We awoke to a trace of snow on the ground and now we're having pretty consistent snow showers. We don't expect much build up, but things are getting white - fair warning of what's to come.

The top picture is from our window, looking towards Rt. 15 across the pond. Our row of tamaracks went very suddenly from brilliant yellow to dull brown and are rapidly shedding their needles. We think the tamaracks made a much more impressive show of color this year than usual, making up for the lack-luster maples this year. It wasn't as pretty here this year, but I think in some other areas the colors were very nice. Sometimes we've gone to the coast about this time of year and have appreciated the display of tamarack and oak trees going through New Hampshire and Maine. We don't have lots of oaks here, but plenty of tamaracks.

The second picture is from my office window looking out at our back lawn. The temperature is staying at about 32-34 degrees and so far we haven't had much wind. I heard lots of wind during the night, though.

We haven't been down to check the water level recently, but I've had reports it's high again. Thursday when we went through West Danville there was a lot of activity near the dam and I wondered if there is a problem. Last spring there was a washout under the penstock and it had to be shut down for a spell. That can create a problem if there's high water because the penstock can carry off a huge quantity of water quickly in addition to what's going over the dam. When that isn't open, the only route out is over the dam, and that sometimes isn't adequate to keep the water level within normal range. At no point between rain storms has the water level been at the lowest possible range, as far as I can tell, so when there's rain every day or so, there's no storage room for the runoff.

I've been busy scanning old documents. Right now I'm working with a group of court documents, summons for the arrest or testimony regarding various amounts of money owed, usually small amounts, like $2.06 in damages, plus $1.72 for costs of the suit, and $.25 for the Writ. The justices of the peace and the sheriffs had a good thing going, I think. The person owing the debt would be taken into custody and held by the "keeper of the Goal" in Danville until he paid up or the bill was otherwise settled. It's hard to tell if many of the debtors were actually held at the goal; more than likely there were agreements made to pay off the debts either with money, goods or labor.

After Cabot and some other towns were reorganized from Orange County in 1769 to the County of Caledonia, Danville became the County seat, so all legal proceedings in Cabot were handled there. In 1811 Cabot and Woodbury were again redistricted into Washington County, and eventually, in 1856, the Caledonia County seat moved from Danville to St. Johnsbury.

Now I need to get back to the old documents. The ghosts of Cabot long past are calling.