Photo Sunday at Noah Clark

Sophie's Monarch Granddaughter, 8 years old

at Comedy Plus

The pansy pot after Sophie Dog dug them up. Again.

Well, Sophie Dog dug up the pansies again. It happened during the weekend of our wedding, May 29. We thought Daisy Dog had done it. Or the chickens, or a raccoon or skunk. But after some detective work, we learned it was our dog. I was pretty upset. This was the third time she dug them up and we thought we had her tie far enough from the pansies to keep them safe. But we were wrong and Sophie Dog outwitted us.  The sad story of the pansies is told in these posts. I did get to the nursery for more pansies, but they only had six white ones, which we bought. Amelia replanted them and she also moved the dogs into the back of the house. Hopefully our pansies will survive the summer now!

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Catgirl's new puzzle

The kids took more photos of each other last week. They are beginning to get the knack of pointing, framing and shooting!

Ironman finishes setting the table for supper

Catgirl hugs Sophie Dog

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Route 16, which goes by the house, has been repaved. It's been a long process. On May 17, the crew finally had laid the new shoulders of blue stone. They had expensive machinery pounding the stone in the shoulder in a solid, hard mass. This isn't the soft, sandy shoulders of the old road. And then overnight . . . a big, old moose came out of the bog, walked down the road on the new shoulder for almost a quarter of a mile before it crossed the road to the mountain. The shoulder there is permanently holey now. So much for the hard work of that crew.

On the same day, Amelia and I took all three dogs for a walk. I have Willow, so you don't see her. Here is Amelia with Scout and Sophie. Our house is way, way back (that white speck), and the mountain is Barton Mountain, the middle hump. Barton Mountain has three humps: big, medium (in the middle) and small. From where we live, the mountain does not look like a mountain. But that is because we are only about 800 feet (244 m) from the summit, which is at 2, 235 feet (681 m).

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My daughter Amelia loves Nate. Nate has two children. Catgirl, above, is 6. Ironman, below, is 4. John and I have a lot of fun with them. We go to the library, do chores, read bedtime stories, go shopping and cook together. I gave them the Olympus camera the other day, taught them how to use it, and let them go at it. These are all of their photos!
Below, Ironman took a photo of Nate as he came home with Catgirl from school.
Below: Willow on the left, Scout in the far background. And Sophie on the right.
And below is my favorite photograph! Ironman took a photo of John as he was brush hogging. John played monster for the camera, which caused Ironman to scream with delight. The kids love John — talking to him constantly and climbing on him whenever he sits.
In the future, you'll be hearing out our adventures with Catgirl and Ironman!

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I haven't taken photos of these dogs in over a year. I have four granddogs. The fourth, Daisy, can be seen here. I have a new granddog now — Willow! She is a lady but a barker. Scout is the perfect dog: calm, secure and serene. And Sophie? Well, there is no describing her. She has behavioral problems. All three dogs belong to Nate and Amy.

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When Amy & Matt came on the Fourth of July, they brought Sophie (above) and Scout. The dogs loved the swimming in the pond and hunting in the woods for squirrels, chipmunks and mice. Sophie doesn't seem too happy here, but that is just the capture of the camera. She was running and swimming for hours.

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Amy, Matt, Sophie & Scout came for a cookout today, which we managed to have. It rained harder than it has the past month. Thunderstorm after thunderstorm rolled through and the rain was blinding. But inbetween, we managed to cook and we had a great time. The dogs swam, went mouse and squirrel hunting and we walked them down the road. No fireworks tonite (see the above graph)!

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We do other things in the winter besides cook and eat. The bird feeders require replenishing. Matt took these photos. Above you see the bird tree. I have added another thistle feeder sack because the redpolls are flocking by the dozens to them. Below you can see me, in my warm winter robe, leopard jammies that were a gift from my sister, and my boots, smearing all-natural, organic peanut butter on the bird tree. Today I put blobs of peanut butter on the tree instead of one huge smear. The chickadees and blue jays kept slipping off of the large area of peanut butter. Now they can safely peck away at it.

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Sophie has caught three shrews so far — one in the house and two out in the snow drifts (remember — shrews tunnel through the snow for safety from predators. But Sophie sniffs them out. See the previous post.) The cats have only caught two shrews in the basement. The Bad Boys didn't catch those. I know that because they never go into the basement. They sleep upstairs. They wake only to stumble to food and stumble back to bed.
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In 1810 the water level of Long Pond was 70 feet above this marker and the water flowed south into Greensboro and the Lamoille River.

Needing more water to power Aaron Willson's grist mill in Glover, 60 men and boys dug a ditch on the north shore (about 0.5 miles north of here) to cause the water to flow into the Glover/Barton River.

Due to the Quicksand in the earth, the entire hillside washed away and the pond "ran-a-way" discharging its billion gallons of water toward the mill in 1.5 hours.

Spencer Chamberlain raced ahead of the wall of water for 5 miles and saved the miller's wife.











If you look closely you can see an old stump in the pond. This is the last remaining stump of 12 stumps. The twelve trees that were here in 1810 were snapped off by the rushing waters of Long Pond.








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