First thing this morning Fred checked with Fairpoint and they said someone would come to install the new modem this morning. Sure enough, about an hour later Eric, who has been here before when we had problems, I think it was when I was trying out new printers, anyway, Eric came and within about 15 minutes the job was done and now my computer is working flawlessly, much faster than before, and I can go to whatever web site I want. Before, some sites simply stalled part way through loading and I couldn't get on. That's a big irritation when I'm trying to research something. Eric told us the particular modem he'd installed just a few months ago that had failed apparently has some problems and he's had to replace a number of them in Cabot. I didn't ask why it's a particular problem here, but I suspect it's because we're so rural. We're just happy to have the computer running smoothly again.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for us. Kevin is coming to do the annual service on the oil furnace, and Patrick is bringing Fred the first of our wood for 2011. We ordered only four cords, so getting it stacked before snow flies shouldn't be a big problem.

We finished cutting back the flower beds today. I was going to leave everything and let the snow break over the dead flower stalks, but it was such a nice day and Fred helped, so we just got it done. I have some flowers that have just taken over, so I'll probably transplant next spring. Right now I can't make up my mind where I want to move anything or what I want to keep or take to the woods. Sometimes when I have way too much of something I transplant it along the paths we have in the woods, but last summer was so wet we didn't walk in the woods at all so the paths are overgrown, too. It's a jungle in my flower beds and in the woods as well.

We moved a small stone retaining wall today to make more room for Fred's snow blower on the path to the propane gas tank. We like to keep that open in case we need a delivery during the winter, but the path is dead end and really hard to maneuver the snow blower, so this should help. He might even be able to make a turn-around there now the stones are gone. I'll smooth it and seed it tomorrow.

We expect another nice day tomorrow. These sunny days are a real bonus. I think hunters must be enjoying them, too. I heard several gun shots in the distance when we were outside today. I haven't seen many hunters in our area, but I imagine they are around. The regular deer hunting season will start in a couple more weeks, and that's when we begin to see more hunters. We haven't been seeing the deer we usually do here, though, so it may be a slim year in this area. We haven't seen the turkeys going through here lately, either, but I expect we will. They usually come to get some of the apples under the crab apple tree.

By the way, I was going through my file of Joe's Pond Association newsletters, and I am missing the spring 2003 edition. I thought I might have it on a CD, but apparently I don't, so if anyone has one that I could either have or can keep long enough to copy, I'd appreciate it. I'd like to have a complete set for the JPA archives.