, my cousins and I would head down to the pond for a swim. We had to walk, and sometimes the climb back up the hill to the farm was a hard one. I was in bed sometimes before dark especially if it was my turn to get up by five in the morning to get the cows in the pasture. That was how I spent my summer vacations . . . happily.

Although the weather forecast was doubtful for today, it turned out to be a very beautiful day - warm, but not too warm, sunny, nice breeze. Perfect. Fred and I were invited to the 91st birthday celebration for our friend, Marie, at the home of our neighbor, Elizabeth, on Brickett's Crossing Road. We always enjoy being with these ladies. Another member of the group couldn't be with us because she'd just had her first wisdom tooth removed and didn't feel quite up to it. She's only 90. Our hostess, Elizabeth, is Swiss and her friend Ruth, also Swiss, was there. Both ladies are charming.

We told the group about the deer and the bear that Joyce photographed after they swam across the pond, and the Elizabeth told her story: During the recent very hot weather, Elizabeth was sitting out on her deck at around 10 p.m., enjoying the cool of the evening. She has a lovely pond just below her house, the frogs were caroling, everything was quiet. She heard a noise on the deck beside her and turned - face to face with a very large bear, not 10 feet away. The bear was between her and the doorway, so there was nowhere for Elizabeth to go. She said all she could think to do was to stand up. The bear was as surprised as she was, but he looked at her briefly and then turned around and lumbered off the deck into the woods. Now, Elizabeth lived for many years in Alaska, and not much frightens her, but she admitted to us that having the bear that close with no place to hide was a little unnerving. She's had bears visit before, looking in the windows from her deck and she said that hasn't bothered her, but this experience shook her a bit.

Marie used to live in Cabot but now resides in an assisted living facility in Barre. We've known her for some time, and she's always cheerful. Now, in spite of not hearing well and having a couple of heart episodes, she doesn't complain. She was content to sit on the deck overlooking Elizabeth's pond and remarked several times about what a beautiful setting it was. The lilacs were in full bloom and their scent was strong in the air. Dozens of yellow butterflies flitted among the blooms. A chipmunk skittered across the deck close to her and a big woodpecker eyed her from the bird feeders. It was a pleasure just to watch her enjoyment. She is very much alone although she said there is a lot going on where she lives - but it isn't as peaceful, she said, as it was at Elizabeth's today.

Turns out, as the birthday cake was about to be cut, today wasn't her birthday at all. There was some misunderstanding on Elizabeth's part and it isn't until the 24th of June. Marie dismissed the mistake and with a big smile said, "Oh, I don't mind - we can do it again then!"

Fred took these pictures. Dinner was delicious and the company was wonderful. Good conversation and lots of laughs.

New pictures from Joyce Rogers -

Diane Rossi has just relayed more pictures from Joyce, taken this morning. Diane wrote:

As we were out kayaking this morning, the guys doing Jane Milne's boathouse told us they saw a bear swimming across the pond, but we didn't know if we should believe them!! They said it went in somewhere near [Kyle] Brown's [on the east side of the pond] and came out by Wells' [on West Shore Road], which is just what Joyce's picture indicates. We were right in our kayaks, and we missed it!

I wonder if this is the same bear folks mentioned at the association meeting a couple weeks ago that has been seen on the rail trail. Maybe he's looking for more woods cover. I think Joyce is a magnet for wild life. Some folks never get to see anything like the deer earlier in the week and then the bear, and very few of us are quick enough with our camera to catch the action. Looks to me as if she must have been pretty darn close to that bear when she took the picture - or used zoom - and in any case, we know from experience it's hard to zoom in and be sure everything is in focus. Great shots, Joyce!

What do you suppose will be the next swimming wildlife - maybe a moose?

Good Morning!

I've already had some response to the bird pictures. Here's one from Steve Allen:

Although the picture enlarges a bit grainy, the bird doesn't look to be glossy black like a cormorant. The coloration of a great blue heron is a bit similar to an osprey, but the heron's shape is more like a cormorant. I'd have to get a better look, but herons (as well as ospreys) do nest on a platform in a (usually) dead tree. I beleive the bird is a heron. Ospreys look very much like eagles - no long neck. Also, deer are surprisingly strong swimmers, and often take to the water. Somewhere we have some pix from a couple of years ago of deer swimming across in just about the same spot as your pix - same time of day, too.

Regards,

Steve

Also, here are links to photos of the three suspects:

Osprey

Great Blue Heron

Great Cormorant

*****

I didn't know that deer will go into deep water voluntarily. I did some research after I got Steve's message, and apparently they are comfortable swimming even long distances. I suppose they get hot just like we do and a cool swim is welcome relief. Perhaps they sometimes want to escape the flies, too.

Did anyone else think the air felt like it does in September yesterday? Even today, that crispness, while very welcome, makes me realize how fleeting summer days can be here in the Kingdom. The 30 degree dips and surges are sometimes hard to keep up with. I guess as long as you keep your bathing suit and a sweater handy you'll be ok. We think our cat, Woody, may have brought a friend into the basement with him last night, so we have the door open down there. The breeze sweeps through from there upstairs so the whole house has cooled down. Fred is working at his computer downstairs with a jacket on, I'm going to find some wool socks to keep my feet warm. Hopefully, if there is a critter downstairs, it will find the open door soon - trouble is, how can we be sure? Woody is no help at all. After a long night hunting, he seemed alert and still in hunt mode downstairs when he first came in, as if looking for whatever he'd brought with him, but now he's crashed beside my chair in the living room. I don't know which is worse, miscellaneous body parts on the floor in the morning or a terrified wild critter running loose in the house. We were going to keep Woody in last night, but at the last minute I felt sorry for him, his wails were pitiful as he waited in vain for me to let him out. So we finally relented. He was so grateful he probably brought us a gift . . .

After having a difficult time posting pictures to the blog last night, I'm a bit leery of trying again tonight, especially because I think my computer hates me. I received several pictures tonight, and it has taken way too long to load them to my picture file and once loaded, there were delays as I resized them for the blog. Now, as I write, I'm typing way ahead of the screen display - unnerving. I can hear lots of gurgling like a boiling cauldron waiting to gobble up the words I type and spit them out in globs arranged in mysterious ways until I hit the publish button and then the page will go blank. I'll keep going and can only hope what I want to post will be there the way I intend it to be. We'll see.

I had a message from Bob Kimball asking about the birds he's been seeing in the big spruces on the little island - Pearl's Island - and he sent pictures. (Click on them to enlarge them.) It sure looks like a cormorant to me. I think Bob is right that the osprey has more white, and I think the long neck identifies it as a cormorant. They do dive under water, and we've definitely had them here in the past. One year we had one that roosted on one of our boats and the canvass cover was never the same again - white stripes and splotches! That one was about a feather away from being fish bait. If anyone can positively identify the birds in the photos above, let me know.

It was a bit difficult to tell just what sort of animal it is in this first picture, but within minutes, it was clear there were no feathers on these guys. Diane Rossi sent these photos to me tonight, taken by Joyce Rogers this morning at 5 o'clock on their water front. I guess these two beautiful animals wanted an early morning swim - gotta wonder if they were chased into the pond by dogs or other predators. Like Joyce said, they were pretty strange ducks. Thank you Diane for sending them along, and please thank Joyce. They look as if they are glad to be back on land. I don't think they are strong swimmers.

Oops! My fears have been realized - I'm getting a message about my post perhaps not able to be published, like last night. I'm going to post the pictures and try to get it published. I KNEW I was in trouble the way the computer was acting . . . must be the weather. Have you been reading and hearing about all the power outages in the area? We were lucky here - Waterford, the Ryegate and Peacham area, some lines down in Danville. It looked very threatening when we came up through Peacham yesterday afternoon, but we had no idea it would get so bad some of the roads were closed with downed power lines and trees across.

I just did a test run and everything looks ok. Perhaps I should just plan to write shorter blogs and not put the poor system under such a strain.

I mentioned yesterday that Fred had gone down on Sandy Beach Road to see if he could find the bird Bob Kimball had mentioned. Turns out it is likely an osprey. While Fred was there, he took pictures and chatted with the Byrds and the Porters. He took pictures of the slalom course, and I have numbered them so you can get an idea of how much space the course covers. Last night I had just the Sandy Beach slides ready for you, but for some reason the Blogger site was having trouble I couldn't publish. I called Fred for help, but we still couldn't make it work. Around midnight we gave up, but Fred was up at the crack of dawn and made a new slide show with those slides and the ones I talk about below. Now everything seems to be working ok, but this is one really long slide show. Here they are: slides

In case anyone was looking for us today, we went to N. Woodstock, NH to meet Fred's brother Tom and his wife Ellie and their oldest son Greg, for lunch. We enjoyed the trip down through Franconia Notch - just beautiful, in spite of the extreme heat. Not much going on as far as tourists, but all the fun spots were getting spruced up. North Woodstock is just south of Indian Head and Clarke's Bears. We were a little early, so we took a ride along Rt. 3 after we got off the interstate. Brought back a lot of memories. When I was a kid, our family often went for picnics in the White Mountains, and we'd stop to see the Old Man of the Mountains, holler across Echo Lake, sometimes walk the Flume, but the biggest treat was to go to see the bear act at Clarke's. Here's a picture of us - from left to right, Grandfather Bolton, Grandmother Bolton, my mom and my dad, Uncle Jim Jones, then in front, Uncle Bob Bolton, me and Uncle Bill Bolton. Aunt Rachel was taking the picture. I don't know exactly where we were, but I'm sure it was in the White Mountains, and I bet we went to see the bears before we went home. We didn't see the bears today, but there were workers on the towers where the animals perform, and a sign promised a "show at 12 o'clock."

It was swelteringly hot, even in the mountains today. We were glad we had air conditioning at the Woodstock Inn where we had lunch, and in the car. We took the road that goes from Woodstock to Woodsville, past Lost River, on our way home. The river was pretty much lost today - nearly dry. The river bed was all those nice smoothly rounded river rocks and what water there was seemed to be hardly moving except in the steepest gorges. We took pictures along the way.

After crossing the river into Vermont, we decided to take the back roads through Ryegate and Groton, then to Peacham and Danville. We hadn't been on these roads for a while, either, and enjoyed the ride.

It was a nice day. We enjoyed seeing family and it was way to hot to do much here at home. The thunder storms tonight seem to be cooling things down a bit. I heard on the scanner there were some power lines down in the Waterford area, and some trees came down here and there, so people had lost electricity. In this heat, that can be dangerous. There were calls from people on oxygen. I'm not hearing as much now, so perhaps things have quieted down some.

Another really summery day here at Joe's Pond. We went into St. J. this morning for haircuts and it was very warm there. We were glad to get back home. We learned today that the Walden Country Store and Homemade Pizza on Rt. 15 has closed. I haven't been able to reach them by phone, but I was able to e-mail them to express my surprise and let them know we'll miss them. Their pizza was very good, and I enjoyed going in there this spring on Ice-Out business. They sold quite a few tickets for us. Nice people. Mary at Hasting's Store told me this morning they have had the place for sale for a while and since it hasn't sold, they decided to close. They have small children and I guess the restaurant business was too demanding and they wanted more time with their children. Mary wasn't sure where they were going or what they would be doing. She thought Tammy, who worked for them, has gone on to another job.

We still have our own Country Store, though. I'm told Jeff Downs turns out a nifty pizza at the Joe's Pond Country Store, too.

Fred is mowing the lawn this afternoon. It sure grows fast this time of the year. I am trying to get caught up with things here at my desk, sorting through whatever I have completed of the historical society project so I can get the albums back to them for the summer. At this point I'm making lists, indexes, labels and putting finishing touches on whatever I can that's finished. It will be good to get the boxes and albums out of here so I can move around in my limited space again.

*****

Cabot Recreation: Summertime Community Walkabout

The Cabot Recreation Department invites you to enjoy our beautiful surroundings and get to know our community in the company of others. Beginning Friday, June 20 and continuing each third Friday of the month through October, join your neighbors for an easy, pleasant walk and community potluck afterward.

This month's walk will begin behind the Wiley Building at 6:00 pm and end at 3292 Main Street, at the home of Cathleen, Lars and Isabel Maine-Torres where the potluck will take place around 7:30. The walk should take just over an hour; plan to stay as long as you like for the potluck - Smores for kids. (If you are staying for the potluck you can drop your dish off before hand).

Do you have a favorite walk you'd like share? Email Lars at lars@mixedmedia.us

Summary:

Who: Everyone is welcome

What: Cabot Recreation Summertime Community Walkabout and Potluck

Where: Alternating locations around Cabot - ideas welcome!

When: Every third Friday of the month beginning Friday, June 20

More info: Call Lars at 563-2757 or email lars@mixedmedia.us

Here is the information on the woman doing the documentary on loons and who spent a day with the Richers recently. Her name is Gail Osherenko, and below is a link to the University of California web site with her dossier. Evelyn said it may be a year or more before the project is finished and on film. Also, we don't know how much, if any, of our loon footage will be used, but I'm sure with a ready-made blind to film from, she would have some great shots. Hopefully we'll hear more as time passes.
Gail Osherenko

I decided to do a little more research on Gail Osherenko to find out, if I could, where her previous documentary had shown so we might have a clue where to find this loon film. She shows up easily on Google. This is a link to an on-line news site, "Santa Barbara Edhat" - Review

Here's something interesting I just rec'd from Evelyn Richer:

Hi Jane,

Well, I thought I would share some fun info … It seems the loons on Joe’s are popular once again!! As you know, they were featured in Defenders of Wildlife magazine this spring (with Ray as the feature photographer…)

Anyway, on May 26^th, we had a call from an independent film maker from California that is making a documentary on folks that care for loons… she was very interested in interviewing Ray about the loons here on Joe’s and to learn some of the ‘intimate’ details that we have observed over the past 10 years. It seems that this is a rare opportunity, which we tend to forget from time to time, to be able to observe a loon pair during their nesting season with such scrutiny … Poor things… anyway… this film maker had just finished a documentary on Global Warming and came back from filming the outer rim of the ‘Arctic’ with the polar bears up close and personal… to film Ray and our Joe’s Pond loons…and then she went on to Maine… her work is phenomenal…

She does such a wonderful job and is so dedicated to documenting details of the struggles of the loons but also how people get involved with the animal world and dedicate their time and compassions to help creatures like the loons… She is impressed with our community and how we all protect our loon pair… and how successful Vermont has been in the recovery of the numbers of loons by its conservation and preservation programs with the educational programs headed by our dedicated biologist Eric Hanson of course.

She was fascinated to hear of Ray’s efforts in showing his multi-media programs throughout the state on the loons and other common wildlife that also share our lakes and ponds! (By the way, he will be the guest speaker at the Lake Morey Inn next Sat. for the New England Federation of Lakes and Ponds.) She also had wonderful praises for Ray’s photos of the loons and his efforts to protect them while filming them (not chasing them via boat or kayak). She was grateful to be able to photograph the loon on the nest from our shoreline and see how relaxed the loon was on the nest showing no signs of stress from our presence, but how disturbed he became when he had vision of a boat near the cove… Ray and I were nervous to have her there on the shore, even though we all were VERY quiet… and there was no stress evident by the loon…but it was also time for them to change nesting duties and we had waited for hours for that to happen… when it became evident that possibly they were going to wait for us to leave first… we did just that… then moments later in came the other loon… and they exchanged duties… They always had exchanged duties on ‘schedule’ when it was just Ray and/or I on the shore… but they knew someone new was there… they are amazing!

She was here by 6 am on the 27^th and spent the day filming the loons and Ray while conducting the interview… we have no idea what will come of it but have faith that she will carry the story to the rest of the world… and so again goes Joe’s Pond (and its loons)…

We’ll keep you posted…

Blessings, Evelyn