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Evergreen Conference Center Revisited

Today (June 23) marked our 43rd anniversary. Our “big” celebration will be at the Safari Supper at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. We’ll be dining with 40-50 others on the ground floor of the Bolivian Lion House. That location means we could have a number of rescued lions as part of our company. Depending on which table we choose we could be next to one of our adoptees: either Leo II or Gigi. While, thanks to sturdy fencing, our adoptees won’t be joining us at the table, it could get a bit noisy.

However, we thought we’d at least celebrate the day by a delicious, if not particularly healthy, lunch at the Lariat Lounge Brewing Company. The food was good and substantial (Dorie Ann is holding our leftovers for tomorrow morning’s breakfast.) The beer was also excellent. But the major treat of that adventure was revisiting the Evergreen Conference Center which is where the Lariat Lounge is located.

For much of its existence the Evergreen Conference Center was run by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. It hosted hundreds of youth over the years in summer camps. It was best known as the home of the Evergreen School of Church Music, drawing renowned composers, hymn writers, choir directors, and various musicians from across the country and overseas. When we moved to Evergreen in 1989, they hired Dorie Ann to be bookkeeper for the Center. Later that year, the diocese sold the Center to Episcopal Renewal Ministries. They were looking for such a venue to host their newly developed Leadership Training Institute. Dorie Ann was kept on as bookkeeper for the Center and ERM as well.

In the years ERM ran their LTI at the Conference Center many Episcopal clergy experienced renewing, and even life-changing, encounters with Jesus Christ. However, a change in leadership prompted ERM to relocate in Georgia and the Center was sold. It went through a couple more changes in ownership until it became the Lariat Lounge.

Shadow Mountain Stout at the Lariat Lounge

It was great to visit the place. Even though the interior has been radically redesigned, there are still echoes of the many lives blessed in its former years.

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44

Saturday, May 14, marked the 44th anniversary of my ordination as a deacon. I almost missed it. We were rather preoccupied at the time, having traveled nearly 150 miles northeast to the town of Sterling, Colorado to officiate at a wedding. We drove there on Friday for the rehearsal and the wedding was mid-afternoon on Saturday. That meant we had some time to kill before things got busy. So what does one do in Sterling, Colorado on a balmy May morning?

There was a pleasant small park next to the hotel, but one lap around the park and its pond took very little time. Some searching on Google maps revealed another, larger park a short drive away and we soon headed there. Though we were just across a street from an industrial area, the park itself was in a lovely residential area. There were lots of cottonwood trees – one of the few trees that can thrive in the high plains desert. Those trees can grow to a fairly substantial size even in that arid climate. When those trees come to the end of their lifespan, they are prone to dropping large branches or even toppling over.

As we perambulated around the park we came across an unusual sight.

What had been a large dying cottonwood had been transformed into a wonderful sculpture by a local artist nearly four decades earlier. The sculpture was titled “Skygrazer.”

Not only was the sculpture a beautiful work of art, but the plaque held a small surprise in its text.

There’s probably several other things to do in Sterling on a Saturday morning, but for us, it was a refreshing moment and a good reminder of what my ordained life is supposed to be about.

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Adventures in 70s Plumbing

I’d been hearing a suspicious drip whilst working downstairs in my study/cell when Dorie Ann was running water in the kitchen sink. We’d never been able to find any sign of water damage until…

One happy day she noted that the carpet under the writing desk was wet and in the immortal words of the KJV, “it stinketh.” We were pretty sure it wasn’t a feline accident because a) they are well behaved around cat box issues and b) they’d have to be the size of one of the Sanctuary tigers to release that much urine. Over several days I moved four six foot bookshelves, a writing desk, a computer table, two occasional tables, two office chairs and an etarge into the main downstairs room to set up my “study in exile.”

The carpet was in bad shape and we were planning to replace it, so that went as well, leaving us the evidence of the extent of the saturation.

The leak first appeared to be a failed joint in one of the hot water heating pipes so we turned off the downstairs zone, relying on a couple of space heaters to keep it habitable. On Friday I called a plumbing/heating service we’d used before and was told they could get their heating specialist to us on Monday. Saturday I pulled up the carpet pad and tore out some drywall to see if I could spot the failed joint. Turned out the joints were fine but the kitchen waste pipe seemed to be leaking.

First thing Monday I called the plumbing firm with the new information and was not surprised to learn that this would require a different tech who could get there Tuesday between noon and 2pm. He actually arrived around 2:05pm. More of the drywall had to go. First discovery: one of the elbow joints had broken at the joint. Second discovery: the remaining pipe below that joint seemed to have been cobbled together from spare bits of pipe the building had back in 1978 and it was breaking where the pipe went into the cast iron bell. That needs an adapting gasket. No they didn’t have one in stock. The tech jury-rigged a stub out from the upper waste pipe that could drain into an old recycling bin we had.

This is a fragile fix so: 1) no dishwasher use; 2) no disposal use and 3) it would be better to wash dishes in the bathroom sink. The good news is that the parts needed should be here Thursday and it’s not a complicated repair. And then of course, we need a drywaller to restore the damage. Then paint the room. Then put in new flooring. It looks like I’ll be in exile for a few weeks. ?

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The Rings of the Lord

[Dorie Ann – but now with an update from Jack] 20 years ago on Memorial weekend Jack suffered an unfortunate encounter with a jointer and lost the tops of 3 fingers on his left hand. Alas, he was wearing his wedding ring at the time so the ER medics had to cut it off. We did have it repaired but all the Florentine ornamentation and the inscriptions disappeared in the process. For years around our anniversary we’ve talked about getting new ones but I hated the thought of replacing my wedding ring. As our 40th anniversary approached I began to wonder if it would be possible to combine the gold in our old rings and make them anew. I even decided that the new inscription should be 6/23/79 and our joint monogram with the S slightly larger than the J and the D. A local jeweler examined them and thought he could do it but wasn’t sure about the larger S. He’d give it his best shot. The attached photos show the result. Since our anniversary lands on a Sunday this year we picked a church that includes weekly wedding anniversary blessings and asked the Rector if he would bless our new old rings at the same time. So this Sunday will be very special to me.

The other photos are somewhat related to the event.

We were married at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Morehead, KY. That little church had a rock garden filled with potted plants that parishioners would bring in the Spring and take back home in the Fall to care for them over the winter. My sister, Kathie, liked that idea and bought a small prayer plant the day before our wedding to add to the garden. It was to commemorate the baptism of her son, Dylan, baptized by Jack on June 22nd. We took it home that Fall and have tended it ever since. It moved with us back to Lexington in 1981 and to Delaware in 1983. It survived driving through a blizzard on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in March 1989 as we moved it to Evergreen. It abided at 35th Avenue Court, then Trinity Episcopal Church, then West 22nd Street Road in Greeley. Now this well-traveled plant is back in Evergreen for who knows how long. Long may it thrive. (The black and white kitty is Pippin whose new favorite pastime is terrorizing the many hummingbirds who visit our feeders. She does this by launching herself at the bay window to frighten them off. They always come back. Some cats never learn.)

[Jack] Since Dorie Ann began with the rings and ended with the cat, I’ll start with cats and end with rings. During our engagement Dorie Ann was living in her house in Lexington and I in the vicarage in Morehead, some 65 miles away. On the weekends she would drive up and stay with the Bishop’s Warden and his wife next door. She also brought her two cats, Squeak, a very gentle tortoiseshell and Frisbee, a part Russian Blue with the personality of Attila the Hun. At the end of the visit she would try to pack them back into their traveling carrier. I said “try” because with each return, Frisbee would become more combative to the point where I finally offered to keep them with me in Morehead. Love makes us do crazy things. Mind you, I had nothing against cats. But I had nothing for them either. The three of us lived in a watchful truce until Dorie Ann and I married and she moved to Morehead. During that interim period I had to perform a daily task I had sworn to avoid — cleaning the litter box. Forty years later, that’s still my job. Did I mention that love makes us do crazy things?

So much for cats, now on to the rings. Dorie Ann is not that much of a jewelry person so we settled on simple gold band with the Florentine decoration. On Memorial Day Weekend (a traditional time for men to cut off body parts doing home projects), I caught my left hand in a jointer and lost the tops of my fingers. Because of my liturgical training, it was the tops of three fingers, being also Trinity Sunday weekend. The wounds have long since healed, even though I’m a bit short handed. My ring never fully recovered. The newly recast rings are quite striking, more so that our originals. For both of our future well being I’ve given up home remodeling as a hobby. I am still, however, cleaning cat boxes.

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Ya Gotta Have Hearth

For thirty years we’ve known our fireplace in Evergreen needed work. The chain curtains got stuck easily. There was no glass door on to keep the cats out when there was no fire. There was a chasm between the firebox and the stone hearth that kept collecting whatever the cats dropped or chased into it. So after thirty years the work was completed in under three hours. Of course, given our experience with every other project in this place we did discover that the decorative river stone had obviously been applied with no particular reference to the open facing of the firebox so the installers had to dig out two stones to get the door in and then remortar them in place. Nonetheless, it is done and last night (after the mortar had dried) we had our first fire. It was some compensation for have the sixth bout of Spring Winter on May 22.

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Springtime in the Rockies

The primary thing I miss from life back in Kentucky is springtime. We don’t have springtime in Evergreen. At least for no more than 2 or 3 days at a time. Instead, we have this:

The Elk Meadow from above and a bit south of our house.

Not to be deterred by our high altitude meteorological shenanigans, we decided to take a walk in our Colorado springtime attire.

High fashion for Evergreen in May.

The elk apparently had good enough sense to find shelter, but we eventually made our soggy way back to the welcoming house – where we decided to enter by the garage so as to shed our dripping outer garments before warming up inside.

Home at last
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Farewell to Sianna

Yesterday we bid a reluctant farewell to Sianna, our 10 year old Maine Coon mix. She had been her normal alternating affectionate/tetchy self as of last Saturday night. Sunday morning she didn’t show up for breakfast — a very unusual occurrence. Dorie Ann finally found her hunkered down in the lower compartment of a 2 story cat condo I’d made over 20 years ago. Sunday night Dorie Ann put her food in the compartment beside her as she didn’t want to come out. Monday morning she had moved location to the back of Dorie Ann’s closet, having nibbled only a bit of the food. We took her to the vet Monday afternoon and her blood tests show that her kidneys were severely compromised. We left Sianna with the vet overnight while they gave her fluids via an IV. On Tuesday her levels were even worse. After visiting her we decided to try one last thing, a diuretic that takes about 12 hours in kick in, hoping that would restart the kidneys. A little after 7a Wednesday morning the Vet called to tell us the deterioration continued and recommended euthanasia. We had really wanted to take her home and do a sort of feline palliative care, but without the IV the symptoms of her kidney failure would become more painful and traumatic. To complicate matters, Wednesday was one of our volunteer sessions at the Wild Animal Sanctuary and we leave town about 10:30a to get there, check in and get our assignments.

Wednesday morning at 9:45a we drove to the vet’s and said our farewells. By 10:20a she was gone.

Sianna, not approving of my camera work

Sianna, just before the end

Farewell, Sianna, and thanks for the love.

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Making Progress

I’m sitting in our downstairs office with the basement still filled with boxes and bits and pieces of many things that have no place to go. Unpacking is not the only thing going on in our lives. In fact, this will be a very busy week for a couple of retired folks.

On Tuesday, we will have our first session as volunteers at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. Our workplace will be the Carnivore Nutrition Center (CNC) which is on the grounds of the Sanctuary. And no, we won’t be hanging out with any of the animals. The Sanctuary exists for the benefit of the rescued animals and humans with little clue of what they’re doing (like first time newbie volunteers) just stresses them out – subverting the purpose of the Sanctuary. We’ll spend four hours doing whatever the staff needs us to do like washing out the cans where the meals are mixed, moving things around or scooping the meal mixtures into 10 gallon buckets to be frozen for later feeding of the animals. It’s hardly glamorous work, but with so many lions, tigers and other various felines to care for, the CNC stays busy all the time. Most all of the bears are in hibernation now. When they decide to come out of their dens the CNC gets even busier. Our next volunteer time will be on the walkway, greeting visitors and answering what questions we can.

This Wednesday we travel back to Greeley to close on the sale of our home there. Yes, that was quick and bless John & Wanda Lowe for all their work for us. Thursday, we do another closing back in Evergreen on the refinancing of our remaining mortgage on our Evergreen home. And then, quiet and rest. That is, if you can call unpacking, sorting, donating, recycling and disposing quiet and rest!

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High Gear

We’ve gone from stuck to a sort of full speed ahead. The moving company is showing up on February 25. Habitat ReStore is coming by February 27. We’ve gotten more boxes from our friends, Chris and Anna Carter. And no, we are by no means ready for this.

The cats are stressed, as are we. This past weekend we had a wonderful time at Christ Church in Denver where I served on an interim team from 2001-2003. Our friend Russ Parker led the weekend and it’s worth describing both in context and content, but that will have to wait for a later entry. However, because the commute between Evergreen and Christ Church is much shorter and much less stressful than the one between Greeley and Christ Church, we elected to go to the high country Friday afternoon.

When we arrived we had to wade through a flood of cardboard detritus to get to our bed but also found the lower part of the vanity installed. Once the counter top is in place they can install the remainder of the vanity, install the tub, put on the trim. Best of all, the site foreman assures me they’ll be finished and cleaned up on Friday. So now we pack.

Saturday and Sunday is our orientation/training sessions for volunteering at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. Each session ends at 1 pm so we dash back to Greeley each day to pack some more.

There are a few things we can’t put on the moving truck (including the cats). Monday morning will be a challenge. First thing once we’re up is to drain the water bed and disassemble the frame and pedestal and get it in the garage where some lovely souls will take it to their home that afternoon. The moving folks show up at 9a and we’ll be packing the car as they pack the truck. Once we’re done we call more Trinity friends (the Woodruffs) who will come and supervise the movers while we hightail it to Evergreen and open the house for the movers when they arrive.

Tuesday we’ll start trying to sort out the chaos in Evergreen. Wednesday I drive back to Greeley to meet the Habitat ReStore folks so they can take the various items we are donating. I’ll load whatever we couldn’t on Monday and in theory we will have completed our exodus from the house that has been our home for the past 11 years.

We still have to sell the place, but that is in the capable hands of our realtors, Trinity folks John and Wanda Lowe.

Eventually, we’ll make the Evergreen house livable again. That’s a good thing. The not so good thing is that then it will hit us how much we miss the people and the community we’ve left behind.

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Stuck

We are prisoners. It’s not the cats holding us hostage but the temperatures. And the snow. Granted, we’ve had only 3 inches of snow, and while it is pretty cold, it’s balmy compared to what the mid-west had to deal with in the last week. But part of our preparation to depart was taking care of a few things in the yard, and they are snow covered. We’ve stopped boxing up things as the date of our actual move is still not firm and we need to be able to get around our house in Greeley until then. Thus, our prep work is at a standstill here.

In Evergreen things may also be at a standstill. We haven’t been there since January 27. At that time, between the CDOT snow plows and the contractor’s pickup trucks the upper part of the driveway was as snow packed as any side road in Steamboat Springs. Since then there have been a couple of significant snows. Tomorrow morning (February 9) we’re taking another overnight trip to Evergreen. We’re packing a snow shovel in case we have to dig our way to the house. Again. Then I’ll fire up the orange monster of a snow thrower to see if I can clear things up enough to get the car into the garage. Given that the driveway is 150+ feet of downhill grade, the real effort will be getting the car back up to the street.

Another challenge of our enforced inactivity is the odd situation of living less than a mile from the church that had been central to our lives for 15 years. The leave taking policy of the diocese requires that I neither attend services and events or even visit the premises. We do very much miss the people and the place, and the activity of relocating was to be the great distractor in coping with the change.

In reality, this delay will be all too brief: the vanity will arrive and get installed; we’ll have enough of a thaw to get the last yard work done; the Habitat ReStore will pick up the furniture and items we’re leaving behind and we’ll find a moving company that can take the remaining boxes and furniture on the 85 mile journey to Evergreen.

In the meantime, there are other coming events to look forward to. Next weekend we’re part of a parish weekend at the church I served before Trinity, Christ Church, Denver. This event is led by our friend, Russ Parker, who led a parish weekend for Trinity in 2017. The weekend after that we’re signed up for orientation and training as volunteers at The Wild Animal Sanctuary.

Until then we both need to address the spiritual discipline of paying attention and recognizing that Jesus wants us to engage with Him in each moment of the day. Thinking too far ahead increases the likelihood that we will miss the opportunities to give and receive blessing God is placing under our noses.