We have been kind of busy lately. I'm steaming ahead on the West Danville history book - working on the Joe's Pond chapter right now. Sometimes I think we have collected way too much information; but we want to get as much in as possible and try to verify what information we have, as well. That sometimes is pretty difficult, and it seems as if at every turn we discover something new that should be added or that will change something we have previously written. It's like a huge puzzle needing to be solved.

About a week ago, my friend, Mary Whitcomb, sent me a link to a podcast produced by Before Your Time - about some memorable weather events. Before Your Time is presented by the Vermont Historical Society and the Vermont Humanities Council, and edited and distributed by VTDigger.  I took a few minutes (about 22) this evening to listen to the whole thing, and found it very interesting. Click HERE if you'd like to hear it. 

I remember the devastation from the 1938 hurricane. It ruined many acres of timber and sugar woods in our area. It also took down the high drive to our barn. We were fortunate - others had much worse damage. I remember my Grandmother Bolton had gone to Peacham for some reason that afternoon. My uncle, Bob was driving, and they had to stop several times on the way home to remove trees from the road or reverse to take another road in order to get through. They were very glad to reach home.

Our pastures were a terrible mess for years after that storm, with fallen trees that were too high off the ground to get over and too low with underbrush and limbs to crawl under. It rearranged the paths we and the cows had to take to get from one point to another, and for a while was very disorienting. Sometimes, years later, the cows would get into a "slash" of trees leveled by that hurricane and would be unable to find their way out, so we kids had to climb over and crawl under as best we could to get to them and figure out how to get the beasts turned around and out of there.

It's pretty scary thinking of how our weather is changing and what it could mean for us in future years. With oceans rising and warming, the prediction is that we are destined to experience more severe storms; and I guess all we can do is be as prepared as possible. In the meantime, let's enjoy the remaining summer. I can already smell fall in the air - the summer has zoomed by way too quickly. Danville Fair is over and the bigger fairs are coming up, then it's back to school time and everything gets quieter here at the pond.