Today has been another of those "catching up" days. It seems as if we've been busier than usual - doing not much worth crowing about. Well, that goes for me, but not so much for Fred. He's busy at different things, and today part of his wood supply for 2012-13 came. He has this winter's wood already stashed in the garage - snow can come any time except he likes to get the following year's wood piled so it will be dry next year. So part of the two cords delivered today is already stacked. I intended to help, but never got out there. Now I need to go out and pick some of the vegetables that are ready in the garden. Rain is expected tomorrow, so we need to get as much outside work done as possible while the sun shines.

We went to St. Johnsbury for haircuts yesterday, but forgot to take the camera. No problem - we didn't see anything exciting, which is usually the case. Later in the afternoon we were out again delivering Ice-Out tickets and Fred got this picture of a young kayaker. It was a great day to be out on the water.

I heard today from a neighbor who lives on the shore of West Hill Pond - the small body of water that was formed by some of our first settlers when they dammed up the brook that ran through a large cleared flat field on the western border of Cabot. Even before the settlers came here, the Indians planted that field with corn, as the story goes. They'd plant the crop when they traveled through in the spring on annual hunting trips and harvest it when they returned in the fall. According to my neighbor, there's a large rock near the edge of the pond that has a depression chipped out of it and this stone was where the Indians ground the corn. They must have stayed around for quite a while in order to harvest the crop, have it dry and then mill it.

When the white settlers came to settle Cabot and surrounding area, they used the flat open space for hay - and perhaps other crops. The history books mention hay, but it seems logical they might have grown other things there as well. There probably weren't many open spaces, and having that field already cleared would have been a big advantage.

Later on, after the settlers had built homes and cleared land around them, the open field was no longer needed, but they could see the advantage of using the water power along the brook, so they built a dam which flooded the field to a depth of perhaps 10 feet, according to my neighbor who lives there. A mill was built near the dam, and one or two further down the brook towards Lower Cabot.

I had known about the Indians using the field, but had never heard about the stone that is there. One day soon I will go there and get a picture of that stone. I will also try to find out more about it to verify that story. Somehow, history just keeps piling up around me. Right now I must get out to the garden.