First, an important notice: (The notice is also on home page of the web site and will remain there if anyone needs to refer to it.)
Assistant to the Cabot Town Clerk and Treasurer needed. Bookkeeping and office experience required - Quickbooks, Word, Excel, and Access. Must possess excellent penmanship, strong analytical, organizational and interpersonal skills, with an attention to detail and the ability to work independently under deadline. Wage based on relevant experience. Please send cover letter, resume, and references by March 27, 2009 to: Cabot Town Office, 3084 Main Street, PO Box 36 , Cabot , Vermont 05647.

I'm not sure how many years Velma White has served as assistant town clerk for Cabot, but I'm guessing it's been at least 20. I've enjoyed knowing and working with Velma over the years. I know she will be missed by many, many of us, but I wish her the very best as she moves on to other interests - and I know she has many.

I've exchanged e-mails this week with Kellie Merrell of Vt. Dept. of Water Resources and Mike Miller, Vt. Native Nursery, about the shoreline project that's going on. I wasn't aware that some people here at Joe's Pond have been working with the State to improve and preserve their shoreline. I'm not sure how all of this works, so perhaps someone who has been involved will contact me. There will be an article about it in the newsletter, and you'll be hearing more about the project here, as well. Sounds like a worthy project. I know first hand how difficult it is to keep our shorelines from eroding. It isn't quite as bad now the water level is better controlled, but in a good storm or when there is a lot of water skiing activity with large boats making lots of wake, the shoreline still takes a beating.

We're getting lots of rain today. Fred went zipping down the driveway early this moring to check how slippery it is on the road, but said while it looks slick with ice, it's actually quite mushy. We had some ice forming on the trees and thought the roads would be really bad, but apparently it is warming up steadily and the worst of the icing is over - we hope! Fred was ready for---I don't know, spring, mud, high water or maybe the men in white coats yesterday. He's had it with winter, for sure.

We walked down to Bill and Diane Rossi's yesterday to take Ice-Out tickets to them for Bill to take to Karl Couillard who is logging tickets in for us this year. The roads were showing signs of sping, but are still firmly frozen under the slime of mud. We hope the frost will leave gradually and perhaps we won't get the potholes and deep ruts.

Speaking of deep ruts, Elaine Metcalf commented on what I wrote about naming Deeper Ruts Road. In case you didn't click on the comment there, here is what she said, and thank's Elaine, for that. I'm delighted to know how the name came about. Another bit of history!

Metcalfs here.....just checking in!
Deeper Ruts Road was, at one time, just "Deeper Ruts", named by our dear late friends, Howard and Dappie Platt. Howard had a plaque in the kitchen which read "Deeper Ruts"---it was the end of the road and that was their name "for the end of the road". Of course, years ago, we remember, before the roads were improved, this road, being shaded by softwood trees, had ruts (in the spring) that could challenge any rut in town!
Thusly, the name. After Howard and Dappie passed, and the 911 I.D. was about to be put in place, we thought it would be a nice thought to use Howard's "Deeper Ruts" for this road.
I'm ordering my garden seeds, so that must mean that spring cannot be far away....Elaine Metcalf