We started off our day with bright sunshine, but shortly after noon, the sun was blotted out by a dense layer of rippled clouds towards the north and east, and a darkened threatening sky opposite, at the south and west overhead.  We are, of course, awaiting a big snowstorm with possible blizzard conditions.  The change will come overnight and we'll be getting snow all day tomorrow, if the forecast is correct.  Last prediction I heard was for 8-16 inches in our locality - about 1 inch per hour from Friday afternoon into Saturday morning.  I guess plow and road crews will be kept busy, as will Fred and his snow blower.  

I just saw on Front Porch Forum that students from Cabot School 8th graders will be canvassing town for returnable bottles/cans on Saturday morning.  I hope the storm doesn't interfere with their plans.  They are earning money for a trip to Washington, D.C. in the spring.  They hope to be picking up between 9 a.m. and noon on Saturday, so have your bottles ready if you live in Cabot.  If they don't make it on Saturday and you'd like to help support their effort to raise money, get in touch with Lynn Maxfield on Whittier Hill Road, 563-3244 - she may know when or if they will be able to pick up your donation.  
 
I just looked at some pictures we snapped as we were coming home late yesterday afternoon, and thought you might like to see this one taken from Dole Hill as we approached Danville.  The sun was just dropping behind the hills on the other side of town - beautiful cloud formations.

Today, Johnny Doyon, who is cutting logs on our property, was busy all day picking up the logs he had cut a few days ago.  We decided he was probably racing against the approaching storm, wanting to find the logs before they got buried under a foot or more of snow.  He can actually take quite a good sized load of logs out with his all-in-one rig.  Neither of us gets tired of watching him operating that machine.  I think he might be able to pick up a toothpick the way he's so adept at navigating the grapple.  We watched him pick a log up and actually shake off the snow before placing it perfectly onto the load.  I wouldn't be surprised to see a truck come early tomorrow to pick up as much as possible of the logs he has ready at the landing.  Depends on the weather, of course.  

We're expecting an oil delivery tomorrow, too.  However, the storm may change that.  We're anxious to find out if we're using less oil this year after the weatherization we've done and the new boiler.  Trouble is, we won't know exactly which the benefit is coming from, assuming we're using less this year, but we think we're noticing an improvement at least so far.  With temperature change and weird weather patterns lately, it's going to be really difficult to make a good comparison, but at least we'll get some idea of whether we're headed in the right direction.

Now I need to locate a map of the Town of Cabot from the 1800's for a young student who is doing a project on early Cabot.