Steady rain - I think it rained all night. I had almost 1.5 inches of rain in my gauge this morning. The temperature seems to be holding at around 38-40 degrees, but this may turn to snow this evening. Either way, it's precipitation and it's raising the level of water in the pond and also getting rid of a lot of ice and snow. We took these pictures this morning at about 9:30 of the brook between the Hamilton and Dimick camps on West Shore Road. The brook is really full - the culvert not really able to handle all the water coming through. Further up the pond on Sandy Beach Road, the culvert there has washed out part of the road. I've let the road crew in Cabot know about the washout. They had a truck out on W. Shore Road to repair something there, I was told, so I think it will be taken care of quickly.

We checked the water level at Walter Ruf's retaining wall and it's over the top by about 1/4 inch - and rising. I've let the power company know and I'm expect they have the dam fully open to let water out, but with the rain still coming down, that may not be enough for at least a few hours.

We stopped in West Danville - the mail box was filled with ticket returns (that's good!!) and the store was pretty much filled with people. Everyone was busy, but Garey told us Deb Stresing (Joe's Pond Craft Shop) is celebrating a birthday today. He gave us a number, but I'm sure she isn't that old, and anyway I wouldn't tell even if I knew for sure. That's Deb in the dark jacket, talking to Diane Jejer, and Marsha Moran in the gray jacket.

The store has new maple syrup on hand and probably either Garey or Jenny made fresh raised doughnuts to go with it. Can't get mush better than that! For those of you who aren't familiar with the maple syrup and raised doughnuts custom, raised doughnuts aren't sweet like regular doughnuts, so they go really well with the very sweet maple syrup. Best if you warm the syrup and dip the doughnuts in it. Lots of times sour pickles are served at maple sugar parties to "cut the sweet" of the syrup, too. That's a contrast for your taste buds, for sure! The doughnuts and syrup are worth trying, though.

We checked out the Ice-Out flag and all is well there, just waiting. We saw a car swing into the fishing area to check it out, so people are already keeping tabs on the contest. It's hard to guess how much longer the ice will last, though. There is a lot of water showing under the bridge in West Danville, the first narrows going into the middle pond has a lot of water showing, and we took a picture of the narrows going into the big pond (below on the right). The ice looks pretty stable right now. We can see some dark spots, but nothing too threatening yet. However, I wouldn't go out on it for any amount of money at this point.

At the top of the road going down to the fishing access, the stop sign has been knocked over, perhaps by the plow or maybe someone skidded and hit it. A winter casualty.

I guess that's about all the news we have this morning. The rain will continue for a while, and our roads may show more signs of spring as the frost comes out and mud deepens, but so far it hasn't been a terrible mud season on any of the roads on the west shore of the pond. This morning our neighbor on Brickett's Crossing Road commented on how bad the roads are, but like I told her - this year has been a good year so far. She hasn't lived here long enough to have experienced a real mud season like we used to have. Those of us who have been around for a while remember some years when you just didn't go anywhere unless you walked, and that would last for a week or more. You wanted to be sure to get your car out to the main road on a morning when the road was well frozen, and take mud boots with you so you could leave your car and walk in at night. Back roads were a sea of mud that swallowed cars and trucks and discouraged more than a few from living a second year on a dirt road. Those were the "good old days?"

Oh, yes, we shouldn't forget to mention that we'll have a bakery in Danville soon. It's across from Sew 'n Love Fabrics and the shop for tots and furniture, etc. on Hill Street, where the hardware store used to be, just down from Diamond Hill Store. Fred will be one of the first to check that out, so stay tuned . . .