Another beautiful day! A bit windy, and some of the leaves got blown off our trees, but there is still a lot of beautiful color, especially in the valleys. There was a crispness to the air today. We had a small fire in the wood stove although I don't think we really needed it. I'm always amazed that, after working so hard on our wood supply, Fred never hesitates to keep a fire going. I keep thinking we should be very careful of that hard earned wood and put sweaters on instead of having a fire.

We have been working on the web site a bit today. There are a few new things - you'll see new items on the "Local Products" page - Terry Powers let me put her "Quillows" on - a very nice idea and great for gifts. We've just learned of a price drop on the Dowd cottage on Sandy Beach Road, so Fred will be changing that tonight. I had a note a couple days ago from a long time Cabot resident who now lives in Barre, saying she has two containers "about the size of bushel baskets" full of family memorabilia that she wants to donate to the Cabot Historical Society. Sounds like I'll have plenty to do this winter! Can't wait to see it, though.

Sometime this past week I heard on the CBS "The Early Show" that weather man, Dave Price, is going to be in Vermont next week. Something to do with the foliage, I believe. Also, our neighbor, Henretta Splain mentioned the New York Times had a piece on Wednesday about Hardwick, Vermont. If you want to see it, click here.
Actually, they ran parts of the same story the next day, October 9, in the food section. I was surprised at how many times Hardwick, Vermont had been mentioned in the Times over the years. Out of curiosity I plugged in "Cabot, Vermont" and of course got articles about the cheese plant; then I plugged in "Joe's Pond, Vermont" and came up with Katie Zezima's 2006 article on the Ice-Out Contest.

Back to the Hardwick article. Somewhere in that article, which I read in The Haradwick Gazette a week or two ago, there was a mention of a new paint company that has developed a process of making paint from whey, the product left over from cheese making. I don't think that's really a new process - casein paint has been around for literally ages. The Romans used it, and artists use it today.

My dad used to tell this story: When he was a young man they built a very large new barn on the farm. It was his job, along with his brothers and the hired men, to paint it. At that time, Ora Ennis lived on a farm near what is now called Deeper Ruts Road. Ora frequently walked up to the Bolton farm to chat with his neighbors or sometimes to put in a day's work or borrow a tool. His old dog always went with him, and Ora thought a lot of that dog. One day my grandfather was driving by Ora's place and saw Ora in the yard so stopped to talk a bit.
With a long face, Ora told my grandfather that his old dog was dying. Grandpa could see the dog sitting beside Ora as he normally did, so he said to Ora that the dog looked fine and asked what made him think he was going to die.

"Oh," Ora said, "he's awful sick, Aaron. He's passing blood. Never saw anything like it. Runs right out of him."

"Well," my grandfather said, "I wouldn't worry too much, Ora. I think he'll be fine in a day or so."

Ora wasn't convinced, and Grandpa left him standing by the road sadly stroking the old dog's head. When my grandfather got home he told my father and the others the story. Of course, they wanted to know why he was so certain the dog wasn't sick. Turned out the day before Ora had been up for a visit and while he was busy talking, the old dog had found an unattended pan of red paint the men were using to paint the barn, and he drank a lot of it. It was made of milk with red pigment and a little linseed oil, so of course it went straight through him. I don't know if anyone ever told Ora how my grandfather knew the dog wasn't going to die, but I hope they did.

This is a picture of Ora Ennis and his family from our Cabot collection. I didn't know him, but he was a good neighbor, raised a large family and was a good farmer. Six of his sons served all at the same time during World War II. We have pictures of all of them in uniform, too. After a few years he left the small farm here and moved his family to South Cabot. Ora died in 1972 at age 93, his wife, Jennie, died in 1970 at age 85. All are buried in the South Cabot Cemetery.