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I had an e-mail from Liz Randall on Long Island today. They have snow there - she thought we might like to see what it looks like when they have a snowstorm:
(Corky is their dog.)
Nice Blanket of Fresh Snow here in Miller Place, I just went out and thought I'd share some pictures of the snow, looks pretty with the sun shining
... Corky was bright eyed this morning and ready for a nice snow~race around the yard...
Our red Farmall tractor on the front lawn brightens up nicely with the fresh snow.
Best wishes for a Super-Happy Valentines Day!... Liz & John
Fred has been out and taken some of the snow off our roof. The next batch of snow we get will probably be the wet, heavy stuff that adds a ton of weight to roofs, and while ours all have a pretty good pitch to them, there hasn't been enough melting weather to take the depth down much. The only factor that may have reduced the amount of snow sticking on the roof is the wind.
I had lunch with middle son, Bob, yesterday. We met at the Danville Restaurant. Bob really likes the buffet there - always great hearty choices, and he's always been a really good eater. When he was a little kid, I used to think I'd never get him filled up. And he remained skinny. Those aren't his mother's genes, for sure. I don't think he can pack away the food quite the same as in those years, but he's still a good eater.
We always see people we know when we go there. Yesterday we saw Dave and Sheila Legendre. I hadn't seen them for quite a while, and it was good to catch up a little with them. We always enjoy seeing the owner, Steve Cobb. I love the decorations Steve has in the restaurant. It's a nice mix of antiques and interesting photos, set off right now by an artificial silver Christmas tree decorated with just the right amount of red and pink for Valentine's Day. Very striking. I should have brought my camera, but completely forgot to take it. I did some errands in Danville and then stopped to pick up the JPA mail in W. Danville. Jennie Larrabee Rafuse was working at the store, and Grandma Jane was tending to baby Alyssa Amber, now just a bit over two months - she was born on November 30. I peeked in at them - contentedly relaxed in a rocking chair. There again, I should have had my camera . . .
While working on some of the old newspapers published in 1880, I ran across a short item I found very interesting:
Feb. 1880 – “The Central Vermont railroad consumes about ninety thousand cords of wood a year. The price this year, for good hard wood, delivered at track, ranges from $2.25 to $2.75, according to locality.
That's per cord! We noticed an ad in a local paper just this week advertising green firewood at $120 to $180 a cord.
Times sure have changed. Life was difficult back then, though. Although I'm mainly interested in gathering vital statistics and new items applicable to the Town of Cabot, I frequently get caught up in a story about some other town or place. Needless to say, I only get through a small number of those issues in a day's time.
Those newspapers were HUGE! The page measures 26 1/2" x 29 1/2". The newspaper, the Vermont Watchman & State Journal was published weekly in Montpelier, and consisted of just the one huge sheet, 26 1/2" x 59" - folded once to make four pages. I marvel at the variety of information each issue had - articles from big city newspapers, from other countries, several poems in each issue, and lots of stories with a moral message written for all ages, both male and female. Very preachy. I often begin to read what I believe is another article about something only to learn near the end that it's actually an account of some fictitious circumstance which was put right by some superb cure-all elixir, tonic or liniment. Th
ere are no photographs in these old papers, but there are wonderful line drawings and prints illustrating the ads and sometimes a story. Certain products have illustrations like Lydia E. Pinkham (Vegetable Compound for females), or their product like the Boynton Gas-Tight Durable Furnace or Morris & Ireland's New Improved Eight-Flange Fire-Proof Safe.
There seems to have been little the editor would not present in his newspaper. Culprits and their deeds are named, anyone's worth proclaimed, whether living or dead, marital squabbles noted, mishaps and mistakes reported as freely as honors or kindness. The editor often left no doubt as to where he stood on any issue, whether it directly concerned him or not.
I have been through issues starting in 1872 through 1883. I have another box I haven't looked at yet, so a long way to go. I wish I had time to read more of each one, but I'd never finish extracting the Cabot information if I did that.
Back to work.
Fred has been out and taken some of the snow off our roof. The next batch of snow we get will probably be the wet, heavy stuff that adds a ton of weight to roofs, and while ours all have a pretty good pitch to them, there hasn't been enough melting weather to take the depth down much. The only factor that may have reduced the amount of snow sticking on the roof is the wind.
I had lunch with middle son, Bob, yesterday. We met at the Danville Restaurant. Bob really likes the buffet there - always great hearty choices, and he's always been a really good eater. When he was a little kid, I used to think I'd never get him filled up. And he remained skinny. Those aren't his mother's genes, for sure. I don't think he can pack away the food quite the same as in those years, but he's still a good eater.
We always see people we know when we go there. Yesterday we saw Dave and Sheila Legendre. I hadn't seen them for quite a while, and it was good to catch up a little with them. We always enjoy seeing the owner, Steve Cobb. I love the decorations Steve has in the restaurant. It's a nice mix of antiques and interesting photos, set off right now by an artificial silver Christmas tree decorated with just the right amount of red and pink for Valentine's Day. Very striking. I should have brought my camera, but completely forgot to take it. I did some errands in Danville and then stopped to pick up the JPA mail in W. Danville. Jennie Larrabee Rafuse was working at the store, and Grandma Jane was tending to baby Alyssa Amber, now just a bit over two months - she was born on November 30. I peeked in at them - contentedly relaxed in a rocking chair. There again, I should have had my camera . . .
While working on some of the old newspapers published in 1880, I ran across a short item I found very interesting:
Feb. 1880 – “The Central Vermont railroad consumes about ninety thousand cords of wood a year. The price this year, for good hard wood, delivered at track, ranges from $2.25 to $2.75, according to locality.
That's per cord! We noticed an ad in a local paper just this week advertising green firewood at $120 to $180 a cord.
Times sure have changed. Life was difficult back then, though. Although I'm mainly interested in gathering vital statistics and new items applicable to the Town of Cabot, I frequently get caught up in a story about some other town or place. Needless to say, I only get through a small number of those issues in a day's time.
Those newspapers were HUGE! The page measures 26 1/2" x 29 1/2". The newspaper, the Vermont Watchman & State Journal was published weekly in Montpelier, and consisted of just the one huge sheet, 26 1/2" x 59" - folded once to make four pages. I marvel at the variety of information each issue had - articles from big city newspapers, from other countries, several poems in each issue, and lots of stories with a moral message written for all ages, both male and female. Very preachy. I often begin to read what I believe is another article about something only to learn near the end that it's actually an account of some fictitious circumstance which was put right by some superb cure-all elixir, tonic or liniment. Th
ere are no photographs in these old papers, but there are wonderful line drawings and prints illustrating the ads and sometimes a story. Certain products have illustrations like Lydia E. Pinkham (Vegetable Compound for females), or their product like the Boynton Gas-Tight Durable Furnace or Morris & Ireland's New Improved Eight-Flange Fire-Proof Safe.There seems to have been little the editor would not present in his newspaper. Culprits and their deeds are named, anyone's worth proclaimed, whether living or dead, marital squabbles noted, mishaps and mistakes reported as freely as honors or kindness. The editor often left no doubt as to where he stood on any issue, whether it directly concerned him or not.
I have been through issues starting in 1872 through 1883. I have another box I haven't looked at yet, so a long way to go. I wish I had time to read more of each one, but I'd never finish extracting the Cabot information if I did that.
Back to work.
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