By HARRIET POTTER

The past week brought the two coldest days so far, with temperatures down to 17 degrees Fahrenheit. The cold kept several local turkeys huddled on their oak branch roost until midmorning. The ponds remained frozen through early this past week. Caleb’s Pond had a skim of ice last Monday. The light snow compacted into ice on many stretches of dirt road and were made slick by the rain last Tuesday. However, the gentle January sun was noticeably higher and felt almost spring-like during a couple of still days. After the light snow, small flocks of sparrows and juncos, including some bluebirds near the Point, flew up from the northern edge of the road in the morning where the melting snow uncovered food and warmth. Crocus, snowdrop and Rijnfeld Early Sensation daffodil leaves have appeared in my kitchen dooryard garden.

A light snow seems to encourage more otter traffic, or at least beautifully records their travels. An otter made its way from nearby wetlands to Dike Road via my driveway and left big, round, dog-like pawprints between long slides. Two neighbors found otter trails surprisingly close to their houses.

Nancy and Skip Bettencourt have enjoyed seeing a female white-winged crossbill at their feeder for the last few days. This new type of crossbill has shown up in only two or three places on the Vineyard. Several red-wing blackbirds have lingered and appear off and on at the Bettencourts’ and Potters’ feeders.

Nancy and Skip said shipwreck pieces are still visible at Wasque. The breach on the western side of Cape Pogue may be filling in. Liz Villard said it wasn’t visible at low tide, but I still found a shallow breach at high tide last Monday.

Over two months of huge, heavy, cable related vehicles going back and forth on the ferry have created some wear and tear, although overall traffic has been down. Ferry lines were sometimes as slow and combative as the summer. When one older Chappy resident protected her place in the Simpson’s Lane ferry line, her small car was pushed by an irate through traffic driver. Continuous honking followed until the line turned the corner. The well bundled-up traffic policeman shook his head and said he was used to it.

The most noteworthy news this week is Bay State Piping finishing their part of the cable installation job. One cable was successfully pulled through the six-inch conduit pipe 90 feet below the harbor bottom last Friday, Jan. 14. The tunnel holds two sets of three conduit pipes. The picture above shows Tim Farrell preparing the end of the newly arrived cable. The wire “basket” that grips the cable for pulling has just been trimmed off. The hose is pumping fresh water out the concrete chamber. The white woven tape on the black spools, labelled “Bull Line” is blown or actually vacuumed through the under harbor pipe as a first step. It is attached to a steel cable strong enough to pull the electric cable, which is comprised of three-phase, spirally wrapped electric lines (the same three lines visible on the telephone poles’ arms). The steel cable was unrolled into a long serpentine in the ferry line turnout to ensure snarl free passage through the under harbor pipe. The distance is 890 feet.

A deep steel bulkhead underneath Memorial Wharf and the Old Coal Wharf was part of what necessitated such a huge depth for the tunnel under the harbor. A second cable was pulled under the harbor early this past week and will create a backup “loop” if the first one should ever fail. One crew member commented how top grade the whole project is.

The tar road and parking lots look remarkably neat after the welter of huge trucks, accessary vehicles, multiple excavations and spools of conduit and cable. Chappy’s quiet road meant only a few orange cones and minimal tape were required to guide passing vehicles. The project crew seemed unconcerned by the lack of flag men, and passing drivers could slow down and take a peek at the goings-on.

Floyd Norton, an electrical engineer and former On Time ferry captain, followed the project with great interest. He said the horizontal drilling used is a newly developed technology that required experts flown in from Houston, Texas and India. The huge orange horizontal drilling machine with the long tilted arm that looked like NASA equipment may enable oil companies to pump more oil from old wells before having to drill in deeper water.

If the weather cooperates, NStar hopes the new line will be in operation by the end of February. Gerry Jeffers confirmed that when the old telephone poles are pulled out, they will be stored in his yard. They will be available for public use. Interested? Talk to Gerry.

The Community Center potluck was postponed from Jan. 19 to Jan. 26 to enable Chappy residents to attend the Edgartown Library design meeting this past Wednesday. Claire Thacher and Roger Becker will host the potluck on Jan. 26. Claire is optimistic that the library grant application will be finished in time for the upcoming state deadline.

Mary Spencer, CCC president and organizer of the center’s Friday night movies, would like to start an old home movie archive in the center’s library. Mary explains, “I’ve spoken to a few old Chappy families who have home movies going back to the 20s and 30s and hope there are many others as well. These movies would be a wonderful way of seeing the history of our island through the eyes of families who loved it.”

If your family has movies you would like to donate to the archive, please contact Mary at maryvineyard@verizon.net or call her at 508-627-4011. If your home movies have not been transferred onto DVD, Mary can advise you on how to get that done and work with you to preserve your Chappy family history in the archive for future generations.

For anyone interested in traditional tunes (Irish, Scottish, New England, English, old-time and French Canadian), a “half-fast” jam is planned for first and third Thursdays, 7 to 9 p.m. at 12 Music street, in the West Tisbury old library annex. Some sheet music will be provided. Please contact me, Hatsy, at hpotter@gis.net to join the e-mail list, find sources of music or for other information. If Chappy folks are interested, I hope the group (V-MAD, or Vineyard Music and Dance) will meet at the Chappy Community Center occasionally. The traditional tunes are lively and make one want to get up and dance.

Margaret Knight returns to the column next week. Please send news to 508-627-8894 or margaret02539@yahoo.com.