It has been real busy around here what with the ice fishing derby and the polar bear club dip so i have not got to the computer for a few days. that is the bad news, but the good news is that I won the derby and jake stayed in the water at the polar bear dip for abt half an hour and maybe set a record and we have another call in to the guiness people to see if he can get into that record book of theres. he is deadset on getting in there, i have to tell you.

anyway, everyone wondered how i cld catch so many pikes and pickerels and perches and how jake cld stay in the cold water so long and i will tell you: ben gay. We have got another five cases in and now we are sitting pretty for ice fishing bait and unfreezing any pipes what freeze and for slathering up and jumping in the water.

but that is not what i wanted to tell you. what i wanted to tell you is that this skier fellow from connecticut got his car stuck in a snowbank and after i and jake pushed him out jake discivered that the conneticut skier fellows camera was in his coat pocket. actually, even this is not what i wanted to tell you abt. what i wanted to say here is that it has been so busy what w/ our winter activities and stoking the woodstove and pushing people out of snowdrifts that i plum have not got down to check the mail. and so when i finally did, w/ this connecticut skier fellows camera in my pocket i happened to take the following picture, which as you will see shows that that mouse what lives in my mailbox has come back and set up shop in my mailbox even after i moved him a good 22 miles north and hosed out the mailbox. that is what you have to do w/ mice. You either have to kill them or move them at least 21 miles north or they will come back, but for some reason i do not feel like killing this little fellow so i guess i will have to move him or maybe its a her at least 23 miles north. Here is the picture, altho as soon as the mouse seen me he ran out of the box so this is only a picture of its living room which it has gotten pretty well decorated since I took the hose to it:

Incidentaly, you will probably notice that there is not snow in the picture. That is b/c the mailboxes are in a vernal area, which means it is warm there all the year round. Snow does not stick there which is why we have mailboxes there and the postoffice appreciates it very much. the only problem w/ the vernal area is that it gets overrun w/ frogs and salamanders living there and they can sometimes be a problem b/c they get into the mail and get slime all over things.