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.