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.