We've got snow up the yazoo this morning. It began to snow at about 1 p.m. yesterday. So far I've measured (and reported) 18.5 inches. Several weeks ago I put away the snow board I've used all winter, but the little round cocktail table on our deck serves just as well. It's metal and white, so stays cold enough that the snow won't melt as soon as it hits it, and that's the whole point. On the ground, there is a little less (15 in.) because the ground is warm and the snow melts. It's snowing heavily enough so it builds up pretty fast, even so. We began taking pictures at about 4 p.m. yesterday. You can see the rapid progression of the snow buildup. Snow Storm

We were fortunate that we didn't lose our power until late last night, and then for only a few minutes. It went off a few times during the night and has blipped out once this morning, but only for two or three minutes. That's amazing considering the amount and weight of the snow on branches and lines. There is a light wind out of the west that is taking some of the snow off the trees, but they are still drooping heavily in most places. An e-mailed outage report from Washington Electric, our power company, state they have problems in the E. Montpelier/Calais area due to a substation failure; other than that there are spotty outages throughout their area. I don't know how people who have Green Mountain Power Corp. are doing.

The good/bad news is that this is all supposed to end sometime tonight - turning to rain with a very rapid warm up tomorrow. I'm imagining the flooding that will result of all this snow melting so quickly. Watch out in the valleys!! Joe's Pond will no doubt get quite high, but I'm sure the power company is monitoring the dam and it's probably as wide open as it can be. Surely they will know we have a lot of snow here - I think they may still be trying to work on the penstock below West Danville where the bank washed out earlier.

I had sad news yesterday from Liz Sargent. Her father, Bill "Bud" Pearl, who has been frail for some time, is now ending his journey. Bud has been a friend for many years; he and Lucia raised their family in the St. Johnsbury neighborhood where I lived and Bud had been a long time friend of the Dimick family. He had a wonderful grasp of history and a rare sense of humor. The Pearl's have owned the small island for many years and it was one of Buds favorite places to be. Our thoughts are with the family as they keep vigil.

Kate Chatot left a message for me yesterday to let me know she has a friend visiting who has a dog, Ollie, who is very friendly but inclined to jump up on you. If you are up by Kate's and meet the dog, don't worry, he's not dangerous. I expect he'll love the snow. Thanks for the heads-up, Kate.

Evelyn reports the loons have been busy building their nest. I wonder how they're doing with all the snow. If they stayed on the platform they'd be buried under the snow, so maybe they ride out a storm like this in the water. But then they'd have a hard time getting back to their nest building because they might not recognize it! I hope they don't get discouraged and give up nesting for this year! They could get confused and head south again . . .

I've stretched my luck about as far as I dare. I don't want to take a chance of losing everything on the blog this morning, so I'll sign out quickly before the power flips off again. Keep warm and safe.

P.S. - Liz Randall sent me some cute bloopers from her newspaper in L.I. yesterday. I'd seen many of them, and since it was a long list, found this web site that has some of the same on it. Liz thought we might need a giggle while we suffer through all this snow . . . Bloopers