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June 20, 4 p.m. - 10 p.m. at Performance Park

The Friends of Folk Festival celebrates Dick Orleans’ legacy with music and community. This Festival is held in the style of Dick’s “Friends of Folk” nights where both professionals & amateurs perform.

Scholarship Opportunity

Scholarship funds have been established with Dick’s passions in mind. Anyone in the Estes Valley with a passion for the arts can apply for this scholarship simply by providing your contact information and answering a few questions on the application form on the www.estesartsdistrict.org

Friends of Folk event page.

1-Tell us about your creative work.

2-Tell us about how you are going to use the scholarship money.

3-Tell us about how you and your art (creative) work will contribute or impact your community.

Submit your application before the June 16th deadline.

The scholarship winners will be announced during the festival. We'd love to make you a recipient so submit your application now!

8th Annual Friends Of Folk Festival

The Estes Arts District’s mission with Friends of Folk Festival is to grow the event into a well-executed, professional level festival while still maintaining Dick Orleans’ original vision of promoting new and emerging artists. Dick Orleans was always supporting others to pursue their art, whether music or photography or anything! He inspired so many and we want to keep that energy going. We miss you Dick!

Parking, Free Shuttles & EV Charging

Get summer ready with tips from Vanessa Solesbee, Town Mobility Services Manager, about downtown parking, the Town's free shuttle offerings and public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging options. There will be plenty of time to ask your questions too.

Join our Zoom Coffee on Saturday, June 10 from 10-11 a.m. All are welcome. Register for your Zoom invitation at www.lwv-estespark.org.

For more information about public parking, transit or EV charging, visit https://estespark.colorado.gov/departments/public-works/mobility-services.

Facebook/Friday Focus/Town of Estes Park version

Know Before You Go - Downtown Parking, Free Shuttles & EV Charging

Get summer ready with tips from Vanessa Solesbee, Town Mobility Services Manager, about downtown parking, the Town's free shuttle offerings and public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging options. There will be plenty of time to ask your questions too. Join our Zoom Coffee on Saturday, June 10 from 10-11 a.m. Register here for your Zoom invitation. All are welcome.

With a surname of Donohoe, it is obvious I am of Irish descent. My grandmother was a McGuire and my greatgrandmother was an O’Brien. Potatoes make up part of my DNA.

Being Irish makes me prone to having a freckle or two (and a good share of reverse freckles as well, which I inherited from my Irish father. But we can wait for another day to discuss the white polkadots on my arms. Today we’re talking freckles.).

It would seem to the average thinker that a person with freckles would be somewhat familiar with where her “angel kisses” are located on her body. She lives with them, after all; washes over them in the shower, rubs sunscreen on them almost daily for half the year, and spends time contemplating them when her bellybutton is not accessible.

I can prove my familiarity with my own brown specks: I know that in the crook of my right elbow I have identical brown dots that meet for a freckle-kiss when I bend my arm tight. I also have four freckles lined up in a row across my left calf, looking as if I have been poked by a giant fork. And there is a pattern of freckles resembling the Big Dipper on my right shin. But these freckles are a mere sprinkling of the multitudes all over my body. (It has crossed my mind to count them but I’ve been too busy counting my gray hairs.)

When I was a girl, I wanted to be glamorous like Ginger but my freckles made me more like Mary Ann, the girl next door. You could play connect-the-dots on my back. Call me Dot-ohoe if you please.

All of this pother (with a p) about freckles is leading up to this: it is tick season and the little beasties are out in record numbers this year. Because of this, I’ve been making a concerted effort to check for ticks when I come in from spending any extended time out-ofdoors. Invariably, I see one flat against my arm, leg, torso or back and I panic. With dread I run my hand over it to see how far along it is in digging in to make a meal of my hemoglobin. I am relieved when I feel that it is a harmless freckle, not a blood-sucking, disease-spreading, tough-as-a-thumbtack tick.

Yes, I do know where my freckles are, but I also see new ones every time I do a tick check. Was that there yesterday? I ask myself. I can’t keep track of them all The same freckles scare me anew every time I do a tick check.

Last year I hosted several ticks throughout the season. The place where one imbedded on my left shoulder still itches from time to time. When I discovered it, I was in the back seat of the car while on a road trip. We had to pull off the interstate so that a team of four relatives could gather around in a parking lot and perform minor surgery to remove the nasty mite. A concerned stranger pulled over to ask if everything was ok. I think she suspected I was being held under duress. In fact I was (by a tick!), but my grimace was only because I didn’t want to watch my skin be stretched and pulled while my aunt used tweezers to tug at the little pest hanging on for dear life—literally. I used to think ticks dropped from trees but learned this is not the case. Here’s their strategy: a tick crawls around on a plant until it finds the perfect launch pad, and then it waits. A young tick will need to find a host within 24 hours but an adult can go without food for two years. (One Newsweek article said a tick lived eight years without food!) When an unsuspecting animal comes by and brushes up against the plant, the tick reaches out and grabs hold. It may sink its bloodsucking little mouth into its next meal right away or it may hunt around for the most tasty spot. Sometimes they’ll make it to a scalp before they settle in for a bite. Tick checkers beware: you must look everywhere!

If you find a tick, you can’t just flush it down the toilet because it won’t die! The most assured way of terminating a tick is to crush it, which is no easy task. The little parasites have a hard back and they can be fast when they want to be. Stepping on one to kill it isn’t enough. You need to put some muscle into it.

We put drops of Frontline on our dog once a month, which causes any pests that attach themselves to Chance to fall off and die. It would be nice if there were something similar for humans, but there isn’t. (Well, there’s Deet. It helps keep the creepy crawlers at bay but the toxic chemical might also eat your freckles away.) The best answer to a tick problem: the opossum. (Or possum. Same thing.) The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Consider these marsupials our friends because they eat ticks. (Except in Ireland. Deer ticks—and freckles—are common there but no possums are found on the Emerald Isle!)

You may let The Thunker know what you think at her e-mail address, donoholdt@gmail.com.

Wool Market June 10-11

Free family-friendly, fibery fun!

The Town of Estes Park is ready to celebrate the 31st anniversary of Wool Market with family-friendly fun for everyone. The event takes place Saturday, June 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, June 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Estes Park Events Complex, 1125 Rooftop Way. Free and open to the public, the Wool Market is a signature event of the Town of Estes Park, and presented by sponsor Long Thread Media.

As in prior years, the Market will include dozens of vendors in the Event

Center selling their wares, including yarns, fibers, fleeces, tools and finished goods such as apparel and home decor. Livestock shows will feature sheep, llamas, alpacas, paco-vicunas and rabbits. Guests can also watch herding dog and fiber art demonstrations.

Families will enjoy horse and wagon rides, a petting zoo with photo opportunities, craft tables for children – all free of charge. Food trucks will offer fair food, treats, Mexican fare and more for purchase.

More information can be found at epwoolmarket.com.