A pretty day today - sunny, in the 20's. We're going to lose the sunshine later on, but I think it will be back tomorrow.

I need to clarify that yesterday the "budget" I said would be discussed and voted upon at the Monday, March 1, evening meeting before the regular town meeting in is the school budget. All other financial decisions will be made at the regular meeting on Tuesday, March 2.

This morning I had a comment on yesterday's slide show picture of wood pellets at St. Jay Hardware. Okanagan wood pellets come from British Columbia, Canada. I spoke with John Gebbie, owner of St. Jay Hardware, and he told me he buys them there for several reasons. He indicated Vermont producers aren't making the same quality product because they are new at it. The people at Okanagan have been at it long enough to have refined the process so the pellets burn hotter and cleaner than most, and therefore it's a superior product. John said he would prefer to buy locally, but until Vermont producers "know how to cook it" as well as Okanagan, he will still buy directly from Vancouver, and the price is right because they have a lot of raw material available.

I was surprised to learn that the best raw material for pellets is soft wood. When burning cord wood, hard wood such as maple, ash and birch are preferable because they give more heat. Soft wood not only give less btu's, it will also coat a chimney with residue which can lead to chimney fires. Fred rarely burns soft wood unless it's been cut and split a long time and is super dry, and then only mixed with hard wood. He also always burns a really hot fire in our stove at least once a day to be sure we get no buildup in the chimney.

So there you have it. Thanks for the comment, Tom. Here's a no-nonsense link to the company in Vancouver:
OkanaganPellets.com

We think the ice fishermen, if that's what they're doing, were there all night. The tent is still there and we can see them moving about from time to time. It was about five above last night around 11 o'clock when I last looked, so if they spent the night on the ice, it might have been cold for them. Today is sunny and in the 20's, so I'm sure they're fine. That's a compact little tent, and with two people in it, probably they were pretty cozy.