Most of us returned to work today to a cold day. Even though it rained all day yesterday, it was at least warm (upper 40’s). And after all the snow I was glad to see a little rain. It is funny how quickly a week passes when you are not here. I missed seeing Big Lou – the state ice breaker – come in to clear the creek for the sea trial on a brokerage boat.  They didn’t come in at high tide and couldn’t get all the way up to the travel lift (it’s a big boat) so they had to do a bit of clearing out here with ice eaters and other methods to get the boat out to the clear water and it made it without any problems over to Oxford where they could have easier access to the river.  Not sure how the sea trial went but I assume it went well with all the hours we spent on the boat before hand. It will take a few hours to get everyone back into action after a week off.  I did get Pat cleaning up some stuffing boxes that he had percolating in muratic acid. They are looking pretty good right now.