What a great day - a little cooler than yesterday, but still really nice.  We were on a short road trip today, through Waterbury, Stowe, Morrisville and down Route 15.  We stopped in Waterbury at Green Mountain Coffee to pick up a supply of coffee and grab a snack. They had freshly made biscotti with cranberries and almonds.  Is there anything better than coffee and biscotti?  If you haven't visited there (it's the old railroad depot and very interesting inside) you should do that.  

It was close to noon and there were lots of people enjoying  the park, like in summer, eating their lunches, sitting in small groups soaking up the sun, or just strolling around on the beautiful young, green grass.  The trees are much further along than here, and almost everywhere the grass WAS truly greener than here!  Even yesterday when I was in St. Johnsbury it was noticeably warmer, greener and springier.  It's pretty nice living in a higher, cooler location because then we get to enjoy spring a lot longer.  We just have to go a few miles in either direction, and by the time those locations have begun to lose the spring buds and flowers, we'll be getting them here.  Pretty neat, actually.

Stowe area wasn't quite as far along with spring as Waterbury seemed to be, but it was still very pretty driving through the area.  We don't often go that way, so it was fun seeing the changes.  We actually took Route 2 instead of the throughway from Montpelier to Waterbury, and that was interesting, too.  Not much traffic, and although the road had some potholes, it wasn't awful.  I used to take that road frequently when I was working in Montpelier and had to go to the Dept. of Vital Records about every week.  

Actually, we were impressed with Route 2 from here to Montpelier today.  The last time we'd been over it was back in the winter sometime and it seemed very rough, but today was much better.  That's more than I can say for our dirt roads from Walden Heights to Route 2.  We've been very fortunate not to have deep mud, but none of the three towns have done much to smooth out the bumps yet.  Brickett's Crossing road is mostly Walden's, and from Barre Avenue to Route 2 is Danville's, while the stretch in between, most of West Shore Road, is Cabot's.  I think Cabot will be out with the big hone pretty soon - the frost must be mostly out by now.

You may have noticed there was a brief period when our website was down today.  Our site is hosted by Go-Daddy, and they are changing something about their service that is supposed to make it better, and in the process we were knocked off.  No surprise there - that's the way these things go; it's technology showing us all how dependent we've become on it.  After spending most of the afternoon on the phone with tech support, Fred was able to get things ironed out and we're good now.  It will be interesting to see if we notice any difference in how the site loads, etc. 

Here is the schedule for the Cabot Library - click to make it bigger.

They have some interesting stuff going on there.  The Willey Building will soon have more parking available, too.  At town meeting it was voted to purchase land adjoining the lot the building stands on in order to make extra parking. 

There is also an upcoming struggle for Cabot folks to decide how to solve the problem of extensive repairs on the satellite buildings at Cabot School. There are water problems, dwindling enrollment, increased overall expenses, a gym that needs attention - all of which adds up to a pretty penny.  The School Board is trying to come up with the best solution to a host of problems. One of the biggest problems is that the school was built in a swampy area and it's very difficult to keep things dry.  We will be hearing a lot more about this issue, I'm sure.

Ban on Burning in Effect State Wide

Burn Permit Ban Goes Into Effect in Vermont
MONTPELIER - May 5, 2015 - After a warm, dry weekend and a Red Flag warning yesterday that ended with more than 25 new reports of wild fires, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR) has issued an order for all of the state's forest fire wardens to cease issuing burning permits as of 3:00 P.M. on May 5th through May 19th. A Red Flag Warning means there are critical fire weather conditions including low relative humidity, high winds with little to no precipitation had fallen in the past few days. Fires that ignite during these conditions spread rapidly and with high intensity. The ban may be revoked or extended based upon weather conditions.
"We have received notification from many Forest Fire Wardens that they have stopped issuing permits in their towns," said Lars Lund, Vermont Forest Fire Supervisor, “This non-burn order supports their efforts.” This ban is a cooperative effort between FPR and the Green Mountain National Forest.
"We are seeing fast moving fires burning intensely in difficult terrain and with damage to structures or with structures threatened,” said Lund. “Downed power lines caused the largest fire yesterday in Brattleboro due to high winds. While this type of fire can’t be avoided, human caused fires can be prevented. Because of the warm weather, we know there are a lot of people in the woods. Today's order will help us and help the state's fire wardens reduce the sources of fires."
Lund stressed that the order is for two weeks, and if significant rain falls anywhere in the state, the order can be revoked by county.

We didn't get much rain last night - I measured .05 inch in my collection tube.  Not enough to wet things down sufficiently.  Everything is very dry in the woods, even though the snow has really only been gone a few days.  Things are beginning to get a little green - even that small amount of rain helped the grass - and trees are budding.  It wasn't as warm today, but still quite nice.

Karen Cobb in Virginia, sent this picture of "Gunnar," their new puppy, and I noticed how lush and pretty things are there, making the perfect background for this handsome fellow.  Karen is looking forward to fun with Gunnar at Joe's Pond.  He's only about 15 weeks old, so there are lots of new things for him to explore and learn about.

Things are beginning to change here at the pond.  The Joe's Pond Craft Shop is open - I haven't been in to see Deb, but I noticed a few cars there when I came through town this morning.  Then up the road Sambel's food truck is back.  I expect with road work going on in the area this summer they will do well.  I think the crew working on the rail trail are closer to Danville and St. Johnsbury, so they find other places for their lunches.  At Hastings Store, James and Garey are still making their home-made offerings.  The traffic is different since the post office is only open in the afternoon - mail doesn't get sorted until mid or late afternoon, as I understand it, wo mornings at the store tend to be pretty quiet. 

Jane is home from the hospital in Boston.  I haven't seen her, but have been told she's been out and about a little bit.  She did not have the procedure the doctors had thought could help her, but they may have found other ways to make her more comfortable.  We wish her the very best.

I talked on the phone with our granddaughter, Tangeni, for a few minutes tonite.  When she calls, right after her cheerful, "Hi, Grandma," she will always ask, "How's Woody?" and then her next question is "How's Grandpa?"  Tonight she had a little cough, and when I asked if she had a cold, she told me, "Yes, I'm very sick."  Her dad quickly came on the phone and told me she's not sick, just has a residual cough that seems to be useful for getting a little extra attention.  Her dance recital is this Thursday through Saturday, so both she and big sister Jo-Ann have been very busy with rehearsals. It seems like a hefty schedule to do so many shows - I think four including the Saturday matinee.  A lot for a four-year-old, and also a heavy schedule for a teenager with a very busy school schedule.  They will both need some down time after the performances are over.

Woody is actually very happy these warm nights.  He comes in only long enough for a snack and then wants to go right back out.  The night sounds and smells transform him from a laid-back house buddy to a lithe, bright-eyed predator.  A couple nights ago he'd only been outside for a short time when I heard a loud knock on the kitchen door.  I went to let him in, careful to open the door only a crack because sometimes he has a critter in his mouth and then lets it go in the house so we have to hunt the poor thing down.  This particular night I was surprised that Woody wasn't anxiously  pressing his nose against the door like he usually does, so I opened the door wider and as I did, I caught a glimpse of Woody darting down the stairs into the garage just as a mole scooted off the threshold onto the stoop in the opposite direction.  Apparently, like a kid playing a prank, Woody had brought his quarry to us, knocked on the door and then ran, leaving his gift on the door step.  It all happened very quickly - I shouted "Woody!" at him as he fled and slammed the door shut so the mole couldn't get into the kitchen.   I almost felt ashamed that I didn't appreciate his loving gesture more. I had to giggle, though, at the similarity to a kid ringing the doorbell and then running away.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Woody, our cat, we have hung a sap spout on a string on our back door and taught Woody to bat the spout, causing it to knock on the door when he wants to come in.  He has a very meek meow for such a big cat, but he knows how to give that sap spout a good wallop so we have no trouble hearing it.  If we don't respond right away, he bats it harder.  He's no fool, and we're his "staff."

We've had a really super day today - I'm not sure how high the temperature actually got, but pretty close to 80, even here at Joe's Pond.  Here's a note I had today from Barbara Pollock who's in Arizona right now - hopefully headed our way very soon:

Dear Jane,

I thought you might be interested in this fact: At 6:14 p.m on April 29th in Cabot, the time in Tucson, Arizona was 3:14 p.m.   It was 100 degrees, the first 100 degree day of the spring.

Then, this morning, at 8:00 a.m. Tucson time it was 61, and in Cabot at 11:00, it was 71.  How about that?  The climate is  changing! --Barbara

Just for fun, I just now checked the temperature in Tucson and at 8 p.m. there it is 68 degrees; at 7 p.m. in Anchorage, Alaska  (they are always on Standard Time), it is 54 degrees; here at 11 p.m. it is 61 degrees.  Really not that much variation.  When I went to Google Weather for West Danville, it gave 69 degrees at 11 p.m., so there's some allowance for elevation or something, I suppose.  We had a sprinkle of rain earlier in the evening, but it didn't amount to much.  We do really need a good wetting.  Everything is pretty dry in the woods until things begin to grow and green up.

Today I noticed what appears to be the very last of the ice having moved through the narrows headed for the dam.  This photo was taken from Route 2 just below the narrows on the middle pond.  All three sections of the pond are ice free and there have been boats out today.  Diane Rossi told me she and Ray Rouleau brought the Ice-Out stuff in because they were afraid a boat might run over the rope which floats but would be hard to see and an unsuspecting boater could have gotten tangled up in it.  Thanks to them for hauling the blocks, flag and rope safely to shore.  No easy task, I'm betting - the blocks are really heavy.  Everything is being put away for another year; we'll soon have 2016 Ice-Out tickets ready to go! 

We're concentrating on getting the newsletter out - it's at the printer's now and we should have it in the mail perhaps by the end of the week. Our summer season is about to begin in earnest!
Whoopee! 

 

We have had another glorious spring day. While we haven't had the deep mud we've had to put up with some years, our road is very rough with washboard and potholes.  Evelyn Richer told me this morning she was using their small tractor to move a pile of dirt left from a gardening project a few years ago and she said there was about eight inches of frost still in the pile and it was very hard  to break into it. That tells us there is probably still frost in our roads, and until we get a warm rain, things are not going to improve quickly.  The road crews can't really accomplish much honing the roads until the frost is pretty well gone.  However, our friend, Elizabeth, reminds us the roads are "pretty darned good," not like the soup holes we've had some years and that she got stuck in a couple years ago. She will be forever grateful to our neighbor, Luke Persons, for knowing just how to haul her out without damaging her car.

We went to the Danville Inn to the benefit supper for Garey and Jane Larrabee - it was very nice, and there were a lot of people we knew and a lot more we didn't know, but it was a really good turnout.  It's wonderful that a community can come together like that when needed.  The food was excellent and there was plenty for everyone. 

 
On the way home, we got some pictures of the last of the ice. It  is within hours of being history.  It's so nice to see open water almost everywhere.  There is still some of the slushy stuff crowding into the area by the narrows, but that will probably be gone by morning.  It would be gone now if there had been more wind today. 

I've started raking our lawn, working a little while each day, and surprisingly, it's very dry.  I hope the forecast is right and we get some rain tonight.  That will brighten things up a lot.  I'm a lazy gardener.  I don't do a lot of fertilizing - I just mulch my perennials with leaves or bark mulch and hope for the best.  They seem to do well in spite of me.  Of course, there are always weeds to contend with, and I'll work at those throughout the summer, a little at a time.  That way I never have to worry about everything looking great at once - I always have a section of flowers that need attention, so I feel needed - and  it lasts all summer.  Sometimes not everything gets "put to bed" in the fall.  Every fall I have that debate with myself whether to clip and mulch then or let everything fall victim to the snow and clean up the mess in the spring.  I hedged my bets last fall and cleared some and left some.  Either way, it's hard work. 

My once very pretty and thriving holly bush took a severe hit last year and looks like it's about finished off this year.  I'm going to have Fred dig it for me and we'll find a protected spot to transplant to.  The side that gets the north wind's blast has really suffered.  I'll try to wrap it better next year, if it survives.  One thing that's flourishing is my rhubarb.  I transplanted it last year and it looks very healthy this spring.  There are also some sprouts coming in the bed I transplanted it from, and that's probably going to do well, too.  Lots of rhubarb sauce for the freezer!

Don't Forget . . . !

The 2015 Ice-Out Contest Winner is Revealed!

I was successful in reaching our winner late last evening.  We can now tell you it is Mary Numa who lives in West Haven, Connecticut.  Mary was the only one who had the exact date and time.  There was one guess of 6:13 p.m. and two I noticed that were 6:15 p.m.

Mary told me in our telephone conversation last night that until her daughter chose to go to UVM a couple years ago, she had never been to Vermont, but she said she loves Vermont and was delighted when a neighbor who comes to Joe's Pond regularly to snowmobile told her about the Ice Out Contest.  Mary said she immediately got tickets on line and told her daughter to have all her friends get in the contest.  I have to say, her enthusiasm will be well rewarded as she will be receiving a check for over $6,000.  She will be coming to Vermont very soon to pick up her daughter at school and we're hoping they will find their way to Joe's Pond.  It is always fun to meet our winners and personally hand them the check.

Diane told me that Molly's Pond is free of ice, as are the first two ponds here. It usually happens that our main pond is pretty much free of ice within two or three days after the clock stops.  It's interesting that in the 28 years the contest has been running, only seven times has the clock stopped in May, the latest being May 6, 1992.  The earliest it has stopped was April 5, 2010 and April 8, 2012.  Most frequent times have been after April 15.  All the times are recorded and posted on the website.  We wondered if moving the setup to a different location would have any effect, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  In 2013 the clock stopped on 4/24, and the last two years, 4/29.  In case you are interested, more men have been winners, but that may be because there are more men entering the contest.  It isn't a big difference - over the years there have been 15 female and 21 male winners.  Remember that four different times we have had multiple winners, so we have more winners (36) than contests (28).  We have had a lot of local winners (28) in those years, and only eight from out of state.  I expect this is more than you really needed or wanted to know about contests most of you haven't won, so I'll move on to other things.

I had a call from Jack LaGue this morning telling me he and Sue had a visitor on their deck late last night - a good sized bear raided their bird feeder.  Jack said he had intended to take the feeder down but they had some seeds they wanted to use up and he really thought it was safe as their deck is eight feet or so off the ground and sort of over the water which should make it inaccessible to bears.  So he and Sue were really surprised to see one out there emptying the bird feeder. He said he grabbed a broom and yelled at the beast and it took off.  At least they got rid of some of their leftover bird seed!  Just give the poor bear the bag of seeds, Jack - the birds are faring much better these days than the poor bears!

Now we know for sure there are hungry bears in the area, so haul in your bird feeders and keep any garbage or food of any kind well secured.  They are clever beasts and have been known to somehow manage opening seemingly bear-tight containers and even break into buildings when they are hungry enough.  There isn't much for them to eat in the wild right now, and not only are the adults hungry, there are hungry cubs that mothers have to feed.

I had a message from Sharyn Duplessis (Otis Drive and Montpelier) that a friend needs a rental and would like it on or near Joe's Pond for the month of June while she waits to get into her new Danville home.  Sharyn said they need 2-3 bedrooms and have two well-behaved dogs.  If you have something available during June, you could get in touch with Sharyn at 802-229-9804, and she will let her friend know.