I hope everyone had a nice long holiday weekend. We are closing things down at our cottage, like lots of other folks. The gang was here during the weekend and took out boats except the pontoon, which Jamie needs to retrieve the buoys, and those need to be left for a while yet. There was a lot of activity around the pond this weekend. Fred and I finished distributing Ice-Out tickets, dropping them off to everyone we could find around the pond. We hit all the roads around the pond. We left some envelopes in doors and cars if it looked like folks were around but out in their boats when we stopped by, so if any of you were wondering how those envelopes with bright yellow Ice-Out tickets got wherever you found them, now you know.

I had this message today from Henretta Splain, who lives just up the road from us:
Hiya,

A beautiful (if that can be said about these animals) buck moose with full rack crossed my front yard early evening yesterday. It's coat was shiny and it just looked majestic! It was moving fairly quickly and after getting untangled from my dog (who was also excited) by the time I got to my camera it was gone.

So after my bear sighting a couple of weeks ago on West shore and this moose, I get the feeling our four footed residents are getting ready for the change of seasons.

Henretta

All critters are getting ready, if they're smart. We've noticed robins are flocking, and Fred says the humming birds are about ready to leave. We're still feeding them here, but in a few days, we'll only see one occasionally, and think that may be one that's just flying through and spotted some of the flowers and got lucky. Our regulars will have gone.

Fred took pictures along the way, so here's a short slide show for you. It was a beautiful day and seemed to get warmer as the afternoon went on. We ended our quest at Mike Dornbrook's place on Harrington Hill, overlooking the Rogers' Ponds.
slides

When on Channel Drive, we took a picture of the bridge over the channel that JPA has been requested to fund reinforcing for use as part of the rail trail. You can see that the original railroad bridge seems to be intact and railings have been added. We aren't sure yet what additional measures will be needed to make it safe for hiking, biking and snowmobiles. There will be more information by spring - before we make any decisions are made about funding it.