There is an obituary in today's Caledonian Record for Jeff Downs, who passed away on September 27, 2013.  Jeff owned the Joe's Pond Country Store in West Danville, and was a member of the Joe's Pond Association.  This tribute to Jeff is at Hastings Store in West Danville.

On our way home from the post office, we went down Sandy Beach Road to try to locate the origin of machinery noise we've been hearing for several days.  We were pretty sure someone was digging somewhere, and found it was at Byrd's where they have installed a sea wall and are now drilling a water well.  I'm sure they'll be happy not to have to carry their drinking water.  We all used to do that a few years ago, and then, one by one, people began to drill wells.  Now, the spring near Mason's on West Shore Road that was a popular source of drinking water, is only used by a few people.
 
The new cottage on Point Comfort is coming along, but there isn't much happening on the outside except one side of the roof is done.  It certainly looks like it will be a nice spot.

We totally missed the celebration at Hastings Store on Sunday.  Neither of us thought of it.  Turns out they had a pretty steady string of visitors all day - Garey said they estimated about 300 people came by.  We apologized for not being there - we would have liked to get some pictures to show you, but all I can say is that we forgot to put it on our calendar, and that was a big mistake.  The chances are we'd have noticed it there, but maybe not.  Sometimes I forget to look at the calendar, and I never remember to put appointments on my computer . . . I really appreciate that doctors offices call a day ahead to remind us of appointments!