This is pretty much the way our weather here at Joe's Pond has been for the last three days.  We have received 1.75 in. of much needed rain, and things are looking much perkier.  Last night we needed a little heat in the house - a huge difference from last week when we were doing everything possible to keep the house cool.  Today the thermometer hasn't reached 60 yet, but the weather people assure us that is going to change in the next few days.

We need to let people know that the Town of Cabot is going to be replacing a culvert on West Shore Road - near Bertrand's, I think.  There have been cones set up since we had a big rain a few weeks ago that took out some of the ditch near that culvert.  There is now a sign warning that the road will be closed on Thursday morning, so people should find other routes - either through Walden or over Danville Hill.

We've been asked about the water level in the pond being affected by the break in the penstock.  As far as I know, the water level has remained within the limits set by the Public Service Board.  Green Mountain Power found the break before the pond level had been drastically lowered.  Now that the penstock is out of use, water will again be released directly into the brook as needed to compensate for all the rain we've had and maintain the desired level in the pond.  If you recall, the penstock was out of use all of last summer while they were replacing the upper end of it, and except for one time when blasting shook up the controls too much, there were no glitches in maintaining the water level in the pond.

Jim Kellogg told us there was significant damage done in the brook below the power plant when the penstock broke.  He will be assessing that with his group of scientists and will hopefully keep us somewhat in the loop regarding how serious the brook ecology has been compromised.  Here's some of what he said.  " . . .  the water level of Joes Pond fell only 0.1 feet which would have little effect on the biology of the lake. Downstream, there was considerable damage to Joes Brook resulting from the large volume of water released. My section plans on doing a chemical and biological assessment on the inflicted reach early this fall to document any changes above and below the water release."