We awoke to sunshine this morning. There are pockets of snow here and there where the sun hasn't hit yet, but there is not enough to measure on my snow board. When I went out to take my measurements this morning, the grass was crisp under foot; Fred told me the temperature when he got up at 6:30 was 23 degrees. It's reading 30 on my thermometer at the back side of the house now, and the sun is beginning to be filtered by clouds, so it's going to be an off and on day.

We had a really nice time last night. The pork dinners from the church benefit buffet dinner put on by Chef David Hale (of Cabot and St. Johnsbury Academy) were delicious. A group of us, all neighbors, got together at our house rather than going to the church to eat. We were amazed at the amount and variety of the servings. We had a generous serving of pork, braised vegetables, and a spinach side, plus two salads each large enough to serve the six of us, six individual desserts - two each of Grandma Hales apple oatmeal bread crisp, peach cranberry crisp and bread pudding, and a variety of dark bread and home made rolls. VERY good stuff! We all said we couldn't believe we ate the whole plateful of the main course, and we each had a taste of the desserts, although we were too full to finish them and there was a little of each of the salads left. Everything tasted so good, and it was great fun having our neighbors in. We were having such a good time we completely forgot to take pictures!

Bill Rossi sent this photo of the statue he helped his friend erect last week. It is completely assembled now and is reportedly commanding some attention in the neighborhood. He looks like he means business . . .

We usually don't deal in rumors, but we heard recently that wedding bells may be chiming again for one of our long-time year around Joe's Ponders. We want details and dates, so happy groom-to-be, if you're reading this, please get in touch.

This is no rumor - it's fact, plain and simple. You may want to stock your root cellar (or your refrigerator) for the coming holidays. The Blackwell Farm on Walbridge Road in Cabot has plenty of wonderful winter veggies on hand. Give them a call or send an e-mail - click on the poster at right. They can tell you how to best preserve these hardy root veggetables for many months, even if you don't have a root cellar.

If you are interested in old photos - or to be more precise, stereoscopic pictures, you will want to attend Richard Petit's presentation at the Danville Historical Society on Sunday, November 8, at 3 p.m. Mr. Petit has spent years finding and identifying stereoscopic photographs taken in this area from about 1877 to 1881 by Carlyle Goodrich of Plainfield. Mr. Petit has shared many of his stereoscopics with the Vermont Historical Society (see inset at right) and has made many contacts hoping to identify as many as possible. He has helped our Cabot Historical Society identify several in our collection, and we have worked with him to identify some of his which he has generously shared with us, but there are many left to do. Because Carlyle Goodrich worked within the area of Cabot, Danville, Peacham, Plainfield, etc., Mr. Petit hopes anyone interested will come to see his slides and perhaps identify a family homestead or familiar scene.

Peter Dannenberg sent this post script regarding the translation he did for us yeaterday:

I'm not even close to fluent. I couldn't have done it without looking up
many words.

My parents were from Germany. My father was from Hamburg, which is not
terribly distant from the area of the safari park where this author works.
I'm not sure if "safari" park is the correct translation of "Wildpark." It's
the online dictionary translation. But given that she works with wolves and
falcons, not African animals, "wildlife park" might be better. There are
more than 200 nature preserves and theme parks in the Lunenburg Heath
region.

I have to apologize for a hurried translation; we were rushing to get to the
5 p.m. seating at the church dinner. I took a couple years of German in
college, but I was too lazy to learn proper grammar. As I said, this is just
a rough try to capture the sense of her Web page; it's inexact. For example,
I wrote "polar" wolf. I think the correct English translation is "Arctic"
wolf. I also incorrectly wrote that she hand-reared a wolf. It should be
"wolves," which were the foundation stock of the first pack in the nature
park.

Thank you again, Peter - we appreciate that you took the time to do this. I should add that Peter is an active and valued member of Cabot Historical Society (also our president's husband) and an accomplished writer, having written many interesting and often amusing articles for the local "Chronicle".