A little more about our recent storm:
 I drove down Sandy Beach Road yesterday afternoon and a lot of trees had come down and were in the process of being removed or had been.  WEC was there working on removing trees, one of which had fallen on a camp.  Ray told me that a tree had fallen exactly where some youngsters were camping in a tent.  When the storm came, the kids were brought in the house and the tent taken down.  Lucky thing!!  The roof of the camp had been dented and punctured but not totally wiped out.  All the shingles had been removed (by people, I imagine).  It looked like replacing the plywood and then reshingling is what was needed.  That storm was quite an experience.  Mother Nature isn't feeling so good these days, I fear.  So much of the country is having a hard time. (from Helen Morrison)  The above picture was taken on West Shore Road the morning after the storm.


We've had some questions about Cabot's Fourth of July celebration, so here are the few photos I took of the parade and the crowd.  The parade was pretty much as it usually is, lots of things to see, and I didn't get shots of any where near all of it as I was busy in the historical society rooms, but I did get some, and I took a couple of shots (the 5th and 6th) looking first down towards the business section of town at the crowd and then looking north from our building towards the gymnasium and recreation field.  There seemed to be big crowds lining the street all the way.  Here is the slide show.

This came from Nolan Doeskin, coordinator of the CoCoRaHS program of volunteers who monitor precipitation throughout U.S. and now Canada.  He lives fairly close (Fort Collins) to where the wildfires are.  Here's what he wrote in a newsletter today:

It was odd here to have no fireworks show last night (I know the same was true in many other areas of the country).  But it simply was not appropriate given the severity of heat, drought and wildfire potential.  There were scarcely any backyard firecrackers, either -- a clear sign of public recognition of the 
situation.   Nevertheless, we were able to celebrate with friends and family some of what makes this such a great country . . . We are currently experiencing extreme heat, extreme drought, extreme storms, and local floods in various parts of the country.  In all my years in this field, there have only been a few others where there was this much public, media and commercial interest and concern over precipitation (or lack thereof) in so many parts of the country . . . Despite the heat and drought, we're getting a decent crop of apples from our early tree. The apples (and it's always been this way) like to fall off the tree about a week before they are ready to pick or eat.  But if we get them before they're too bruised, they make a fine apple sauce.  The last couple of weeks the tree has been full of Flickers -- a flock of them.  I never knew that flickers flocked, but we've been told they were driven out by the fire in the foothills and have been congregating at local water holes (like our tree).  I don't know if this is true, but it sounds good.  Our goslings are growing up so fast -- fun to watch at this stage of life.  Despite the heat, the chickens are still laying quite well -- plenty of fresh eggs!