Not as nice a day as Monday and Tuesday, but still not bad. There was a little snow first thing, but that was gone very soon and although we didn't have any real sunshine, the sky brightened a few times and with temperatures ranging right around 40 degrees, it wasn't all that uncomfortable. There is still melting going on, but it has slowed down because of freezing temps at night. This is the way we all hope it continues - a little warmer each day, cold nights, good for sugaring and getting shed of the snow cover without flooding anything.

There are only a couple of ice shanties left on the pond. Wisely, I think, the others were taken off when we had those rainy mushy days. If a shanty gets solidly frozen into slush, it's likely going to come off the pond in pieces.

I'm getting anxious now to have the Ice-Out apparatus in place. There will be TV folks coming around soon and it's great to actually have something out on the ice for them to see. It's kind of hard for them to come up with much of a story when there's noting but snow and ice and fishing shanties out there.

We had a nice dinner with Don and Diane Sherwood last night. Don said the skiing at Burke was super good yesterday. I marvel at those two - skiing all day and then having a great dinner party in the evening . . . they'll be leaving here by the end of the week and then they are off on a trip to Turkey within a few days. I get tired just thinking about all the packing and unpacking and endless details involved.

We had a card from Homer and Margaret Fitts this week, too. Homer sent it from Key West, and they were headed for Venice, FL for a few days. They'll be home in about a week, I think. Before he left, Homer promised he'd be back in time for Ice Out. He'd better be - we need him to do interviews with the TV crews.

Diane and I are going to be at the Maple Festival on Saturday. We think Bill and Fred are going with us to help, but that could change, depending on whether Bill can find any maple pie. I think he's hoping for some like Catherine Beattie makes . . . but that isn't likely to happen. We may lose the guys to Julie's lunch counter at the hardware store. We are all hoping for nice weather, but even if the weather isn't great, there will apparently be a lot going on indoors that folks can enjoy.

Don't forget the corned beef or beef stew supper tomorrow at the church in Cabot. And lasagna on Sunday! I had both ads on yesterday or the day before. Check 'em out. There is the pancake breakfast on Saturday, too. If we play our cards right we won't need to cook any meals for the rest of the week . . . !!!