Today was almost a total loss for me as far as accomplishing anything substantial is concerned. It started off badly when Woody, our cat, got spooked when the contractors came a little after eight o'clock. It wasn't their fault - Woody has been friendly to them when they were inside, but this was outside and when they started unloading big, unfamiliar equipment, he took off along the path Fred had shoveled to the back of the house. He was peering in the window of my office and I, not knowing he was frightened, went into the garage to let him in. He is used to being let in at the back door, so when he heard me in the garage I guess he thought those machines were after him and he took off before he realized it was only me. We didn't see him for the rest of the day.

We checked all his favorite hiding places - what few are available with all the snow we now have - and couldn't find him anywhere. We both worried about him - he is pretty much an indoor cat during the winter, even though we know he spent all of one summer on his own in the woods and fields before we captured him one cold October night. When he didn't come home a few hours after the workers had gone and things were quiet, we really began to worry. We called our neighbors that he often visits in the warm weather, Henretta and Jamie and Marie, and sure enough - about 6 o'clock Henretta called and said her dog, Cassie, had alerted her that Woody was hanging out in their garage. Fred went up right away and got him so tonight we are very relieved that our precious Woody won't be spending a cold night alone in the snow.

I say my day didn't amount to much because I was truly worried about the cat and it was hard to concentrate on anything for long. I did get an old journal scanned, and that is something I'd been dreading. It was written by one of the Osgood family members in 1797, and is dilapidated and fragile. Lots of pages are missing, but there were 13 in scannable shape. Most are an accounting of money spent. I haven't had time to read much of it, but noticed on one page he'd paid for a horse to go to Peacham, then to Montpelier, and later to Danville, (horses were scarce in those early years, and he apparently didn't own one). While in Peacham he bought "a little pair of shoes," perhaps for one of his children. It will be interesting to transcribe the pages. And tomorrow we'll be sure Woody is inside when the workers arrive so he doesn't panic and we can both get our work done.

Fred spent quite a bit of time walking around our property and along the road calling for Woody - he usually comes when Fred whistles, but not today. Before the men left, I had Fred ask them to check their trucks, both in the backs which had been open all day, and under the hood (Fred had already checked underneath both trucks). I think they thought we were kind of foolish to ask them to look under the hoods, but years ago, Hideous, a sweet-but-sometimes-really-vicious little tri-colored female, crawled up into the motor of Fred's car one cool fall night and when he got to Montpelier to work the next morning, he heard her meowing. She was pretty battered and spent the night at a vet's, but she was ok. She'd ridden all the way from Joe's Pond to Montpelier on the hot motor with the engine fan whirling next to her. One wrong move and she would have been history. So we really couldn't let the trucks leave unless we knew for sure Woody wasn't hiding somewhere in one of them. He's a much larger cat than Hideous, so probably wouldn't be able to crawl up into the motor cavity, but I needed to know for sure.

He's been very contented tonight. Once he got inside it took a while for him to relax and return to normal size (he was still "blown up" from Cassie barking at him, I guess), and it took even longer for him to get filled up with food and water, but after spending some time cleaning his feet and grooming himself, he curled up to watch the news on TV with us. He's now fast asleep in my (his) chair.

Here's some news - I heard today that long-time Joe's Ponder Tony Stewart got married on Feb. 12. His bride is Beth Cobler, a very special lady. Tony and Beth have been together for something like seven years, so we're very happy for them both.

We also heard from Karen Desrochers that she and Jim (Old Homestead Rd.) are moving from Texas to Montreal very soon. Karen gave me her new address so it could be in the newsletter. We also have posted it on the website directory of members. Karen said they are excited to be moving closer to family and Joe's Pond.

The only other news is that Ice-Out ticket sales are beginning to pick up. We have only a month - four short weeks! - to April 1st, and lots of folks are wanting to get in on the contest. The more folks who join the game, the more someone will win; we split 50/50 after expenses. It looks like the winner will get close to $5,000 again this year - we can only guess at that, but sales are about the same as last year at this time. That said, I think the on-line sales are considerably up this year so far. It's going to be a fun contest, for sure.