No Milfoil Found in Joe's Pond!

I had a message from Pam Hebert this morning, saying she had received a preliminary report from the company that did the pond inspection last week, and there was no milfoil found.  She will have a full report later.  We are always very happy that there are no invasive plants in our lake, and the boat inspection program Pam heads up can take credit for that.  Pam and her inspection crew do a great job, and people who bring there boats here from other lakes and ponds have been great about the few extra minutes it takes for the inspection before launching.

We got word this morning from Helen Morrison that the Cat Calendar Contest that the Kingdom Animal Shelter in St. Johnsbury is running, is now working, so you can go to the gallery of kitty photos and vote for your favorite.  One vote per family per day, please.  Here's the message from Helen: 

  Here's the news we've all been waiting for - our photo contest is back online!! Due to the issues we had before, we've cleared out the previous votes and are starting from scratch (pun intended). Remember, you can only vote once per day. The link to the site is
http://kingdomanimalshelter.com/?page_id=227

To see the latest results, go to
http://1madcat.com/kas/files/Poll/results.php

What are you waiting for? Let's vote!!


There are lots of very cute felines pictured - it may be hard to pick a favorite, but do give it a try - the kitty with the most votes will be on the cover of the calendar, and the next 12 highest vote getters will each have a page.  Our "Woody" has a picture posted, also, Helen's "Allie." 

Speaking of "Woody," our two grands were with us for dinner last night while their parents had a rare dinner out with friends.  Tangeni, who is two years old,  dearly loves Woody, and apparently he has a soft spot for her, too, because he patiently endured at least half an hour or more of her petting and chattering over him.  She gently stroked his back, tweaked his ears, inspected his paws, and screeched happily whenever he moved his tail as he lay sprawled on his side on the living room rug.   I think most cats would have found a hiding place after the first few minutes of such intensive attention, but we finally had to urge him outside so Tangeni could concentrate on eating.  We told her he would come back after she finished, which we expected he would - he usually comes in at regular intervals for a snack, even on nice evenings; but last night he didn't reappear until they were well down the driveway on their way home - then he came scampering out of the darkness and rushed inside with us for a snack, which may tell us something about his intelligence . . .  

Anyway, we had a lovely evening with both girls - After dinner, Tangeni showed Grandpa Fred how to use the app on a cell phone that mimics anything you say.  There is a silly cartoon cat involved, and she and her grandpa put him through his paces, for sure.  Big sister, Jo-Ann, also found a Disney movie on TV for Tangeni to watch.  Jo-Ann watched some favorite shows on her tablet (using earphones) she said she had downloaded because she doesn't have time to watch them  during the week when she has studying and school activities.  (We are somewhat overwhelmed but also impressed and perhaps a little envious of how adept both girls are on all the techno-gadgets.)  Jo-Ann has long days with field hockey and other after-school activities, and said by the end of the week she is pretty tired.  Sunday is her day to catch up on rest.  She doesn't complain, though, and said she likes everything so far about being at the academy, and expressed some excitement and admiration for her teachers.  I was also relieved that she still reads real books, the kind printed on paper, as well as those  downloaded to hand-held devices.  As a would-be author, I still cherish books as I knew them growing up.

I had a meeting with the Apple Pie Festival Committee at  Cabot Historical Society  yesterday afternoon.  We're really getting into high gear preparing for the HistSoc's only real fundraising event which will be on October 19th.  from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  We will be calling people to donate pies and/or items for the silent auction, so please be thinking what you might be able to donate.  We need well over 200 apple pies!  And we love to have people enter the pie contest, so give it some thought - the prizes are worthwhile.  I'll post more about all of it later, but for the time being, here's a poster that will give you a sense of what we'll be looking for in the way of donations, and about all the fun things going on that day.