HOLIDAY DONATION DROP OFF

Faith In Action Northern Communities Partnership, Inc will be collecting donated toys at our Cabot, VT location Mon – Fri from 9am-2:30pm until December 21^st to be distributed to local families in need.

Please bring your unwrapped, new or gently used donation to our office at the Masonic Hall 3339 Main St. Cabot Village.\\

For more information please call (802) 563-3322

MAIN OFFICE: Faith In Action Northern Communities Partnership, Inc.

3339 Main St, P.O. Box 157, Cabot, VT 05647

(802) 563-3322

We awoke to a really cold morning - about 9 degrees when I first looked as I was posting my CoCoRaHS report. We had 1.5 inches of new snow over night and I guess that would bring us to about a foot on the ground - although that's a guess because it may have compacted by now with the wind we've had. The pond is completely frozen over and although it may seem like it's early, it actually is right about on schedule. Lots of years it's frozen right after Thanksgiving. I know I've mentioned it before, but we remember one Thanksgiving when Fred and I were living at camp and Homer and Elsie were living at their cottage, some ducks got frozen into the ice the night before Thanksgiving. We were all dismayed that this had happened - some were broken free, but I believe some perished. It had turned bitterly cold and because people had been feeding them, they stayed around too long. Homer will remember, I'm sure.

On a happier note, no sign of the loon, so we're pretty sure he made a good takeoff and is probably enjoying some place warmer or maybe an ocean breeze right now.

We were in St. J. doing errands this morning. It was about 10 degrees warmer there and they have hardly any snow. I had a call from Jack LaGue today wondering who might be available to plow out his place on Sandy Beach Road. He hadn't been up for a while and was amazed when he saw how much snow there is here. He also told me that one of his carpenters was hit by another vehicle as it went into a slide a few days ago. He was only banged up a bit but his truck was totaled. There have been an awful lot of accidents in the past couple of weeks.

Jack also said his mom, Dolly, had a great 80th birthday party - all the children and some grandchildren were there, and some Joe's Ponders who were in the area in Florida. Dolly is now in Texas for a while. I think we said it before, but if not, Happy Birthday, Dolly.

I took a picture as we were leaving relatively balmy St. Johnsbury heading up Dole Hill towards Danville. That hazy effect is snow and frost. Right now the hills out by Walden have that same hazy look - snow falling in the hills. The temperature is going to drop way down tonight, but right now it's at 11 degrees outside my window.

We have officially shut Woody's kitty door. He isn't as keen about going out as he was when it was in the 20's and 30's. He prefers to take care of business outside when he can, but we don't like to let him out for fear we'll forget he's outside and he has no way to get in. It's been too windy to keep the garage door ajar, and with his own door closed off, he'd be one frosty kitty. He has a knocker on the front door, so we'd probably hear that. We wonder how some animals who don't have warm places on nights like these survive. We noticed some horses this morning just outside of St. Johnsbury that have a shelter, but also had blankets on. With temperatures dropping below zero tonight, we need to be mindful of our pets and be sure they have a warm place to be.

Here's a message from Lori Shrader, who grew up in Danville:

Great picture from the Andersons. Looked like that here in Port St. Lucie (Southeast) FL. Our daughter tried using my kitchen spatula to scrape the windshield so that she could get to school...don't know if you can buy scrapers around here! May have to stock up on my next visit to VT. Two winters in a row with this is odd to say the least.

Lori Schrader

Nice to hear from you, Lori, and thanks for checking out the blog sometimes.