Another cold day, but with the bright sunshine, it was quite pleasant. Bill and Diane Rossi went skiing today and Diane said it was nice on the mountain - a bit cold, but tolerable and they were home in good season. Fred and I did our climbing exercise about mid-day and it was still a little slippery under the very dry snow that fell yesterday and overnight. I measured another 3/4 in. this morning, but at the stake there are still only 14 in.
This was the view from our living room early this morning.

I've been busy researching information for a man in Canada on some Cabot relatives. I couldn't find much that I think will be helpful, but while I was looking through the books Anne and Stuart Smith (of Walden) did indexing articles in old newspapers at the Fairbanks Athenaeum, I came across one particular item I had to chuckle over. It wasn't spelled out, but it appeared that seven sisters married seven brothers in Saco, Maine, on Christmas Eve, 1832. Martha, Eliza, Sarah, Mary, Judith, Virginia and Peggy Wells married Theophilus, Richard, Thomas, Titus, John, E. and J. Hutcheson, in that order. Remember the movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" ? It came out in 1954, so no doubt many of you never heard of it, but I thought of that when I saw this. I wonder what the whole story was - perhaps it was "arranged" by the families.

We heard from our sister-in-law, Ella, in Colorado today. They finally got some snow and she said it has been cold, -1 yesterday. I guess their snow cover has been a little better than ours, but they don't have as much as usual.

We also heard from Bob and Lillian Buzzi in Winter Haven, Florida today. Lillian needs more Ice-Out tickets - she's got all their friends and neighbors excited about the contest. She said they were enjoying 79 degree weather today. At about that time our thermometer still wasn't out of the single numbers, but at least it was above zero, not below. Ticket sales here have been slow but pretty steady. I have been sending lots out for both members and friends of the contest who have sold tickets for us for several years now. I love hearing from those folks - some of them have never even been to Joe's Pond, but they still buy a bunch of tickets each year and (I guess) distribute them to friends and family. We've also had requests from some of our regular local outlets for a supply of tickets so they can begin selling early - Natural Provisions in both St. Johnsbury and Williston, Harry's Hardware in Cabot and the Walden Store at the Four Corners have joined Joe's Pond Country Store and Hastings Store to have tickets on hand for their customers.

Diane said this weekend there were several vehicles out on the ice, so I guess it must be good and thick. With no snow cover to speak of, the ice is probably plenty thick. We've had lots of below-zero weather and the rain we've had hasn't been much or the weather that warm long enough to do much damage. We have another rainy spell coming up . . . there goes some of our snow! It's been that kind of winter.