We've had more confirmations that the boom heard a couple nights ago was, indeed, our Vermont National Guard on practice maneuvers.  Kind of makes one feel good to know they are up there and keeping their skills honed.  Thanks to everyone who has chimed in on this - that makes ME feel good because I know people are reading the blog!  

The weather was very spring-like today - well, at least it was in Burlington.  Like April without the showers.  The highest I noticed on our car thermometer was 53 degrees, but I suspect there were times and places in town where it was warmer than that.  It was certainly very pleasant, with sunshine and of course absolutely no snow there.  Along the river there were fields of ice blocks left by the high water last week.  

I had a couple of things I needed to do in Cabot, so we came home that way.  Fred had asked me a couple days ago what sort of mud season I thought we'd have this year.  This is almost like guessing the Ice-Out date - it's pretty hard to figure out what makes mud season worse.  Is it when a.) it rains a lot, b.) there's not much snow cover so the frost goes deeper, c.) there are big temperature swings causing alternating freezing and melting, d.) none of the above, or e.) all of the above.   We had just left paved Route 215 onto Cabot Plains Road when we hit a kitchen table sized spot with slimy deep ruts and glistening mud.  A little further up the hill, where the sun had hit, another, slightly larger spot.  The rest of the road had the  usual firm stretches of road pocked with potentially bottomless mud bogs in the early stages of formation.  We had our answer.  This has all the earmarks of a really nasty (and I mean that literally) mud season lurking in our future. 

A former Cabot road commissioner once commented to me that he couldn't understand why anyone would want to live on a back road.  Indeed, he lived in the village, and had all of his lifetime.  I didn't tell him I felt the same about anyone living in the village.  I admit all the years we've pounded through muddy springs to get to where we needed to be have not been wonderful; but after mud season is over and we return to dusty back roads winding through tunnels of big old maple trees and between stone walls and broken down fences that outline fields and pastures, I'm more than just happy that I live on a back road.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  Above, mud season, 2004, West Shore Road.  Somebody stuck a log in the hole so nobody would drive into it.  The culvert had washed out under the road.

Since the answer to the question above is e.) all of the above, I'm predicting that this year we'll have a mega mud season!  And it's already begun on Cabot Plains Road, so think about laying in a supply of whatever you'll need in case you're caught on the wrong side of the mud holes.  

Folks who live on back roads have various ways of coping with mud season.  Some have a "mud-mobile" and put up their "good car" for the duration.  Some use a "two-car" method:  they leave a car on the good end of the road and have a second parked on the other side of the mud bog.  They then walk through the mud as best they can and continue with the second car.  We had friends in East Hardwick who always took a trip during mud season.  Some folks have been known to prevail upon friends to put them up for a week or so; some others just stay home and hope there's no emergency need for them to have to go any place.  That's mostly what we do - hang out at home.  That and watch the road to see who is brave enough to try to battle through the mud.

Here's something that may interest some of you:
 

Confronting the Challenge of Climate Change:

Local and Global Perspectives on the Climate Crisis with Brian Tokar

Thursday, March 24 at 7 p.m.

The warmest Vermont winter in history has made it clear that unsettling climate changes are upon us. We will discuss what people are doing in Vermont and around the world to address this emerging global crisis.

Brian Tokar is an activist and author, Lecturer in Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, and a board member of 350Vermont and the Institute for Social Ecology. He is the author of The Green Alternative, Earth for Sale, and Toward Climate Justice: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and Social Change.

At the Jaquith Public Library:  Old Schoolhouse Common,122 School St. RM 2, Marshfield, VT. 802-426-3581

jaquithpubliclibrary@gmail.com or visit our website; www.jaquithpubliclibrary.org.

Helen Morrison has asked me to put the following "thank you" here: 
 Kingdom Animal Shelter would like to thank all those who donated items to our Yard Sale on Feb. 27 and to those who came and browsed and bought.  We took in $2400.  That is awesome.  Your support is so wonderful.   Helen Morrison

 They really did a good job, or I should say, everyone who donated and worked on the fund raiser did a good job.  Well done!

You will find a couple more comments below about the noise heard last night.  When the state police followed up on our call, we were told they had checked with the Vermont National Guard were told there were no planes in this area at the time we heard the boom.  However, they were in the air last night until 11 o'clock, so were obviously flying in some area over northern Vermont so we heard the noise.  We knew there was lots of air traffic - we heard and saw helicopters going in  all directions, and could hear planes high in the sky.  I think it's safe to say it was our Air National Guard performing their training tasks.  Mystery solved!  A big thank you to all the people who commented here and sent emails to us about this.  It all sure put some excitement in our lives for a little while.

Sad news for Joe's Pond Community

I learned this morning of the death of another of our Joe's Pond family - Patty Ribolini.  Patty died on Thursday, March 3rd at her home in Middlesex.  Patty and her husband, Stephen, have had a cottage on Point Comfort Road for many years and loved being here at the pond.  She was such a happy and energetic person, it is hard to accept that she will no longer be with us.  Our deepest sympathy goes to Steve and the family.  Condolences may be sent to:  Stephen Ribolini, 56 Upper Sunnybrook Rd., Montpelier VT 05602.

There is no real explanation for that big boom we heard last night.  There was a short piece on WCAX this morning and apparently because people near Joe's Pond reported it, there was some discussion of whether it might have been an "ice boom."  Those of us who are familiar with the pond in winter know that what we heard last night was way louder than anything the ice produces in the way of winter sounds.  Weatherman Nick Borelli's best guess was a sonic boom.

I've heard from a few people in our area who heard it, and there were two comments (read at the bottom of last night's post) from people living in Glover who were also jolted by it.  We have had guesses of all kinds of possibilities such as the cell tower at the farm on Cabot Plain exploding (do they do that?), some kind of big vehicle accident/explosion on Route 2, a transformer on the power line exploding, or a meth lab somewhere nobody knew about blowing up.  I still go with a sonic boom.  It surely disturbed the quiet we are accustomed to on deeply cold winter nights like last night.

We heard a lot about the phenomenon of sonic boom back in the 1960s and 70s, and occasionally heard those thunderous booms even here in Vermont, away from flight testing areas.  Over time, our memory has dimmed about that as well as other events - we can call it an age thing; however, apparently there was good cause for banning aircraft at certain speeds and altitudes.  I found this study of sonic booms done about the noise and damage caused during testing some of you may find interesting. 

 

Did anyone hear a big BOOM!! tonight at about 9 o'clock?  It brought both of us to our feet.  We thought something must have exploded, but we looked in all directions and saw nothing unusual.  There was a lot of air traffic, however, and we're thinking it was likely a sonic boom.  Even though We reported it, and apparently other people heard it and reported it to police as well; but we've no clue as to what it was yet.  I went out onto our deck to see if I could hear or see anything unusual, but other than the air traffic, a couple of helicopters and some jets very high, the sky was beautiful, clear and boy, was it cold out there.  About 10 above zero at the time.  We turned on the scanner, but there was absolutely nothing happening there.  At least we're pretty sure our neighbors are all ok, and perhaps there will be more about whatever we heard later on.

I had forgotten until Jamie mentioned it tonight, but supersonic planes were banned from flying over United States because of the booms when they exceeded the speed of sound.  I Googled it, and found it was in 1973.  No wonder the young police office we spoke with was confused when we said we thought it was a sonic boom.  He likely wasn't even born then.  Military planes are allowed to fly at whatever speed is necessary on occasion, but for the most part, sonic booms are supposed to be a thing of the past.  Except for possibly tonight some rogue pilot got frisky, I bet.  Was that you, Bugs?

Very cold again tonight and will be near zero by morning.  We hit the zero mark last night and also had a little snow - one inch measured on our deck this morning.  That was the only time I've been outdoors all day.  I am busy getting the Joe's Pond Association Spring Newsletter ready, contacting people for ads, news items and our Board of Directors for their reports, so I decided in favor of staying busy and warm rather than risking ice and cold for a few minutes of exercise, even though I've missed several days in a row this week due to bad weather.  I'll try to make up for it when this cold snap turns around in another day or so.  We're looking at near 50 by next week -- so the see-saw continues.

It was nice to have sunshine all day.  I think most people can handle the cold better when the sun is shining.  When I was outside getting readings of snow depth and precipitation early this morning, even though it was only about 8 degrees above zero, there was some warmth in the sun.  Spring will come, and with it perhaps some more normal weather.

In the meantime, we have had steady on-line ticket sales since the page was activated on Tuesday.  We're glad folks are interested in the Ice-Out Contest and right now it looks as though we might make it to April 1st without the block going down and stopping the clock.  The earliest the ice has gone out was on April 5 in 2010.  We had another close year in 2012, but it held until April 8 that year.  Even with pretty warm weather, it will take some time for the 15-18 inches of ice to melt, so with every cold snap like this we figure we're that much closer to making it through March so we won't have to abruptly call a halt to ticket sales because the clock stopped before April 1st.  Fingers crossed, we head for the finish line.

By the way, some of you will remember when we used to have Sunfish sailboat races during the summer here at Joe's Pond.  Some Sundays there would be a couple dozen or more sailboats out there and usually there was good wind and lots of excitement.  We haven't had races for 20 years or so, and every now and then someone will mention, why don't we bring sailing back?  Susan Bouchard is doing that.  The Caledonian Record is sponsoring a race scheduled for  Sunday, July 17 (rain date August 14).  I'll have more information later on, but for now, she wants you to know that everyone is welcome to join in - just for fun or seriously to win.  If you have a Sunfish but don't want to race, consider lending it to someone who wants to race but doesn't have a boat.  Also, both singles and doubles are allowed in this one-time-winner-take-all race.  Contact Sue Bouchard, chatotbouchard@comcast.net or call her at  978-702-4335 or 802-563-2716.  Sue will be matching up sailors and boats hoping to have a good fleet racing in July.  

We'll have more about this on the website and here on the blog as time goes on, but mark your calendar and make plans to activate that Sunfish once again.  The above postcard image was taken about 1978, I think.  The races were really popular for several years and went on every weekend with various categories such as singles, doubles, a Powder-Puff race for women, junior category for kids - there was something for everyone and every level of sailing expertise.  There were some sailing who never even came close to winning a race, but they were out there faithfully every Sunday, mixing it up with the big guys like Marvin Sheffield, Fred Silloway and Burt Morrison.  Even winning the "Best Sportsman Award" was a big deal, and the "after party" at the end of the season at the Smith camp was always an event - everyone had a great time.

Cabot Town Meeting Results

Here's a brief report of the Cabot Town Meeting results, thanks to Town Clerk Betty Ritter:
 School Board 2 Years - Jacklyn Folsom
School Board 3 Years - Chris Tormey
Select Board 2 Years - Michael Hogan
Select Board 3 Years - Jack Daniels

Zoning Regulations, Subdivision Regulations and $90,000 Garage Storage Unit did not pass.
All of the other Articles passed.
Primary Winners:
Democratic Party - Bernie Sanders
Republican Party - John Kasich
Great success for opening at 7 a.m.
Thank you to all the 551 registered voters who came out to vote today.

The first day of March kind of came in like a lion during last night with very high winds and even a little snow.  Today was sunny and pleasant to look out at from inside, but very cold all day.  It's warming up a little tonight, and we're in for a messy storm tomorrow, but none of that is news.

The news is that the block and flag are out on the ice, the clock will be connected within a few days - no hurry about that since the ice is not going anywhere real soon - but we're glad to have the contraption set up so we don't have to worry about the warm spells coming up next week that might make going out onto the ice hazardous.  I'm not sure I would want to be out there with a pickup truck like Larry Rossi and whoever helped him, but then again, with temperatures last night near zero, I guess we're still making more ice than is melting.  Diane retrieved this shot from the web cam - and yes, that's a narrow strip of open water by the end of their dock.  We haven't figured that out yet, but it may be from someone's deep well runoff.  Rossi's well runoff is further to the right, so this is not from theirs.  The open water (and no doubt thin ice) was going to make it difficult for Larry to get onto the ice from this shore as he has in the past to set the flag up, therefore he decided to approach it from the fishing access way down the pond - using a pickup truck instead of hauling everything out on a sled!  Good job, Larry!

The other big news is that the pay-on-line page for Ice-Out tickets is now up and activated.  We had some sales almost immediately, and that's always good news.  We had promised it would be activated on March 1st, and I guess some people were anxiously waiting.  You can let your far-away friends or friends you don't see often who can't handily get regular tickets know they can get them on line.  It's quick and easy, but you do have to purchase ten to be able to pay for them on line.  The printable tickets can be used for fewer purchases, but you have to use regular mail and enclose your money, $1 for each ticket. 

I think a lot of people will be watching the weather and our ice reports from now on to fine-tune their guesses and will then get in the game by using the on-line tickets. We have had more questions about what will happen if the block sinks stopping the clock before the official end of the contest on April 1st.  If that should happen, all ticket sales will immediately stop.  Our ticket outlets have been alerted this could happen.  We will only consider tickets that are received before the date/time the clock stops.  Any that are in the mail will be accepted only if the date stamp on the envelope indicates they were mailed before the date/time the clock stopped.  We all hope the ice holds up until after April 1st, but with crazy weather swings such as we've had all winter still baffling us, we just cannot depend on a "normal" ice-out process.  Stay tuned.