This black O'Neill life preserver vest was found floating in the third pond last night. It is a size medium. Linda Livendale rescued it and if it's yours, contact her at 802-272-6564.






Our next-door neighbor, Anita, was visited by a young bear this week. He did a lot of damage to her garden, tearing up ground cover and seedlings. She was able to scare him off, but says be on the lookout.

Keep garbage, bird seed and anything that might attract bears in a secure place. They have a keen sense of smell and will travel miles for food this time of the year. They are hungry! Anita thinks it might have been the garden fertilizer that attracted him, but other than that, has no clue what brought him to her house.

Raising a garden here can be a challenge between the deer, raccoons, rabbits and now bears! Not to mention the smaller critters like moles, mice and slugs.

Here is some encouraging news about tick control. There is a product called Cedarcide made by Yardsafe. Carolyn Porter (North Shore Road) sent an email after reading my recent post about ticks. They have found ticks this year and she is trying Cedarcide. It is made from cedar oil and is said to be safe for animals, children and the environment. If it works, it's a great find. Thanks to Carolyn for sharing that information with us.

I am very interested in the Cedarcide - not just because I want to control the tick population around our property, but also because cedar oil was once a thriving industry in our area. There were several cedar stills in the Joe's Pond area where  many farmers were happy to trim off prolific cedar trees in return for some extra money. The cedar was put through a distillation process to remove the precious oil that was used to preserve wood, in medicines, perfume,  cleaning products, paint and a host of other things. The industry died out as land ownership changed from farming to residential and people became more protective of their trees and landscape.