We just came back from walking to Diane and Bill Rossi's, and the wind is biting out there. Temperature right now is reading 22 degrees - it's been in that vicinity most of the day, and the wind is right off the ice cap of the Arctic. We could see clouds of snow being carried down the pond as we talked with Bill and Diane. Click on the photo and you'll see what I mean.

Coming home was pretty cold, but we kept reminding ourselves it's almost April, so we can stand almost anything for a few days more and then the weather MUST give us a break.

Evelyn Richer said last week a small flock of geese circled over the pond in front of their house, but then moved on. No open water there! Evelyn was upbeat about spring, though, and said they are hearing more bird calls, so she knows the season is changing, but she said she hasn't heard a red-winged blackbird yet, and she's waiting for that undeniable sound signaling spring is here.

The road didn't seem too bad as we walked from here to Rossi's, but it's frozen and we know if warm sunshine hits it, it will turn to jelly again.

All but one of the fishing shanties are off the pond now. That one will no doubt go tomorrow. Ray Richer is poised, ready to get the flag out for the Ice-Out Contest. We will be busy dispensing and collecting tickets this coming week - the last week is always a rush. Fred got this picture of the last remaining shanty.

I have had regular newsletters from our friend, Bob Labrie, in Goshen, MA, who oversees an Ice-Out Contest fashioned after ours. The Goshen Fire Department has a website and it's very interesting. In his newsletter he refers to our contest:

I received an e-mail from Jane Brown this week. Jane is one of the many volunteers on the Joe's Pond Ice-Out Committee in West Danville VT. Their Ice-Out contest (www.joespondvermont.com) served as the model for the Meltdown. She reported that their ice measured 18" thick which was almost half as thick as it was this time last year. I wonder if they received more snow than we did which acted as an insulator and resulted in a thinner ice pack than we have?

Goshen Ice Out

I'll have to assure Bob that not only did we have a heck of a lot of snow to insulate the ice, we may have gained a few inches in the past few days, it's been so cold.

I talked with an acquaintance who is visiting from Connecticut and she was happy to tell me her crocuses are in bloom and her tulips well on the way. I muttered under my breath, yeah, rub it in - so you'll be sweltering while we're nice and cool in a couple of months.

Now it's time for beans and hotdogs. It's Saturday night, isn't it?? Doesn't everyone have beans and franks on Saturday night? I'm afraid our beans come out of a can, but I like to remember the ones my mother used to bake in the big brown bean pot with a piece of salt pork and maple syrup or molasses. She used to make cinnamon buns, too, and sometimes a batch of bread. She taught school all week, so her Saturday was spent cooking and cleaning.

I'm afraid I wasn't much help at either although she insisted I help with the housework. I think she always did a washing on Saturday, too. We didn't have a washer and dryer - the round wringer washing machine was in one corner of the kitchen and got rolled over to the sink so she could run the clothes through the wringer into a sinkful of rinse water. Then they were hung out in the woodshed where they froze stiff as boards in a matter of minutes. I remember bringing in long-johns and having to "break" them to drape them over the clothes rack. They would eventually dry out by the wood stove or over the hot air register in the dining room.

Saturday night and beans was something to look forward to - most of the work was done and when the dishes were washed and put away, we'd settle by the radio to listen to Jack Benny or Amos 'n' Andy, Burns and Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly; mother and I liked Lux Radio Theater and Inner Sanctum Mysteries. That took us away from war news a bit, I suppose. I think my father would be in his workshop for a while after supper, unless we were reading a good book together. He preferred reading to listening to the radio, but by 9 o'clock, the house was dark and quiet with everyone in bed.

So it was when I was a kid on a Saturday night.