If you are wondering why I haven't posted news about the big Fourth of July storm, it's because we have been without electricity for the past 24 hours.  It came on a little before 3 o'clock, and were we happy to have it back!  We'd kind of forgotten what it's like being without power.  Washington Electric had updated a lot of their equipment over the past couple of years and we've been spoiled.  We haven't had any prolonged outages for a while.  Whenever we knew there would be a bad electrical storm, I used to always run some water in the bathtub to use to flush the toilet.  Didn't even think about it this time until the rain had begun to stop.  But then we put a bucket under the downspout and caught the water coming off the roof.  That gave us enough, and at least I had some bottled water on hand, so we were fine, but I'll remember next time "severe thunderstorms" are predicted. 

I do think this was an unusual storm.  I don't think anyone thought it would cause as much damage as it did.  We lost lots of trees along West Shore Road, Route 2, some on Old Homestead, and along many of the roads here in Cabot and in towns south and east of us - Peacham, Ryegate, Groton, etc.   Even Littleton, N. H. area had some damage.

Around the pond, Ned's canopies took a direct hit - landed over by Ward's on Barre Ave.  Homer said there was some damage at his place and Susan's next door.  Here's what he wrote:


 HI JANE,

    I HEARD THIS MORNING THAT THERE WERE MORE PEOPLE THAN EVER AT THE CABOT PARADE.   . . .    ALSO HEAR THAT THE POND REALLY GOT HIT BY THE STORM.  MY RAFT MOVED.   MY PONTOON BOAT ROOF AND FRAMEWORK IS A MESS.   MY DAUGHTER SUE'S DOCK IS TURNED OVER IN THE WATER.     THOSE THINGS CAN BE TAKEN CARE OF.    THANK THE LORD THAT NO LIVES WERE LOST.     LOTS OF OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY ARE A LOT WORSE OFF.

    HOPE TO SAY  " HI " SAT. AT THE DINNER.

                                                                                HOMER

I received some great pictures that will show you more of what awful damage the storm did around the pond.  Richard Gagne sent these photos, and I've put them into a slide show for you. 

On the other side of things, the fireworks display seemed to have pleased lots of folks.  This is a picture Karen Morris sent to me this today.  Actually, her daughter, Monique, took it.  It's a great shot, I thought.  The place to be to watch the fireworks is on the water if you don't have a cottage with a good view.  Jamie took friends out on the pontoon boat, and he said there were more boats than usual out on Tuesday, he thought.  Everyone was having a great time.  The weather was perfect and the display went off as scheduled.  Another successful event, so many thanks to all the people who have donated to this event, either directly or by buying Ice-Out tickets, and to JPA's Don Sherwood and the professional pyrotechnic folks (North Star Fireworks) who work hard to put these shows together and make them happen.

This notice may be of interest to you - thanks to Peter Dannenberg for letting us know about the upcoming "surplus sale" being conducted by the state. 

The awful storm has sort of diminished the goose problem for the moment, but we all know it's something else we'll have to deal with around the pond.  Here's a message and some pictures from Chico Carcoba (who used to be our data person for Ice-Out) who has a cottage at Woodbury.

Chico says: 

Nasty geese. We keep them off our lawns by string along shore line about 6-9 inches high.They will not cross the string. It works. Happy 4th.   chico

 It's certainly worth a try.  I haven't heard whether the geese are still with us after all that wind, rain and the fireworks - you'd almost think that combination would be like a one-two punch and they'd walk, swim or fly away from here. 


Helen Morrison asked some questions of Fish and Wildlife.    She had a quick response and said she also got some information re. algae blooms, but since that doesn't seem to be pertinent to our goose problems (yet), I won't post that here.  If any of you would like to read it, let me know and I'll send it to you.  
Here's what Eric Hanson wrote to Helen:
Hello Helen. 
Beach closings are usually due to E. Coli or other contamination measure, but I'm not sure who does the testing.   Large amounts of goose and duck droppings can contribute to the problem, I think.
Geese can be discouraged from lawns by encouraging people to not have lawns next the lake and instead leave 30-50 foot shrub and tall grass buffer zone with a narrow path to the lake.   This would also benefit wildlife and greatly reduce nutrient runoff into the lake. High nutrient runoff can also contribute to water quality problems and the difference between a mowed lawns and forest is huge.  Kellie Merrill from lakes and ponds has found one study that showed a 20x increase in Phosphorous runoff from lawns compared to forest.  Lots of info. on the VT DEC lakes and ponds website. 

Beach closing has nothing to do with loons.  The new loon family is based in that area however.  We did put up some signs around the nest back in May, but it did not affect any boat or shoreline use.
take care, eric

Eric Hanson
Vermont Loon Recovery Project (VLRP) Coordinator
Vermont Center for Ecostudies Conservation Biologist
PO Box 22, Craftsbury, VT 05826
ehanson@vtecostudies.org    (802) 586-8064
www.vtecostudies.org/loons

The VLRP is a program of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) and the Vermont

Fish and Wildlife Department (VFWD)