Webinar, Early Sugarin', & Mark Twain

Last year several property owners here at Joe's Pond had evaluations of their waterfronts done by the Lakeshore Preservation project.  We recently received notice of an important webinar that will be of interest to any Joe's Ponders who may want to join the Lakeshore Preservation effort. This webinar will explain more about the project and the financial assistance that may be available to individuals who decide to improve their waterfronts.The webinar is tomorrow, but you can still sign up to look in on it.

We have had a couple nice days and today isn't bad - just no sunshine. I'm showing a temperature of 44.5F right now - not bad for the end of February. The temperature hovered around the freezing mark last night, and I know some sugar makers are already boiling sap. It is early - usually the first run is about town meeting time, around the first week in March; but producers who were ready to go early have been able to take advantage of these warm days and cold nights. There may be a "dry spell" when the sap won't run much as the weather goes cold again, but with luck, this could be an extended season and great for the maple sugar industry.

Today is the "quiet before the storm," according to the weather forecast. We aren't expecting anything awful, but this week looks like the only sunny day will be on Wednesday. The rest of the week we're expecting snow or a mix - and that has been the recipe for this winter. It's hard to figure out what "normal" weather is these days. This year nothing seems normal. When Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) remarked, "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes," he hit it just right. I happened to come across a copy of the speech given by Mr. Clemens on December 23, 1876 at the New England Society Forefathers' Day dinner, and published in the New York Times. When you have a few minutes, I think you may find it quite amusing. I first scrolled down to read his speech, but later went back to the description of the dinner at the famous  Delmonico's restaurant. It was quite a celebration - the dinner began at 7 p.m. and "proceedings terminated shortly after midnight." Hardy fellows, these New Englanders!

Clemens was actually born in Mississippi, but he lived in Hartford, Connecticut from 1874 to 1891, when he traveled with is family in Europe. The house was sold in 1903 and is presently maintained as a museum in Clemens's memory.