We've had a bit of everything for weather today, from light rain to heavy snowfall. The snow isn't sticking , although on some surfaces it is, but mostly it's melting as soon as it hits the ground. Pretty messy and the wind has been fairly strong out of the northwest. It must have been a nasty day working on the two houses on Sandy Beach Road.









We walked down there this afternoon around 4 o'clock and can see progress on both houses. There's still a lot to do to have them both closed in by Thanksgiving. That's LaGue's on the left and Gagne's on the right.

We stopped by Walter Ruf's to look at the water level. I took my ruler with me so I could get a more accurate reading. I'll take another look on Wednesday or Thursday to see if there's a change. There was a lot of wave action due to the wind, so it was difficult to get a reading, but using a ruler works better than guessing.

We're looking forward to Chef David Hale's braised pork dinner on Saturday night. We've invited neighbors to join us and will order take-outs. We did that last year and had a very nice time and the food was exceptional. Actually, some of us have been anxiously awaiting a repeat this year. On the first announcement I posted a couple weeks ago, there was no mention of take-outs being available, but I called Marvie Domey yesterday and she said that was an unfortunate omission and that there definitely will be take-outs available, so I re-posted the announcement with the correction. You'll find it below, with the complete menu.

Some of you know that Chef Hale teaches the culinary arts classes at St. Johnsbury Academy. His students get hands-on experience operating the Hilltopper Restaurant on Main Street in St. Johnsbury three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The menu there is somewhat limited, but I've had very good reports that it's a particularly nice place to eat, and service is excellent. The students are learning not only to cook, but also how to serve the food by waiting tables, and learn the business end of operating a restaurant, too. I had a meeting in town last Wednesday and we ordered take-outs from the Hilltopper and everything was very good and reasonably priced. Here's a quick link to the Academy's site - you'll see links for their regular menu and specials on the left of the page: www.stjacademy.org

Chef Hale lives in Cabot, and this month's issue of The Cabot Chronicle had a short article featuring his preparations for his family Thanksgiving. He said he completely bones the turkey, then brines it with salt and maple syrup (both turkey and syrup from Bothfeld's Dunstable Farms in Cabot, of course!) and then smokes the turkey over apple wood for six hours. His recipe, complete with a list of equipment, ingredients and time-line, starting two days before Thanksgiving, was included.

The braised pork dinner on Saturday is put on by Chef Hale and his students for the benefit of the Cabot United Church.