Happy New Year!
     As I sit in my cozy office writing this, it's within a couple hours of the New Year - it's clear and cold outside, 10 degrees - the good news is that it's ABOVE zero, not below zero like last night.  It was so cold today when I went to walk at noon my creepers slipped like skates on the ice and I gave it up as a dangerous bone-breaking accident waiting to happen.  
      It's so cold the slushy roads have turned to rock hard ice under sand that no longer sticks, so every vehicle that goes by throws up a cloud of dust worthy of the Sahara.  We'd like to think that even though that road sand is being blown about there's enough of it sticking on the road to keep our cars from sliding off into the ditch when taking a corner too fast, but I don't trust it.  We went to Cabot Village to do an errand this morning and some of the corners were a sheet of clear, hard ice - dusted completely clean of sand just  waiting for the unsuspecting too-confident driver.  And after the recent thaw that created all that ice, there are no snowbanks left to catch out-of-control vehicles.  We had no slips or slides, but on the way home there was a car following closely behind me and I'm sure the driver was annoyed that I was driving more slowly than he probably would have liked; plus, it must have been really irritating to be eating (literally) the dust our trusty new snow tires were churning up.  A recipe for road rage, I know, but I like to think I may be saving someone from sliding into the ditch at times like that.  However, if the person behind me seems too agitated, I always pull over and let them go by - and wonder if I'll overtake  them in a ditch somewhere ahead.

    As we came down Bond Hill into Cabot Village, we had to stop to let five turkeys cross the road.  They were coming out of the driveway leading to the town garage, headed to an apple tree on the opposite side of the road.  Half an hour or so later when we came back, they were a couple houses up, apparently "making the rounds" to back yards with apple trees and fruit-bearing bushes.  It was very cold in the village, but at least five degrees warmer than it had been at our house.  You can see the frosty haze over the village.
    Yesterday we were in Woodsville and it was definitely much warmer there than in St. Johnsbury, even, and almost like spring for us coming from Joe's Pond.  They have hardly any snow.  This picture is of the Connecticut in the Ox Bow region near Newbury.  Oh, yes, we had lunch at the truck stop in Wells River.  That's a fun place to eat.  We hadn't stopped there for a long time.  The staff are all very pleasant - and really efficient.  They were busy, as usual, but we were seated and served promptly, the food was good, and we were on our way again in no time.
    I'm not making any resolutions this year; I gave that up long ago.  I don't recall every making one that I stuck to, so it's a waste of time.  I know what I should do - eat less, exercise more, that sort of thing - I have a little voice that reminds me every time I reach for a snack or resist climbing the hill (like today) - so starting off the year with those things on a list would be overkill.  IF I were to make resolutions, I'd probably resolve to make better use of my time (we never know how much we actually have left); stop obsessing about not having as much energy as I did 20 years ago (who does?); not worry about gray hair, wrinkles or brown spots and just get on with life, doing the best I can with what I have left to work with.  Yep, those would be my resolutions.  IF I were to make any.  Actually, I know I'm really fortunate in so many ways, and every day I'm thankful.  
    Happy New Year, everyone.  Let's hope the "surprises" we all know we'll be faced with in the next year are happy ones; but if they don't all turn out to be fun and exciting, let's hope we are able to face the unpleasant ones with strength, dignity and grace.  
    Thanks to everyone who comes here to the blog, some of you nearly every day.  See you in 2015!

  

Every time I look at the thermometer it's gone down another degree or two.  It's going to be a cold night!  The reading on my weather station is 16.6 - oops, 16.5 degrees.  I just decided it's more important to feel a little warmer here in the house than it is to have Christmas lights in the windows, so we took away all the candles and lowered the shades throughout.  I still have the lighted Christmas tree and the lights on the fireplace mantle.  I usually leave everything up until New Years Day, but as cold a night as this will be, it's prudent to end the season a little early.

We have sad news today.  Ben Harris (Old Homestead Road) died on Sunday.  Ben was 101. He and his dear wife, Rosalie, have been Joe's Ponders for many of those years.  Ben has been a remarkable part of the community of St. Johnsbury, having operated Nate's Store back in the day when Railroad Street was a busy shopping district with Hovey's Shops, the Jeanette Shop, a couple of shoe stores, a bakery, a Jewelery store, two or three banks, the Fitch Clinic where the Passumpsic Bank is now, the A & P Store, a Woolworths and a McClellans - so many stores, it's hard to remember. 

Ben and Rosalie came to St. Johnsbury in 1949, the same year I started working at Fairbanks.  Early the following year, I went to work for Lesnick's DeSoto-Plymouth on Memorial Drive, where Aubuchon's is now, and I first met the Harris's through my employer, Louis Lesnick.  Rosalie was an active member of most of the organizations in town, and I quickly realized she was a mover and shaker.  Nate's was the best place around to buy men's clothing.  Ben and his associates at the store knew their customers' taste and could without fail provide a perfect fit, style or color for any occasion.  Both Ben and Rosalie have always been generous in their support of the town and their many friends.  Our sincere condolences to Rosalie and her family. It is especially sad when we lose someone of Ben's caliber. 

The temperature is still sliding downward - just in the few minutes I've been writing, it's gone down to 15.1.   The wind went down with the sun, and that's a good thing - wind chill would be dreadful.  There was a sifting of snow early this morning that made roads slick. A car went into the Lamoille River in Cambridge - it will be on the news tonight, but at noon they didn't know who or how many were in the vehicle and it hadn't been retrieved.  Someone went off the road this morning just past the turn for W. Shore Road going towards West Danville.  We stopped for a few minutes at Bill and Diane Rossi's and Bill said the police were there when he went for the mail.  It was after 11 when we went down and everything had been cleared away by then.  The roads were dry by the time we went to the village, so except for it being cold, there should be no problems on the highway tonight as long as everyone stays sensible.

We actually saw some sunshine today!  It was quite warm and windy this morning, but shortly after noon the thermometer began to slip downward so tonight we are in the  20's - much more "normal" for December.  Now the ski areas can begin making snow again to make up for all we've lost with the last few days of rain.  I'm showing only about 6 inches at the stake in the back yard.  I'm sure there is more in the mountains, but still - we lost a lot.  I learned from Diane Rossi yesterday that there have been fishermen out on the ice already.  We decided they, of all people, should know how thick the ice is and if it's safe, but both of us agreed we would not be comfortable going out on it - not after the rain and thawing of the past week or so.  Diane plans to have her web cams operating after the first of the year - we'll alert you when they are up and running.

It's been a quiet weekend for us.  We've both been busy at our computers most of the day, catching up after the holiday "break."  We have a fairly busy week ahead and no special plans to celebrate the New Year - a quiet dinner for two will be our "party."  Last year I had a "ball" of lights at the top of our flag pole and lowered it at midnight while Fred made a movie with the camera - protesting the whole time.  It was not a huge success.  The lights didn't come down smoothly as I'd planned and I forgot to count down the seconds.  Between my giggling and Fred's grumbling, it was not a performance I wanted to repeat this year.  2015 will arrive on schedule without fanfare at the Brown's.

 

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that you are recovering well from the frenzy of the holiday.  We had a lovely

Christmas Eve with the family at our house.  Here's a picture of the whole group (sorry, I had to piece together two shots to get everyone in).  From lower left is Tangeni, and her mom, Monika; then Bill and Jo-Ann; Fred at the head of the table; Theresa and Bob, Marie and Jamie.  Dinner came after presents, and I think there was a little fatigue setting in for Tangeni.  Below, she's introducing her mermaid to Woody.  He retained his dignity throughout the evening in spite of lots of people (so many feet to dodge) and so much attention. 
  
We are regaining our energy after a big meal and busy day Wednesday, accomplishing almost nothing yesterday but today I managed to climb the hill for our mid-day walk, a feat I had avoided for at least three consecutive days.  Just missing one day makes it harder to do the climb, and today it was really difficult, not only because I was totally out of shape but also because there are now icy spots.  With my creepers on I was ok, but I think it always requires more energy when you need to watch carefully where every footstep goes in order to avoid a fall.  I don't totally trust the creepers, especially on really hard ice; but today the icy spots were a bit slushy from all the warm weather we've had, so no problem.  

Our spring-like weather may be about to end, according to the weather folks.  By this time next week we will be near zero temps.  More what one expects in late December and January. We have lost over half our snow cover, so more snow will be welcome.  We've had some strong, gusty winds, but so far no power outages.  We have two sets of new neighbors from out-of-state, and they have wondered if power outages were the norm after experiencing the last one a couple weeks ago.  We were happy to tell them outages really don't happen all that often, but we all keep our flashlights and kerosene lamps handy - just in case.  The picture above was taken on Tuesday after and during the rain that melted the snow on the roof and then froze in long icicles at night. 

 

I measured about 2 1/2 inches of new snow this morning, but around noon the snow turned to rain, plus the temperature has remained in the low 30s most of the day, so the snow pack has diminished somewhat.  We still have plenty, however - about a foot on our back lawn - and we'll definitely have a white Christmas!

Speaking of white Christmas, here's one of my favorite songs of the season - of course, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.   I particularly like this version . . . !

We'll be busy tomorrow getting ready for our family get-together on Christmas Eve.  Nearly everything is ready, but there are always the last-minute details.  I make lists, otherwise, something will be forgotten.  Three-year-old Tangeni called tonight to let me know they will bring cupcakes. She's very excited about that.  I haven't heard anything at all about Santa Claus, so I don't know how that will play out.  For the grownups it's more about getting the family together, the food and fun, and maybe she isn't old enough to know Christmas means gifts for children, as well.  I think she'd be happy with dinner, her aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa and Woody!

The turkeys have been back and forth a couple times today, stopping at the apple tree for a snack on the way through each trip.  One spent quite a bit of time there this morning, all alone after the others had continued on by, but this afternoon they all showed up again going in the opposite direction, just like yesterday.  I can't tell them apart, and we aren't sure if they are male or female.  There are no beards, but they could be youngsters, even though they look full grown.  They jump up to get the little crab apples, and the lone one this morning got an apple on every jump - perfect aim.

We wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas, hopefully spent with family and friends. May your day be "happy and bright."

It's been more like spring here today than the first full day of winter.  Although we didn't see any sunshine, the temperature was in the 30s - but just barely - and there will be a definite warming trend through Christmas Day.  This weather doesn't bode well for skiers, boarders, and snowmobilers, but that's our weather lately, full of surprises and disappointments.

Fred took this picture of the Walden Heights Cemetery this morning.  The rime on the trees is so pretty, fluffing out the hard woods to look like they belong on a holiday greeting card.  I got a picture late yesterday afternoon as the sun was setting and giving the hilltops across from us a beautiful glow.  I was just a tad late in getting the best shot, but it's still kind of nice. 

We have had visiting turkeys yesterday and again today.  There are three of them, and they seem to have selected this area as their hunting/roosting area at least for the time being.  They feasted on the crab apples and then made their way across our driveway into the woods between our place and the neighbors'.  When I walked up Jamie and Marie's hill at noon, there were several tracks heading up the hill in that direction, and then late this afternoon I caught a glimpse of them heading back towards the apple trees through our back yard.  They seem to be getting plenty to eat from bushes and trees, but they do tend to cover a lot of ground looking for food.  One settled briefly in one of the ornamental crab apple trees this afternoon and seemed to enjoy those little berry-like apples.  I thought they might roost there overnight, but they seem to have moved on.  I suspect the apple trees wouldn't give them enough cover for roosting comfortably.  They are interesting birds to watch.  It's amazing to me that when they catch a glimpse of either of us through the window they rush off into the pucker-brush; but when Woody - our cat, for those of you who may not be familiar with him - sits in the window in plain sight, all tensed up and watching their every move, they seem to be perfectly at ease and ignore him.  I think he's wary of them - he seems to know they are way too big for him to handle, and they obviously aren't worried about him. 

There was a story in the local news tonight about a couple of deer that were floundering on the ice at Crystal Lake in Barton today.  One was injured and the game wardens had to put it down, but the other one seemed to be ok but unable to navigate on the slippery ice.  Their hooves were not designed for walking on ice, and their feet just splay out from under them so they cannot get upright to help themselves.  The wardens will go back tomorrow to see if they can help that second deer, but they admitted there isn't much they can really do.  If it breaks through the ice, it might be able to make it to shore; they said the ice isn't very thick, so that's a possibility.  Apparently the deer were chased onto the ice by predators - possibly dogs.

Thank you to the reader in Canada for the nice compliment.  Merry Christmas, Linda! 

This picture is in the Vermont Life 2015 Engagement Calendar.  JPA member, Jody Rouleau took it, and Liz (Pearl) Sargent sent a scan of it to me.  Of course Joe's Ponders will recognize it at Pearl Island - formerly Sim's Island and also sometimes known as Joe's Island.  One little island with so many names!  It is picturesque, and Jody got a great shot.  Congratulations Jody on being published by Vermont Life - they are very particular about the photos they accept, I'm told.

Christmas is less than three days away, can you believe it?  It seems like we just had Thanksgiving and there were four weeks to finish up Christmas shopping.  Now I'm into Christmas cookies and wrapping presents.  I took a little time today to put together a slide show with pictures from around the pond - some you've seen, some more recent, but all reflecting the "off season" here at the pond that for those of us who stay here year around, is not "off" at all; rather more quiet than when summer residents are here, and sometimes a challenge, but none-the-less, beautiful.  Click here to see the slides.

We finished the DVD project and it's on its way - I'm confident it will arrive well before Christmas.  Whew!!  We both struggled with this one, but once it was over, we laughed that we sort of missed the challenge it had presented.  I'm pretty sure we'll find another interesting project to challenge one or both of us.  Right now I'm going to try to concentrate on Christmas.

We were in St. Johnsbury Thursday, final shopping for our Christmas Eve dinner and various errands.  On the way home, I took some pictures - we really do have quite a lot of snow.  This picture is one of our neighbors down the road. Today has been cold.  I never did get outside except at 9 a.m. to measure the snow that had fallen in the past 24 hours (just under 2 inches), and that was fine with me.  There had been a misty rain that froze on the collection tube so it was not only hard to get free of the post so I could take it inside and melt the contents to measure, it was also very slippery, crusted with ice inside and out.  The warmer weather Thursday helped get some of the snow off the trees, do the light rain freezing on wasn't as bad as it might have been.  I never did get out to brush the snow off the stake that shows the total snow depth.  Fortunately, Ma Nature did that for me.  The snow settled a bit and this morning showed 13 inches.  It had been 14.5 on Thursday.
 
The reindeer at Point Comfort were taking a practice run as we passed by.  Only a few days left. And then we'll be contemplating a new year.  Time really passes by very quickly.  

I haven't heard whether Miranda Greenwood found her dog, Teila, or not.  I sure hope so.  It's too cold for her to be outside this kind of weather.  I've noticed on Front Porch Forum that several dogs have wandered off recently.  Fortunately, they are usually found safe and sound, but it's heart breaking to know they are lost and possibly in danger.  We are used to letting our animals roam free in this very rural area, but I'm thinking it isn't a very good idea.  Dogs have a habit of chasing after game or even following a scent or track, and apparently don't have the same homing instinct that a cat does.  Best to keep them on a leash, I guess.  We're all hoping Teila  is found or comes home on her own.

 

Lost Dog

Good Morning -
I've just had a call from Miranda Greenwood who lives on Woodward Road in West Danville.  Miranda said her dog, "Teila," went outside yesterday and didn't return.  There was a puppy with her, and the pup was found by someone shoveling a roof on a camp at Joe's Pond, just down the road from the Greenwood's home, but Teila wasn't with it.  She is a black and white mix, part boxer and part pit-bull, very friendly and would probably come if you called her name.  Please call Miranda at 473-6373 if you see Teila.

It's been sort of a wild week around our house.  I took on a project I thought would consume perhaps a day, more or less, and so far both Fred and I have been working at it for about three days or maybe a bit more, it's hard to remember.  It's a computer thing we don't do very often and unfortunately we've both upgraded our computers since the last time we undertook a project like that (building a DVD), and now don't have a program that will do what we need.  Actually, now I think about it, in 2003 was when we did a DVD of family photos and gave them to the kids for Christmas, and we had a very similar experience as we're having now - we need to have this one done and mailed as a Christmas present but nothing is going right.  On that family one we worked well into the night previous to Christmas Eve to get it done, and we were successful - but exhausted.  Fortunately Bill was hosting that year, not us.  It always seems so simple when the plan first comes to mind, and then complications set in.  I think we'll make it, though.  Jamie came to our rescue with a program on his Mac, and in the meantime, Fred may have found a solution, too, so suddenly we may have choices!

As a consequence of being tied up with our computer problems, I never got out to measure the snow or clean off the measuring stake in the yard, so I have no idea how much snow is on the ground - but even though we haven't picked up more, we haven't lost much, either, and it's still weighing down the trees and utility lines.  The only times I've been outside since Thursday, I've been walking on the road, not across any fields, and certainly not through the woods with all that snow on the branches.  We've had that experience in the past and endured snow showering down on us at a mere touch as we passed through the trees.  It's still really pretty in the woods, though.  The picture above is of our lower lawn - the small mound in the snow to the right of the tall birch tree is the blue spruce we transplanted this fall - hard to know if it will survive at this point.  Could be a tough winter for it.

In between other stuff, I have been able to get out tree up and decorated, and as of this afternoon, all Christmas lights are in place and working.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  The greeting cards are beginning to come in, and as usual, I haven't done anything about sending any - and haven't even thought about doing one to send electronically, which I normally do to JPA members and to our family.  Last week I was totally absorbed in the West Danville history stuff and made some real headway, so I'm anxious to get back to that, too, and we're getting close to when there will be more concentration on Ice-Out Contest stuff.  Life is complicated and unpredictable.



 

So far, so good - our electricity has stayed on in spite of large trees leaning and swaying in the wind like dancers in slow motion.  Some of our big spruces up on the hill in back of our house look as if the tops could snap off any moment.  They are all normally straight and tall against the skyline, but now they are draped in snow and lean drunkenly in various directions.  The young birch trees are bent double, their tops buried in snow.  It's amazing how much they will bend before breaking; some of the young maples

have broken off - apparently they don't withstand the bending as well as the birches.  It's been our experience, too, that the birches will usually resume an upright position, once released from the snow, but maples never recover and send shoots straight up from the semi-circle main tree.  Not much can be done for them.  We will get into our woods after this is over and everything that is going to break has done so, and assess the damage.  

We learned today that Evelyn and Ray Richer have listed their home at Loon Cove with Lang McLaughry, and we have a link on our Real Estate for Sale page on the website.  I have always admired their home - between the two of them, Ray with his building expertise and Evelyn with her eye for design and color,  they have created a lovely space.  We certainly wish them well, but it won't be the same Loon Cove without them there.  They have been our go-to experts on loons and many other things over the years.  Evelyn says she will still keep in touch through the blog, and that's always very nice to hear. 

We're getting ready for our family Christmas Eve - turns out it's our turn to host this year.  I was pretty sure it was, but with Bill and Monika dashing off to Namibia at Christmas a couple of times in the past, we sort of got out of sync.  In years we aren't hosting, we don't have a tree, but I do always like to have at least a few decorations in the house.  Usually I add a little every few days and then when it's time to take everything down and put it away, I'm surprised at how much there is.  I love when the house is decorated for the holidays and I'm  always a little sad when New Year's Day comes and I'm taking everything down again.

Tomorrow I am going to try to remember to go out and clean off 

my snow measuring stick in the back yard.  Snow has stuck to it so there's no possibility of reading the numbers.  That's it standing straight up in front of a tangle of bushes.  I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to get the snow off without skewing the reading by it piling up at the base of the stake, but I'll work on that.  Along with getting a total depth of snow at the stake, I'll take a core sample to find out how much precipitation it melts down to.  That information is important to weather people who are trying to figure out if we're having a "normal" year for precipitation or if we're in for a water shortage, etc.  There are various agencies that use the information we volunteers send, we're told.  I'm glad our efforts are at least somewhat important; going out there struggling to shove the tube through a foot or more of snow and ice and then melting the collected core in order to measure is no easy task.  I should do it more often, but if I get that measurement a couple times during the winter I think I've done great. 

Fred is in the living room listening to Perry Como singing Christmas songs.  Very traditional, and I'm going to go join him!

Well, this has been an interesting week.  We've had a heap of snow and yesterday afternoon, just past 1 o'clock, our power went off.  Knowing how heavy and wet the snow was, we didn't think twice before starting a fire in the wood stove.  We'd already put extra water in the fridge for drinking and a big pail in the bathroom for flushing - just in case.  While Fred was outside dealing with a garage door that refused to release so we could operate it manually, I spent the afternoon hauling Christmas decorations down form storage.  It was a little weird putting lights on the tree without being able to have them on so I could see bare spots, but then I decided it would be a nice surprise later when it was all decorated and we could finally light it, so I pressed ahead until dusk and it was time to get out the oil lamps and make plans for supper, knowing that with only the wood stove for cooking everything would slow down to a pace more like the 1800's than today's streamlined 30-minute meals we're used to preparing.  It was fun making everything work without electricity.  We had turkey soup from Thanksgiving that had been frozen and I had that thawing out in plenty of time so we had a nice supper by lamp light and instead of watching the news, we watched the fire cheerily blazing in the stove.  Woody was stretched out in front of it, the house was eerily quiet with no hum of the refrigerator or boiler downstairs, and after supper we sat by the fire and chatted; I finished knitting a child's hat that's been a pick-up project for over a month.  Only Woody seemed a bit at odds with everything.  He hung out by the fire most of the day instead of curled up on the bed in the guest room where he is usually; and when we sit down in the living room after dinner at night, he usually immediately gets up in my lap and watches TV with us.  (Yes, he seems to actually watch.  He especially likes commercials with whales or dogs!)  Last night he sat on the rug in front of the TV and stared at the blank screen.  A long time.  

This morning Fred checked with Washington Electric and the report was not good.  The recording had been updated this morning and instead of saying power would likely be off in most areas into the weekend, they were saying to plan for outages to last "into next week."  That sent Fred to the store to get some bottled water as all we had on hand for drinking and cooking was the pitcher in the fridge.  I was even contemplating searching out some picture puzzles we have stored someplace.  I was looking forward to spreading it on the coffee table in front of the fire . . . haven't done one in years.  The morning slipped by quickly, taken up by washing dishes the old fashioned way in a basin and rinsing them with scalding water; I had measured the new snow (3 1/4 in. ) but had no way to report without my computer, so left the snow in the tube and the core sample in the sink to melt, and started thinking about meals for the next few days.  We planned to unload the freezer on Saturday and stash everything in a big cooler out in the garage.  The temperature out there remains well below freezing, even if the weather warms up a tad, as long as we keep the door closed.  A couple of times we laughed about how much we were enjoying our vacation.  It was like camping in a beautiful winter wonderland.


When we walked up to Jamie and Marie's at noon, the trees were bent over the driveway - creaking under the weight of the snow.  There were spruce needles and bark across the driveway where a tree had come down and Jamie had to haul it  out of the road.  As we were heading down the road from their yard, we heard a loud crack and caught a glimpse of a big limb crashing to the ground in a cloud of snow.  Fred had heard a tree crack and crash above our house yesterday, and tonight Jamie told me on the phone that in back of their house they've lost some big old spruces - the 80 ft. ones that are so beautiful with a coating of snow like now.

When the power came back on this afternoon, and Fred went back to his computer and I to mine, Woody went back to bed in the guest room. Things are pretty much back to normal, but we are expecting the power will likely go off again because the snow "showers" keep coming, building up on the already over-burdened trees and there are plenty more tilted precariously over power lines along the roads.  So we're enjoying having the luxury of electricity for the moment, but if it goes off again, we're so prepared.  

According to my measurements, we've had 19" of snow so far this month.  Of course, 12 inches of that came this past week.  The pictures above tell the story - they were all taken today.  Top is West Shore Road going up the hill by Meadow Lane towards Sandy Beach Road this morning; the next is the tall trees at Jamie and Marie's, like the ones that came down north of where these are standing; and that's me heading up their driveway at noon today.  I stopped a couple of times to listen to the creaking in the woods - it was lovely to look at, but a little frightening, too.  By Sunday, we should be heading out of this storm pattern, according to the forecast.  I think it's safe to say that winter is here - with beautiful vengeance. 

Lots of  snow today - nasty driving and lots of accidents on the roads.  I think the snow has stopped now, but we got several inches of mushy, wet stuff that was too wet to snowblow, too heavy to shovel, and too gushy to drive in.  Fred had to go into St. J. this afternoon and fortunately he got back before the driving got too bad.  Around 5 o'clock things were pretty well tied up on Route 2.  There was a truck that couldn't get going after having to stop at the light in Danville - no surprise there, anyone with any experience driving around here in winter would know that making folks stop there when it's slippery would be a really bad idea; then there were trucks in trouble west out by Molly's Falls dam - the new stretch of road that cost millions and still has more curves than a super model.  Yesterday there was someone off at the bridge in South Cabot that was replaced (near Goodrich's) and "straightened" - sort of makes one wonder.  Seems like an awful lot of money gets spent without much benefit.  

I've just been reading about the turnpikes that were popular many years ago when roads were first being plotted in New England.  It seems the idea was to send the road on the straightest possible direction to its destination, regardless of hills and swamps.  We know the Bayley-Hazen military road was laid out that way, but a lot of the old turnpike roads were the same, and then the corporation that built them put gates on bridges or at other strategic spots and people had to pay to use them.  The fees were expected to cover keeping the roads in good repair, but that didn't always work out.  Our region didn't have many turnpike roads.  There was at one time a short span between Danville and St. Johnsbury that was supposed to connect to one in Littleton, but they couldn't decide which bridge to use in Waterford to cross the Connecticut River, and finally the charter ran out so it was never finished.  There was another span between Burlington and Montpelier, and then some in the southern part of the state, and a few short scattered spans along the Conneticut River and Wells River communities. That was in the early 1800's, and the roads had to be constructed by hand, using crude shovels and felling trees for corduroy-fashioned stretches through marshes and swamps.  They were better than the Indian trails that were used earlier, but not by much.  I wonder if they still charged during the winter.  I suppose a few people had to use them in winter, but that was before such things a snow rollers were available, and keeping them open, even for foot traffic would be difficult.

All this snow is the envy of Fred's brother, Tom, in Colorado.  He sent this picture of green grass where they live in Beaver Creek.  From what he said, there isn't a great deal of snow in the mountains yet, either.  It doesn't look very Christmasy outside, but inside Ella has decorated and "Grizzly" looks pretty comfortable.  He gets to go with Ella a couple times during the day along the walking path near the condo where they live.  When winter finally sets in it will be pretty cold and then they shorten their walks, but for now it looks more like fall in Vermont than winter in Colorado, and I'm sure they both enjoy being outside.

I had a really great day today.  A couple of weeks ago I broke a tooth - eating scrambled eggs.  I called St. Johnsbury Dental Associates and they gave me an appointment right away for an assessment.  I wasn't hurting, and we scheduled an appointment in a couple of weeks for a crown.  Today I went for that appointment.  They had told me to plan on being there 2 1/2 hours, and that didn't really surprise me.  I've had crowns done before and there's lots of time involved taking impressions and all that.  Today was very different and interesting. I was well numbed and then Dr. Zongjian (Dr. "Z" for short) drilled away the remnants of the original tooth and old filling, and that process took some time. Then, instead of the messy goop I'm used to for taking impressions, everything was done by digital imaging.  It's called Cerec crowns - a neat machine that takes images rapid-fire as the dentist passes it over and around the offending tooth, producing an image on a computer screen.  Dr. Z told me the machine is also used for implants and pretty much eliminates the possibility of errors.  I watched as he manipulated the computer program to outline on the screen where my new tooth would sit between my other teeth. As he worked, shades of blue, pink and bright red appeared on the image of the tooth indicating where pressure points would be on the new tooth - red indicated there would be too much pressure on the tooth when chewing so he had to alter that, skillfully leveling here and building there.  Once the image appeared perfect from all angles, he pushed a key on the computer and a machine in the next room made the tooth from a small block of ceramic material - within seconds.

Dr. Z fitted it into the space, trimming the material to fine-tune it so it would be a perfect fit. He and the hygienist working with him had carefully chosen the color that would best match my own teeth, but that process is done just before the tooth is fired.  Dr. Shah, who I had never met, came in and together he and Dr. Z painted my tooth using small artists' brushes, blending the color so it would look natural next to my own teeth.  Once they had it just perfect (and that didn't happen quickly!) it was put on a little pedestal and popped into a small kiln.  It took a little less than 15 minutes and my perfectly color-blended tooth was ready to be cemented in place.  

The neatest part of the whole "operation" was that I got to watch the whole thing happen.  Also pretty cool was not having to wait a week or more for a lab to fashion the tooth and then having to have the temporary "fix" pried off (I hate that prying-off procedure).  I  thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience today and absolutely love my new tooth - that I watched being made.  

I got home a little after one o'clock, before the storm got very bad.  The road was wet and snow-covered most of the way, but well salted and sanded.  It snowed all afternoon so we have quite a bit of wet, sloppy snow tonight, but I think it has stopped now. We had a short period of rain about 6 o'clock, but then the temperature dropped so it turned back to snow.  Now I'm seeing 30 degrees on the thermometer.  There are still problems on the highways and the usual emergency calls - a chimney fire at Miles Pond, a driver stuck on the road between E. St. Johnsbury and the junction of Routes 2 and 18, and a sand truck broken down somewhere in the St. J. area,  someone having chest pains and another that had fallen and was unconscious.  Dangerous weather, for sure.  Schools let out early and will probably have delayed openings tomorrow.  We haven't lost our electricity yet, but with so much wet, heavy snow, it is likely to happen before the night is over. 


 

We're into another really cold night.  Today has been sunny but very cold - just barely in the 20s around high noon - and tonight we will certainly be below zero.  We walked, but only up Jamie and Marie's driveway.  Getting from our driveway to theirs is really bitterly cold because for a few yards we have to face into that biting north wind.  When I walked every day, a few years ago, I always started my winter walks facing into the wind; that way when I got too cold to continue, it was very nice to turn around and have the wind at my back, pushing me home without freezing me.  In the summer I'd reverse the process, walking away from the wind so that when I got really hot and needed to cool down I could turn around and face a refreshing breeze on the way home.  At least now the painfully cold part of our walk doesn't usually last very long because both our driveway and Jamie and Marie's is protected by trees.  I have to say, though, the sun seems to go down really fast these days.  We're coming upon the shortest days of the year, Winter Solstice, on December 21st; from then on the days begin to get longer again!!!

Did you remember that today is the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor?  December 7, 1941.  That, of course, was the official beginning of WWII for the United States. The veterans of that war are dying rapidly, according the statistics.  I don't know many, but our neighbor, Don Encarnacion, served in the U. S. Navy, and his late wife, Mary, worked for the Selective Service during the war.  There were draft boards scattered throughout the nation in nearly every community, and young men everywhere had to register.  Once the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor, there was a rush of young men signing up.  Everyone was angry and ready to fight to defend our nation.  Lots of local young men joined the military, leaving their fathers, grandfathers and younger brothers to work the farms.  As the war continued, women were allowed to join as nurses and office workers at first, and on the home front, it was women who kept factories as well as some farms operating to turn out weapons, supplies and food, taking over jobs to release men for military service.  Later there were special branches of service for women.  This is a picture of Pvt. Hazel Anderson, who taught school in West Danville.  Hazel left her teaching job to join the WACs.  Several young Cabot women joined the military - May Wheeler was the first to sign up from Cabot, Betty Walker and Nancy Coyle also enlisted.  I don't know about Hazel Anderson, but all three of the Cabot women mentioned have passed away.  None died in service, except Nancy Coyle died as a result of an auto accident while serving.

We owe many for their service in war time.  Today was a day to remember them.

We've had quite a wintery day.  The forecast was for snow changing to rain or freezing rain, but at least in our area that didn't happen.  We did get a fair share of wet, slippery snow, however, and that caused havoc on the roads.  Cars and trucks were slipping off ramps and into ditches, trucks were stuck on hills.  There were a few serious accidents, but most were just fender-benders and snowbank saves. When I measured the new snow this morning at 9 a.m., we had 2.3 inches, but we gained at least another couple  inches during the day - probably more, as it has snowed pretty steadily.  It has stopped now and the temperature is 26 degrees.

When we were shopping this week, I bought some tangerines.  I like tangerines any time of the year, but at Christmas they are very special.  I don't know if I'm recalling one particular Christmas or if there were more, but I have a clear memory of that sweet little fruit being handed out to everyone at school.  It was when I was at the one-room school on Cabot Plain (see picture), but I have no idea how we came to have them or who might have been responsible.  We sometimes had ribbon candy and candy canes in little boxes on the tree, or paper cones filled with candy and nuts hung on the tree.  I mostly remember the smell of tangerines.  Tangerines and Christmas just seem to go together for me. 

We always had a Christmas tree in the school.  One of the families would give permission for some of the older boys to cut a tree in a nearby pasture, and a week or so before our Christmas pageant, usually on a Friday afternoon, they'd get it and bring it in while the rest of us made decorations.  We'd cut and paste colored paper to make chains and cut snowflakes from folded paper, and everyone got to put their creations on the tree as soon as the boys got the stand nailed in place and had the tree securely tied at one corner of the stage.  This is a snapshot the family of Miss Woodcock, one of my teachers, sent to me.  Unfortunately it's not very clear, but it's just as I remember Christmas at the Plains School.  You can see the stage in the background and the teacher's desk in front.

We all enjoyed the Christmas stories the teacher or sometimes some of the older students would read to us, and we were enthusiastic about learning the carols and the "pieces" we recited at our Christmas pageant on the last afternoon of school before our two-week vacation.  Parents and baby brothers and sisters would always come to the program.

Most of the children brought small gifts for the teacher, and she always gave each of us a little gift, too.  Each of us would print our name on a little slip of paper and put them all together in a big bowl and the teacher would go down each aisle letting us select a name from the bowl.  We weren't supposed to switch with someone if we didn't like the name we got, but I'm pretty sure that happened sometimes.  I only remember one gift I got in all those years.  A boy got my name and gave me a box of tissues.  That might seem like a very odd gift, but back then we used handkerchiefs, not paper tissues, so they were quite a luxury.  However, these had an added component - they were specially scented with some sort of camphor that immediately offended my per-adolescent nose, and I'm afraid I didn't cover my disappointment very well.  I remember how hurt my friend was that I didn't like his gift. I tried to explain away my thoughtlessness, assuring him I really DID like the gift, I was just surprised, but I don't think he bought it.  He was kind enough to never mention the incident again, nor did I.  Those tissues were pretty awful, though.

Of course, the holidays always manage to rack up a few disappointments for most folks.  Expectations are high and often not met.  It doesn't matter if you're the giver or the receiver, things don't always go the way we'd like.  However, it helps to remember that it's only a small portion of the year and even though things don't go as well as planned, the New Year is coming right up and we all have a chance to start anew.  Just don't make any unreasonable resolutions.  You won't keep them and there's that disappointment factor all over again!  It's a bah-humbug moment.

We're in for a cold night - near zero according to weather folks.  It's already in the mid-teens and sliding steadily downward.  It's been a fairly nice day, but much nicer in St. Johnsbury were the sun seemed warmer and there was little or no wind.  We remarked it was very nice to get "off the hill to a warmer climate once in a while."  Here at the pond it was cold and windy, but sunny.  I doubt the thermometer got much above 20 degrees all day here.

We were surprised to see a strip of open water in the middle of the big pond almost to the narrows when we went down West Shore Road this morning.  Perhaps it is because of the wind whipping down from north to south keeping the water moving so it didn't freeze.  The wind has died down and I'm sure it will be fully closed in by tomorrow morning.  

We had an inch or so of snow yesterday after a little rain, and then it was cold overnight.  This morning our deck had a crust under the snow, so it was hard for me to get an accurate measurement of either new snow or the amount of precipitation in it.  The roads were apparently slick for a time early this morning, and I-89 was closed because of an accident and drivers were being cautioned that there were "poor road conditions," but by the time we went to St. Johnsbury Route 2, at least, was fine.  It's good to be very careful, though, as this is when there may be icy spots where you least expect them, especially when it's very cold like tonight, and the salt on roads doesn't get a chance to work very well.

Now I'm going to go out and heat up the last of the Thanksgiving Day leftovers - except for the turkey soup, which is made and  frozen - and watch the news while we have supper.  Woody has been sleeping in the sun all day and now is asking to go outside.  Last night he tried both doors before he became resigned to staying in.  He always seems to think there will be warmer weather on the other side of a different door . . .   With the changeable weather we've had he hasn't realized it's winter yet, so we indulge him.  On a night like tonight it may take a trip out of only one door to convince him. 

 

It's been a fairly mild day with a little rain about noon time.  We got three inches of snow last night, but that has settled considerably during the day.  This mildness isn't for long, however.  The temperature is dropping now and tomorrow is supposed to be much colder with very low temperatures tomorrow night - like near zero.  Our weather continues to have wild swings and crazy patterns, but when all's said and done, November was a fairly average month for precipitation and temperatures, according to the weather folks.  It's anybody's guess what December will be like.

We went to the far western corner of Cabot yesterday to return some photos lent to me by Barbara Carpenter.  She lives high on the "next ridge over" from the Plain, on Ducharme Road.  Ducharme Road was part of the County Road years ago.  Barbara has written a very nice history of that road that goes to Calais.  

Fred went with me to help carry some heavy files I returned to the Cabot Town Office vault.  I have finished a long and complicated project to preserve the paper transcripts of interviews we did for the oral history book published in 1999.  It was good to get those files safely back to the vault.  Now I have a new project - to make copies of all the photos I scanned from Barbara's collection and get them filed in an album ready to return to the Cabot Historical Society.  This, too, will take some time.

In the meantime, I've been researching for the West Danville history project, which is slowly moving ahead.  Those of us working on that project find our busy lives sometimes interfere with our good intentions, but we will persevere. 

While I was visiting with Barbara yesterday, Fred was taking pictures.  There is a very large flock of wild turkeys "residing" at the Carpenter Farm; Barbara sputtered they had "overrun the place."  I had seen them there a few weeks ago and they were there again yesterday.  Fred got some pictures.  I think they are very smart to choose that location - the farm is lovely and I always enjoy going there.  Barbara and daughter Sue, have kept it looking much as it did in the 1800's, and it just has a lot of charm and nostalgia about it.

I was sad to learn that my good friend Carlton Domey passed away on Sunday.  Carlton was zoning administrator and also a lister in the Town of Cabot for many years.  I often had occasion to consult him about Cabot history or other questions.  He grew up in the Lower Village, on Gould Flat, and knew just about everyone in town, where they lived, who their parents were and who had lived there before them.  He served the town well and we will miss him.  He used to often remind me that he and I were "about the oldest ones left" that had grown up in Cabot.  I didn't always appreciate that distinction, but he was right.  I'm sorry he couldn't stay with us longer.