We're back in winter mode here in Vermont.  We expected to be well below zero tonight, but as I write this, we're still about 5 above on our thermometers.  Of course there are pockets that will be colder than it is here - even a little difference in elevation can produce either warmer or colder temps.  It is not a night to be caught outside for any length of time.

Woody, our cat, has teased to go out a couple of times this evening, which is normal.  But tonight we are not opening the door even to let him go into the garage, because we know he'll be knocking to get back in within a couple of minutes.  I think he's a slow learner.  Anyway, he has everything he needs inside, and as usual, he's given up pestering to go out and is curled up at my elbow on the desk. 

I haven't heard how much ice was left after our few days of January thaw, but we've heard of a couple of accidents involving going through the ice, one when a snow machine broke through ice on a pond in New Hampshire, and in New York a fisherman drowned when he broke through the ice while ice fishing on a river.  Tonight we'll be making more ice, for sure, and each year that passes with no accidents like that here, I feel very grateful.  I recall only one such accident, and that was a number of years ago when a man and his daughter broke through the ice when going through the narrows on a snow machine.  They were ok except for being cold and wet - it's fairly shallow there - but always dangerous because the water flows more rapidly and the ice is thinner.  The snow machine was a rental, as I recall, and was fished out of the water a few days after the accident.  I believe they were visiting from out of state.

The other thing that's been happening here is skiers are getting lost because they ski off the trails.  We've had more than the usual number of those rescues this year, and it's just dumb luck that nobody has been severely injured, neither the airheads who do that stuff or the emergency  squad members.  We've had so many rescues this winter, I expect towns will need to begin charging; however, officials say they really don't want to do that because they are concerned people won't notify them if they get lost and know it's going to cost them money, and that could mean more serious injuries or even loss of life.  Not a choice anyone wants to make.  They might think twice before they head off into the woods on their own, though.

We are sad to report we've lost another of our long-time Joe's Pond Association members,   Virginia "Ginny" Hoar. Ginny and her late husband, Dick, were one of the first to build on the land at the northern end of the pond, I'm guessing in the 1960's, that is now Channel Drive.  Ginny was 84.  Her presence will be missed here at the pond. Our condolences to her family.