I hope everyone got through April 1st without being too embarrassed by an April Fool's Day prank . . . and that your computer didn't get attacked by any worm, bug or virus.

Well, the 22nd Ice-Out Contest at Joe's Pond is officially closed. Now all we need to do is wait for the weather to cooperate and melt the ice so we can find out who won. Diane and I are still collecting tickets from the local outlets. I'm going to St. Johnsbury tomorrow and will pick up at Cabot. Latest reports were that most tickets were sold, so it would seem we may have had a pretty good year again. We won't know for sure until Karl has finished logging everything in.

Those of you who are avid Ice-Out Flag Watchers will want to reserve your place at the access area - spaces will be filling quickly as soon as open water is showing. Of course there are those who prefer to peer across the ice with their binoculars from Barre Avenue or W. Shore Road. Flag watching can be dangerous, though. Melting ice also means the dirt roads are thawing out and a normal mud season will mean all dirt roads around the pond will be off limits to anything except 4-wheel drive vehicles or foot traffic. Even then it's dangerous some years. Don't expect the access area to be without pot holes, mud and ruts, either. It can get pretty bad, depending on the amount of traffic swinging in to check the flag. As the weather warms and things begin to float, Fred and I will take pictures to keep you up to date, though. This is a photo of this year's set-up.

I'll be posting statistics from the contest as soon as I have them from Karl.