Veteran Joe's Ponder, Homer Fitts, is in the news again, even though he's warming his toes in the Florida sun.  Most folks around Joe's Pond know that there are lots of folks who escape the cold winter months by going to Florida, and we have quite a large number of people here who have or had ties to Barre.  That's how "Barre Day" got started 16 years ago.  Homer, it turns out, was co-founder with Roland Lajeunesse back in the day.  Here's a recent story done by the Times-Argus in Barre.  Barre South.

We are getting a real March mix of weather.  Last night the temperatures dropped into the single numbers again, and there were a few snow flurries in the early morning hours.  Now the sun is out and the wind is picking up - I believe the forecast is for a winter storm bringing snow and/or rain to our area tomorrow into Tuesday.  So far, the thermometer outside my office window hasn't moved above 22 degrees, even now, with the sun moving to that side of the house.  It doesn't matter, I'm not going to go outside as far as I know.  I have way too much to do here at my computer.

We had to scramble today to get tickets to Caplan's Store in St. Johnsbury - well, we got them as far as the Joe's Pond Country Store where Dave Caplan will pick them up early tomorrow morning when he stops there for breakfast.  It seems someone came by Caplan's yesterday and bought all the tickets they had and would have bought more.  I have no idea who it was, but we thank him for grabbing so many and wish him (or whoever he gives them to) luck.

We're down to two weeks before the deadline, April 1st, to get tickets.  I'm nearly out of printed tickets, and I'm pretty sure Diane is, too.  In the next few days we will distribute the last of what we have to the various outlets and after that, people will have to go on line to either print their tickets and send them to us or buy ten outright, using a credit card.  It still costs only $1 a ticket - we intend to make it easy for Ice-Out Contest enthusiasts to get into the game.

By the way, if you are looking at the image of the new clock on the web cam, and wondering why it isn't running, that's because Larry Rossi is waiting for Ray Richer to check out the hookup - Larry being new at this and Ray being an old hand at it.  Larry wants to be sure everything is going to work the same as in the past.  Once Ray has given his stamp of approval, Diane will start the clock.  There's no hurry, with temperatures this cold and ice still a couple feet thick, we don't expect the ice to go out any time soon.  With another storm coming that might bring rain, things could change quickly, though.
 
If you sometimes wonder how I spend my time other than doing Ice-Out stuff and writing on the blog - it's also time to get the Joe's Pond Association newsletter ready to publish.  Fred took this picture of me on Wednesday at the Danville Town offices, going through the property transfers.  That information will be in the newsletter and also effects our Joe's Pond Directory.

This announcement came to me today about the Maple Open House weekend next week. That's a great opportunity for folks who don't usually get a chance to visit a maple sugaring operation to go and see exactly how maple syrup and sugar are made.  Take the kids and maybe some friends and plan to visit at least one of the maple producers in our area.  You'll enjoy the experience and better understand all the work and long hours it takes to produce that wonderful golden sweet stuff.