Today has been a bit frenzied for both Diane and me.  We had all sorts of loose ends to finish up.  Last night we got in touch with mostly media outlets with the very preliminary information that the clock had stopped at 6:14 p.m. yesterday, April 29th.  Most  of the outlets that sell tickets for us were closed, so those calls had to wait until this morning.  The news spread very quickly and today we have been answering calls and e-mails from ticket holders wondering if they might be holding a winning ticket. There have been rumors flying, even names of local people who are winners circulating, but none of this is fact.

Diane even had an interview with News 7 TV at Lyndon State College this morning.  The interview will be on their 5 o'clock newscast.  Click on the above link and check it out.

Here's what we know at this moment:  We have one winner who guessed the exact date and time.  There were guesses as close as one minute either side of the 6:14 p.m. time, but only one out of the over 15,000 guesses was right on.  This is not unusual.  Over the years we have had as many as four people guess the exact date and time, and even last year there were two winners. On the other hand, there have been plenty of times when the winner had the closest time - off usually by only a few minutes one way or the other.

We now know that the potential winner lives in Connecticut, but there was no answer when we called this morning, so until we have contacted the person and verified the ticket, we will not release any more information than that.  Once verification has been accomplished, there will be at least a two-week waiting period before any funds are transferred.  This is so we have time to hear and examine any claims from other ticket holders who believe they may be a winner.  Once the two-week period is over (mid-May, depending on when we establish contact with the presumed winner) the waiting period is closed.  The funds will then be transferred to the now verified winner. 

We have a huge responsibility to all those who enter the Joe's Pond Ice-Out Contest to be certain no mistakes are made, and that is why these guidelines are in place. It is important to consider all possibilities as errors can be made when dealing with thousands of tickets.

We will keep you informed as soon as we have more information.  Watch for announcements here and on home page on the website.

The Ice-Out Contest is Over!

The clock stopped at 6:14 p.m. today, April 29.  We have not verified the winner or winners yet, but we'll announce that as soon as we have everything in place.

There is still a lot of slushy ice on the pond - but it just wasn't strong enough to hold up under the weight of the block.  We might say "it dropped like a rock."  It is much less nerve wracking to have it go cleanly like that rather than have it drift around on an ice floe.  As always, it's when the clock stops that counts.  We'll let you know more as soon as we have the information.

We saw in today's Caledonian Record that the ice went out at Harvey's Lake on April 22, at 10:57 p.m.  Harvey's Lake Association has an ice-out contest similar to ours at Joe's Pond, but much smaller, and this year's winner was none other than Terry Powers (Island Drive) of Joe's Pond!  Terry won $180.  Congratulations, Terry!  But there's more.  Two years ago Terry's sister, Sandy Grenier, won the Harvey's Lake contest, and in 2012, another sister, Judy Lavely, won here at Joe's Pond.  This family obviously has something special in their DNA! 

We're watching the block closely, but the flag is still flying out there and looks pretty much the same as it has for about a week.  Our weather was a bit warmer today, but we didn't get as much sunshine as expected - I guess the clouds that brought the rain/snow showers earlier in the week have sort of doubled back on us, but as near as I can tell, we haven't had any rain - or snow! - or as much wind today. 

 Every day now about a thousand Joe's Pond Ice-Out ticket holders are disappointed.  A lot of people guessed the ice would be around longer than it has been in recent years, and that is definitely the case, but contrary to what some of us thought, this probably won't be a record late ice-out.  I would be very surprised if it lasts beyond the latest recorded date, which is May 6th.  It has gone out three times on May 1st, two times on May 4th and one each on May 5th and 6th.  Perhaps this year it will go on May 2nd, and fill in that one vacant day.  Just guessing, of course.  The earliest it has gone out was on April 5th, in 2010.  That was the year our committee was very nervous that it might go out before the close of the contest on April 1st. Right now all we can do is wait and watch.
 
Remember the Cinco de Meow event to benefit the Kingdom Animal Shelter in St. Johnsbury Center, on Sunday, May 3rd.  Click on the poster to see all the fun activities that will be going on all Sunday afternoon.  

Also, please don't forget the turkey pie benefit supper on Sunday, May 3, at the Danville Inn, for the benefit of Garey and Jane Larrabee. Admission by donation.

VTrans is hoping to make the detour(s) due to the closure of Route 15 this summer as convenient as possible, which will be a huge undertaking as no route is really a good route for everyone.  Here is a notice I got from Front Porch Forum tonight regarding the recent meeting in Cabot, stating what the intentions are regarding some of the problems that were pointed out: 

Vermont Agency of Transportation, aot.publicoutreach@state.vt.us, National Life Drive

On April 6th 2015, representatives from the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) attended a public meeting in Cabot with regards to the VT 15 Walden Bridge (No. 83) Replacement Project. VTrans gave a presentation about the project which included information regarding the detour route using VT 215 during the 28-day bridge closure period.
Concerns were raised about the project and detour route by members from the communities of Cabot, Danville, Walden and Marshfield and noted for follow-up by VTrans. Specifically, the availability of law enforcement during the closure period was raised and this is also being researched for a solution.
Currently, the VT 215 and US 2 intersection is being evaluated to determine if there are any temporary measures that can be added to improve safety during the closure period.
As recommended at the public meeting, VTrans will meet with Selectboard members from each of the Towns in the near future to respond to questions and concerns accordingly.

 We can only hope the project goes smoothly and doesn't run into problems that cause it to be prolonged.

We are watching the block on the ice closely now.  The ice has changed in the past couple of days due to rain and then sunshine today, along with slightly warmer temperatures.  The wind has been moving the ice down the pond, too, and that helps weaken it and may eventually break up the ice.  However, for now it's getting darker in color but not a lot of water is showing.  There's open water along the shoreline, but the majority of the big pond is still solidly frozen.  The first two ponds are free of ice - you can see the lovely blue water on the West Danville side of the narrows in the top picture, and in the next photo you can see how the ice has darkened and is turning to slush, but isn't ready to disappear just yet.  It's anybody's guess whether it will hold until May or not.  The position of the block hasn't changed much, as near as we can tell, but we're keeping a close eye on things.  We were at Bill and Diane's this afternoon, all of us just checking to be sure everything is ok.  

We had so much wind today Diane had to take down the thermometer as she was afraid it would be blown off the post.  The cameras worked well until late in the day and then they went off again.  We still don't know what the problem is, but Diane is working on it.


I've been looking at the tickets - a total of 993 people picked tomorrow, April 29th; 1,402 picked the 30th; 1,207 picked May 1; and I didn't go beyond that, but I will, if the clock hasn't stopped by May 1.  The latest guess I saw was June 21st.  Back in March when it was below zero every day, June 21st seemed like a reasonable possibility.  As of today about half the tickets are out of the contest, having earlier dates than April 28.  I can hear some of you groaning, realizing the date you picked is past and the clock is still ticking.  That's the fun of the game - nobody really knows and as Diane said today - even being right here, able to see the ice and the block and knowing the weather, she still couldn't guess exactly when the clock will stop.  And it is just a matter of being lucky.  We'll know soon who made a lucky guess. 

Here we are in another rainy day.  It isn't cold, but it isn't really a warm spring "April Shower" type of day, either, and there certainly aren't any Mayflowers around.  I do have some crocuses blooming, though.  Those hardy little bulbs poke through the snow every year without fail and are so welcome!  My daffodils seem to be stopped  at four inches.

I don't have much to tell you about Jane Larrabee.  Garey came home this weekend to rest and expects to go back about Wednesday, we think.  Jane is apparently comfortable and the doctors are still evaluating her.  We will try to keep you informed.

Jane Milne told me they have had a wonderful response from the community regarding the turkey supper benefit for the Larrabees, and many people are offering to help in other ways.  Our Joe's Pond members are rallying - some who live in the Boston area are reaching out to Garey, and others are responding with generous donations.  If you would like to donate, checks should be made to "West Danville United Methodist Womens' Club" and sent to either Dot Larrabee, Treasurer, at P. O. Box 55, West Danville VT 05873; or to Jane Milne, Vice President, P. O. Box 116, West Danville VT 05873. 

We have good news about our resident loons.  We spotted a pair in the first pond on Friday.  There is plenty of open water there, so they will probably find a nesting spot soon to set up housekeeping.  Jack LaGue told me today he saw a pair of loons in back of the islands.  I can't say for sure that these are two separate couples, but I expect since we've had two nesting pairs in the the past, they would probably return to the area on the pond where they had nested before, so it may be safe to say there are at least four loons on the pond.

I haven't had any direct report of bears out and about here, but a black bear cub was spotted in Vershire this morning by one of the CoCoRaHS volunteers in his/her weather report.  I usually stick to reporting temperature, precipitation and wind, so it was fun to see that note.  Did you happen to see in the news items on home page the pictures of the herd of deer swimming in Lake Winnepisaukee?  Fred's brother, Tom, who lives in Laconia, sent it to Fred yesterday.  Pretty spectacular.  Apparently they were "island hopping."  It must be very hard for them to swim with such small legs and feet.  If you didn't see the article and pictures, check it out.

The web cams seem to be working rather well lately.  I haven't checked with Diane lately, but she must have figured out something and got it straightened out.  Remember to use Internet Explorer as your browser. 

If you watch "American Idol" on Wednesday nights, you will recognize the name, Nick Fradiani.  We have been interested in Nick's progress because he is from Gilford, Connecticut, the town where our nephew, Dean and his family live.  This is a notice that the school sent home with Dean's children:   

Likely Town Celebration of Nick Fradiani & American Idol Visit
Dear GPS Community:
As many of you know, Guilford High School alumni Nick Fradiani has been competing on the singing competition television show, American Idol this season. Should he be voted to remain on the show this Wednesday, April 29th, the Town of Guilford will be hosting American Idol production crews and Nick Fradiani in Guilford this Friday, May 1st. A parade and concert in his honor are being planned for that afternoon. Should these events take place, some roads will be closed and large crowds are expected in town. For these reasons, and because we know that many of our students, families and staff will want to participate in the events to support our Guilford High School graduate, we are planning for a regular early dismissal on Friday, May 1st. 
The early dismissal and American Idol visit will take place if Nick Fradiani is voted into the "Top 4" on Wednesday night's American Idol show. We will send an email on Wednesday evening to confirm the status of school on Friday following the results of the show. We will also follow up with additional information about Friday's Town of Guilford events.
Both Guilford Before & After School Care and Suncatchers will be open until 6pm on Friday in the event of the early dismissal. Both programs are able to accommodate additional students on Friday. Please contact Guilford Before & After School Care at (203) 453-0045 and Suncatchers at suncatchersllc@comcast.net to register your children.
There will be a Viewing Party for American Idol at Guilford High School on Wednesday, April 29th from 7 to 10pm. More at Team Fradiani Viewing Party
For more information please link to our website at www.guilfordschools.org
Lorri
Lorri Hahn
Communications Coordinator
 Now you know a little about some of the preparations and excitement that actually happens when these young performers go back to visit their home towns after many weeks training and performing on "American Idol."  It really is a big event.  We'll be watching on Wednesday to see if Nick is voted through.

Chico Carcoba sent this picture of a Woodbury Pond kayaker on the water Saturday.  The ice is fairly dark and there is apparently a channel through the slush.  Our pond is not quite that far "gone" yet - in fact, this morning I heard from Henretta Splain who lives on a Cove on the north side of the JPA recreation field.  She said that on Saturday there was open water, but this morning it had frozen over again.  I think we'll get some better melting weather by mid-week, according to the forecast.

I came upon an interesting bit of information as I was perusing old issues of the St. Johnsbury Caledonian.  We know that Gilbert and Jenny Hastings bought the B. U. Wells store in October of 1913, and it has been in the family ever since.  In January of 1914, Gilbert and Jenny went with Mr. and Mrs. Milligan (Julia and Fleming, or "Flea" as he was known, and Mrs. Ada Way, all of West Danville, to St. Johnsbury to take the civil service examination.  In March of 1914, Jenny was appointed postmistress at West Danville.  I had known that it was she, and not Gilbert, who took care of the post office, but I had sort of forgotten.  Jane Larrabee's father, Ralph Hastings, took over from Jenny, and then Garey became postmaster.  The Milligans had a store across the street from Hastings, and although I don't know when they arrived in town to operate the store, I think it must have been in November of 1913.  I found where George Borland sold his grist mill to Milligan.  I hadn't known that the building was the grist mill before becoming a grocery store, but it probably was.  We'll check out the deeds just to be certain - or either Dot or Jane Larrabee will  know.  It would seem that there was a friendly competition between the two couples to have the post office. 

The picture above is Gilbert Hastings with a really good looking Holstein - I expect it belonged to him.  He is standing by the end of his store, and across the street you can see the upper story of the Milligan's store.  This was probably about 1917 or a little later.  The next picture, "The Corner Store," is Milligan's store some years later, after the new bridge was built replacing the covered bridge that crossed the brook at the left end of that building.  Julia and Flea lived upstairs over their store, the same as Gilbert and Jenny.  Although both stores did a reasonable business, the village as a whole began to see business decline as the sawmill closed, several large buildings with businesses and tenements burned, and the stone shed closed. The railway station was eventually taken down as fewer trains came through, and some years later they didn't run through West Danville at all anymore.  

West Danville is still a nice little village, and things are buzzing in the summer, but winters can be pretty quiet.  The winter of 1913-14 was reported as one of the coldest ever known in West Danville, with temperatures reaching to 40 degrees below zero and winds that packed roads with snow so even teams couldn't get through  during one cold spell in February that lasted several days.  Some things never change - wind in West Danville is one of them.

Here's a slightly different approach to the melting of ice on ponds, sent to me by Andy Rudin.  This explains the process I'm sure lots of old timers like myself refer to as the pond "turning over."  Here's the article (click here), and on another page of that particular newsletter you'll also find a short article about ice out dates, with a reference to Joe's Pond.

Thanks to Andy for sending the article. 

Here are some photos I took yesterday, Friday, morning of our driveway and then the first two ponds.  There is a lot more water showing than on Thursday, in spite of the new snow decorating the scenes.

I'm not going to belabor the fact we've had snow off and on all day today.  I'm sure you're as tired of reading about it as I am of reporting it, but just know that we have been getting snow showers, the temperature has barely left the freezing mark, and there has been a bitter north to northeast wind all day.  There's nothing to do except deal with it, but that's not saying we aren't grumbling about it every day.  We can't seem to catch a break from Mother Nature this year.  We keep getting e-mail messages asking, "Is the ice out of the pond yet?"  Actually, that isn't too far fetched, lakes in surrounding areas are breaking up - here's an article about Lake Winnipesaukee. 

By the way, the web cam seems to be working - I just checked it.  Remember to use Internet Explorer as your browser.

We are saddened to learn of the death of Sonja Decker's father, Judson Britt, in North Carolina.  Mr. Britt was 96.  Our deepest sympathy to Sonja and her family.  If you wish to send a message to Sonja, her address is:  Mrs. Ted Decker, 19 Green St., Woodstown NJ 08098.

I have a message and photo from Chico Carcoba over on Woodbury Pond: 

Jane, North Montpelier pond out as of 4/18.Woodbury pond has solid ice in big pond and where access is, brook feeding lake opening up that area and narrows never freeze over are open.

   My predictions as in past years;(and mother nature has fooled me)-- North Montpelier out and 2 weeks later Woodbury goes, and the fooler is Joe's which goes 1+ week after Woodbury. Chico and Sharon

 So there you have it - now we will wait for someone to report when Molly's Pond is out and then we can expect Joe's will go just about a week later.  But like Chico - these predictions come with a disclaimer because even though most years the process is reasonably similar to previous years, Ma Nature does like to toss in an upset every now and again, and this year has been crazy enough so anything may happen.  Thanks to Chico for the update.

Just briefly - we had snow overnight, but it has disappeared now and the thermometer is finally above freezing by about 4 degrees.  Nothing to get excited about, but we did see a short break of sunshine earlier this morning, and that is encouraging.  At least there are no more snowflakes drifting down on us like earlier this morning - and no rain, either.  All encouraging signs.

You may already know that Mt. Mansfield has had something like six inches of new snow in the past couple of days.  Here is an interesting graph from the University of Vermont that will show the snow depths at the mountain this year compared to average years.  We didn't have a January thaw to take any of that snow away this year, so it will all be melting this spring.  At least spring is slow in coming this year so there probably won't be a lot of water coming off the mountain all at once to cause flooding in the valleys.

 

Benefit for Garey and Jane Larrabee planned

Many of you have kept in touch about how Garey Larrabee is doing since his accident last fall, and I'm happy to report that Garey has done everything right and is getting back the use of his arm.  However, Jane has had an on-going struggle for several months with a severe heart condition.  She has been in and out of Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin and is presently at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, her second visit there.  The doctors there are hoping to do a procedure that will help her, and if this comes about, she will have to remain close to the hospital for an extended period for regular monitoring.  Garey is headed for Boston today to be with Jane and hopes to be able to find an apartment close to the hospital for them to live in for however long it takes.

As you can imagine, bills are piling up. The West Danville community is trying to support them however they can.  On May 3, there will be a benefit dinner at the Danville Inn sponsored by the United Methodist Women's group (UMW) in West Danville.  Steve Cobb of the Danville Inn is graciously donating a turkey pie supper "with all the fixin's" beginning at 5 p.m.  There is no fixed price for the supper - whatever donation you can make will be very much appreciated.  

We hope friends and neighbors will attend on May 3 and donate generously to help Garey and Jane, who have given so much to our community over the years and now really need our help.  If you cannot attend the supper, donations to support the Larrabees can be sent to the UMW treasurer, Dorothy Larrabee, P. O. Box 55, West Danville VT 05873, or to Jane Milne, P. O. Box 116, West Danville, VT 05873.

I've had a couple of reports come in today about ice on local ponds.  At Stiles in Waterford, the shore next to Route 18 is showing water, but the opposite shore is very solid. 

Lori Larrabee Williams, who contacted us this year about setting up a contest similar to ours in Lyman, NH, sent me an e-mail this morning saying the ice went out yesterday at 3:28 p.m.  They are feeling good about their first year and selling nearly 900 tickets.  We were happy to share information with them and we're glad things went well for them.

Jack LaGue (Sandy Beach Road) sent an article on the Minnesota Department of Lakes website about how ice in ponds melts.  I found it really interesting.  We've watched the ice change each year from transparent clear blue solid ice to white when snow mixes with water on top and then dark gray-blue in the spring before it's finally gone.  We've also heard the tinkling of the ice crystals (now I know they are known as "candles") floating as the last of the ice melts away.  Now I know how ice melts, I'm anxious to see more of it happening.  We awoke to a world of white this morning and the thermometer has barely reached above the freezing mark all day.  There are still patches of snow on our back lawn, and more predicted for this weekend. 


 

Here's a quick update on the ice situation here at Joe's Pond.  The

first two ponds have a stretch of open water all the way where the current is, from the narrows to the dam.  The top picture is the first pond and you can see the water at the far side towards Route 15.  The second picture is the middle pond and there is a strip of open water sort of in the middle of that, with a lot of open water right after the narrows coming from the big pond.  The ice is moving with the flow of water towards the dam.

 The third pond has more water showing along the shoreline now, and the water level is quite high, which means the ice will be melting from underneath and should begin to move about soon, hastening the process, but for now the big pond looks pretty solid.  The air temperature has been in the 30s all day, with intermittent snow flurries advancing on us from the Walden hills. 

The block and flag are tipped at a crazy angle, which could be a result of the strong winds we've had lately combined with erratic melting, or it could be that the sun warmed the blocks on the south side and that caused the ice to melt faster letting the block tip - it's just a wild guess. We got a closeup picture today and will try to keep you posted on the condition of things.  The stakes that held the rope off the ice have long since fallen over - no harm done as there's no traffic on the pond now and while we like to keep the rope from freezing into the ice, that will take care of itself when the weather warms up again.  Right now, I suspect it's frozen in.  There's no warmup predicted, so we don't expect any new developments soon.  Here's a closeup shot of the block.

We were in St. Johnsbury today and as soon as we got to Danville we noticed there was no snow there.  There is still snow in West Danville, of course.  In St. Johnsbury, not only is there no snow but the lawns are turning green!  We didn't see any flowers, but I bet there are some early bulbs blooming down there.  It's still raw and cold here - 39 degrees is the highest I've seen, and that was just a few minutes ago when the sun came out for just a few minutes.  More rain/snow showers expected tonight and right through the weekend.  I measured .40 inches of rain on Wednesday morning and .80 inches this morning.  And the road has some pretty good muddy patches between us and Route 2.  There's still lots of frost in the back roads so mud season isn't over yet.  We may not be spared; it's just that this cold weather is prolonging the agony of it all. Spring will reach us eventually, and in the meantime, we wait and watch for the block to go down and stop the clock.  Incidentally, I also heard from Kate Chatot that the ice at Lake Morey went out on Monday.  Can we be far behind??  I haven't heard from Chico Carcoba how Woodbury Lake is looking - or from son Bill whether Stiles Pond in Waterford is still solid, but these local ponds traditionally go out before Joe's.

Here's a sure sign things are moving in the right direction.  Work has resumed on the rail/trail.  This is across Route 2 from Marty's 1st Stop in Danville.  There were Munson workers along this stretch and at one of the access points just out of St. Johnsbury we saw a piece of their construction equipment parked, so they may be working both in Danville and on the St. Johnsbury end.  I bet they were cold working outside on the trail today.  We saw a couple of the workers heading into Marty's and they looked as if they needed a cup of hot soup and some place to warm up.

Here's a link to a blog post I think you'll enjoy, and my thanks to Pam Hebert for sending it to me!

Cool - or more accurately, cold  and rainy here tonight.  The day started with some sunshine, but by mid-afternoon that was gone and we got a cold, steady rain.  There was fog over the valley along the brook leading into the pond as the temperature began to drop.  We have been in the 40s most of the day, and tonight it's just about at the freezing point and that will be the pattern for at least through the weekend.

I got a really nice picture from Andy Rudin today - his garden is in full bloom with spring flowers.  Doesn't it just make you happy?  Thank you, Andy. gI'm not going to show you a picture of my garden - it is still half covered with snow, except for the raised bed at the end of the house where I hope to have some daffodils pretty soon.

The weather people are saying we can expect "below normal" temperatures for the next five or six days, and possibly some snow.  I think Ma Nature is a bit behind with her weather this year, but I have no doubt I'll be whining about the heat in another month or so.  Such is the nature of us humans, I guess.  I was watching an old "Magnum, P. I." the other night and someone was describing the weather in Hawaii as being "always the same, so the days flow endlessly by, lost in the perfection of warmth and sunshine."  It sounded kind of monotonous to me; I really do appreciate Vermont's variety and extremes.  

In one of the old newspapers I've been searching through, I found a short note that some lady had picked a bouquet of buttercups and found wild strawberries in bloom in November of 1911, I think it was.  I guess Mother Nature had even the plants fooled that year.

Oh, I nearly forgot.  I have an Ice-Out ticket count for you.  We logged in a total of 15,086 tickets this year.  Not bad for a year when it was so cold the ink froze in your pen before you could make out the ticket.  And it's still so cold most days the web cams don't work consistently.  Even so, the ice is melting slowly and we'll have more interesting reports as time goes by, I'm sure.  Once we have all our expenses tallied, we'll know how much the winner will get, and then we just wait for the block to slip through the ice and stop the clock!

I just learned that almost all the land at the northwestern end of Joe's Pond is now in conservation.  David Mayhew, of Brookline, MA, has turned his 94 acres at the head of Joe's Pond over to the Vermont Land Trust and Passumpsic Valley Land Trust.  Here is a link to the article describing this protected area:  New Land Acquisition in Cabot.

This is of special interest to me as most of this piece of property  was once part of my family's farm.  Some of the original land owned by Aaron Bolton, my grandfather, was sold off I think in the 1960s; that would be that which is on the opposite side of the road from our house on West Shore Road.  John and Liz Randall own one lot, and Ken Colman owns another large piece.  The  Mayhew land is beyond Coleman's and far as Mrs. Wagner's, where we see the cattle pastured most summers.  There is a nice brook that runs through the property and empties into the pond within the white cedar swamp mentioned in the article.  

When I was growing up, the land from Wagner's to the fence line between Randalls and Morgans was pasture, and our young cattle were kept there during the summer months.  It was always fun to take them down the old road, now thrown up, part of which is now a driveway to where Henretta Splain once lived.  They were always frisky, running and jumping like youngsters do, happy to be free after a long winter in the barn.  It took four or five of us to keep them from galloping into the woods or fields, and there always seemed to be one or two runaways we'd have to chase after - that was a good job for us kids.

After they were safely in the pasture with the bars up, my grandfather or one of my uncles would come by with the farm truck and give us a ride back up the hill.  I remember my grandfather went every Sunday, and sometimes in between, to check on them.  All he had to do was call out once, "Come, boss!" and they would come running out of the woods.  Sometimes all it took was for him to show up and as soon as one spotted him, she would call out a long greeting and then the others would come.  He took good care of his animals, and they loved him.  We had all registered  Holsteins, and they were big, beautiful animals.  They gave a lot of milk, but the butterfat content wasn't high, as I recall.

A few times I've had to go into the "white cedar swamp" to get strays that had gone through the fence and got on the railroad track.  Even then it was dense and incredibly hard to get through - deep swampy marshland.  We'd come out of there covered with mud and usually well scratched and bloodied from tangles with bushes and bites from insects, including sometimes hornets.  I remember feeling the grit of the mud in my sneakers and how good it felt to wash my feet and legs in the brook as soon as we got on high ground.

It's a good thing that the land will be preserved.  It is an important wetland/marsh area, and actually the last, except for some Passumpsic Valley Land Trust already owns on the north shore, that hasn't been filled in for building.  Years ago we didn't think swampy land such as that could be used for anything except pasture and wood lots, but that notion was dispelled when the wetlands began to be filled in along what is now Sandy Beach Road and Channel Drive, and cottages built.  So, Mr. Mayhew, in my book,  "you done good!"
    
 

I'm going to dash off a short note now as I have things to do later today and I really want to let you know about the weather here today.  It is presently overcast and early this morning we had a little rain, but with the temperature just above freezing, it shortly turned to snow.  For a few minutes the ground was actually white, but it melted right away - actually I was doing some Ice-Out accounting and didn't pay attention until it was too late to get a picture, that's how fleeting it was.  The ground is bare again, but I expect we'll have rain/snow showers most of the day.  And lots of wind.  

Diane told me this morning she had to secure the clock and thermometer with big rubber bands so they wouldn't rock too much in the wind and perhaps be knocked down.  I haven't been able to access the web cams this morning - they are being finicky again - so I didn't see how much wind is hitting at her house. It seems to be mostly from the south or southeast, and is hitting the west shore with powerful gusts.  She didn't say if she has a wind speed - my reading here has been 22.9 at the strongest so far.  I had an overnight low temperature reading of 33.1 degrees, and later this week we will be below freezing again at night, and still very cool days.

The crews have been working our road today, filling in the comparatively minor muddy spots, and smoothing where they had to fill the culvert washout by  Joanne Davis's.  The Cabot section of West Shore Road has been very good.  If our luck holds and there are no more big mud holes, we will have beaten the odds on mud season this year.  However, Fred just got home and said the West Danville end is not looking so good.

About today's photos:  Joe's Ponders will recognize the top photo as being the channel that leads into the pond - yesterday it was all water, today it looks as if that may have been water on top of ice and now, like the pond, it's white again.  The second picture is of the pond in back of the island where yesterday there was water on top of the ice, too.  It's good the melting process is slowing down a bit.  That may prevent flooding.  The water has ceased running on our back lawn, too, so not as much is flowing into the pond from the hills.

Here's something interesting I came across yesterday:  On May 26, 1912, West Danville had a storm that left them with 3.5 inches of snow.  It didn't stay long, of course, but still, having snow that late in the season must have been discouraging.  

And now, back to work.

Another pretty nice spring day here.  We had to go into town to pick up mail and do some other errands, and having just exchanged e-mails with Evelyn Richer about how good the roads have been, we were surprised to find some gaping holes in the road where a culvert crosses by the Joanne Davis cottage on West Shore Road.  Someone had thoughtfully stuck a 2x4 in the hole with a very visible flag to keep vehicles from crashing into it.  I have no idea how many people reported it to the road crew, but soon after we got home around noon, they were working on it.  The rest of the road was pretty good - actually, very good, compared to some previous years.  The Danville end is still pretty bad - I don't think they've been able to get to that yet.  I'm sure every town's road gang has more than they can handle right now.

We went to Clubhouse Road to Henretta Splain's house and that road is very good.  Fred got some pictures of the snow around the pavilion.  Things are looking really good there - the snow is mostly gone.  It won't be long before the grass will be greening up.  The top photo is how the pavilion looked three weeks ago on March 29th.  The next photos were taken today.


 We are happy to report that both narrows are well opened and within another day or so there will be a channel of open water all the way to the upper narrows.  The third pond is still pretty solidly frozen although there are spots with open water along the shoreline.  The latest report we've had came from someone who had been fishing and said there is about a foot of mushy snow and ice on top of 18 inches or so of solid ice.  That can go very quickly if the weather stays mild and we get the predicted rain.  We had a little rain late this afternoon and I'm sure that helped.  There's a lot of water rushing off the hillsides to raise the water level in the pond and that will help to break up the ice, too.  Lots of folks are counting on the ice holding until at least the 1st of May, and I think that is reasonable.

Evelyn Richer reported today:  The cove is pretty much open now, with some soft ice against our shoreline, and the loon's nest has popped up out of the ice and lookin' good... We have lots of ducks and geese and signs of the bear too... IT"S SPRING!!!  (but no loon yet)
Forget about mud, snow and ice.  Here are some happy pictures of spring.  The top one came from Andy Rudin a couple days ago of his garden in Philadelphia.  He very kindly sent it to cheer Woody up after I'd posted one day about a week ago that our poor cat appeared to be despondent about the slow start of spring.  Thank you, Andy.  

The closeup here came from Cousin Ora in Rhode Island last week.  There's something about daffodils that just make you smile, don't you agree?  I love them and can't wait to have bouquets in the house as well as masses of them in the garden.  Then apple blossoms and lilacs and irises and peonies.  What joys we have in store for us under the piles of snow.

I want to thank Dano for contacting us (see comment on Friday's post).  I hope you have been able to access the web cams with the information I posted on Friday.  I believe they have been operating quite well today.

We are sad to report the death of Frank DeForge, long-time Joe's Ponder.  Frank was an avid fisherman and before his wife, Elsie, passed away, the two of them were first out in the spring and last to pack up their gear in the fall. We extend our sincere sympathy to Frank's family.  He will be sadly missed by them as well as his many friends.

We want to remind Ice-Out web cam watchers that you must use Internet Explorer as your browser.  Using IE, go to www.joespondvermont.com, click on webcam, and follow directions.  Following the link above won't work as my blog is in Google.  These are not your regular web cams, but actually security cameras at Bill and Diane Rossi's home where the Ice-Out apparatus is set up.  They were kind enough to provide them for use during the Ice-Out Contest.  From time to time you may find they are not operating.  They have been finicky this spring, and Diane has been in touch with on-line technicians trying to figure out the problem, but so far not much luck.  So keep trying.  They are up and down.  

Fortunately, Bill and Diane are on hand pretty much 24/7 to monitor the clock and setup, and if they are away, Fred and I will be on hand, so when the clock stops, we will post the information immediately, whether the cameras are operating or not.  For years we functioned very well by visually checking the clock twice each day, so the contest is not compromised in any way by the cameras being temperamental.  We acknowledge it's fun to be able to check the flag, temperature and weather here at the pond by going to the webcams, and we are doing everything possible to keep them operating.  It is no doubt frustrating for you, but it's equally or perhaps more frustrating for us.  Please be patient.

Our weather today is not as bright or as warm as the past few days have been, but that's a good thing.  It will slow down the melting and let the frost come out of the ground more gradually so perhaps there will be less mud in the roads, and it lets the ground absorb much needed moisture rather than having water flowing off the hillsides into the pond and down the rivers, causing flooding.  I don't believe it got below freezing last night.  That would have been good for sugar makers, but I suspect sugaring season is fairly well finished for many.  It was short this year - we hope also sweet.

Wet, warm and sunshine.   That pretty much sums up the weather we've had today.  We had a misty rain going on early this morning, but around noon it began to clear and got pretty nice by mid-afternoon.  We lost tons of snow, literally.  Water was running everywhere and tonight most of the snow is gone except where it's been piled up by shoveling, drifting or snow blowing.   It hasn't been exceptionally warm, but in the 50s is good enough.  Fred was at Bill and Diane Rossi's this morning and took this picture of the flag - it's listing a bit, but as you can see, the ice is still very white and hasn't pulled away from the shore much yet.  Someone was fishing in back of the islands on Wednesday, I think it was, and once melting gets serious, it's hard to find a place to get from land onto solid ice, so that tells us we have a while to wait.

Henretta is close to finishing logging in tickets - tonight she estimates she has about 1,000 more to enter.  The top picture was taken on April 11 - we figured she was about half way through; and today she sent a second picture showing us she's almost at the end.  There are approximately 2000 tickets per box.  We won't have a definite count until
she's finished and all the on-line tickets are added - we'll let you know.

The contest patterned after ours in Goshen, Massachusetts, is over.  The clock stopped there at 4:17 a.m. today.  Pretty neat - 4:17 a.m. on 4/17.  That's an easy one to remember.  They still have plenty of snow/ice on their little pond, by looking at the pictures, but their flag was set up near some sort of spillway, I think, and things open up there first.  Our contest always lasts longer than theirs, but I was a little surprised it happened down there as fast as it did - Bob Labrie sends out a newsletter periodically, and things were very wintery there until just a couple weeks ago - a lot like us.

We're definitely getting there, and we'll have regular updates on the ice conditions posted on home page soon; and keep checking the web cams, they are working off and on.  Diane says nobody can seem to figure out why they are finicky this year.  Maybe they got tired of all that cold weather and haven't warmed up yet.  Anyway, I just went on (using Internet Explorer) and they were working fine.

Another pretty day.  I opened my mail this morning and found this lovely photo from Cousin Ora in Rhode Island.  In spite of having more snow than normal there, they are still way ahead of us here at Joe's Pond.  That said, I understand that being on a northeast facing slope, we tend to have snow a lot longer than the happy folks on the opposite, southwest facing shore.  I was prompted yesterday to check on some of my own daffodils, the ones that come sooner than anything else in the flower garden because they are in a raised bed at the south end of the house.  The snow has been off there for about two days, and now the daffies are showing up.  They are way ahead of any of the others scattered about among other perennials in the garden - those are still under mounds of snow from the snowblower action all winter long, but by the time the early ones are going by, I'll have a new batch in the front lawn garden.  The only other sign that spring is here are the pussy willows.  They are definitely coming to life.


Everything is very wet on our lawn - there are spots where the water is sheeting down over the grassy areas under the snow with only an occasional bare spot sparkling with running water letting us know there's melting going on underneath.  In back of our house where my small vegetable garden is, we have a small brook carrying the water away from the house as it comes off the hillside and the wooded area above.  There is still a foot or more of snow in the woods.

Speaking of wet ground, there is a notice in today's Caledonian Record that the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail (LVRT) is off limits now due to both mud season and because it is unfinished.  The trail will remain closed so that work can continue as soon as it has dried out enough on the section from St. Johnsbury to West Danville.  The trail saw lots of snowmobile traffic this winter, and walkers have used it during the summer except last year and again this year it is officially closed during construction.  It is expected this section of the trail will be opened late this summer for hiking and biking.  The other section that is being worked on this summer is Morristown to Cambridge.

Here's something to get your heart pumping - especially if you are a skier ----- or the mother of the skier.  This is a video middle son, Bob, took a couple weekends ago while skiing at Burke Mountain.  He has one of those cute little cameras attached to his helmet, like Tim Hebert used for his snowmobile video a week or so ago.  Be sure you have your speakers on so you won't miss the sound of the skis and Bob's vocals.  Take a look. Click here.  He's about finished with skiing until Joe's Pond opens up. You'll find this video posted on home page, too.

We've had another very nice day and got shed of a lot of snow.  Not only that, but late this afternoon I finally saw some robins making whoopie out in our yard.  It's really good to have them back here.  There still aren't many bare spots right around our house where they can find food, but there are only a few birds so far so there shouldn't be a problem.  This photo is at the edge of our driveway next to the big spruces.  The robins seemed to like darting in and out of the thick branches. Spring is here, but it hasn't been ideal as it probably won't freeze up again tonight, making about three warmish nights in a row, and that may mean the maple sugar season will taper off rapidly, if it hasn't already in some places.

We told you yesterday about Ted Palmer-Benson, the guy with the drone and camera outfit visiting the pond; today Diane sent me a picture he'd shared with her.  Really nice quality and gives us a bird's eye view of her house and the neighbors'.  You can almost see our house over the ridge at the top right!  It also gives you a good idea of how much snow there is still left around the pond.  Don't forget to click on the picture to enlarge it.

We got our phone and DSL back today.  We were blaming Fairpoint, thinking they were tinkering with stuff or that after the long strike things had gone awry and we were paying the price, but it turned out to be a very old phone connection where the line comes into our house.  The covering on the wire had deteriorated letting water and snow onto it and then the heavy snow around the box had pulled the wire nearly off the terminals and finally broke it, and that's why we at first got intermittent phone outages and only very slow DSL, and finally nothing.  It took the Fairpoint serviceman about 5 minutes to locate the problem and fix it.  Now we are back to normal with all our gadgets working perfectly. Both of us were playing "catchup" answering e-mails and doing the normal stuff on line this afternoon, but tomorrow we should be pretty much back to our daily routines without the frustration of finicky internet service.  

The next thing we're going to try to remedy is relocating the satellite dish so that next winter Fred won't have to climb onto the roof to clean off the dish every time we get a heavy, wet snow.  I'm hoping we can get it closer to the ground, but that may not work, of course.  We took down a lot of the trees in back of our house a couple years ago, so I'm hoping that will help.  It's worth a try, and if it works it will be way better than having him climbing around on the roof in the dark during a blizzard.  No, I don't "send" him out there on nights like that - he insists.  I think on some level he enjoys the challenge.  It's a man thing, I guess.  I do appreciate it, but I'd really rather not have to worry about digging him out of a snowbank one of those nights.

Today was the kind of day we've been wishing for since about January 1st.  We had bright sunshine and temperatures in the 60s with a light south wind - perfect for being outside, except there's not much bare ground to walk on, dig in or admire.  Just snow and mud.  But we aren't complaining.  It was great just to be able to go outside without earmuffs and mittens.

We had visitors at the Ice-Out flag site today.  A fellow by the name of Tim Palmer-Benson came to Rossi's with his cute little drone to take pictures of the block and flag.  Diane got some really good pictures of him, too, and his drone.  I expect we'll be seeing lots more of these in the months ahead.  As interesting as they are, and even though they may be very helpful in many ways, I imagine they can also be annoying and intrusive.  It will be interesting to see how they are accepted (or not) and how we adapt to having them around.  The two top pictures above were taken by Diane.  The next two were taken by the drone.  That's a really interesting shot taken from some distance above the ice.  If you click on the image to make it larger, you'll see more definition of the ice.  The Ice-Out flag is bottom center of the shot.   I believe the camera doesn't take video, just single shots, but Bill told Fred Mr. Palmer-Benson took over 400 pictures. He has a web site, Scenes of Vermont you may want to check out.  He said he plans to return to Joe's Pond this summer, so no doubt we'll see more of the drone.

I'm going to write this and finish as soon as possible because our internet has been finicky all day - off more than on - and left us in the middle of doing something with suddenly no internet so many times I finally had to give up. When it was operating, it was much slower than usual - very frustrating, waiting for things to load.  We have also been without our land-line telephone service most of the day, as well.  That has been acting up off and on for a couple days, too, but today it has been more off than on.  We'll get it checked tomorrow, I expect.

Thanks to my temperamental computer, I got to take a few breaks outside on the deck - yes, it was actually nice enough today to do that!  What a great spring day, and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, again with lots of sunshine.  We could practically hear the snow melting and the buds on the trees swelling.  There were birds like this pretty flycatcher Fred caught with the camera, and we heard geese scouting out the pond (we hope they are  discouraged by finding no open water and keep flying north!), but no sign of robins yet.  We are gaining a little bare ground here and there, so I expect they will show up any day now.
 
Here is another sign of spring.  The annual Cinco de Meow party.  It was a big success last year and promises to be even better this year, so try to join the fun at the North Congregational Church in St. Johnsbury on the afternoon of Sunday, May 3.  If you have questions, get in touch with Helen Morrison, 802-563-2488.  It will be fun for the whole family. Click image to make it easy to read.

 
Yesterday it was cloudy and there were one or two light  showers in the morning, but the sky began to brighten and it  was comparatively warm in the afternoon, so we walked down to Rossi's to deliver some final Ice-Out tickets I had and to pick up some mail Diane had for me.  I took a few pictures along the way.  The top one is of Talbot's - the fence caught my attention.  It was an optical illusion when I first looked at it, reminding me of a zig-zag rail fence, but then I realized there are alternating down rails and level rails along the steps down the steep incline from their garage to the camp. 

At Craig's there was part of a path, but then a ridge of snow - perhaps from earlier plowing, and the snow looked pretty deep.  And the last one is the Ice-Out flag through the trees.

The road was wet but not really muddy, and there was no traffic.  I think most people are wary of our roads this time of year and don't venture on them unless they have to.  And that's a good thing - the less traffic on muddy roads the better.  We see people speeding past our house and often wonder how their cars stay in one piece.  There are serious dips in the road where culverts go across all the way along West Shore Road, and locals know to slow down, but people not familiar with the road sometimes hit them pretty hard.  We often find pieces of tailpipes or other bits of metal in the road this time of the year.

Woody has enjoyed today, too.  He's been outside basking in the sunshine and this afternoon spent long hours in the garage waiting for a mouse or chipmunk to show up. He has a couple of places up overhead where he can nap.  On sunny days it's nice and warm there with the heat from the roof, and he quietly waits for "game," knowing small critters hang out in the wood pile and overhead rafters.  He spent some time in the driveway watching the birds.  I think they tease him, flying back and forth out of reach.  We'll be outside enjoying tomorrow, too.  I may have to break out the lawn chairs . . . ! No, I won't park them in the snow - I'll put them in the driveway.  That's the only bare spot we have so far except a small patch just beyond the snowbank above - that we can't get to without climbing the bank and wading through a couple feet of snow.