This came tonight from Homer about his daughter, Sue:

JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH ERIC. EVERYTHING MENDING SLOWLY. EATING A LITTLE JELLO. ALSO WALKING A LITTLE.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR CARES.

LOVE AND BLESSINGS,

HOMER AND MARGARET

We're glad Sue is progressing well. Another of our Joe's Ponders is under the weather right now. Ray Richer has been ill with some sort of "bug" that's been going around. Evelyn is holding the fort and very busy, but she very kindly took time to send me this photo showing that the channel is open past their house - here's what she wrote:

Wanted to send you a shot of the cove taken this morning... the ducks and geese have found us now too...  As you might remember the first week in April I usually send you a shot of the channel as it is just beginning to open up... well this year is totally different!  Wanted you to know, too, that Kevin [Johnson] called me last night and has graciously volunteered to come pick up the clock and hook it up... I expect he will be doing that this evening... (not certain)  He told me the ice is still about 18" thick... Ray is still very ill, sorry to say... but at least the pallet got out on the ice in time... 

Ray is our skilled "technician" - the one who puts the pallet out and makes all the intricate connections to the clock on Homer's deck. He put the pallet out as soon as the fishing shanties were off the ice, but didn't get the clock hitched up right away. Then he got sick and couldn't do it, so many thanks to Kevin for jumping in to finish the installation. Now we're all set to clock-watch as the ice continues to melt furiously under the hot sun the next few days.

Butch Bouchard brought up some Ice-Out tickets today - he's spending some time at camp getting things ready for the summer and enjoying our summer-like weather. He said Jack LaGue is ill, too. Sue brought tickets up yesterday and was planning to go skiing (it's her birthday), but I guess the plans fell through since Jack was under the weather. Butch said a day or so ago Jack drilled a hole in the ice in front of their home and said the ice is still 18 inches thick.

You've heard that two heads are better than one. I'm not sure in this case that's so, but whenever we do anything the least bit unusual, indoors or out, Woody is on hand to "help." Fred had his help this morning, and later when we went outside to work, we had Woody's help there, too, although he spent most of the time stretched out on the grass near where we were working. He's interested in being outside at night during the warm weather, so he's getting a lot of practice using his new swinging door into the garage.

I brought some pussywillows in the other day and they are doing nicely. I'll drain the water out of the vase tomorrow, I think, so they will stay nice and not go by. They are just about right now - nice and puffy and still white. Or, I could leave them and see if the twigs get leaves. I have an idea there will be leaves on lots of our trees early this year. However, sometimes when we have an early spring like this, we get a late frost that injures the budding fruit trees. We could still have some very cold weather, and if so, there could be some damage to crops.

Our governor "tapped" a tree today - it's an annual photo-op thing to tap a tree at the opening of maple sugaring season, but apparently his publicity people set the date according to past years, not taking into consideration this unusual weather. So the pundits are saying the governor tapped a tree to close the season. The days have been too warm and nights go only to about freezing, and that's probably only here in the hill country. Most places haven't seen many below-freezing nights for the past two weeks, and that will put an end to the sugar making.

Several people have asked if it's ok to select a March date on their Ice-Out tickets. Because the Contest closes on April 1st, it would seem logical we don't expect the ice to go out before that date. That has been true in the past, but in 2010 we had unusual weather and came really close to having to end the contest before April 1st; and here we are again this year, wondering if the ice will hold until the normal closing date. Now it's increasingly apparent the ice could go out in March. It hasn't done so in the 25 years we've had the contest, and it may never have gone out in March, but we're learning to never say "never." Therefore, folks can pick any date they think is a possibility. We've had picks that range from January to June, and all I can tell you is that we log 'em all in, no matter how unlikely they may seem.

Now I need to package up all the Ice-Out tickets that have come in to me today so they can go to log-in central. Diane or Bill picks up the mail each day and takes care of those tickets, and we each have certain outlets to keep supplied with tickets and to pick up from, and Bill delivers the tickets to Barre where they are entered on a giant spread sheet. We'll all be very busy from now on - we hope until after April 1st. WSTJ and WKIX in St. Johnsbury have been in contact with me about being on the air Thursday morning about Ice-Out. I heard from the Times Argus today - they had been at Hastings Store and then stopped at the pond to get pictures. It's a spring ritual!

Unfortunately, the busy schedule we Ice-Out people experience coincides with mud season, so going back and forth to collect and deliver tickets, check the clock and meet the media can be a bit daunting sometimes, and some years darned near impossible when West Shore Road is a ribbon of deep mud between us and our objectives. But we muddle through . . . !!