The minutes of Saturday's meeting are now posted on the web site. To view them, go to www.joespondvermont.com and click on "Joe's Pond Assn" and you'll find them on that menu. Or, here is a direct link to them: Aug. 21 Meeting

We went to Cabot yesterday and stopped by the Sousa farm to see if we could talk with any of the workers installing the cell tower on one of their big silos. The work seems to have been completed. Everything is neatly housed and fenced, and a nice gravel approach laid down. We took some pictures and left. We haven't heard from anyone in authority regarding whether the tower is operational or not, or what phones it will serve. Fred is working on that and we'll have something here as soon as we have more information.

We noticed the black cows are back in the pasture just beyond our house. This group isn't as vocal as the ones we had a couple years back, but they are a good looking bunch of bovines. We were coming home at just about lunch time and it apparently was lunch time for the calves, too. We noticed several enjoying lunch--one way or another. This young fella paused in the middle of a munch to watch us, but the fully grown adult next to him couldn't care less that we were there and never missed a bite of grass. A little further up the road a calf was suckling until we stopped to take a picture and then he began backing up and retreated behind his mother. We got a picture as he was edging away.

This herd seems to be a little different from those in the past - not quite as big and heavy, and they certainly don't have much of a coat yet. As the weather cools, they will gain some extra hair to protect them against the cold fall nights; and then, before snow flies, they'll be carted off, and maybe some will be in your grocer's meat case.

Which reminds me. We've been hearing more about free-range animals being raised here in Vermont. Recently there has been a story about pigs that are allowed to roam in large pasture areas. I found an interesting web site you might like to look at. Pig Study

I looked at the comments at the end of the article and the second one was from a Vermont farmer, Walter Jeffries of Sugar Mountain Farm in West Topsham. Here is their web site: www.sugarmountainfarm.com

I particularly liked a comment the woman in the first comment wrote, saying pigs are smarter than some members of her family. Indeed. Trouble is, not many people get to know pigs that well, so may find the comparison troubling. Scientists that have studied pigs claim their intelligence equals that of a three-year old child. I guess we'll think about that next time we eat a pork chop.