This is Evergreen

So, a few days ago, this owl flew into our picture window with a loud bang! He (or she, we couldn’t tell) was knocked out cold for about a minute, then slowly came too and hung out long enough to snap a few pictures and ohh and ahh for a bit. then we left him (or her) alone with some space and he (or she) eventually flew off. we thought it was a great horned, but after looking at the bird book, discovered it was really a Long-Eared Owl. Our most esteemed birding friend, Bill Brockner confirmed this and said it was even more special than had it been a Great Horned. Fantastic!

Tags: Long Eared Owl

It’s a sure sign when there are puddles on the mostly frozen Evergreen Lake, that Spring is on it’s way! It means that the Bluebirds will soon be returning and that it will truly be shorts weather. (some of us wear shorts year round, but soon we won’t get the strange looks and comments form people).

I love Spring. Not for the typical thoughts of renewal and rebirth that are typically associated with Spring time, but for the WARM weather that I’ve been waiting for for sooooo long. I usually don’t mind the winter, but last fall, winter came way too soon. I wasn’t ready.
I didn’t have nearly enough warm weather. I didn’t hike and bike as much as I wanted and needed to. I didn’t get the kids or dogs out enough. And I didn’t work on the house enough either. So now, with Spring around the corner, it’s sort of like my New Year’s Resolution (as much as I despise them). I have some new goals for the Spring, Summer and Fall. To enjoy Evergreen, CO as much as I can. To be outside as much as I can, to walk the dogs and kids more, and to eat every meal on the deck… and to Bar-b-que a LOT.

We had a fun time for New Year’s Eve! It was quiet, with just a few friends and their kids over for some late evening snacks and desert and good conversation. The best part was that we could see the 8:00 fire works show at the lake form our kitchen window! The 2 oldest kids really enjoyed it while the 2 younger ones had no idea… Then off to bed they all went and we stayed up for more revelry and fun. Then we got to see the midnight show too!

On another note, it’s been SO cold lately! the only good thing about it is that hopefully, th cold will kill the pine beatles!!

For all of you that didn’t get out today to do all of your grocery shopping, now you can get out of the “Christmas morning present mayhem” with the excuse of needing to get more stuffing from the grocery store. Safeway is open @ 8 on Christmas morning. Bummer for them. Do the owners REALLY think they’ll get so many shoppers on Christmas morning/day that they need to ruin the goodwill of their employees by making them work on a holiday? I, for one, will not be shopping and I hope that if you’re celebrating Christmas, then you won’t be shopping either…

So we were considering moving this summer to another house in Evergreen, CO. Until we started looking at Evergreen homes and what we might sell our house for now. We’ve been in North Evergreen for 4 years and our house would probably sell now for about what we bought it for in 04. How sad is that? We found another house we really liked, that was much nicer, more updated and convenient, but it was selling for about what we thought our house would sell for. In the end, we decided to renovate instead of move. It’s a much better real estate investment.

It was cold this morning, -5 degrees. The last thing we wanted to do was get out of bed. It was supposed to be a fun, play in the snow morning, but not when it didn’t get above zero until about 10 AM. The snow from the last couple days is beautiful, but even the dogs (who LOVE the snow) wouldn’t stay out because it was too cold. Unfortunately, we forgot to take the deck furniture down prior to all the snow and now it’s all covered and will make it harder to shovel, if i finally get out to do it.

One thing to be grateful for here in Evergreen is that the snow plowing seems to be a ton better here than it does down in Denver. We usually see a road grader on our road plowing in the morning sometime, but when we lived in WashPark, it seemed to take forever to get the plows down our road! If only the in-house shoveler would be so quick…

It seems as if this may be another “normal” snow fall year as last year was. as hard as all the snow shoveling was last year, that was normal and that’s what we need to end the drought.

“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…”

So, a couple weeks ago, the group BEST won their recall election to remove two board members… But who really lost in this matter? In my opinion, the residents of Evergreen lost. Why did we allow 3 disgruntled ex-members of the fire department make their grudges public to waste SO much of our tax money on an election that many see as completely unnecessary and waste of time and money. With the hiring of a new chief, they should have at least waited to see the improvements he would make. instead, they pushed on with personal agendas to remove two board members who have committed immeasurable amount of time to the goal of a smoothly run volunteer fire department. If I was at all convinced that their motives were actually valid, i might think differently, but I have seen no such proof.

So what ever happened to the “Damn” Bridge that was SOO convenient, yet a small handful of people found so offending that they protested so loudly as to actually have it removed! They said a couple things about it.

1. That it wasn’t ADA approved because the ramp was too steep.

2. That it was ugly.

First of all, none of the rest of the path around the lake is ADA approved, so why complain about one small section? Why not try to make the rest of the path approved. At least a wheelchair COULD have used the ramp even thought they couldn’t have used any other part of the path around the lake. And now that section is definitely NOT ADA approved.

Secondly, the only time you could really see the bridge was when you were driving around the north side of the damn and then it was only for about 4 seconds while driving around a curve that you should have been watching the road around anyway!

The least they could have done was to wait for a replacement bridge BEFORE making them tear it down. We only got to use the ramp a couple times before it got torn down, but boy did we like it! especially with a jogging stroller and with kids, the ramp was much easier, better and safer than the stairs.

My question to our town is not only when will the bridge be back, but when will there be another bridge on the other side of the damn?

Tags: bridge, damn, evergreen lake, trails, walking