We think we have some evidence that things may be beginning to happen on the ice at Joe's Pond. I'm showing you pictures taken at 7 o'clock this morning and shots of the same things taken at 7 o'clock tonight. Out on the ice, it doesn't look as if much is happening. The dusting of snow that was on the ice this morning is gone in the photo taken tonight, and maybe the pallet has tipped a little more to the left, but still it looks pretty solid out there.


Take a look at the picture that shows the rope attached to Homer's deck. This morning it was stretching high off the water, and the float was clearly visible.
There was quite a bit of water between the shore and ice floe, but if you look closely you'll see that there was a skimming of ice on the open water. Even at noon there was still ice on the open spots along West Shore Road - I had an e-mail from Diane saying it was still frozen over in front of their house.

Then look at the fourth picture down that Fred took tonight. You can see that the rope is hanging straight down and the float that is attached is on the rocks at the shoreline. This indicates that the ice floe has moved inward towards the shore. I don't think the wind was awfully strong today, but the ice has moved, and that tells us things are beginning to change.

Some years the ice pulls away from the shore enough to stop the clock; other times it has remained on the ice until it eventually tipped over and fell through. One year the clock stopped, but the pallet and flag rode the ice floe well up the pond before it finally went through. We determine the winner of the contest by when the clock stops, not when the block and pallet go down. The clock stopping gives us an exact time, whereas waiting for the pallet to stop moving around and sink would be a judgement call as it can cling to the ice even though it's tipped over.

You have one more day to buy tickets, if you can find an outlet that's open. Some of the businesses who have tickets close on Sunday, but if they are open, you can buy your ticket and still be in the game. Tickets that are postmarked today will arrive on Monday or Tuesday, so by then we should have most of them ready to go to our entry specialist, Ros. It will take her a little time to get all of them logged in because there are always lots of tickets that are sold or come in the last few days before the contest closes. Then we wait for the clock to stop. Good luck to everyone. It's been a fun year.

I learned this week that Harry's Hardware in Cabot closed permanently on Thursday. Walt and Julie Ackermann were hit particularly hard by the flood last spring, having to remain closed for a while, and then getting things repaired. With the economy in a general slump, business has not been good, and this summer the street in front of their store will be torn up again to replace the culvert that washed out last spring and had only a temporary fix at that time. The business has been for sale for a while. We wish Walt and Julie the very best in whatever their new endeavors are. I'm sure they will keep very busy.

It is sad to see a business close. The picture above is how the store looks now - taken last fall, I believe. The picture below is how it looked in 1920 when J. T. Drew owned it. It was a hardware store then, too. It has had numerous owners over the years. The earliest picture I found was taken in 1870, and it looked quite different. I'm trying to find out if that building burned and the 1920 building was built in it's place instead of the older building having been renovated.

In this last 1870 picture, the house at the far left is where Goldie's restaurant was a short time ago. We understand there is to be a new restaurant opening there soon. The place with the sign "Perry Brothers," is the site of the present hardware store.

There is a platform scale in front of the store for weighing wagon loads. It could have been a Fairbanks Morse scale.

I may have mentioned that Fred and I are updating our household heating. The result of that is we will now have a flue available for a wood stove in our basement, which is what we've always preferred, but couldn't do because we didn't have access to the chimney. Therefore, we bought a
very nice Hearthstone Santa Fe direct-vent gas stove we'd now like to sell or switch for a reliable used wood stove.

We bought the Hearthstone in 2005, but we used it only briefly to heat our basement area, and after Fred moved his "office" upstairs, it has not been used. We enjoyed it very much at first, watching the flame around the logs and feeling the warmth, but for the last several years it has sat idle, under-used and under-appreciated.

It has blue enamel finish with gray soapstone top and sides, comes with vent kit, pipe, thermostat and manual, ready to install - even the packet of glass cleaner that came with it when we bought it is still intact. It is in excellent condition with no dings or scratches and would look great in your living room or family room at home or at your cottage. The price, with everything above included is $1200, or if you have a wood stove to swap, get in touch and we'll work something out.

I'll be glad to send details of dimensions, installation requirements, etc., to anyone interested. E-mail me or call us at 802-563-2381.

Again, I have no exciting news to report. The pallet seems to be as tightly frozen in as ever - in fact, the open water has iced over. It's barely 30 degrees now, and got quite a bit colder last night. Fred checked the pallet and clock this morning and all is secure. The beaver wasn't around, but when the water opens back up, he'll be back "on duty," patrolling the shore. Here's a brief slide show of the ice/pallet/flag this morning.

Please remember to get your tickets - either the pink ones or those you may have printed from the website - into the mail today or to one of the outlets listed on the website. If you still need to buy tickets, you need to do it at one of the outlets either today or tomorrow, before the close of business, and leave it with them. Do Not Take the ticket(s) home to turn in later because we cannot accept tickets after tomorrow. If they are in the mail today and postmarked with today's date, we will accept them when they arrive, but any tickets mailed on Monday will be discarded.

We will continue to monitor the pallet and report to you every day until the clock stops and we have a winner. Looks like we'll make it ok through the April 1st deadline to have tickets in, but once the weather warms up a little, we think there will be a quick conclusion of the contest. It's very likely the water has been eating away on the ice from below and it won't take much to turn it to mush.

Are you getting tired of seeing the same picture(s) here on the blog? I could say I'm sorry not to have more exciting ones to show you, but that's the nature of ice watching. When you think about it, watching ice melting is about as exciting as watching the proverbial paint dry, except lots of people have way more riding on the outcome of the ice.

One thing changed tonight when Fred went to check the clock. He found there is another clock-watcher hanging out at Homer's place. A nice big beaver was swimming around just off the boat ramp, and Fred got a closeup of him (bottom picture) sitting on a rock having a snack. We hope he doesn't decide to take down any of Homer's trees. Beavers can do lots of damage. I expect he is a young beaver that got kicked out of the colony when this year's babies were born. He'll need to find a mate and a suitable place to build his own dam and start a colony. He probably came down one of the brooks to explore the possibilities and won't hang out at the pond very long once people begin to return. He'll head up a different brook or end up at the head of the pond in the channel once the ice is out. In the meantime, we'll be keeping an eye on him. He's a handsome fellow, and looks very healthy.

Fred said he'd heard him several times whacking his tail on the water in a dive, but tonight was the first time he'd gotten a good look at him.

We were out this morning and took these pictures. The top one was taken at about 10:30 as we were leaving, from the top of Sandy Beach Road looking directly across the pond towards Route 15. There seems to be more open water than there was yesterday, in spite of having had temperatures in the 20's and three inches of new snow.

When we came back, a little after noon, things seemed to have opened up a bit more, but it is still pretty solidly frozen where the pallet and flag are.

We went by Molly's pond and it was very pretty in contrast to the snow on the hill behind it.

We stopped to check the clock and the ice just in case something had happened, but it looked very much the same as it had this morning at 7 a.m. It is still solidly frozen, as near as we can tell. Today has not been very warm even though there has been a good deal of sunshine. We will have cold temperatures every night for the next several days, and daytime temperatures aren't going to be very warm, either.

I've had quite a number of people contact me to find out if the ice has gone out and when I tell them the flag is still flying and the clock still ticking, most of them say they are going to get another ticket or two in order to update their guess.

A while ago I mentioned that the U. S. Geological folks based in Maine contacted me back in August of last year wanting to use the ice out information we have to help in a project about global warming and it's effect in northern New England. I went to their website recently, but was not able to find where Joe's Pond was mentioned. When I got in touch with them, they told me the project has not progressed as they had hoped, and now they are looking for records going back 40-50 years. Since our records cover only 25 years, the data will likely not be used. I have records that far back, but not that were consistent with the Ice-Out records, and as far as I know, there are no records of the ice out using the pallet and clock before 1988. The point is, they need information that has been gained in the same manner for 40-50 years.

Work Update

Danville Route 2 Project

Project: Danville FEGC 028-3(32)

WEEK OF 4/2/12

The work plan for this week will have crews working on the West end of the project between the Danville School and the end of the project.

Crews will spend the week performing light construction work which will include mobilizing construction equipment to the site and preparing the area for the start of construction.

Work hours will be daylight hours until further notice.

Motorists will encounter alternating one-way traffic throughout the week. Crews will open up travel to two-way traffic when possible.

Contact Francine Perkins, Public Relations Officer, FRP Enterprises, LLC with any questions or concerns with regard to this project at 802-479-6994 or for a more up to date schedule visit www.roadworkupdates.com.

We have a bright new world here this morning. Beautiful sunshine, and three inches of new snow! It's back to winter, big time. Woody, our cat, looked out and wisely decided it was another day better used for looking outside than being outside, and stayed curled up on his bench where he can see the birds and watch the traffic, but stays nice and warm.

Early this morning we had a brisk wind that was whipping the snow off the roof making it look like the first of March instead of the end. Temps last night were in the low 20's, so it was really no surprise, but not really very welcome since lots of us had put away the snow shovels and boots like we really believed we'd seen the last of much of the white stuff.

Fred checked the pallet and clock at 7 a.m., but he walked in from Route 2 - our car is not all-wheel drive, and this snow is really slippery, especially risky when it's on top of soft muddy roads. I made a slide show of the way things looked this morning at the Ice-Out site - and then Fred went down Route 2 and took more pictures of the pond and the road. Except for the open water in the two smaller ponds, it looks like the middle of winter again.

Needless to say, this cold snap has slowed things down considerably and now we're thinking the ice will hold until after April 1st - just like Homer, Don Walker, Billy Rossi, and a few others have predicted. However, some of us weren't so sure, and that's what makes this game so much fun. There are so many components to look at - the temperature, runoff, wind, rain and snow all have an impact on what will happen, and everyone knows the weather here at Joe's Pond is nothing if not unpredictable.

Diane and I are breathing a little easier, though, feeling pretty sure we won't have to call an end to the contest before April 1st. So you have a couple more days to get your tickets in or in the mail. After April 1st, no more will be sold, and if mailed after March 31st, tickets will not be accepted.

There's not much change in the ice situation here at Joe's Pond. We've had some snow during the day, and the temperature has stayed close to the freezing point, so not much melting going on. We also haven't had much wind, which has kept the ice from moving around much. These pictures were taken at about 7 p.m.

There is still a lot of ice, and now a thin coating of snow on top of it. It looks a lot like December in this picture that was taken near Gardner's on West Shore Road, looking toward the narrows into the middle pond. Both the middle pond and the first pond are almost entirely free of ice - just a little along the Route 2 shoreline.

Here's a bit of news for those of you who may have forgotten, or tried to forget the construction in Danville last year. they are gearing up to start working again first thing Monday morning. If April 1st was on Monday, you might think I was pulling your leg, but it's for real. There were people setting up signs, depositing equipment and material along the route, and all signs are that machines will be rolling - probably a whole lot faster than traffic come Monday.

We took this picture around noon to show where the water has cut a channel, as Sue LaGue mentioned, about to Johnson's cottage - looking across the north end of the big pond to the east shore. It looks as if there may be a thin coating of ice with snow on it, but that light gray sort of shadow is actually where the open water is. The process of ice melting in Joe's Pond always takes longer than we expect - kind of two steps ahead and one step back at this point.

It was announced today that there has been a fund set up for Melissa's young son, Ty. Contributions may be sent to the Melissa Jenkins Memorial Fund, c/o Passumpsic Bank, 497 Railroad St., St. Johnsbury VT 05819.

On our way to St. Johnsbury today, I noticed a pussywillow tree by the brook at the Ward farm as we approached Route 2 from W. Shore Road. Isn't it pretty? I think it may have been enhanced by snow on the buds, but I liked it anyway.

Our weather continues to be a mix of unpleasantness. Overnight we had a little rain, a little snow and some fog - this morning the temperature is 30 degrees and a little foggy. Fred has checked the block and the clock and all is still just about the same, as far as we can tell. These pictures he took at 7 a.m. show a little more water along the shore, and the rope seems to have tightened a bit, indicating the ice is beginning to move. You can see the red streamer was active this morning, indicating a bit of a wind from the north. If we get a strong wind - from almost any direction - things could change quickly. I don't think that ice is very strong. Here is a short slide show.

Right this moment it is beginning to snow again, so the fog that we see in these photos may have been more snow particles than water. It is still March, after all. We've been known to get some really bad weather in April, too, so winter may not be over yet.

Someone asked whether all the pictures on the web site are current. The ones here on the blog are definitely posted the day we took them. We have an "album" that can be accessed from home page of the website that has older pictures of places associated with the pond. To see pictures from previous years, you can go to the blog archives. There isn't much variation, actually, except it's interesting to compare how things look compared to times before, whether it's yesterday or a year ago.

Today has brought us a little snow, a little rain, a little sun. A fairly normal March or April day as far as weather is concerned, but for people here in the Kingdom, today has been anything but normal. We found out who killed Melissa Jenkins and how they did it, but nobody seems to be able to tell us why. WCAX reported tonight.

Many local people knew her, and emotions run from deep sorrow to rage. It's hard to understand how humans can do such awful things to good people. Perhaps we'll have more answers as time goes on, but for now, our thoughts are very much with Melissa's family, especially her young son and the students who cared deeply for her.

We have had a relatively quiet day here at the pond. The weather has not been great, but we think the cold nights have slowed the melting of ice in the pond. We've had reports that Molly's Falls Dam, Molly's Pond and Woodbury Pond are all ice free as of the last couple of days.

From the pictures Fred got this morning (previous blog) and tonight, there is little evidence of change at the site of the pallet - but we simply don't know what's happening underneath.

Sue LaGue sent this message today:
This is our first full winter as a year-rounder and watching how the pond changes has been a source of entertainment. The other day, we were amazed to hear this noise like a mini boom or thunder which we presume to be the ice cracking. A friend of ours on Groton had said the ice can sound like a gunshot echoing when it starts to change. This was new to us but you probably have heard it. Anyway, we are hanging in there til the deadline for a few tickets to get the latest guesses so expect us by tomorrow. All the nail biting may be over because this cold blast has slowed the ice out process but we are watching how the current from the channel has moved to the Johnson camp by today. That was one of my early guesses for my youngest sister’s birthday but not this year. I think we all expected a new record but who knows. I finally saw how the whole thing is rigged and it is so like these guys in John [LaGue] Sr.’s era to come up with this idea – low tech but effective. So kudos for doing all this with the Rossi’s and hopefully we will all be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I’m not good at guessing but It does seem Joe’s Pond is the hold out for real spring.

This report that the channel has opened a strip about to Johnson's means it's about a third of the way down the length of the pond. Tomorrow we'll try to get more pictures that will show that. In the meantime, these three were taken at 7 p.m. On the surface, everything looks about the same, but when Sue said she and Jack are holding onto their tickets until the closing of the contest, which would be April 1st., I need to caution her that turning them in sooner rather than later might be a good plan. I don't trust that ice out there one bit.

The highest my thermometer registered today was 41 degrees, and right now it is reading 36, so it may not freeze up tonight. It certainly did last night, though. But the flag is still out there and the clock is still running. It's not too late to get your tickets in to us.

CABOT PUBLIC LIBRARY EVENT

Susannah Blachly with Two Shoes Off – Saturday, March 31^st – 7:00 pm

Immersed in the joy of northern New England’s rich musical traditions, Vermont’s Two Shoes Off fuses the well-loved sounds of fiddle, guitar and mandolin with percussion and fine vocals, bringing to the stage a blend of old time jamming, Celtic melodies, American song-styles and world-beat rhythms. With original writing as their foundation, Two Shoes Off offers a fresh approach to traditional music that is by turns fun, funky and deeply moving. Two Shoes Off members include Susannah Blachly, George White, Dan Haley & Carter Stowell.

Kathleen Hoyne

Anne C. Walker

Co-Directors

Cabot Public Library

PO Box 6, 3084 Main St

Cabot, VT 05647

802-563-2721

cabotlibrary@yahoo.com

Here's what we learned from the press conference held by VSP Maj. Ed Ledo. A Waterford, Vermont couple have been arrested and will be arraigned at 11 a.m. in St. Johnsbury. Here is a brief report from Seattle PI.

According to Ledo, Melissa was strangled. The police went last night to the home of Alan and Patricia Prue, in Waterford, confiscated evidence and subsequently arrested them. Maj. Ledo said the quick resolution to this case was due to a information from Melissa's family, friends, and St. Johnsbury Academy, and the cooperation of State and Local Police, the FBI, and the Sheriff's Department, along with help from many other local departments.

I will post more information as we get it. Meantime, details of the abduction and the discovery of Melissa's body are outlined on WCAX

We've been thrust into reality again today - the ground is white, the temperature a mere 30 degrees, and there is no sun shining through the cold gray clouds. We're seeing some snowflakes from time to time, but nothing significant. I can still see open water in the channel (see far left in the picture), but there's also lots of white indicating that the shallows at the head of the pond froze over during the night. We had a low of 22 degrees, but the water must have been cold after not much warming yesterday.

Our road was frozen, so in much better condition this morning, although Fred said it was very slippery. The mud holes have been filled and except for the Danville end, which still has not been worked on, we can reach Route 2 without difficulty.

Fred checked the pallet and clock and there was little change at 7 a.m. The pictures he took show some of the open water from yesterday was frozen over again this morning. The pallet looks to be well locked into the ice.

I had an e-mail from Homer Fitts this morning. Homer is watching our Ice-Out from his home in Barre this year. Having watched the ice go out many years right from his deck when he lived here at the pond, Homer has seen it all and usually has a pretty good idea of what to expect. Here's what he wrote today:

HI FRED AND JANE,

THIS IS THE BEST YEAR EVER FOR ICE OUT INFORMATION FOR THOSE CHECKING THE BLOG. WE APPRECIATE ALL YOU ARE DOING WITH THE PICTURES AND THE INFORMATION. MARGARET AND I CHECK IT REAL OFTEN DAILY. NEVER DREAMT THAT THIS MUCH INFORMATION WOULD BE AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.

YESTERDAY MORNINGS PICTURES WITH THE JUGS IN THE AIR HAD ME THINKING SOMETHING MIGHT BE MOVING. I WAS HAPPY AT NIGHT IT HAD NOT STOPPED THE CLOCK. WE ARE PRAYING THAT IT LASTS UNTIL APRIL 1st TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU THAT ARE INVOLVED.

HAVE SPENT MOST OF MY TIME RECENTLY WORRYING AND WONDERING ABOUT MELISSA JENKINS. SHE SURELY WAS A SPECIAL FRIENDLY PERSON. I KNEW HER FROM THE CREAMERY, NORTH DANVILLE ON THE 4th OF JULY EVENTS AND THE LAST TIME I SAW HER WAS AT THE ACADEMY GYM AT GIRL'S BASKETBALL.

NOW I CAN ONLY WISH YOU THE BEST RESULTS FROM THE 2012 ICE OUT.

THANKS AGAIN,

HOMER

Thanks, Homer - we do enjoy watching the process Mother Nature puts us through each year, and each year seems to be a little different, although I now find myself saying to Fred, "remember the year that . . . " since we've been involved for a while now. Even before we got involved with the Ice Out, we were living right across from Homer's place, so we had a front-seat view of the pallet. Come to think of it, that may have been why we got involved - because Homer used to take off sometimes for Florida and we were available to help watch the clock.

We want everyone to know the police that are investigating the Melissa Jenkens murder are doing a press conference at 10 a.m. this morning. WSTJ radio in St. Johnsbury will cover it live. I expect the TV stations may also cover it, but we didn't hear any announcement on WCAX this morning. There is some breaking news reported by Don Mulallay on WSTJ - a home in Waterford was searched either yesterday or last night and evidence was found. I expect there will be more on that. Waterford is in the vicinity of where her body was found at Comerford Dam. We hope there will be a speedy resolve to this case.

I'll post any new information here on the blog after the press conference.

There isn't much new to report tonight except that both Molly's Falls Dam and Molly's Pond are free of ice. Historically, Joe's Pond goes out 4-5 days after Molly's, however, this is not a normal year, so anything can happen.

Fred checked the clock and pallet tonight and everything looks about the same. These pictures, taken around 7 p.m., show a little more water around the shoreline, but otherwise not much change. From our house the ice in back of the islands looked quite a lot darker as the day progressed. The ice around the pallet looks pretty solid, but it's hard to tell for sure. It wasn't warm today - may not have gotten above freezing, but with runoff from the new snow coming into the pond and the constant wind, I believe the ice may still be thawing.

The Cabot road crew dumped some material into the mud holes today and then leveled it with the grader, making our road very much better. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Early this morning, we had calls from neighbors wondering if they could make it out in any direction. After a few days of being more or less imprisoned by mud, one gets a bit stir crazy, not to mention hungry for fresh food and conversation if living alone and/or not having grocery shopped for a while.

Anyone who has lived on back roads a year or two has learned to keep a good supply of everything on hand, just in case. It may not be mud that prevents "getting out," it could be snow, washouts, trees across the road - any number of things. We consider it part of the bargain we made when choosing to live here. More than a few unsuspecting newcomers have been disenchanted with that choice after a year or two. I remember one doctor who gave it up due to a couple of horrendous mud seasons (and the very next year after the family left, we had one of those "hardly a puddle" seasons); then there was the young wife from Arkansas who slid off the road one slippery morning and came to our house to use our phone, letting loose a string of expletives worthy of a seasoned sailor at the road, the weather, and especially her husband. They parted that spring and we never saw her again. Then there was the couple who winterized a small cottage as best they could and spent the winter in two rooms supplemented by a mobile home. They made it through the winter, but left in the spring, as I recall. Country living is not for everyone, for sure.

At the other extreme, we once had an old fellow from Canada come to the farm to do some lumbering. He wanted nothing to do with living at the house, but built himself a sturdy domed shelter of boughs and bark and spent the winter in the woods, cutting the big evergreens and limbing them for my father and uncle to haul out with horses. Occasionally he would ride out on a load of logs and catch a ride to town for a few provisions, but he seemed content to live in solitude in the woods.

Then there was the young man who was attending Lyndon State College and working on the farm when my uncle owned it. He used scrap lumber to build a small A-frame on the old Bayley Hazen Road near where the Leinoff's house is now. He would walk over the hill to the farm each morning to help with chores, and then head back to his A-frame to pick up his knapsack and hike down to where he parked his old car at the beginning of what is now Chatot Road, and would drive to school. He'd hike back after classes, help with the chores on the farm, return to study by lantern light, and repeat the process the next day. He made it through the winter just fine. He could have boarded at the farm, but chose not to - proving to himself he could endure the elements, I suppose. We thought he'd give it up after a short time, but he didn't. I've often wondered what became of him.

Mostly those of us who live here permanently don't have the sort of resolve the logger and student had, and we don't get disenchanted to the point of leaving - we're just somewhere in between. We can take the inconveniences most of the time, but we aren't above complaining after a long winter and extended mud season when we begin to feel we've definitely had enough already.

TEAM “ VT. STRONG”

This is a team of 3 Vermont National Guard Soldiers which will be participating in the:

Red Sox Foundation

Run-Walk to Home Base 9K Run

Sunday May20th cross home plate at

Fenway Park – Boston, MA.

(To raise money for Veterans w/ Traumatic Brain Injury- and their families)

April 14^th at Applebee’s

In Littleton, NH

From 8am-10am

All you can eat breakfast buffet. $10

(Tickets sold at the door)

Please join us – we need your support!!

(They need to raise $3000 to participate)

SFC Jeffrey Durgin

SSG Christopher Haggett

SGT Carolyn Haggett

Any questions please contact:

Rita Durgin – 802-563-2826/802-272-6685

www.runtohomebase.org

I'm a little late with my report this morning - we've been busy on the phone making arrangements for getting some changes made to our heating system. However, Fred was down at the "Clock Site" as usual this morning at 7 a.m., and took some pictures, and I made a slide show.

It looks more like winter on the ice except for the open water around the shoreline. We don't know what that open water is on the right of the flag - it is probably a puddle, but it does seem a little strange. It was cold last night - my thermometer registered a very cool low of 13 degrees over night. It's now up to about 22, with bright sunshine, but still a gusty northwest wind.

I took this picture a little while ago - the shallows at the far left are opening, and although very early this morning it looked as if the shallows in the channel area had frozen over, I'm now seeing open water again, so what I was seeing was probably a skimming of snow on "cat ice" that quickly melted under the sun.

We are feeling a bit more confident that the ice will hold until at least April 1st, but we've been fooled before. One thing we know for sure is that the weather is more "spring-like" than "summery," and will remain colder for the next several days. We may have some rain/snow showers, but none of the abnormally high temperatures like we had last week. This will slow down the melting process, but with high winds, the ice could begin to move around, and that would mash it up so the pallet could drift or sink and disconnect the clock, ending the contest.

Speaking of moving around - Woody is very confused by the quick change in the weather. Last night he was all set for a good prowl outside, but apparently found it a bit too chilly, so he was in and out and pestering all evening. This morning, he's completely worn out, asleep by the fire.

I mentioned switching our heating arrangement. We've had a Hearthstone propane heater for emergency use if/when we're without electricity for a long period. It's a lovely stove, and works perfectly, but we never use it. It's great that Washington Electric has been very reliable ever since we got the stove in 2005. Because we're making other changes, we will now be able to have a wood stove as backup in the basement - a much better fit for us. So we're hoping to either sell or swap the Hearthstone for a medium sized Vermont Castings wood stove. We get the urge to move the furniture around every spring (and sometimes more often!), only this year the move is more involved than usual.

After a cold, blustery day, not much has changed at the Ice-Out flag as near as we can tell. Fred checked the clock and pallet again tonight around 7 p.m. This picture shows what the wind was like - strong and cold, sweeping down the pond. Lots of fresh Canadian air, but without the snow by nightfall. We are still white with new snow - even the hills with a southern exposure.

I've made a short slide show of the pictures Fred took this evening, and I think it pretty much shows that today we may have made a little ice in spots - and certainly we'll make some tonight. The wind went down with the sun, and so has the temperature. We're at about 19 degrees.

It's been a stressful day for many of us here in the Kingdom. A young woman, Melissa Jenkins, went missing Sunday evening, and today a body was found - not definitely identified as Melissa, but generally thought to be her. There isn't much known right now about the circumstances, and if the police know, they aren't saying. I'm sure many Joe's Pond people knew Melissa. She worked at the Creamery restaurant part time for twelve years. Part of the horror of this is that she had a two-year old son with her when abducted. People are understandably nervous, too, because nobody has a clue whether this was random or someone she knew, or if the perpetrator is still in the area. Terrible things like this aren't supposed to happen here. Our thoughts are with her family and many friends tonight.

I took this picture at noon today. The thermometer seems frozen at about 26 degrees, and we've been getting snow showers with howling wind off and on all morning. The sun has tried to stay out, but there are massive storm clouds filled with moisture, so we're getting enough snow to keep the ground pretty much white. Not exactly a pretty picture, and it seemed way colder than the thermometer was showing when I was out just before lunch to climb up Jamie & Marie's drive. I didn't need the creepers on my boots, but I haven't put them away, either. At least this appears to be pretty typical weather for March - or early April - and that's sort of comforting.

Don Sherwood sent this picture again of a bunch of Joe's Ponders when they met at Punta Gorda for lunch a while back. He's been watching the blog and the weather here, so I guess he's just sore he missed all the great spring skiing! It's a good looking group, so I decided to humor him and display it again. And yes, with all the mud and snow flying around, their sunshine looks pretty good, even to this old dyed-in-the-wool Vermonter.

We have about a half inch of new snow this morning and it went to about 25 degrees last night. Fred has been down to check the flag and clock and took some pictures. I've made a slide show for you.

The sun is trying to break through the clouds, so the snow will melt - as for the ice, your guess is as good as mine. We have a pretty strong wind blowing out of the west, and that could start the ice moving now that there's some space along the shoreline. Isn't this fun?

Tickets are still available, but going very fast. Remember that you can print tickets on line (click here).

The road hasn't improved, but Fred went the usual way, not the long way around, and said it wasn't any worse than last night.

We'll keep you posted on any changes.

I went with Fred tonight to check the clock at 7:00 p.m. The road between our house and Route 2 is not good. There are several bad mud holes - one that's not too bad just below our house, then a worse one between Pupino's and Jeff Down's, and a really bad one in front of the Dudley/Flannagan cottage and Gardner's. There's plenty of mud the rest of the way, even some on Blackadar Hill on the Danville end just before you reach Route 2. These spots are always bad, some years the roads get worse than others, and this year is apparently going to be a doosie. One of our neighbors told me tonight she went around by way of Route 15, took 215 towards Cabot Village and then Cabot Plains Road to get home Saturday. That's going about eight miles to reach a point two miles away. I don't know what would happen in an emergency - but we're all planning to keep safe and healthy until mud season is over.

The pallet doesn't appear to be in danger of moving or sinking right away, although the ice doesn't look very substantial. We are expecting tomorrow will be cooler and quite windy, and that could begin moving the ice around. Then it's anybody's guess what will happen. Sometimes the ice moves enough to disconnect the clock and it takes another day or so for the pallet to actually go down. Other times the ice will get mushy enough so the pallet will fall through. We'll continue to check twice each day, at least - and more often if things begin to get serious. So we still don't have a clue as to whether the ice will last until April 1st or if we'll have a new early record in March.

Before we left, we got a picture of the clock - pretty much just sitting there doing its thing, same as always.

The temperature hasn't varied much today. It's still about 41 degrees, and may have been as high as 45, but the summery days of the past week are behind us and we look forward to some freezing nights and windy and cold days this week. Quite a few people are getting new Ice-Out tickets so they can adjust their guesses, trying to compensate because of our whacky weather. All I can say is, I wish everyone lots of luck.

OPEN HOUSE AND DEDICATION CEREMONY

FOR THE CLIENT LIFT DONATED IN MEMORY OF DONNA HOLMBERG PRIMMER

Saturday, May 5^th from 4-6pm Rhythm of the Rein invites everyone to our program’s Open House to celebrate the life and memory of Donna Holmberg Primmer through the dedication ceremony of the Sure Hands Mechanical lift that has been donated in her memory. This gift, donated by her husband John Primmer, the law firm of Primmer, Piper, Eggleston & Cramer, and dozens of generous friends of Donna, will expand the program's capacity. to serve more special needs riders in the central Vermont and Northeast Kingdom region.

Please join us in thanking all those who have helped make this addition to our program a reality, and learn more about our program and what therapeutic riding and horsemanship has to offer. There will be demonstrations, refreshments, and meet and greet with our great program instructors, volunteers and equines.

WHEN: SATURDAY MAY 5^TH , 4-6 PM

WHERE: WATER TOWER FARM 386 US RT. 2, MARSHFIELD, VT. 05658

CONTACT: 802 426-3781 OR RHYTHMOFTHEREIN@AOL.COM

Here's a note of hope for those of you who have April Ice-Out dates - from someone who has witnessed just about every Ice-Out season at Joe's Pond, Homer Fitts:

GOOD TO SEE FRED'S GREAT NEW PICTURES ON THE BLOG TODAY . . . LEADS ME TO BELIEVE IT WILL BE APRIL BEFORE THE ICE GOES OUT. SURPRISED NOT TO SEE WATER ALONG THE SHORE IN FRONT OF OUR CAMPS. MARTIN'S AND FITTS'.

ENJOY OUR RETURN TO MORE NORMAL WEATHER.

HOMER AND MARGARET

Here's the latest report on the ice conditions. These pictures were taken when Fred checked the clock and flag at 7 a.m., and there's no visible change. The rain really hadn't started at that point, but right now we have light showers going on and it's 42 degrees. It didn't get to the freezing point last night, according to my thermometer - only 35 degrees - but that was enough to slow the melting a bit to let the mud in the roads settle. The rain will help the muddy roads. I know, that doesn't sound logical, but it actually does help bring the frost out more gradually - think thawing something out of your home freezer under cold water.

This middle picture is looking past Fitts's deck towards the boat launching ramp. Just beyond the ramp there's a small brook that runs into the pond, and that is beginning to show open water. The ice looks pretty solid this morning, but you couldn't pay me enough to go out onto it. The rain will have some impact, but it's hard to guess the actual condition of the ice. The bottom picture shows little change from yesterday.

The rain will wash away some of the winter dirt and maybe start greening up the grass in places. This has been a bad year for voles or moles on our lawn. Some years it isn't too bad, perhaps when we have enough snow to insulate the ground. But this year they dug deeply into our lawn and made a real mess. We hadn't been out to rake yet, but maybe the rain will begin to wash the dirt back into the holes those little critters dug out. They'd better hide because our cat, Woody, is starting his warm-weather routine of night hunting, and they are easy prey for him.

I heard Larry Rossi just had a birthday - Happy Birthday, Larry!

These pictures were taken at about 7 a.m. this morning. There has been very little change in the ice conditions, at least that we can see, overnight. Around the flag the ice looks a little whiter because it was quite cold last night and melting may have subsided. In the lower picture, the pond over all is quite dark, but that is partly because there is no sun today.

About all I can report is that everything is holding together for the time being. We will keep you posted.

We cooled down quite a bit last night - the low was 34 degrees, according to my gauge. It's nearly 40 degrees now, but I don't believe it will go much higher today. There's no sun, and we could get some rain - or snow flurries - by tonight, with temperatures dropping over the next few days, possibly into the single numbers. Then I guess we'll likely be making ice, not melting it. What else Mother Nature has in store, we'll have to wait to see.

In the meantime, we're dealing with the mud. Fred got this picture this morning after going to check the clock and flag. This was in by Encarnacion's, Pupino's and Downs's. Lawns can get chewed up, but sometimes that's the only way traffic can get through. The town owns 13 ft. from the center of the road on either side, so theoretically you aren't on someone's lawn - their lawn is in the road. However, it's not exactly a good-neighbor policy to have to do that. There isn't a lot that can be done except to haul some gravel or course stones to dump in the spot, and eventually the town will do that.

Our neighbor, John Hammer was here yesterday and said he'd been over in the Craftsbury area and roads were far worse there than here. He lives on the old Bayley Hazen Road which is maintained almost entirely by the residents there, and he said it isn't bad so far.