We got nearly an inch and a half of rain last night. It really poured for a while, but I was surprised when I read my rain gauge this morning that we had that much. The pond will be filling up, and the rubber dam may not be able to handle quite all of the water so check things around your waterfront so they don't float away on you - if things haven't already!

We'll be watching the news today to see how bad the fire at the Allen farm on Rt. 15 in Walden was last night. The alarm came in at about 8 o'clock and according to a neighbor who happened to have her scanner on, most of the area fire and rescue departments were called out. She didn't know details, but believed it was the barn and may have started due to wet hay. Since the barn is attached to the house, both may have been damaged - and there may have been animals in the barn. I think it may not have been too bad because at around 11 o'clock, all units were leaving the scene, and that probably wouldn't happen if it had turned into a really big blaze.

Diane Rossi wants me to let people know she's really pleased with luminaria sales so far. She was out yesterday along W. Shore Road and found lots of people here and sales were good. She said Diane Sherwood is also selling (sorry, I had her on my list of sales people, but got confused thinking the "Diane" I'd written down was Diane Rossi . . . Don't forget to pick up your luminaries at the store if you don't already have them.

This is going to be a big weekend with the JPA meeting on Saturday at 10 a.m. and Kid's Day at 11:30, then fireworks and luminaries at dusk. On the Fourth there are parades and lots of things going on in Cabot and also North Danville, I believe. Hope you can all get out there and have fun. I am looking forward to being at the historical society building on the Fourth. I haven't been down at all this year, so will be taking a couple boxes of things down that I've finished working on over the winter, and if it isn't too busy, perhaps can help Bonnie get them displayed or stored. I just received the replicas I printed from the 1884 autograph book that belonged to Mrs. M. F. Wells, Jane McKay's great grandmother. There are signatures and messages from people such as J. P. Lamson, Walter Abbott of E. Cabot, Walter Perry of Walden, O. R. Collins, and Sarah Dow - about 49 individuals signed her book. Mrs. Wells taught Sunday School and the book was a gift from her students. Above is the cover of the book - it's a little larger than a 3x5 index card. Some of the writing is absolutely lovely inside, like the page below. Not every page has decoration, and some of the writing was obviously by some of Mrs. Wells' students, and not very pretty - but I'm sure she treasured the little book. I couldn't have it printed in the exact size, but came pretty close. It was great fun scanning each page (Jane McKay graciously let me do that last summer) and putting it together. Some of the pages showed signs of age, of course, 125 years will do that! But it looks pretty good and we can let people look through it without worrying about damaging the original, which is a bit delicate.

Fred got his lawn mowed yesterday, fortunately. He'd been waiting for things to dry out a bit, but mid-afternoon yesterday decided it probably wasn't going to get any better, so went for it. It's amazing that he can do our whole big lawn in less than two hours. My father used to mow a little every day - but then, he was 89 years old . . . ! Fred has it down to a science now and zooms over our steep bank with no problems or spills. He has been known to get into some difficult situations, especially in some of our wet spots, but now he's worked all the kinks out and has a "system." We don't trim, although sometimes I go out with the old walk-behind and go where he can't with the riding mower. Now I need to rake up some of the heavier stuff for the garden. My first layer of clippings is getting thin and I have some late crops that are coming in now that will need some cover. Lots of fishworms in the garden this year - and that's a good sign.