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.