I know you've all been waiting, just as I have, to find out how the loon that was caught without runway space is doing. Here's the latest from Ray and Evelyn:

Hi Jane...

Ray went out this morning to check on the loon that has been 'caught' on the first pond as it freezes in on him/her.

He could not find the loon and the 'hole' that it was in yesterday was all frozen in this morning.  Ray waited for sometime to see if it would appear on the ice further out, but could not find it.  There are several options but the one we would like to assume is that the loon was able to get a good run on the length of the hole yesterday afternoon and catch the wind just right to lift off...

Eric confers that he has seen a loon take off from water with only a 25-30' opening with his feet still touching the ice before getting the 'lift of flight' so with that info we are hoping that is just what happened to our young loon...  This loon took the last possible chance to 'get out of town', because with the colder temps coming the 'window of opportunity' for such an escape has closed behind him...

So it looks like there will be no need for a rescue attempt for our loon... Due to the possible dangers in such a rescue we are very thankful.

Blessings, Evelyn

We certainly hope he/she made it ok. Being young and strong, it's likely to have been able to. As I said to Evelyn - we'll probably never know for sure.

Here's an important meeting coming up in Cabot some of you year 'rounders may want to attend --

On Monday evening, December 13^th at 6 PM in the Willey Building the Cabot Planning Commission will be holding a public work session on the Land Use and Natural Resources components of the Town Plan. Light refreshments will be served.

The Land Use section of the Town Plan lays the groundwork for Town’s land use regulations, including the local zoning ordinance, making it one of the most critical sections of the Town Plan. If you have questions or concerns as the Planning Commission crafts the goals and implementation strategies for the Land Use and Natural Resources sections of the Plan, this is the work session for you! Hard copies of the preliminary drafts of these sections are available for review at the Town Clerk’s office -- or return e-mail to request the documents in pdf format.

An RSVP is not required, but is appreciated: please respond to Gary Gulka at cabotplanning@gmail.com.

As always, public engagement is critical to the long term success of the Town Plan. We hope to see you there!

In case those of you who are in the disgustingly warm and sunny south are wondering about how much snow we got, I measured 5.5 in. this morning on my snow board. I haven't measured the total depth yet - it's been blowing around so much I wouldn't know where to go to get a good reading. I'd guess we have about 8 inches on the ground - nothing like they got around Bolton and up north in the St. Albans area where it was more like two feet. Tonight my thermometer is reading 15 degrees. I think the wind has gone down, but we're due more snow tomorrow. I'll try to get out to measure the total depth later in the week, before the next storm hits us. I think it's safe to say that winter has arrived at Joe's Pond!

Fred did his first real snow blowing run today on the three driveways he keeps. He said he was glad this snow is so light. Sometimes our first real snow is wet and heavy, but there isn't much precipitation in this. It still makes the roads slippery and when it's blowing around visibility is really bad. There seem to have been more than usual accidents in the last couple of days. I heard another on on the scanner this afternoon. Two women went off the road, I think in the Middlesex area, and they were apparently injured. They were talking about getting the helicopter in to transport at least one of them. My scanner keeps cutting out - I guess it's because it's so old, like about 40 years. It was my father's, but still works pretty well most of the time.

So that's about it from Joe's Pond - the pond is closed in, there's plenty of snow on the ground, it's cold and windy, but all of that just makes us appreciate spring more when it gets here.