Michelle Walker sent this very timely reminder about ice safety. Shelly is part of the Joe's Pond Ice-Out Committee and is a year-round resident here at Joe's Pond. Her house is on the cove where most of the ice fishing goes on each winter, and sometimes she is quite concerned about the number of vehicles and people who are out there. Fred and I know something about that because for 18 years, we lived just down the road from where Shelly is now and we also watched the ice fishermen and worried. We are glad that we have not had any serious accidents in many years at the pond. That said, when Gilbert Hastings was cutting ice for the store and to supply some camps around the pond in the 1930s, they were apparently using an ice cutting machine and one day the engine went into the pond and a little later that same day the truck they were using to haul the ice blocks to the ice house next to the store in the village went through the ice. Nobody was hurt, but that stopped work for that day. There were other times when horses or vehicles went through the ice - and of course an occasional snow machine in more recent years. So accidents do happen.

Our warm spell is definitely over for the time being. The pond opened up a bit during the warm spell, but it is frozen over again now. There will be another warm swing later, perhaps this weekend, but it seems it isn't expected to last. We could use some snow again. The hillside above Route 15 that we can see from our house is quite bare. We have snow here on the western shore, but even here there are brown spots showing through. And the snow that is still on the ground has a crust and the dirt roads are icy after the rain and quick freeze. Roads around the pond are icy and slippery, so caution is advised if you have to travel on back roads. It's a special concern right now because there are not good snowbanks to stop you from taking a dive into a ditch if you do go into a slide. Cabot has done a good job of keeping West Shore Road sanded, but driveways and private roads are a whole different scenario - proceed with caution!