In honor of Flag Day, here are some things you may not know about our American Flag.  Click here.  I think it's interesting that so many cottages around Joe's Pond, and other bodies of water as well, fly flags.  We look for flags to signify the camp owner is in residence.  Hoisting the flag is one of the first things we always did as soon as we arrived at camp, and Bob and Theresa still do that, and always take it down when they leave, of course.  Bob flies a Green Mountain Boys flag, too.  We didn't have a flag pole at home when I was young, but we have one at our house today.  I remember carrying flags to place on the veterans' graves on Memorial Day when I was in school.  The stars and stripes were stamped on thin cotton cloth that seemed to have sizing in it, and  was stapled to a wooden dowel.  I remember that the staples pulled out easily or the material would tear so the flags didn't last long in the wind and rain.  They are a bit better quality now, I think.  I often stop at the Cabot Plains Cemetery when I'm passing that way, and sometimes return with my little stapler to tack the flags back on the sticks.  Every year flags are put on soldiers' graves - no longer by children, but by the cemetery care takers.  I'm sure it's just part of the job for them, but for us it was a big event.  It might have even helped us learn a little about how many wars there have been and made us think about the lives lost, or maybe we just liked the ceremony of it all, I don't know.  But I do know there are a lot of flags dotting each of the seven cemeteries in Cabot, and that's sobering.

We've had a lot of rain in the past couple of days.  This morning I measured almost 3/4 of an inch, and I expect there will be close to that in the tube again tomorrow. I wasn't outside at all today, not because of the rain, but because I was working on a publishing project that needed to get finished.  Once that was off my desk, I concentrated on cleaning up my office space.  When I'm working on a particular project, I'm inclined to put off things like filing and instead make "to-do" stacks.  It ends up being sort of organized chaos that I can live with when I'm very busy, but sooner or later it begins to bug me and I have to put things straight again - or as nearly so as my office ever gets.  I've shed a few boxes of stuff that I finished up during the winter, but still have at least half a dozen more that hold treasures that need attention before being returned to wherever.  I hope the weather is better tomorrow so I can tackle some of the outdoor projects waiting for me.  So much to do, so little good weather to do it in.

Today a large dumpster was brought to our new neighbor's house.  She just bought the place this spring and is now going to tear down the garage.  We don't know if she will just have parking space or if she intends to build something else.  I know we appreciate having a garage especially after years living at camp without one.  Cold, snowy mornings  aren't quite as daunting when you don't have to brush snow off and scrape windshields before starting out.  It's nice, too, to not have to wade through snow or whatever to get to the car.

Speaking of new neighbors, one of the Campbell cottages near the fishing access has been sold to John and Judy LaRose of East Barre.  They have become Joe's Pond Association members and seem enthusiastic about being here.  It is good to see things going on at that cottage - it's been fairly quiet for some time.