We began getting snow around 10:30 this morning.  It came a little earlier than expected, and about noon a fire engine went down past our house.  I switched on the scanner and learned there had been a bad accident on Route 2 by Molly's Pond.  There's a little hill there and the road curves a bit, and it's always been a bad spot.  They did some work on that section of road a while back, but I don't think they touched that particular spot. There's something about it can send vehicles into spin mode when coming from Marshfield direction.  This time it was apparently a tractor trailer truck, and I'm not sure what the second vehicle was, but I heard them say there would be a transport, which indicates someone was hurt.  Then there was a call for "two good big wreckers."  

The road crews were busy salting the roads, but it was still pretty cold, and snowing quite hard, making it difficult to keep up, and road crews described the roads as "pretty slick."  Cabot sanded West Shore Road mid-morning, but the snow covered it in a short time.  We had a couple inches by late afternoon, and I think it's still snowing, but I haven't looked out.

We spent lots of time watching Johnny Doyon cutting the trees in back of our house.  It's interesting watching the machine he uses - it looks as if a giant praying mantis had mated with a huge caterpillar.  There is a big chain saw on that arm that cuts through the tree while the big claws grip the trunk above and keep it from falling in the wrong direction.  A tree is taken down, limbed, cut into log lengths and loaded onto the trailer in a matter of four or five minutes.  Then the limbs are piled and will eventually be picked up and taken to the landing, which is still at Don Encarnacion's.  When the trailer has six or so big logs on it, Johnny heads to the landing and deposits them on the pile waiting to be picked up by a logging truck.  When there is a big enough stack of limbs and scrap trees, a chipper moves in and spends a day chipping into big box trucks.

Our back yard looks decidedly different and it's going to take time to get used to it, but we like the idea of being able to see up the hillside in back of our house and down our side lawn towards the pond.  I still don't know if we'll eventually have a view of the pond again, but perhaps.  We regret that we lost our last big maple tree this afternoon, but like the other two planted there by my parents in 1963, it had begun to show signs of disease, and we knew we would lose it within another year or so, so we decided to have Johnny cut it now rather than wait and Fred have to tackle it.   I watched as a small oak tree was cut on the lower lawn - if I'd though in time, I would have asked that it be spared - there aren't many oaks around our area, and we've watched that one struggle.  Now I need to have Fred go down and tie a ribbon on a transparent apple tree before that goes, too. 

Here is a notice that came from Liz Sargent today - sounds good, and Liz said this is an excellent dinner. Click on the poster to make it large enough to read easily.  

Also, below is a message from Cabot's town clerk, Tara Rogerson: (copied from Front Porch Forum)

2013 Town And School Meetings

Tara Rogerson – Town Clerk, Cabot

The annual School and Town Meetings are held in the Cabot School Gym. Ballot polls will be open from 10am to 7pm on March 5, 2013.

2013 School Meeting will be held on Monday, March 4, 2013 at 6pm. The School will hold Australian Ballot elections for two School Board members, one for 3-years and one for 2-years. School Australian Ballot Articles will be voted on Tuesday, March 5 while polls are open from 10:00am through 7:00pm. All other School Articles will be voted on the floor at the time of the meeting.

2013 Town Meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 10am. The Town will hold several Australian Ballot issue votes and the election of three Select Board members, one for 3-years, one for 2-years and one for 1-year. A meeting to discuss Town Australian Ballot Articles will be held on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 7:00pm at the Willey Memorial Building Selectboard meeting room.

2013 Town and School Meeting Warnings can be found at www.cabotvt.us/elections.php