Fred was out taking pictures of the ice this morning. As you can see, people keep close track of the flag. These two people just happened to be at the fishing access when Fred was taking pictures. I expect they have tickets and have high hopes of winning. By the looks, it will be a few days before the ice goes out. We've had a good south wind most of today, and now the sun has gone in, so probably the rain will be here soon. It's only about 50 degrees, and starting to cool off, so unless a lot of warm air accompanies the rain, we could have some snow showers during the night. It was below freezing last night.

The first two ponds are now completely free of ice, but you can see there's plenty left in the big pond.

Fred stopped at Hastings Store while he was out and got these pictures of Garey Larrabee and his two grand daughters. Callie is Curtis's little girl, and Alyssa is Jenny's. Callie has a big brother, but he was in school, I guess. Both girls get to spend time at the store - they'll be helping out there in no time. Won't it be fun watching these children growing up at the store - I think they are the fifth generation at the store. Some of us remember Jane's grandparents, Gilbert and Jenny Hastings, and more will remember Ralph and Mabel, Jane's parents. That is a remarkably long time for a business to remain within a family, and with this new generation coming along, perhaps it will continue. Gilbert and Jenny came to West Danville in 1913 to run the store.

Fred is outside getting ready for a wood delivery in a couple of weeks. He likes to have it here early so he can get it stacked and let it be drying during the summer. We think we used quite a bit less this year due to the winterization done on our house. It's always good to have the wood piled and ready. I haven't been able to get to some of my garden tools yet, though, and that's a problem. Usually the wood in our garage has diminished by this time so the tools hung on the wall are available, but it's going to take a bit of planning and maybe even restacking in order for me to get to them this year. And that's a good thing. We're still having a fire most days, but last week we were able to let it go out during the daytime and have only a small fire each evening.

I guess I'll go outside and work with Fred for a little while until the rain comes. Or until it's time for supper.