Super beautiful day today - bright sunshine and brilliantly blue sky - but COLD. I don't think we got out of the single numbers above zero all day, and the temperature is already beginning to fall as the sun gets lower. It will be another cold night. Days are noticeably longer, though, and that's very pleasant.

Fred went to recycle today. He usually goes on Wednesdays - every second or third, this time of year - but because of the possibility of snowy weather hitting our area, he decided to go while the going's good. Bill Rossi went with him. The top picture was taken from the Rossi's driveway, looking across the Rouleau's lawn.

They did a little exploring on their way back. We've had a few queries about the cell tower, so they went up to the Sousa farm to see if the crucial box is in place - and IT IS! That doesn't necessarily mean the tower is working, but it does mean the time is near. Fred has made a couple of phone calls, but so far hasn't been able to find out anything definite. We'll keep you posted. The picture here is the tower as you drive up the hill to the Sousa farm, and in the second picture, the installed "box" at the base of the tower.

While on the Plain, Fred took the picture below of the Cabot Plains School. It is particularly pretty against the bright blue sky. That is the Maynard place in the other picture. We all feel sorry to see how the Maynard farm is deteriorating. One or two more winters will do it in, for sure, I'm sad to say. The barn still seems to be pretty good, but the old house is definitely about finished.









The mountain view below is from the Sousa farm, looking directly north at the Jay Peak area and Canada. You can believe the wind hits full force there. My grandmother Bolton used to complain that my grandfather couldn't have found a higher, colder spot to farm on. I think he had at least two reasons to be there. He really enjoyed looking across the plain, much of which he owned in those days. Of course, there was a higher spot a little above the farm, but for whatever reason, my great grandparents, or someone before them, chose to settle on the cold side of the mountain. There were other farms along the Bayley-Hazen Road, south and east of the Bolton farm, but they didn't have the advantage of the flat, level plain, and that would have been reason enough for my grandfather to prefer the plain side. Archie Stone, who grew up in Cabot's Lower Village and became an educator, wrote about Cabot Plain, " . . . It lies too near the clouds to become dependable tillage land, for there the snow lies deep in winter and lingers long in spring and the autumn frosts come early." Yet there were productive farms on the Plain for many years. They are all gone now, but the land served those early settlers well, and many of them stayed for years on the Plain.

The picture on the right above is the view from the top of the hill at the Sousa farm - the school house and the "flat."

Fred also took pictures of the two new houses being built on Sandy Beach Road. We've neglected them for weeks now that they are all closed in and we can't see what's going on. We could stop by, and we will one of these days, but we hate to bother the men when they are on the job.

It looks as if even the siding is on the LaGue house, but I could be mistaken. One thing I notice about both houses is that they don't have many windows on the south or west sides to take advantage of the sunlight. That would be a priority for me, both for the energy advantage and for the sunshine. I'd have smaller windows and the garage on the north side. Our house gets some of the south and west sunlight, but not as much as I'd like. When my parents built here, they took advantage of the view, which I really appreciate, and had to adapt to the hillside. Besides that, they hit ledge when they started digging for the foundation so decided to position the house a bit differently rather than blast through the mountain side. We are somewhat protected from the north winds by the trees, and that's definitely a plus.

The big house with the Typar wrapping is Gagne's; the smaller, tan colored one is LaGue's.

Diane Rossi sent me this last picture early this morning. She was looking down the pond from her house. The pretty blue shadow of the hillside is hiding all the ice shanties, but there are some there. I thought the picture was so nice I asked her permission to send it to Sharon Meyer at WCAX. Sharon may put it up during her weather report on tonight's six o'clock news. She does that sometimes when there is an unusual picture sent in. I thought it was great that Diane caught it as she did. She said she often sees the sun rise like this and the colors usually stay for a while. I haven't happened to see a morning sun dog that bright before. Really pretty. She said it was about 3 below.