We're slipping back into winter weather after our spring break.  We've had gusty winds all day, and now we're getting a little snow, but not enough to begin to make up for all that we lost.  As we traveled from West Danville to St. Johnsbury today, even Danville had lots of bare ground, and in St. Johnsbury, there was hardly any snow.  Here at Joe's Pond, it's still more white than brown, but our snow pack is less than half what it was a few days ago.

I stopped to pick up mail at Hastings Store and, as you would expect, people there had the recent stabbing by local Rodney Hill on their minds.  FOX44 interviewed some local people yesterday about Rodney Hill, and also about this year's Ice-Out Contest.  I am struck by the contrast.  As Diane at the store said, they probably wanted to cover the Ice-Out as long as they were in town, but for me there is a sharp contrast between the attack by Rodney Hill and our strictly for fun contest.  That's the way reality is, I suppose.  There is the very serious side of life where awful things happen to good people; and then there's our "get shed of the winter blues" fun contest where we try our darndest to see the lighter side of things. 

Here are some photos I've put into a slide show.  You'll see we were in West Danville, and Fred took pictures of the water rushing over the dam into Joe's Brook - then we got some pictures of the pond and the fishing shanties at the State Fishing Access.  This is where we have had our Ice-Out flag set up in past years, but because there is so much traffic on and off the ice at this location, we will move it up the pond where it will be in front of Bill and Diane Rossi's home.  The flag won't be out until mid-March, but we'll let everyone know as soon as it's out.  We believe you will still be able to see it well from the fishing access, as well as from other points on Old Homestead Road and of course West Shore Road.  Plus, you will be able to see it on Rossi's web camera, plus you'll be able to see the clock, as well.  We'll have more on all of this later on.