I was dismayed today to read in the newspaper that it was Sheri Pearl, of Danville, who was involved in the bad accident yesterday on Rt. 2. I'd heard the report come in on the scanner - a milk truck and a regular truck had crashed - but as usually happens, there is not much indication of how many or how badly people are hurt, and never any names. We had to go to St. J. this morning and saw the marks in the snow, almost opposite the entrance to the VTrans lot at the top of the hill near the turn for Frye's Gravel. Sheri hit an icy patch and skidded out of control and into the path of the empty milk truck. She was airlifted by DHART to Dartmouth-Hitchcock, and was listed in fair and stable condition last night. Her passenger, Asling Hennessey, also of Danville, was taken to NVRH and is listed in good condition.

As some of you will remember, Sheri's husband died suddenly on Feb. 12, 2009, and both her in-laws, Bill and Lucia Pearl died very recently, Bill last April and Lucia in December. The Pearl family has owned the small island, known now as Pearl Island, for many years.

We will hope Sheri makes a rapid and full recovery, and we'll try to keep you posted.

I just read Burr Morse's latest e-newsletter, and he's saying sugaring is about two weeks away. Maybe, but he's in Montpelier area, not Joe's Pond area. I doubt there will be much sugaring going on for at least four weeks. Of course, the weather if fickle - we all know that - and it could turn warm and balmy even next week and that would send all the sugar makers scurrying into the woods on their snowshoes to get those trees tapped and the lines free of snow. Warm days and freezing nights are needed and we haven't had any of that for quite a spell.

It was beautifully sunny again today, but colder'n blazes. At noon as we were coming home from St. J. the car thermometer was only registering 17 degrees, and there was a stiff wind blowing. According to WCAX weather folks it was a south wind, and that may be, but it felt like it was blowing right off the South Pole.

Today was the first day for months that the sun came in my office window at just the right angle so I had to put on my eye shade in order to see my computer screen. That means the sun is now enough higher in the sky so it gets over the big fir trees out back. From now on until late fall, I'll need my eye shade every sunny afternoon. Of course, eventually I'll begin to complain about it being too hot and have to let the window shade down and even keep the window closed, but for now, it's a sure sign that in spite of the snow and the cold and varied prognostications, the world is turning just as it always does, and spring will get here in due time.

I sent off some sugaring photos today to the Cabot Chronicle for their March issue. We have some really nice old pictures in the historical society collection. Sugaring certainly isn't like it used to be. Our sugar place was the stand of maples in back of where John "Woody" Woods house is. It was known as "the Webster Lot," because it was land that had originally been settled by either Benjamin or Nathaniel Webster, I'm not sure which. Both were early settlers and located on the Bayley-Hazen military road. The name stuck, although I don't know if my great grandfather, John Bolton bought the land from a Webster or someone else who had lived there after they did, but we hayed the fields, planted potatoes, sometimes pastured sheep and sugared there until around the 1950's, when it was sold to Bill Davis, the manager of Cabot Creamery at the time. He built the house that's there now. He and his wife had a big sugaring operation. I don't believe anyone taps those trees now, but several houses have sprung up on the land that was the Webster Lot, so perhaps the trees are being tapped.

These pictures are of George and Lucia Hill. He used oxen for a lot of the farm work. Apparently they didn't have much snow that year - it looks pretty bare. I can't tell you which George it is pictured here - there was a George E. (1862-1911) whose wife, Lucia (1864-1957), is pictured tending the evaporator. Their son was named George F. Hill (1889-1973). We have lots of Hill family pictures, and of both Georges, I believe, but they always dressed similarly so it's hard to date the photos.