We had a cold day - in the single numbers early this morning, but it warmed up a bit during the day - into the teens. There was a hint of sunshine from time to time, but it never really got through the mist of snow and (I suppose) ice particles that hung over Walden and West Danville. We went to St. Johnsbury - at the right is W. Shore Rd. as we started off this morning.

We stopped at the post office in West Danville - that's Fred and some folks we didn't know who had just pulled up at the store. We got about half a foot of very light, fluffy snow over night and the roads were well salted so everyone's vehicles were plastered with grungy sand salt. It was the kind of day that when you get out of the car there's a wet smudge on your jeans from the rocker panel and if you brush against the car when you're loading your groceries your jacket is decorated with a white stripe. Then you get in the car and when you make a sharp turn, the tire grinds against the icy build-up in the wheel well and if you're lucky, there will be a big glob of dirty snow behind you when you look in your rear-view mirror; and if you don't see it, you'll find it melting in a big dirty, salty puddle in your garage after you get home. That's the kind of day it was.

St. Johnsbury didn't get anywhere near the amount of snow we got at Joe's Pond. I took the bottom picture as we were coming down the interstate heading south to the Danville exit. Almost bare ground on that north slope. We're due more snow tomorrow and Saturday, and Sunday, and probably Monday. In fact, there are at least two "lows" headed our way with more snow tomorrow afternoon and over the weekend. Hooray!

We left some Ice-Out tickets with son Bill at Thurston & Dimick Auto Sales and learned there is an auction house next door to them now. Here's a link to their web site: Jenkins Auction Service

Their next auction will be next Wednesday. Bill says there are some really good deals. It made me think back to the Saturday night auctions Albert May used to have at Molly's Pond. Remember the "man with the Derby Hat"?

Here is an announcement:

You Don't Have To Do It Alone

An opportunity to allow Cabot's community groups to discuss how working in partnership can meet each individual organization's goals and better serve our community.

Tuesday, January 11
7 -8:30 p.m.
Willey Building

There is tremendous potential in Cabot's community organizations working together to ease the amount of work we all do and improve our community. We invite you to join us for conversation and dessert. We hope to use this opportunity to:

-Learn more about the 40+ organizations in town;
-Coordinate to share resources and support one another's goals;
-Identify common needs; and
-Create greater success for every Cabot organization.

Dessert and coffee will be served.

Sponsored by the Cabot Chronicle and
The Friends of the Cabot Library.

For more information call the Cabot Coalition at 563-3338.

We have had snow squalls all day. I measured 2.2 in. of new snow at 9 a.m. when I posted my CoCoRaHS report, and I think there must be at least another three or four inches now. Very fluffy and light, but builds up on the roads making the slippery. The temperature is staying around 20 degrees, and so far there hasn't been any wind, but if the wind picks up, we'll have blizzard conditions, for sure with all this light snow to blow around. I took this picture from our living room window a few minutes ago; we can barely see the Rt. 15 side of the pond.

Fred went to recycle at Wolcott this morning. He said the roads weren't too bad, but the crews were keeping them well salted. Yesterday, with just a sifting of snow there were several accidents. He took pictures along the way - on Rt. 15 meeting the plow, then in Hardwick (below), and on Brickett's Crossing Road (bottom picture) - isn't that pretty?

I've had the scanner on most of the morning and there is constant chatter about weather conditions. At one point one of the men said he was on Rt. 302 and the sun was shining! It brightened here a couple of times, but no real sunshine so far. A couple of times someone would say it was "letting up" where he was plowing, but I think that was wishful thinking.

Fred was out once with the snow blower and will go out again before everyone comes home.

I've had to shut Woody out of my office today. He's such a pain in the winter - gets so bored and keeps pestering to go outside and then in five or ten minutes he's knocking at the door go get back in. I didn't want to be bothered, but I suppose if I don't pay attention he will go and bother Fred. I'll try to make room for him on my desk later on, after I've finished a few things, and then he'll be happy at least for a while. This is the time of year he uses his cat-walk getting to the tops of the kitchen cupboards. He was mesmerized last night watching the turntable in the microwave while I was getting supper. He just happened to be on the board above it so he got a good view. Being usually on the floor, he'd never seen it before.

I guess I'll go take a walk in the snow before it gets dark.

This is what Danville looked like this morning as Fred and Bill were coming back from St. Johnsbury. Lots of bare ground there. We don't have quite that much here at Joe's Pond, but close. We've had a little snow this afternoon, but on the scanner I'm hearing reports that it's tapering off. More is expected in the next few days - getting a little each day.

I've been working on the historical society web site today and also received in the mail some copies of Goodrich sterioptics that I've been trying to identify using the library of photos we have. I may have made some headway, but have to give up on it for now. I seem to be spending more hours at my computer and desk each day and need to ease off, I think.

I have some "bookkeeping" to do for Ice Out and the JPA Playground Fund so that will be a little bit of change.

Lots of stuff going on today that I'm hearing over the scanner. A bad chimney fire, but I don't know where - missed the directions. And the road crews have been very chatty, spreading salt and checking the roads. They may have a busy night ahead if the snow starts up again.

This is what our world is like today. The first picture is looking north from our house towards Walden where there are clouds of snow coming down the ravine. Only a few snowflakes at the moment, but the little bit we had last night is blowing around.

I was right about the wind in West Danville (earlier blog below). I could hear the water rushing over the dam and thought about going over to get a picture, but it was just too cold and windy.

Hardly any people around at all - just the mail truck as I pulled in, and the store was empty of customers so I saw only Garey. I did get this picture of the ice by the beach - this is the way the whole pond is right now. As I went along W. Shore Road, I stopped to take another picture of the broad part of the pond which is showing lots of pretty clear ice. I do think you could skate there. I don't know how thick the ice is right now after the thaw, so I wouldn't want to go out there. We've been watching for the ice fisherman, but nobody has shown up yet, at least, not behind the big island which is where we can often see a lone fisherman. It may be too cold and windy for him to want to be out there. He could end up down at the fishing access once the wind got him started sliding on that ice.

Here we are, back in more normal weather. After the rain took a whopping toll on our snow cover, everything is tightly frozen again, the thermometer is reading 19 degrees in the shade and there's a brisk north wind. I have to go to West Danville later and I expect the wind will be blasting through town like the Daltons and the James Gang with Matt Dillon and his posse tight behind them.

This is our view this morning - there are icy spots showing on the pond and bare spots showing on the hillsides. Our north facing slope has held the snow very well, but there is only about half what there was a couple days ago. No doubt we'll get some back, but we feel sorry for skiers who had the rainy conditions and now very likely some icy spots to contend with.

I had this note from Steve Allen this morning:

Happy New Year!

Still enjoying the blog, and congratulations on the revised JPA website - very nice! Surprised the blog/news haven't picked up on the 24.5% WEC electric rate increase effective 1/1/11. The PSB still needs to approve it - if they don't, then WEC will have to refund any payments already made. But if approved, it's a big chunk of change for lots of Joe's Pond/Cabot folks!

Best Regards,

This will sound lame, but truth is, I've had the notice from WEC on my desk all weekend thinking I'd get a chance to mention it. However, now that Steve has brought it up - yes, it's a very big jump, 23.81% (not sure where Steve got his figure). My first thought was, wait until the Public Service Board rules on the increase before implementing it, but I've always felt that our Washington Electric Cooperative exercised good judgment and I understand that they've held off as long as they could and probably need to have the additional money to operate. No doubt there will be some increase - whether the PSB will grant the full increase is something we'll have to wait to find out. Here's a link you may be interested in: VT Electric Rates

Central Vermont Public Service requested an 8.34% rate increase and the PSB agreed to a 7.67% increase. WEC has resisted raising rates longer than other companies, and that accounts for the very large request now. It would have been less of a shock had they increased more gradually, but we've enjoyed the benefit of lower rates for a while.

I have often wondered at the extent the electric company has gone to help us decrease the amount of electricity we consume. That flies in the face of normal business practices, I would think. On the other hand, one must applaud them for their commitment to "going green," and helping us use less energy.

Washington Electric Rates

Green Mt. Power Comparison Chart

Back to other important stuff: Steve mentioned the new look of the web site, and he's right. Fred has been working hard to bring a fresh look first to home page and now other pages as we start off a new year. He's been working with a new web design program called Joomla! for UVM's Office on Aging, and so is using some of the techniques on our site. It's always good to update and improve - I'll tackle freshening up the blog eventually, but for now I have to finish the Cabot Historical Society site which is going to keep me busy for a while.

And now I venture out into the cold and wind and make my way to Hastings Store.

We spent a quiet New Year's Day after a really nice evening with friends Bill and Diane Rossi and Don and Diane Sherwood. Bill and Fred had gone to St. Johnsbury on Thursday to do errands, one of which was to go to the meat market. Fred really liked the ham Marie served on Christmas Eve and so he went to R & J Meats to get one like it. How he happened to come home with pot roast I'm really not sure . . . like Diane says, we should know not to send the two of them to do errands together. However, it turned out perfectly because the roast was really good and Don was kind enough to say it was a favorite of his. Bill's mom, Alba, sent us some very special Italian cookies that were perfect to finish off the meal.

As some of you know, Bill does not stay anywhere past 9 o'clock because 9:30 is his bed time, but he made it until 10 o'clock last night! Don came on the condition he wouldn't have to stay up until midnight . . . so much for rowdy partying. I guess none of us watched the ball drop - I know we didn't. I thought I heard fireworks around 11 o'clock, but I couldn't be sure and I was too tired to get up to see what was going on and Fred was already asleep.

Today has been in the 40's and the snow melted a bit. It is still about 42 outside my window, but I think we may get colder weather tomorrow. I measured 9.5 in. of snow on the ground early this morning, and just a trace of new precipitation. It's our "January thaw," I guess. Or a result of climate change. Maybe this is what our winters are going to be like from now on. All the snow will be south of us and we'll bask in spring-like temperatures. There may be some sunshine for a while tomorrow.

The Christmas decorations will all come down tomorrow. I normally would have taken everything down today and put it all away, but I had some other things I needed to catch up on so didn't get to it. I didn't have a lot of decorations up this year - wreaths and a few lights was all.

Those of you who are familiar with the Cabot Chronicle may be interested to know it may have to cease publication unless they can find a way for the Cabot Coalition to continue. It seems the two large grants the Coalition had have run out and now they need to fund their activities some other way. They are looking for volunteer help and ideas on how they can keep going. The Coalition provides services for Cabot youths as well as the monthly newspaper.

Did you see in the Caledonian the other day that Gilman Housing Trust is looking at the possibility of building a 40-unit housing complex on 13 acres of land on Walden Hill in Danville. The report was that it would be a mix of senior, low income and assisted living units and probably wouldn't begin until 2013. Perhaps the Rt. 2 work will be done by then. It will be interesting to see if it actually happens.

Well, we're launched into 2011. Let's hope this is an exceptional year - that gas prices go down instead of up, there are fewer homeless and hungry, more jobs, cell service in our area, good ski and snowmobile weather when and where it's supposed to happen and fewer natural disasters where they're not supposed to happen, and that all the men and women serving overseas get to come home real soon. It would also be nice if the legislators in Washington decide not to vote nice pay raises for themselves and instead dig in with common sense to work together on behalf of the nation as a whole. In my book, that would be a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HI TO ALL,

" HAPPY NEW YEAR "

WE WANT TO WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2011.

WITH LOVE AND BLESSINGS,

HOMER AND MARGARET