Fort Collins Courier, Summer 2014

We bring you Fort Collins.

Volume 1, Issue 2

wolverine farm publishing

fort collins , colorado

Summer 2014

FREE

Left to their own devices, the bike gangs of Fort Collins resorted to the old ways of the West and faced up on either side of a line.

ASPHALT TOXINS!...27 C r e a t i v e D E S TR U C TI O N a l on g T H E P O U D RE . . . 2 6

VULTURES...30

HEMP! . . . 1 2 & HOOPLA

Three Painted Ladies...23

Book Reviews & Bike Polo & Etc.

Meet L ocal Meat

AUNTIE STONE...14 (P r oducer s)...11

Ciclismo Youth Foundation...4

ual air n n a 3rd Book F wn 3, 2014 o T Old y 11 - 1 nside jul tails i De

HALEY HASLER...20

2

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Found in an alley downtown © Courtesy Meg Schiel

Fort Collins Courier Issue 2, Vol. 1, Summer 2014

Published by

Wolverine Farm Publishing PO BOX 814 Fort Collins, Colorado 80522

publisher’s Note

editor

Molly McCowan

Hopes and hoops and hoopla have a lot in common, and the words reverberate around Fort Collins like a hula-hoop around a waistline. Amidst the ongoing flurry of construction activity, public works projects, and ambitious plans on the horizon (including our own), it feels like our city’s skyline and culture change on a weekly basis. Have we reached a fever pitch yet, here in the Fort? A slingshot might be a better metaphor, but if so, are we the sling or the shot?

masthead artist

Chris Jusell research assistant

Luisa Lyons contributors

Jenna Allen Michael Bussmann Sue Ring deRosset Erica Gagne Glaze Kendall Greenwood Dana Guber Nick Janzen Carol Johnson Sarah Justus Beth Kopp Brian Lackey Rico Lighthouse Daniel Luévano Luisa Lyons Mary McHugh Melissa Mika Amy Palmer Cindy Schneider Steve Sedam Chad Shavor Nic Turiciano

To get a deeper sense of the rapidly changing Fort Collins, we took to the streets and sought out local people doing good, interesting, important, or otherwise noteworthy work in the world. We present our unofficial “Interview with a Local” edition of Fort Collins Courier. A city’s character is defined by many things— businesses, politics, rivers—but a city’s stories are defined by the people living in them, and are often told best in their own words.

Cover photo and above photos by Nic Turiciano for Fort Collins Courier. A hearty thanks to the Dandy Lions and the Belle Starrs for their attitudes, bicycles, and knives.

publisher/designer

Todd Simmons board of directors

Wolverine Farm Publishing is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Fort Collins, CO. We publish books, this community newspaper, and collaborate with other non-profits, businesses, and people toward a more mindful engagement with the world. Donations accepted online or by mail.

Heather Manier Bryan Simpson Nate Turner Kathleen Willard e s t . 2003 A 501( c )3 n o n - p ro f i t o rg a n i z at i o n

The F ort C ollins C ourier brings information, tools, and expertise together to help our community members live engaged and more self-reliant lives. We

want to explore the paths locals take, and inspire visitors with our city’s unique charm. Our areas-of-interest stem from our decade-long relationship with Fort Collins—in each issue we’ll feature content about bicycles, agriculture and the local food movement, as well as reporting about environmental issues and profiles of local makers and the return to craft. We distribute 5,000 copies of each issue by bicycle to over 50 locations throughout Fort Collins, and each print issue is bolstered by weekly web updates and fresh online content. Engage often at www.wolverinefarm.org.

fort collins courier

:

3

summer 2014

FRIDAY JULY 11TH SATURDAY JULY 12TH SUNDAY JULY 13TH

Literary Costume Party Odell Brewing Band: Snake Rattle Rattle Snake 8-10pm $10 limited tickets available at wolverine farm bookstore

144 north college (inside bean cycle)

Book & Art Fair Old Town Square 10-5pm

Literary, Art, & Craft Workshops VARIOUS LOCATIONS IN OLD TOWN ALL DAY LONG

Large Book Sale, kids activities, local author tent, art & craft vendors, beer garden Free admission

Check our website for specific information about workshop times and locations.

SPONSORS:

www.wolverinefarm.org

4

BICYCLE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Bicycle

© Courtesy Rob Noble

Catching Up with

Ciclismo Youth Foundation

C

iclismo Youth Foundation is a local non-profit that promotes, advocates, and creates youth cycling opportunities in the Fort Collins region. Its founders and volunteers make it look easy—organizing cycling events, coaching riders, fundraising, maintaining a presence (both online and physical) in the community. The quality of their service to our local youth feels like it comes from a non-profit decades old, but in reality they’ve only just begun. With an expanding list of programs and services, Ciclismo clearly has momentum on their side. Fort Collins Courier caught up with Rob Noble, Director of Communications for Ciclismo, to get more of the story.

Fort Collins Courier: What’s on the radar for Ciclismo this year?

Rob Noble: This year we will again focus on our local racing events, our junior riding programs, and our support for local high school riders who compete in the Colorado High School Cycling League. Our local Tuesday-night race events are the backbone of our foundation. We started these races almost ten years ago as a way to encourage folks to try racing in a fun, relaxing environment. Today we see almost 300 people participate each week. The biggest addition to our local races is that we will be rolling out a new timing system with computer timing chips. We hope that this will enhance the race-day experience for all of our participants.

Any highlights from last year that captured the essence of why Ciclismo was started?

The Ciclismo Youth Foundation was founded in 2010 as a way to create structure in our community for youth cycling opportunities. It seemed at the time that there were plenty of opportunities for kids to participate in soccer, baseball, softball, swimming, even ice hockey, but there didn’t seem to be many opportunities for youth cycling. In addition, we got in on the ground floor of the Colorado High School Cycling League, which started that year. We continue to support local high school riders with coaching, equipment, clothing, and logistical support on race weekends as the pinnacle of our youth programs.

In our first year of the Colorado League, we had fewer than ten riders competing on a single composite team from Fort Collins. Last year, we supported more than 30 riders and fielded three teams from four local high schools. This year we anticipate that our

numbers will grow to well over 40 riders from all five local high schools. In addition, we are excited to watch Brannan Fix from Rocky Mountain High School defend his title as Colorado High School State Champion!

Talk to us about the “double-goal coaching” approach to practices and races.

We always take the approach in our practices and races that looking at the big picture is much more important than achieving a particular finishing result. We encourage our riders to challenge themselves and set goals that are focused on self-development. We also create a lot of peer-to-peer teaching/coaching situations to encourage our riders to develop a culture of helping each other grow and learn.

In reality, it’s multiple-goal coaching. There are many ways to define success on a bike and we structure our practices and events to allow each child to achieve their definition of success.

What are the goals for the future?

A major focus of the board of directors over the past few years has been creating systems and structure around everything that we do. Last year we hired our first paid coaching staff for the Summer Mountain Bike Practices and the Colorado High School League. This year we made another investment in human capital and hired our first Director of Operations. These investments have already paid off and we will continue to find ways to make our organization more efficient.

Are you finding adequate support from the community? What does Ciclismo need?

We have found tremendous support from our community, however, we are always in need of two things: volunteers and money. We are always looking for volunteers to help us set up and tear down our local race events. If anyone is interested in being a volunteer, email Jason Trujillo at events@ciclismoyouthfoundation.org.

Anything else to add?

“When kids get on bikes, good things happen.”

Find out more at www.ciclismoyouthfoundation.org. © Courtesy Brian Lackey

fort collins courier

:

BICYCLE

summer 2014

Start: home in north Fort Collins

Nature/nurture

On Lemay, sharing the road with cars.

I

Cutting through residential streets to Redwood, formerly home to a large prairie dog colony, now home to large construction equipment

Joining the Poudre River Trail just south of New Belgium Riding along the trail lined with temporary construction fences through the former Link-N-Greens golf course, now future corporate headquarters of Woodward Inc.

t’s always seemed that nature doesn’t need me nearly as much as I need it. While I’m no backcountry-trekking Mountain Man, I do like finding a bit of nature close at hand. And I choose my bicycle rides to give me a quick hit of the wild – a small dose of that leaves me feeling refreshed, invigorated, nurtured.

But though it’s still one of my favorites, this ride has changed. The prairie dog town along Redwood south of Conifer is now a housing construction site. The golf course where I spotted seven foxes during one ride is now a moonscape of graded earth waiting for office buildings to sprout.

I’m not naive enough to suppose that development will cease; that all open fields will remain so; that the prairie dogs, foxes, red-tailed hawks, and other native species will not be pushed out, be unaffected by what we do, in our selfishness, with this gift of land, water, and sky.

I’m selfish, too: I want nature close at hand, because it nurtures me. I hope we can remember to nurture it in return.

-Steve Sedam

Emerging from the Mulberry underpass to a busy intersection before heading down to the river level again Traffic noise fades; a chorus of frogs greets me

Geese with their goslings share space with bikers, joggers and walkers.

The path meanders along the Poudre, past Nix, Kingfisher Point, and Cattail Chorus Natural Areas.

In an open field, white lime encrusts the soil surface, accumulated from decades as a sugar-beet processing dump. Restoration efforts are ongoing.

Riding past Prospect Ponds, trying to spot waterfowl.

The city is at my back.

Plunging into the cool shade of the leafy Cottonwood Hollow Natural Area.

End: Stopping for a break at CSU’s Environmental Learning Center, I commune with the disabled hawks, eagles, and other raptors being cared for by the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program.

5

6

BICYCLE

fort collins courier

Photographs by Cindy Schneider, Angel Mountain Photography

:

summer 2014

fort collins courier

:

7

summer 2014

144 N. College Ave. thebeancycle.com

Community-based development from the ground up

Reforestation

•

Renewable Energy

Green Job Training

•

Clean Cookstoves

www.treeswaterpeople.org

f you were to look in our ice chests this summer, these are the beers you’d find.

We’ve handpicked three of our favorites for the season, plus for the first time in bottles, a special limited release originally crafted on our five-barrel pilot system. Typically available only in our Ft. Collins taproom, our pilot brews are experimental, hard to replicate and about as short-lived as a Colorado summer.

PLEASE ENJOY RESPONSIBLY

ODELL BREWING CO. FORT COLLINS, COLORADO

10

AGRICULTURE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Agriculture Early

SUMMER

Gardening Tips

© Courtesy The Growing Project

By Dana Guber and Chad Shavor (of The Growing Project)

R

iding a bike creates the perfect pace. Not too fast, not too slow—just the right speed to observe the details of the streets, yards, and alleyways of Fort Collins.

My eyes are always drawn to the empty spaces: lawns, vacant lots, and medians.

Inspired by the unoccupied terrain, I often think to myself, that could be a garden.

I’m lucky. I work for a nonprofit called The Growing Project. For a living I take part in the transformation of bare spaces into beautiful food-producing gardens. I teach people how to grow their own food and I help distribute this homegrown food to the populations that need it the most. Together we are growers, educators, and activists, and our goal is to make it easy for everyone to obtain nourishing foods, regardless of their income.

We encourage and support the DIY attitude of many in our community who, like us, see the value of a tomato right off the vine or a carrot straight from the ground. Therefore we would like to share some of our early season gardening knowledge to help the gardens grow and the empty spaces of Fort Collins fill with food.

Acupuncture - Chinese Herbs Massage - Qigong - Diet Therapy

Hugh’s Acupuncture clinic fort collins source for acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine

Here are some tips from our Garden Director, Chad Shavor: ● ● Be patient. Wait for the soil to warm before planting. This can dramatically increase your seed germination rate. ● ● Read the seed packet! Pay attention to seed spacing and depth. ● ● Don’t water your seeds too much or they may rot. But do keep them moist. ● ● Mulch! Straw or leaves between garden beds and around plants helps keep moisture in. ● ● Don’t forget flowers. Flowers are great for pollinators, and they are a natural pest repellent. ● ● About ever y two to four weeks, plant small blocks of cool-season seeds such as greens, carrots, and beets. That way, if late spring or early summer weather keeps some from sprouting or causes them to rot, you’ll have backups. Succession planting allows for smaller harvests of these veggies throughout the summer. ● ● Pr otect plants from Colorado’s unpredictable weather. Near the beginning of May, move the walls of water to cover tomatoes and squash. In March and April, plant cool-season greens, carrots, peas, and beets in cold frames or hoop tunnels. Then move the cold frames and hoops near the beginning of May and plant peppers, eggplants, and beans in them. ●

● Plant some of your beds with per ennials such as strawberries, asparagus, and raspberries. Harvest asparagus in the spring and early summer. You’ll be able to harvest strawberries and black raspberries in early- through mid-summer.

The Growing Project encourages you to plant something you have never tried before, sip on a beer while weeding at sunset, share your excess produce with your neighbors, and have communal meals often. Through growing food we grow as a community. Happy spring!

970.215.7419 : www.hughsacupuncture.com Learn more about The Growing Project at www.thegrowingproject.org.

fort collins courier

Amy & Ellen’s Grass-fed Beef Beef Bellvue, CO www.barncatservices.com/beef Anderson Meat Company Buffalo, beef, lamb, chicken, pork and specialty meats Peyton, CO www.andersonmeat.com B Bar S Ranch Beef Nederland, CO and Elizabeth, CO www.bbarsranch.com

Craig Angus Ranch Beef and pork Fort Collins, CO www.craigangusranch.com

:

AGRICULTURE

summer 2014

Meet L ocal Meat (P roducers)

11

Ole’ Dern Farm Beef, lamb, pork, poultry, eggs Laporte, CO www.oledernfarm.com

Rock Ridge Ranch Beef Loveland, CO www.rockridgebeef.com Rock Soup Ranch Duck, rabbit, chicken, eggs Wellington, CO www.rocksoupranch.com

Cresset Farm Pork Fort Collins, CO www.cressetfarm.com

The Courier staff wanted to know more about the local and regional meat producers. To start, we reached out to local blogger Erica Gagne Glaze (www.farmingfortcollins.com) for help in compiling this list. (Please note that this is not a comprehensive list. We apologize in advance for any omissions.)

Stillroven Farm Beef, chicken, pheasant Mead, CO www.stillrovenfarm.com

Sunray Natural Grass-fed meats, chicken, duck, quail, eggs Fort Collins, CO www.sunraynatural.com

Dottie’s Garden Beef Berthoud, CO (303) 941-0292

Honeyacre Enterprises Beef Wiggins, CO www.honeyacre.com

Longshadow Farm Chicken, duck, turkey, lamb, eggs Berthoud, CO www.long-shadow-farm.blogspot.com

Sylvan Dale Ranch Beef Loveland, CO www.sylvandale.com

Ewe Bet Ranch Lamb Loveland, CO www.ewebetranch.com

Jodar Farms Chicken, pork, eggs; limited turkey, duck, rabbit Fort Collins, CO www.jodarfarms.com

Lukens Farms Beef, pork, geese, turkey, chicken Carr, CO www.facebook.com/LukensFarms

Teton Waters Ranch Beef Longmont, CO www.tetonwatersranch.com

Farm at Sunrise Ranch Beef Loveland, CO www.sunriseranch.org

The Lazy P Ranch Beef Pierce, CO (970) 381-5554

Living Water Ranch Beef and lamb Livermore, CO www.livingwaterranchcolorado.com

Monroe Organic Farm Beef, pork, eggs Kersey, CO www.monroefarm.com

Thunderbasin Land & Livestock Beef Cheyenne, WY www.thunderbasinbeef.com

The Old Fence Farm Lamb Berthoud, CO www.theoldfencefarm.com

Windsor Dairy Beef, pork, lamb, eggs Windsor, CO www.windsordairy.com

Grant Farms Duck and chicken eggs, chicken, goat, lamb Wellington, CO www.grantfarms.com

Drawings by Melissa Mika

12

AGRICULTURE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

AGRICULTURE

13

THE HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF HEMP Hemp has been in use as a fabric and oil, and even as a medicinal cure, for more than 12,000 years!

10,000 BC: Date of earliest known

hemp relic (found in Yuan-shan, Taiwan).

8000 BC: In China, the earliest known hemp fabric is in use.

4500 BC: In China, hemp is used for rope and fishnets.

2700 BC: Evidence from tombs in China shows that hemp was used for fiber, oil, and as a medicine.

500–1000 AD: Hemp grown widely throughout Europe.

1700s: Acts are put into place to put an end to European hemp imports, and to encourage American independence by growing hemp on American soil. The first hemp paper mill in America was founded

by Benjamin Franklin. The first American flag was sewn out of hemp.

1776: The draft of the Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper.

1800s: The Midwest becomes the main producer of hemp. The crop is also eventually grown in Missouri and California.

1000: Hemp butter made in Europe.

The English word “hempe” is first listed in a dictionary.

1850: 8,327 hemp plantations are counted in the United States Census.

Following this period, cotton and other cheaper fibers make hemp less viable.

1150: Europe’s first paper mill begins using hemp.

1915: Cannabis becomes illegal in California.

1500s: Hemp is grown not only as a fiber, but as food.

1916: USDA Bulletin 404 calls for hemp to replace timber in industry.The U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. (One acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees.)

1600s: Master artists use hemp canvases. It has been suggested that the word “canvas” derives from the word “cannabis.”

1606: The first hemp crop is grown in North America, in what is now presentday Nova Scotia.

1600s–1700s: In most of the Americas it becomes illegal not to grow hemp due to its importance as a crop.

1919: Cannabis becomes illegal in Texas.

1930: Despite recent technological advances making the industrial production of hemp products easier and far cheaper, companies with heavy financial investment in timber and oil run successful campaigns

to demonize marijuana—linking it with hemp and strongly damaging its reputation.

tion passes a unanimous resolution to grow and research hemp.

1937: The Marijuana Tax Act passes.

New taxes and regulations in the act make it difficult for farmers to grow hemp. Official government policy still recognizes the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana.

1998: New legislation allows hemp to be grown commercially in Canada.

1938: Canada introduces the Opium and Narcotics Act, banning marijuana and hemp production. The February edition of Popular Mechanics magazine runs an article stating that hemp could be used to make more than 25,000 products.

2002: First American farmer since the 1960s cultivates and sells a hemp crop.

World War II: The War Hemp Industry Department is established to ensure the growing of fiber after foreign supplies are cut off due to Pearl Harbor. Hemp is subsidized during the war, and farmers grow approximately a million acres of hemp.

When the war ends, the department, and hemp farms, are “quietly” shut down.

1970: The Controlled Substances Act no longer recognizes low-THC industrial hemp and marijuana as separate varieties of Cannabis sativa.

1957: Hemp no longer grown in the U.S. 1961: Industrial hemp is permitted by a UN treaty.

Early 1990s: Hemp production is at its lowest level across the globe.

1992: Several European countries allow commercial cultivation of low-THC hemp.

1996: The American Farm Bureau Federa-

1999: Legislation introduced in 14 states allows cultivation of industrialized hemp.

2004: DEA cannot regulate hemp foods after 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling.

1999: A license is granted in Hawaii for an experimental quarter-acre plot. (This project is no longer running due to bureaucracy and funding problems.)

Feb 7, 2014: Farm Bill 2014 signed into law. Section 7606 allows for research on industrial hemp. It is hoped this section will “determine whether commercial production of hemp would be beneficial for American farmers and businesses.” Only plants with lower than 0.3% THC content are permitted by the bill. Section 7606 will only be effective in states with laws permitting.

14

HISTORY

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

History

Fort Collins History Archive [H03002]

Historical Profile:

O

ften referred to as the “founding mother of Fort Collins,” Elizabeth “Auntie” Stone was the first white woman to settle in the area. She built the first private home, ran the first hotel and school, was the first midwife, and, despite being unable to vote, was a successful and prominent businesswoman. She was the first landowner and taxpayer in Larimer County, and she built the first kiln and flour mill. She campaigned for civic reform through women’s suffrage and prohibition.

September 21, 1801 - Born in Hartford, Connecticut. As a small child, Elizabeth lives in Watertown, New York. After her marriage she moves to St. Louis, Missouri (1828), and then Chester, Illinois (1834).

1852 - Her first husband, Dr. Ezekial W. Robbins, dies.

Elizabeth, along with her eight children, move back to New York, and later to the prairie section of Minnesota.

1857 - Marries for the second time, to Judge Lewis Stone, and settles in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1862 - Fleeing the Eastern Sioux Indian uprising, Elizabeth and Lewis travel in a Conestoga wagon pulled by milk cows from Minnesota to Denver. They purchase 12 lots and build a house that is rented out as a restaurant.

1864 - The surgeon for the military fort (and sole doctor in the Cache la Poudre Valley), Dr. T.M. Smith, convinces the couple to move to Fort Collins to open a mess hall. For close to a year, Elizabeth is the only white

Elizabeth “Auntie” Stone, 1801–1894 Compiled by Luisa Lyons

woman in Fort Collins. That October, a log cabin on Denver Rd. (now Jefferson St.) is completed. It is the first private dwelling in Fort Collins. An officers’ mess is run from the house, boarding around eight officers.

The officers were served antelope, venison, buffalo, trout, home-baked bread, fresh-churned butter, and pies. Elizabeth becomes known by the soldiers as “Auntie Stone.”

1866 - Judge Stone dies. The mess hall is expanded into Fort Collins’ first hotel. Elizabeth begins to sell pies and bread to the soldiers, along with milk ($0.50 a quart) and butter ($1.50 a pound). The second floor of the hotel is used as the first school.

1870 - Again in partnership with Peterson, she builds the first kiln, from which the bricks for the first brick house in Fort Collins are made.

Fort Collins History Archive [H14756]

1881- Helps to organize the Fort Collins chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and is elected treasurer. Contributes financially to “erecting every church in the young town” and to help establish the Agricultural College of Colorado (now CSU).

1882 - Celebrates her 81st birthday with four generations of family at the Masonic Hall. Outdances all the young men, and leaves the celebration at 5 a.m. to cook breakfast for the guests.

1894 - After years of fighting for women’s suffrage, she is finally able to cast a vote.

December 8, 1895 - Dies in her sleep at her daughter’s home.

1867 - The fort is closed, and although the land is not yet open to public settlement, “a privileged few” are able to stay. The hotel opens to the public, housing single young men who eventually became Fort Collins’ leading citizens. Along with Henry Clay Peterson, Elizabeth builds the first flour mill in Fort Collins (the second in northern Colorado). The mill begins production two years later. According to Stone’s niece, Elizabeth Stratton, the house became “the accepted center of all social activities for miles...Auntie Stone made it a home for everyone and her hospitable ways and good council made her the friend of everyone.”

1868 - Elizabeth becomes the first midwife in Fort Collins, assisting in the birth of Agnes Mason, the first anglo child born in Fort Collins.

Auntie Stone’s home

1880 - At age 79, Elizabeth embarks on a 12-day camping and fishing trip in July. She also continues to host dinner parties at her home.

1873–1879 - Continues with successful business transactions involving the hotel, kiln, and mill.

Auntie Stone’s cabin being moved

Fort Collins History Archive [H00894]

1909 - The Pioneer Women of the Cache la Poudre Valley buys Auntie Stone’s cabin, then being used as a paint shop, for $150. The group moves and restores the cabin in the 200 block of South Mason St. 1959 - Following the sale of the land, the cabin is donated to the city, and moved to Lincoln Park (now Library Park).

16

LITERATURE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Literature Surrender I must stop interpreting every pang and twinge.

I keep one ear pressed to my abdomen, another to my breast, shushing passersby, wishing my blood would quiet down on its endless commute. Tiny tunnels lousy with interlopers, cellular refugees floating toward some faraway island destined to be conquered and burned to the ground.

If smokestacks and missile silos mock this primal ache, wave your white flag and I’ll scout a new path. In the middle of the woods, pockets full of crumbs and moonlit stones, we’ll meet at last.

And when the trees go black against the green-blue twilight, and bats emerge from their earthen wombs, I’ll carry you home. © Courtesy Chloé Leisure

—Chloé Leisure

Introducing the 2014 Fort Collins Poet Laureate, Chloé Leisure

W

olverine Farm initiated the Fort Collins Poet Laureate program in 2011. We saw a need to bring more attention to poets and poetry in our community. A few months ago, Chloé Leisure was selected by public vote to be the city’s Poet Laureate for 2014. A graduate of Colorado State University and resident of Fort Collins since 2003, Chloé writes daring and evocative poetry, and works with people of all ages on their own poetry and creative writing. We interviewed Chloé to learn more about her process, as well as her insights about the craft. Her year of service will include public writing workshops and readings for kids and adults, because, she believes, “… there’s a place for everyone in the strange, curious, and innumerable universes of poetry.”

Fort Collins Courier: What techniques are you using to generate work these days?

and someone else might not see the sky but rather smell the electric air of a coming storm.

That said, I think there’s a place in poetry for everyone. I love the quote from Christian Wiman, the former editor of Poetry. It’s taped above my desk: “Let us remember…that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both.”

Any anecdotes from your work with children about the power of poetry? .

One of my most memorable stories was when I was

Going way back, my Grandma Morrison was also an early literary influence; she gave me my first journal (and made me keep a travel record during road trips), my very own dictionary and thesaurus (I still use both to this day), and held weekly spelling and grammar lessons at her kitchen table during the summers for my cousin and me.

The writers who have influenced me, both in form and content, include Charles Simic and his narrative surrealism, Sylvia Plath and her rich details and constrained lines, Amy Gerstler and her narrative tales, and Matthea Harvey and her strange intricacies. I go to Mary Oliver and Gary Snyder when I need to calm and simplify my nature-inspired poems. I’m also haunted by specific poems. They’re like these masterpieces hanging in some strange museum. I worship them and use them to teach others and myself. They include “The Colonel” (Carolyn Forché), “A Story About the Body” (Robert Hass), “The Second Coming” (W. B. Yeats), “Learning to Listen” (Maxine Chernoff), and “Traveling Through the Dark” (William Stafford).

“…there’s a place for everyone in the strange, curious, and innumerable universes of poetry.”

Chloé Leisure: I keep a regular journal, as well as a dream journal, although I’m not as diligent as I once was with a daily practice. I’m pretty good about jotting down a line or an idea as soon as it comes to me (during work, a walk, or in the middle of a conversation).

Sometimes, when I’m feeling too fused to an idea and it’s not really working, I’ll turn to a procedure. For example, I’ll pull 13 books off of my shelf, and I’ll write down the 13th line from the 13th page of each of the books. Sometimes it remains just a warm-up, or a break from my own head, but there are times when something poignant bubbles up to the surface. I also rely on using found (and overheard) language, tarot cards, and that which I encounter on walks in the woods.

teaching a 2nd grade class with “Literacy through Poetry” several years ago. The students were writing poems, I believe prompted by a model poem that had a character who swallowed something and had a kind of a transformation. Well, one little boy wrote a poem about a bear who lived in the middle of the woods and was rather sad since he was lonely. Until one night, the boy wrote, when the bear swallowed the moon and all the stars, and began to glow. He lit up the whole forest, and all the woodland animals gathered around the bear, and the bear was so happy because he finally had friends. It still gives me goosebumps when I think of this story.

Who has influenced your work the most?

What is the importance of poetry in the fabric of Fort Collins?

How does this manifest in people’s daily lives?

I think poetry is extraordinary because it begs for freedom of expression. We all see, feel, and experience things in our own unique way. I might call the sky blue, but you might say it’s the color of your grandfather’s old Buick,

I’m lucky to have had so many incredible teachers and professors throughout my education. From my 6th grade teacher to my college mentor to all of the fabulous poets I was fortunate to study with at CSU. The poet Barbara Anderson, at Northern Arizona University, taught me how to mine for material in my own not-so-exciting life.

Name five books that have made you more attentive as a writer.

1. Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely 2. Jack Collom’s Poetry Everywhere 3. Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems 4. Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye 5. The dictionary. I used to love thumbing through my parents’ big red Webster’s dictionary with its little illustrations of antiquated machinery and exotic flowers.

I went through a (brief—I was soon discovered) phase when I had the bad habit of circling all the new words I’d look up. I still use the paperback dictionary my Grandma Morrison gave me in 4th grade. It’s missing its cover and several introductory pages, but there’s a soft familiarity to the edges of the pages that I love.

Find out more about Chloé Leisure and Wolverine Farm Publishing’s Poet Laureate program at www.wolverinefarm. org/events/fort-collins-poet-laureate.

fort collins courier

:

17

LITERATURE

summer 2014

Timber Framing: A selfsupporting framework of milled timbers fastened with integral wooden connections ( pegs, wedges, interlocking joinery).

310

willow street

fort collins , co

80524 (970) 472-5519 : corey @ highplainstimberframes . com

H igh P l ains T imber F rames

LLC

10

%

OFF BIKE-IN

DISCOUNT

Café Ardour organic coffees , light fare , and handmade baked goods

225

linden street

:

fort collins, co

: 970-493-9683

In LaPorte at 3522 W. County Rd. 54G North from Fort Collins on College/old 287 Across from Cache la Poudre Elementary just off the Poudre Bike Trail.

Monday-Friday: 6:30am-5pm Saturday: 7am-5pm Sunday: 8am-5pm

ALSO AT ME OH MY COFFEE & PIE:

NORTHERN COLORADO FARMER’S MARKET SUNDAYS, 10am - 2pm STARTING IN JUNE!

18

LITERATURE

Island of Memory, by T. Edward Bak Review by Sarah Justus Just as Georg Wilhelm Steller explored the unknown territory of Siberia and Alaska in the 1700s, I decided to explore a genre I have not experienced extensively: the graphic novel Island of Memory by T. Edward Bak. I found the book to be a worthy exploration. An experience in book form, the reader encounters an intriguing story, emotionally telling dialogue, and absolutely stunning illustrations. Boundaries were expanded into the wilderness, vulnerable to the surrounding elements.

Can they make a man crazy? Can people dive into the unknown and retain a sense of identity, a sense of self ? The book shows encounters between man and nature, civilization and perceived savagery, the expected and the unexpected. Some are very real dangers: after all, “There is nothing dead in nature.”

Island of Memory by T. Edward Bak Publisher: Floating World Comics (2013) Paperback: $11.95

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell

The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert Review by Luisa Lyons

Snapper, by Brian Kimberling Review by Carol Johnson

An unlikely romance forms between two teenagers on the fringes of high school society. Park stands out because of his taste in clothes and music; Eleanor because of her newness and unconformity.

Through forced interactions, graphic novels, and finally an education in ‘80s alternative music, Eleanor and Park uncover what first love can be like. Written in alternating points of views, Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park demonstrates an incredible range of emotions and tugs at the heartstrings.

Six reasons to read The Sixth Extinction before you expire:

Brian Kimberling’s debut novel follows Nathan Lochmueller, a young birdwatcher who is “wandering vast tracks of Indiana woodland and riverbank, taking orders from no one, chronicling lives and births and deaths and domestic disputes of forest songbirds for biology departments and government agencies.”

Review by Amy Palmer

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (June, 2012) Hardcover: $18.99 More Suggestions in Young Adult: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, or The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

More suggestions in graphic novels: The Encyclopedia of Early Earth: A Novel, by Isabel Greenberg; Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh; and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,

by Alison Bechdel.

Wolverine Farm P u bl is hing C o. & Bo ok s t ore Join us at the bookstore each month for: Letter Writing Club : Last Sunday of each month at 3pm I am Open Mic: Last Friday of the month at 8pm Little Wolverines Story Hour: 1st and 3rd Saturdays 10-11am

1. A readable history of the entire span of the earth’s existence. Heard of the terms Cambrian, Devonian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Paleogene? After reading this book you’ll have a better understanding of just what they mean, and why they’re relevant.

2. You will never find the history of shells, frogs, and bat carcasses so fascinating. The book is cleverly structured to reflect the progression of life forms on Earth, beginning with tiny water-based organisms, through to giant mammals and birds, and finishing off with humans.

3. Arm-chair travel. The research that has gone into this surprisingly thin volume is astounding. Kolbert traveled to research stations, museums, and sites of geological and paleobiological significance in Australia, Europe, and America.

4. It’s a clear and concise explanation of human-caused climate change.

This is the first book I have read that succinctly and adequately accounts for how climate change has occurred on the planet prior to human beings, how it changed since we started burning things, and why the change is critical in the 21st century.

5. You won’t feel depressed after reading it. In her journey around the world, and through time, Kolbert has expertly captured human attempts to understand where we come from and where we’re going. There is no denying that the situation on Earth is rather grim... But there is reason to hope! After all, the planet has already witnessed five mass extinctions. The sixth won’t be the last, and there are means and ways of perhaps slowing it down, or even preventing it.

6. It’s a call to action.

ALWAYS ACCEPTING BOOK DONATIONS! Proceeds from the sale of donated books helps pay for our publications, our literacy outreach efforts, and other collaborative projects in Fort Collins.

wolverinefarm.org : 970.472.4284 144 N. College Avenue Fort collins, co 80524

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

by Elizabeth Kolbert Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (February 2014) Hardcover: $28.00 More suggestions in nonfiction: Apocalyptic Planet: A Field Guide to the Future of the Earth, by Craig Childs; Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever’s Search for the Truth about Everything, by Barbara Ehrenreich.

This coming-of-age novel is told with a subtle sense of humor. Along the way, we meet an unusual cast of characters: friends, lovers, and an odd assortment of people who cross Nathan’s path. Some are kindhearted, but many are on the wrong side of the law. The characters are quirky and their stories are original.

The most developed character is Lola, an unconventional and unobtainable redhead who has difficulty “distinguishing between friends and lovers.”

The thread that holds these stories together is Indiana and its idiosyncrasies.

Nathan, born and raised in Indiana, has a love/hate relationship with the state.

These feelings intensify after an unfortunate accident forces Nathan to leave his job. He reluctantly moves to Vermont to work at a raptor rehabilitation center.

When he returns to Indiana for a visit, he sees the state with new eyes.

Rather than a novel, this book reads like a series of enjoyable short stories. If you are a bird watcher, you will appreciate Kimberling’s observations of the natural world. His writing style is engaging and descriptive. I look forward to reading his next book.

Snapper by Brian Kimberling Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries (March 2014) Paperback: $15.00 More suggestions in fiction: Vampires in the Lemon Grove, by Karen Russell; Benediction, by Kent Haruf; The River Swimmer, by Jim Harrison; and The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt.

fort collins courier

Things That Are: Essays, by Amy Leach Review by Mary McHugh Things That Are: Essays is a literary platypus. Formally liminal, it straddles prose poetry and lyric essay, creative nonfiction and fiction—unless projecting thoughts into the minds of woodland creatures and sundry inanimate objects does not cross the line into fiction (I’m not being flippant; I have been grappling with questions like this lately). Using a remarkable animal as a metaphor for Amy Leach’s ambitious collection of prose is irresistible, as her treatment of such subjects is often remarkable, sometimes confounding, and occasionally marvelous. It’s really a rather pleasant hybrid style: just linear enough to satisfy fiction readers—showcasing Leach’s extraordinary vocabulary and gift for unexpected syntax and conclusions so that readers of poetry will be engaged—and sufficiently full of odd facts about and admirable qualities of the natural world to interest readers. The writing style will draw comparisons to Elizabeth Gordon, but with rhythmic bursts and more economy.

But back to the question of form: Things That Are seems to elude categorization in an unsettling way, because it begs to be categorized. Through the entire reading experience, the question keeps popping up: What is this? Leach must’ve known this would happen when she chose the undeniably problem-solving title—the book just is. And there you have it. Things That Are’s subjects, including cornflowers and lotuses, hippos and goats, constellations, and a comforter with a hole in it, just are. The book’s lack of a conceit is its de facto conceit. Which, for the most part, works. And she puts her wonderful vocabulary and instinct for surprise to good use, describing everything she can think of from a perspective of pure whimsy. Yes, the point is to remember to be astonished by the natural world, and why is that so hard?

With an approach that risks being too precious, she invites the reader into her perspective: Come and miss the boat with me. Come and play some guessing games. We’ll read aloud the illegible electric green script of the northern lights; we’ll speculate about which star in the next ten thousand years is going to go supernova.

Then we’ll listen to a recording of ‘Epistrophy.’ I’ll wager on his left thumb, you take whichever finger you want, and with the mad currency we collect from each other I’ll buy you rain, you buy me snow, and we’ll go in together for sunshine for the grass and the clover, and the delicious prickly thistles.

But really, this introduction is, if not fully a distraction, at the least unnecessary. Leach’s best passages speak delightfully for themselves and their subjects. She is so well suited to writing about fainting goats it seems as though she invented them: A fainting goat often serves as special companion to a herd of sheep. When they get rattled at, screeched at, hollered at, fainting goats sprint away for a second and then freeze, toppling like upended chairs. This is not floppy kid syndrome, nor mad staggers—which entail blindness and spinal disintegration.

Fainting goats just fall over for a few seconds, muscles rigidly locked, fully conscious, like terrified figurines. So when a coyote runs from behind a boulder, the goat is stationary, available, and the creampuffs can totter away.

But she didn’t invent fainting goats or the warblers, who, after migrating across the ocean to Venezuela, are “feathers and bones, all the worm-fat spent…sprawling in the sand, dazed, following their four-day transcendence,” or the mouse-ear cress, which “goes batty-bat and bends over backward to cooperate with unreality, sending its leafy shoots burrowing into the ground—as if the sun were down there.” She didn’t invent them, but she notices them in a novel way, as though they were a person sitting on the subway next to her. She gives them a biographical perspective and illuminates them in the same way a museum setting illuminates an objet d’art. And in the same way ordinary objects retain at least the potential to be beautiful to the observer who just stepped out of the Met, everything, especially things considered to be part of nature, appear whimsical, mysterious, even friendly, to the reader of Things That Are. Things That Are: Essays by Amy Leach Publisher: Milkweed Editions (June 2012) Hardcover: $18.00 Paperback: $16.00 (available June 2014) More suggestions for essays and nonfiction: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary, by Caspar Henderson; The Empathy Exams: Essays, by Leslie Jamison; and Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays, by Eula Biss.

:

LITERATURE

summer 2014

19

The Moon Before Morning, by W.S. Merwin Review by Daniel Luévano You will forgive an old man his poetry of the garden, of fields and echoes. More than 60 years into his career, W.S. Merwin continues to propel his reputation as a virtuoso of poetic clarity and readability—never mistaken as precious, nor as affected by a lofty ideal of purity.

His new volume, The Moon Before Morning, composes landscapes that intertwine the living measures of our world with Merwin’s material visions and revelations on the subjects that drive him: the environment, mortality, memory, and the slow mutability, and loss, of each.

In the poem “The Eternal Return,” the poet considers, with only a shadow of lament: I cannot recall what I was saying while the clouds melted over the morning sea here is the same child without a childhood the whole sentence present in the last word.

Over the course of a volume, or a career, a repetition of theme and subject will arise in any poet’s oeuvre. Though Merwin may turn over similar turf throughout the length of his work, the consistent precision and lyricism he brings makes each poem discretely gratifying. That consistency also affords distinct power to the poems that address history or literature, or, as in poems like “Urticophilia,” engage in pointed sociopolitical commentary. In that piece, the poet wishes to hear from: my true elders and not from the voices with something to sell nor from the spreading scar tissue of pavement numbing the flayed earth.

The Moon Before Morning also exerts compelling contemplative intensity in poems that recall Merwin’s youth, such as the sketch of an overprotected child in “The Green Fence” and in the haunting “Antique Sound,” in which a boy culls thorns to serve as needles for a turntable.

W.S. Merwin has long fixed his place in a select list of widely celebrated poets to ascend after World War II; with The Moon before Morning, Merwin upholds his renown in the literary annals of 2014.

The Moon Before Morning by W.S. Merwin Publisher: Copper Canyon Press (March 2014) Hardcover: $24.00 More suggestions in poetry: Incarnadine: Poems, by Mary Szybist; New Collected Poems, by Wendell Berry; and A Thousand Mornings, by Mary Oliver.

SUMMER READING ISN’T JUST FOR KIDS.

Summer Reading for Adults begins June 1.

Visit PoudreLibraries.org/SRP for details.

20

MAKE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Make

Portrait as Ancestors

Let the Painting Take Over Fabulous self-portraits, an enduring art scene, and reason to celebrate both collide north of Fort Collins

W

By Todd Simmons

hen ART342 quietly closed its doors in early 2013, Fort Collins lost a piece of the puzzle in assembling a successful art community. A non-profit residency and artist community, ART342 had a beautiful space just north of town, with a house and studios where visiting and local writers, composers, painters, and sculptors could live and work.

Like many art-centric places around Fort Collins, the endeavor seemed successful, but couldn’t maintain its momentum after just a few years. Its sudden demise, coupled with the more recent losses of several galleries and studio spaces downtown, muddled the never-ending shape-shifting reality of Fort Collins’ art scene.

Fort Collins Courier: At what point in the painting do you paint the face? Does it change according to the painting? The expression is usually serene, reflective, and steady—this constant is often at odds with the overall composition. What does this say about the protagonist?

Haley Hasler: The face does keep changing along with the rest of the painting, except in rare cases in which it all comes together magically (I call those “gift paintings” and they usually come after a long struggle with a previous work.)

The self-portrait is usually the central element of the painting. I have long been interested in representing an “inhabited” figure, so I take a character that has roots in allegorical or symbolic figures—such as the Madonna, who figures in so much of art history—and try to embody that character as a real person, viewed from an interior standpoint. In other words, the central female character is meant to convey the humanity of the person, rather than operating exclusively as an iconic representation (of the Madonna, or Mother Nature, or Eve, for example) although my Lady has a foot in both worlds, so to speak, and is meant to dialogue with those art historical references as well.

Amidst this climate, I learned of the local painter Haley Hasler. Born here, Hasler moved away to study painting and then lived abroad for many years, only to come back to Fort Collins to continue painting and raise a family.

The first time I saw her work was like looking at a solar or lunar eclipse—the paintings are that otherworldly, considering they’re often grounded in common domestic life or scenes of the natural world. Full of family, dishes, and lavish costumes and backgrounds, her paintings play with and investigate the tenuous balance of nurturing children while letting the imagination run rampant. Hasler works exclusively in self-portraiture, and her paintings overflow with exuberance, life, and color, in a way that seems cinematic.

But Hasler doesn’t show regularly in Fort Collins; she lives here. It’s reflective of Fort Collins in that one must sometimes seek out the most inspired or talented work that is happening, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It bolsters my faith in the creative climate we live in—and makes me want to pay more attention to what is going on around me, to find a painter of such quality and dedication amongst us. And in another twist that is also reflective of the strange—yet vibrant—Fort Collins art scene, Hasler and her husband, Emmanuel Didier, landscape architect and designer, recently purchased the ART342 property and are committed to keeping the five studios open to artists. Hasler and her family will ART342’s former building, now with new owners, still houses artists.

Can you ever imagine working in a different medium? Say, a stop-animation film of one of your paintings?

Tea Party live in the main house, and her and Didier will both have large studio spaces in an adjacent building. The original owners were appreciative that art was still going to be the focus of the property, and worked with Hasler and Didier so they could afford the purchase price. As of this printing, all five studios are occupied, and art is once again pouring out of the space .

Hasler was kind enough to share some insights about her process and what she’s after in her art.

I love painting too much, and am too invested in it, to consider seriously taking on another medium—but I do daydream about living another life, in which I can easily conceive of great artistic satisfaction through, say, filmmaking or piano playing.

How do you get your children to stay still long enough to paint them? Or do you work from photographs?

I do not enjoy working from photographs, and am not a big fan of paintings based on photographs (unless the work is in dialogue in some very exciting way with the

fort collins courier

:

MAKE

summer 2014

21

Portrait as a Sunday Brunch photographic source, like the work of Chuck Close, for example). Many representational artists who use photographs are using them as an easy shortcut to so-called “realistic” imagery—that does not interest me at all.

I would consider myself a painter who works from perception and invention. I build elaborate set-ups in my studio to enable perceptual work, which is very exciting because the way we see and order the visual world is endlessly complicated and interesting. I use a full-length mirror and paint the central figure by observing my reflected image, which I then try

to bring together with the observed set-up, or landscape, or room, as the case may be. Sometimes I do wish to represent something that I can’t set up, like a still life in my studio such as a living animal or child. For some of these elements, I can try to make them up on the canvas. For others, I rely on source photos, to jog my memory about how a thing looks. But they have to move and change on the canvas in order to work. I have to distance myself from the photo as much as possible and let the painting take over.

To view more of her work, visit www.haleyhasler.com.

22

MAKE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Artist Profile: Gale Whitman

G

ale Whitman recently moved into one of the studios at the former ART342 space, and the Fort Collins Courier caught up with her to talk about her work, the joys and pains of being an artist in Fort Collins, and some of the programs she’s involved in.

we will use the money to self-publish an art book of Bob’s poetry and my paintings. For “Good Day,” I have re-examined some familiar themes in my artwork and have recently explored new techniques with my acrylic painting.

will be my fifth year painting transformer cabinets for the city. Beet Street, with its Streetmosphere program and Arts Incubator of the Rockies (A.I.R.) organization, is very committed to advancing the lot of local and regional creative people.

Fort Collins Courier: What do you like about your new studio and how does the space affect your work?

I have also applied for the 2014 Transformer Cabinet and Pianos About Town projects, and I am preparing to be one of the Streetmosphere performers this summer.

Has the role of the artist changed in the last 5–10 years?

Gale Whitman: My new workspace, the “Wayne Studio” at 342 W. Douglas Rd., is roomy and open, with lots of natural light. I enjoy sharing the space with my artist friend Micah Richardson. The studios are located on a quiet, pastoral property with few outside distractions. In contrast to my former studio, this facility is not open to the public, and I can focus my studio time on creating artwork (as opposed to greeting visitors and displaying my work).

What have you been creating lately?

I am working with my poet colleague Bob Komives on what we call “The Good Day Project.” We plan to launch a campaign on Community Funded in June.

If we are successful in meeting our fundraising goal, © Courtesy Gale Whitman

Is it difficult to be an artist in northern Colorado? In your opinion, what are some of the difficulties?

While I believe that Fort Collins is very supportive of the arts in a general sense, I don’t always see this support backed in a financial way. In other words, individuals and companies love the arts, but don’t often purchase artwork or make financial contributions to artists directly.

Conversely, what are some of the positive aspects of creating art in northern Colorado?

I am so thankful for the City of Fort Collins’ Art in Public Places program. I have been fortunate to paint three pianos for Pianos About Town, and this summer

I am relatively new to the field of fine art, so I don’t have a lot of perspective. I was a medical illustrator for ten years before having children and becoming a stay-athome mom. Over the past seven years, I have gradually become more involved as a professional artist. I see a small shift upward in the level of respect and the amount of responsibility given to artists—more often, artists are being consulted in the design phases of projects.

Anything else you’d like to add?

We look forward to welcoming visitors to the studios at 342 W. Douglas Rd. for the Fort Collins Studio Tour on June 27–29, 2014.

To view more of her work, visit: www.galewhitman.com.

fort collins courier

:

MAKE

summer 2014

23

© Courtesy 3 Painted Ladies

3 Painted Ladies: Painting for Relationships

A

By Kendall Greenwood

painted lady is someone who knows what she wants. She knows how to go after getting what she wants with integrity and partnership. Most importantly though, she knows that without strong relationships, her dreams would amount to little. Karen, Kathy, and Dianne are the painted ladies.

“We make a concerted effort every single week to go out and talk to businesses, paint stores, etc.,” Murray Boston said.

They further their commitment to relationships by giving back to their community. They partner with other small businesses or projects to support them and the community at large.

Karen Murray Boston, Kathy Stewart, and Dianne Gregg started 3 Painted Ladies on September 1, 2013. 3 Painted Ladies takes used latex paint and recycles it into nature-friendly “Earth Girl Paint.”

“For example, Milliken, Berthoud, Windsor, and Loveland,” Stewart said. “We now are a part of their community clean-ups so that they can bring in their latex paint and we can help.”

“Our mission is to save paint from the landfills and to offer a high-quality, green product at a great price,” said Murray Boston.

There is only a smattering of recycled paint stores across the United States. As a result, starting 3 Painted Ladies was a new adventure for all three.

The idea came to them when Gregg heard a man talking about recycling paint at a Habitat for Humanity meeting.

“I was so inspired by it,” Gregg said. “We started talking about how [recycling paint] would make such a difference.”

According to Murray Boston, paint is one of the few products that we can bring full circle. As long as the paint has not gone bad, it is possible to create new paint from the old.

This is not common because not many people know that it’s doable.

“The example we always use is 30 years ago when you said, ‘You know that coke can? You can recycle that’,” Murray Boston said. “People looked at you like you were crazy. It’s kind of the same thing with paint.”

To recycle paint, 3 Painted Ladies begins with the dropoff. People volunteer paint they are not going to use anymore. From there, they check to make sure that the paint is good.

“You can tell [if it’s bad],” Murray Boston said. “If it’s been frozen it looks like cottage cheese and if it’s bad it smells.”

They separate the good paint into basic colors, working on one color each day. With each color, they pour all of the matching cans into a filter process and a large labeled container. The filter removes the chunks and anything else that would hinder the consistency of the paint. The paint then gets mixed and checked. Then it is drained into a 55-gallon bucket and put through several more filter systems. From there, it is poured into the individual saleable containers, labeled, and given a batch number.

They aim to have consistent, basic colors. However, each batch of one color is mixed together from many containers of recycled paint. As a result, each batch is a little different.

According to Gregg, creating 125 gallons of paint takes all three of them about six hours.

The paint is made high-quality by filtering, which creates a creamy texture, and by mixing interior and exterior

paint. Exterior paint is a little more high-quality to be able to withstand different elements, so mixing the two increases the paint traits.

To further their mission of staying green, the paint containers themselves are also recyclable.

“The bucket for our paint is made in the United States and it’s 100% recyclable, or you can repurpose it,” Murray Boston said.

John Kinniard, Executive Director of Reflections for Youth, bought Earth Girl Paint to repaint the business’ facilities after the flood in 2013.

“We were skeptical at first, but once we started putting it on the walls we were very happy with it,” Kinniard said.

“If you [were to] put it in unlabeled buckets with brand new paint versus their paint, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

The first part of getting people to recycle paint is to connect with the community.

“We didn’t know how to do the day-to-day,” Stewart said. “Running a business? Yeah. But the day-to-day of actually recycling and reclaiming paint was really new to us.”

They knew to expect the unexpected. However, what they did come prepared with was the knowledge that relationships with people were just as important as the relationship with the environment.

“Our mission, besides being green,” Murray Boston said, “was to bring three friends together, do something we had a common denominator in, and have an awesome time doing it.”

3 Painted Ladies is located at 418 Street SE Unit B8 in Loveland. Their product is also sold at Ace Hardware, Josephs’ Hardware & Home Center, and Eco Thrift in Fort Collins.

Earth Girl Paint sells for about $15 a gallon (approximately half the price of brand-new paint).

Find out more at www.3paintedladies.com.

24

MAKE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Seeking an Authentic Experience Venturing into the Wilderness with Stephen Willard, Landscape Photographer

S

tephen Willard is a Fort Collins photographer who uses only largeformat film cameras and traditional darkroom techniques to produce stunningly colorful photographs of Colorado wilderness. He spends 60 to 90 days hiking in the backcountry each year, using two llamas to port his equipment. The Fort Collins Courier interviewed Willard via email to learn more about his work.

The second place I would pick would be Schofield Park just north of Crested Butte, Colorado, heading up the West Maroon Pass trail. If you are there at the right time of the season on a good year you will be overwhelmed by a giant expanse of wildflowers so thick with color you would find it impossible to comprehend what you are seeing is real. Hummingbirds flock there by the thousands.

If I had to guess, this summer around the second week of July should be very good given all the snow we have had this year.

Fort Collins Courier: What type of film cameras do you use? What is your development process like?

Where do you plan to take your llamas next?

Stephen Willard: The cameras I have chosen to execute my art are the same cameras Ansel Adams employed to paint light on film almost 100 years ago. They are called large-format (LF) cameras and they’re still made in the 21st century.

They are not common by any means, but despite the digital age they still persist.

I am currently shooting on the north end of the Wind River Range in Wyoming, just south of Yellowstone. It is very remote and void of any human activity.

It is speckled with roughly a thousand alpine lakes teeming with golden cutthroat trout, and it is populated with grizzlies, wolves, and mountain lions, which makes the whole experience even more wild and pristine.

These cameras are basically light-tight boxes with a lens. LF cameras do not use batteries, have no autofocus, contain no built-in metering, possess no computer chips, provide no histograms, have no LCD screens, or sport any artificial intelligence. Clearly, the operation of these primitive cameras relies solely on the wits and intelligence of the photographer.

I develop all of my color film and print all of my images in my own color darkroom. The core instrument in my darkroom is my enlarger: this is the tool that I use to make enlarged prints. My color enlarger stands ten feet tall, weighs 1,500 pounds, and runs so hot that I use it to heat my house.

Tell us about your llamas. How long have you had them? What role do they play in your work?

I have been using llamas now for about 12 years. They are not pets, but they are good companions. Together we can transport about 250 pounds of equipment into the backcountry and remain there for up to 30 days before we have to return for fresh film and provisions.

Quite often I start my day at 3 a.m. to allow for sufficient time to bushwhack several miles from base camp to the location I intend to photograph during morning twilight, only to return well after dark that evening. I then must pasture my

What advice would you give to someone starting out with film photography?

llamas, cook a meal, clean my gear, and reload film before retiring to my sleeping bag. Sometimes I do not go to bed until well after midnight, only to rise again long before sunrise and repeat the whole process all over again, day after day.

In most cases, I am only able to capture a small percentage of the compositions that I have constructed because the appropriate light and atmospheric conditions I needed to compliment the applicable composition were never realized.

Each of the compositions left behind is logged into a database on my iPad including its GPS location. This allows me to track all of the compositions that have not been photographed so that I can revisit them until I can achieve the final result I desired. Currently, I am tracking 310 compositions, and on average, it will take me two-and-a-half years with many revisits before I am able to acquire the photograph.

What adventures (or misadventures) have you had while exploring in the wilderness?

When you spend 60 to 90 days in the backcountry year after year, the things one witnesses and experiences are nothing short of amazing. I have had countless encounters with bears, mountain lions, and even buffalo. I have weathered storms with winds well over 100 miles per hour that went on for days. I always get lost, and many times it can take days to find my way back to base camp.

Once I was stalked by a mountain lion. It circled my camp at night and my llamas served as an alarm system by making loud whinnying sounds. The lion came

right into my camp. Without thinking, I stormed out of my tent, picked up rocks from my campfire and hurled them at the creature while roaring back at the lion with all my might. The lion scurried back into the night, and I dropped to my knees trying to recapture my composure.

I suspect that both the lion and myself were surprised at what had just happened.

What have been some of your most memorable locations for shooting landscapes?

If forced to pick a few places, I would first choose the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. These peaks are carved from a single monolithic piece of granite that towers straight up from the alpine valley floor right into the heavens. They are intimate in nature and expansive in scope, and they will overwhelm your senses.

The art of film photography is about an individual who possesses the eye to capture a single instant in time that is raw, unedited, and tells a preconceived story.

Acquiring such a talent is a journey of self-discovery that takes a lifetime. If you are passionate about life and this kind of journey appeals to you, then film may be a good choice for you.

Learn more at www.stephenwillard.com. You can also find Stephen Willard’s work at JAX, at 1200 N. College Ave. This interview was edited for length.

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

MAKE

25

26

NATURE

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Nature

Creative

Destruction Along

the Poudre

By Todd Simmons

“T

his is not just a landscaping project,” said Rick Bachand, Environmental Program Manager with the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas, as we walked the recently reopened McMurray Pond natural area. “We’re taking the long-view here.”

The long-view involved a massive amount of earth-moving to rework the topography, and now most of the natural area is devoid of vegetation, with irrigation hoses running long stretches between newly planted trees and plants.

Previously, when you tried to walk along the north side of the river, you were usually between 12–15 feet above the river, with concrete rip rap, rebar, and other impediments in the way. The recent ecological restoration project removed all of this and returned the river’s natural floodplain. The adjacent ponds were dredged, new wetlands were created, and old cars, a tractor, and other debris were removed. With a nod to the area’s high traffic during the summer, a new access point near the Shields bridge was installed, along with a series of rocks placed strategically up the gradual river bank and dubbed the Poudre-O-Meter: indicating how high the river would rise during 25-, 50-, 75-, 100-, and 500-year flood events.

This rearranging of the Poudre increases flood protection, saves high-value forests already established along the river, and gives new cottonwoods, willows, and other native plants the proper terrain in which to take root. Coupled with the removal of the Josh Aimes diversion upriver, a planned parking lot and bathroom just north of the natural area, and a new Shields Street bridge beginning in January 2015, this entire stretch of the Poudre is brand new. Funded by the Keep Fort Collins Great tax initiative and the natural areas sales tax, this is just one of many projects currently happening on the Poudre.

Learn more at www.fcgov.com/naturalareas.

Photographs: Top panorama shows the reworked access point north of the Shields St. bridge, including the rocks of the Poudre-O-Meter; Rick Bachand with the City of Fort Collins; a tree stump unearthed during the restoration, where someone has been returning for the last ten years in July to date the stump; a beforeand-after shot provided by the city showing the dramatic change in the river’s northern bank.

BEFORE

AFTER

fort collins courier

:

NATURE

summer 2014

27

Looking north on Taft Hill Road. Gravel pits to the left, and the asphalt plant on the right in the distance.

CAAT vs. the

H

eading north out of town on Taft Hill Road, its a busy scene with bicyclists, pedestrians, school buses, commuters, and an overabundance of heavy truck traffic. Off this lively artery you’ll find schools, neighborhoods, and numerous large-acreage properties with horses, gardens, and fruit orchards.

Continue down toward the Poudre River and the pastoral scene changes instantly—gravel pits spread out all the way west to the town of Laporte, and to the east, the strange industrial workings of a portable asphalt plant.

In protest of this asphalt plant—owned by Martin Marietta Materials—and their recent application to the State of Colorado to make it a permanent fixture on the banks of the Poudre, a group of neighbors living up the hill from the plant formed Citizens Against Asphalt Toxins (CAAT).

Citing health concerns from toxic emissions, their goal is to have the plant relocated to a site more conducive to its industrial nature.

Asphalt Goliath

The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that will be released from this plant into the surrounding air have known serious health risks. The synergistic impact of this cocktail of toxins on human health has not been studied. In addition, the wind patterns direct the emissions toward schools and local residences less than a half mile away and the topography where the plant sits is relatively low, not allowing the emissions to disperse into the atmosphere. Neither of these factors are considered in the EPA’s evaluation. The evaluation process is rigid and performed by environmental engineers whose main concern is overall air quality from a climate and global perspective.

Additionally, portable asphalt plants are required to

Fort Collins Courier: How many people have signed the petition?

Is CAAT being included in the process by the city, county, and state? Do you feel that your concerns are being heard?

So far we have presented to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the Larimer County Commissioners, City Council, the Poudre District School Board, the Larimer County Environmental Science Advisory Board, and the Fort Collins Air Quality Advisory Board. We have met independently with the City Manager as well, since the City is far and away the biggest consumer of asphalt from this site. So yes, we sense there is genuine concern from all parties, but how that translates into action remains to be seen.

We are disillusioned most by the CDPHE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their lack of oversight of asphalt plants. The CDPHE permitting process is tightly bound by EPA regulations that are outdated and industry-influenced. In the EPA regulations, the agency states the fact that the science concerning the health risk from asphalt emissions is seriously lacking, yet in 2002 asphalt plants were downgraded to a “minor” polluter, allowing these plants to “self-regulate.”

Are you prepared to take this issue to the courts?

We are currently looking into that. It has become pretty clear that Martin Marietta is not going to be a good partner and do the right thing by relocating the facility on their own. The CDPHE could ultimately deny stationary status, but they are in the business of issuing permits so we’re not hopeful. We are hopeful that the City, as the largest consumer of this asphalt, will put pressure on Martin Marietta to relocate or at the very least more stringently regulate the toxic emissions.

Any personal anecdotes from the group on what the concerns look, smell, and feel like?

They’ve dug deep in public records, unearthing a disturbing amount of lax and non-existent oversight of the asphalt plant. More recently, they’ve taken to counting the daily truck traffic (easily more than 300 trips per day), meeting with air quality experts, making public presentations, and sending numerous emails to supporters across the city.

As citizens’ groups go, CAAT is organized, strategic, and ambitious, and their efforts are already making a difference.

CAAT Organizers: More than 1,000 Fort Collins and Larimer County residents have signed so far. The petition lives online at www.citizensagainstasphalttoxins.com.

not impacted by their activities. The costs to all of Fort Collins far exceed the costs to move the plant to a safe location.

move every two years or they must obtain a stationary permit. The current plant is operating under a permit that was issued more than two years after the plant was moved to the Taft Hill location. During the first twoplus years of production, the plant was not inspected and was not required to be even though the last inspection was in 2000 (13 years prior). Martin Marietta has been in the process of obtaining a stationary plant permit since their application in June of 2013 and continues to be allowed to operate under the existing portable plant permit at a production level that is 20% higher than the new permit, if issued, will allow.

Should the permit be awarded, we are asking that the City and County push to include provisions that include: video surveillance of the site, continuous measurement of the emissions, a timeline for emission control improvements, third party oversight of recordkeeping, and limited hours of operation.

Ultimately, our goal is to get this facility moved at least two miles from schools and densely populated neighborhoods. No one knows the long term impact on the north Fort Collins community should this plant be permitted to remain at this site indefinitely. Martin Marietta has not taken effective steps to ensure that the community is

At a recent county commissioners’ meeting residents got up and spoke about their concerns. One woman in her 40’s said she has developed asthma since moving near the facility. Another resident stated that he and his wife can no longer have their grandchildren visit because of the risk to their health. He also stated they have had to stop hanging their clothes on the line because when they bring them in they smell like asphalt. Another woman said that during the summer months the asphalt fumes come in through her open windows and fill up the house. Since toxins like this are very slow to decompose, she fears that they are building up and now has to avoid opening her windows.

Air conditioning is not even a solution to this because it does not filter out the VOCs. The EPA’s website clearly advises people to avoid these types of toxins, especially the young, the elderly, and those with respiratory issues. This is impossible when you live near an asphalt plant. Please see the CAAT website for videos of the asphalt plume and noise.

Any dates, meetings, or milestones coming up in the next two months that are particularly important?

We are currently awaiting the issuance of the permit, which is to be followed by a 30-day public comment period. If you visit the website, you can click on a tab to stay informed and we will send out updates when that permit is issued. We encourage residents to speak out on this issue. It’s not just a few north-side neighborhoods being impacted. This issue speaks to what kind of community Fort Collins wants to be as we grow.

Find out more and sign the petition at www.citizensagainstasphalttoxins.com.

This interview was edited for length.

28

FOOD & DRINK

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Food & Drink

Chef’s Corner: Amelia Mouton, Chef and Co-Owner of Restaurant 415 Article and photographs by Michael Bussmann

I

like food; so does Amelia Mouton.

We have that in common. Also, we both like coffee, which is perfect, since we sat down to talk about food over coffee. Amelia is the chef and co-owner of Restaurant 415. Restaurant 415 opened its doors in 2012 to celebrate simple food.

We talked about her take on local sourcing and local mouths dining in local restaurants. We also talked about eating, and how wonderfully strange life can be.

Michael Bussmann: You have a long history with food and restaurants, right?

Amelia Mouton: I grew up in a family of incredible cooks—my grandmothers and my father and mother were all amazing cooks. And my father is also a restaurateur; he’s one of the original owners of the Rio. So I grew up in the restaurant industry, and always loved the vibrant, “party all the time” feeling of the restaurant business. I kind of knew, ever since I was 15 years old, that I wanted to open a restaurant.

And what drew you to becoming a chef?

I always loved having dinner parties—I would make whatever, and my friends would come over and eat it. It was really fun, although it probably wasn’t the traditional way of becoming a chef. But I was intrigued with how food brings people together.

So no formal training?

I traveled around a bit and ended up in Idaho at a fly-fishing ranch. I was hired on as a waitress, but then the chef quit, and I ended up becoming the chef. I had never cooked meat before in my life—I was raised vegetarian but I was in Idaho, on a ranch, responsible for these $250 dinners.

It was five courses every night and that was a major crash course in culinary school. I got to do whatever I wanted there. I would make fresh pastas, soups, and all sorts of desserts. It was my first time really experimenting with food.

And that was the first step toward the 415?

Well, then I moved to Austin for a while and worked at Whole Foods as a chef. And I worked at the Rio for a long time too, front of house, as a waitress and banquet manager. And then the 415 happened.

What is the best part of owning/chefing your own restaurant?

What I love about the 415 is that people come here and not only eat the food—they talk about the food! At the Rio that never happens: they talk about the drinks, or the fun, and whatever. And that happens at the 415 too, but people are intrigued by the breakdown of our food. And even though it’s very simple (it’s not super “chef-y” food), people talk about it and want to know where it comes from, the stories behind it, the recipes. It’s exciting to walk around the restaurant and hear about the food. It’s like those dinner parties. It’s food and conversation and people aren’t looking at their cell phones, they’re talking to each other, and I love that. It’s like a big party all the time.

Tell me about the 415’s take on sourcing ingredients locally.

I think the 415 is a jumping-off point for the farm to table idea in Fort Collins. We do the very best we can with things, but we are also way busier than we thought we’d be. So, in the summer, for example, we get five or six farms in here, bringing us kale, chard, herbs, salad, etc.

It works, and it’s pretty awesome that we live in such a great growing environment that can support it.

Some friends are coming over for dinner. At this imaginary dinner party, it’s any time of year, and you can make your favorite meal.

What are you cooking?

One thing I love preparing is ravioli.

Being raised vegetarian, instead of eating turkey at Thanksgiving I would make ravioli. I like to make it with butternut squash. It grows here, in abundance in the fall. Add in some local goat cheese. Serve it in a brown butter and sage sauce with hazelnuts. Super good. On the side, I love utilizing the local lettuce for salads. It’s

always a nice compliment to something a bit on the rich end like the ravioli. And I like to keep salads simple: a good lemonmustard dressing and some chopped veggies tossed in. My favorite dessert to make is banana cream pie. And Morning Fresh Dairy, here in town, has the best whipped cream of all time. I love how thick their cream is. It’s insanely good.

And then, what are we drinking?

We should totally drink a Badger Mountain Riesling with the ravioli. And I’m not a huge beer drinker, but I love Odell, and I love stouts—especially their Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout. And that would pair pretty well with the banana cream pie. Rich, and worth it.

Restaurant 415 is located at 415 S. Mason St. It is open Tuesday–Sunday from 11:00am to 2:00pm and 5:00pm to 10:15pm. Learn more at www.thefourfifteen. com.

fort collins courier

:

Food & Drink

summer 2014

29

New Breweries in Fort Collins Article by Nick Janzen A few new breweries have opened in town. Here is a quick guide to keep you in the loop:

Summer Purslane Salad an adventure in foraging Article and photographs by Rico Lighthouse Freedom’s Edge Brewing Company 224 Linden St. www.freedomsedgebrewing.com Situated in Old Town, they’re bringing the frontier from Cheyenne to Fort Collins. What to try: the Illumination Cream Ale. Fresh and inviting, this one is perfect for getting the juices flowing on a Saturday afternoon.

P

urslane is a small summer succulent most of us are familiar with. Rather than cursing this lawn and garden invader, you can make a refreshing and cooling summer salad with it. Here’s how.

The leaves form the base of this salad, so remove most of the stems by pinching off the leaf clusters. (The stems can be added to your favorite vinegar/brine for some great pickles!) In your favorite bowl, add a bit of chopped sweet onion, chopped fresh basil, and mint. Then add about a teaspoon of olive oil and two cap-fulls of apple cider vinegar. Toss it all together then garnish with wild currants, raspberries, or some slices of an orange, with a little of the orange juice squeezed on top. Enjoy!

Horse and Dragon Brewing Company 124 Racquette Dr. www.horseanddragonbrewing.com Ride out to say hello to the new neighbors. The Bike Tree is waiting for you.

What to try: the L3 IPA. With fruity aromas and a hoppy finish, it’s a refreshing reward for a hard day’s work.

Two years after the fire, we are there.

Working with over 57 families, recovering, sustainably rebuilding our community one house at a time.

Safer, stronger and smarter.

1933 Brewing Company 4025 S. Mason St. www.1933brewing.com Themed for the year Prohibition ended, this is a fresh new deal on the south side of town. What to try: the Brown Ale. Sweet and smooth, this one will get you talkin’.​

Our many thanks to the supporters, survivors, volunteers, and professionals continuing to work to recover.

www . nocorebuilding . org

Your support of the Northern Colorado Rebuilding Network is greatly appreciated.

30

Visionary

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Visionary Prologue

walk-in shower. I set the opened can of Purina beside him—mostly to give the miserable fellow (or gal, hard to tell) an engrossing distraction, something smelly and promising upon which to fixate, something to live for while I sat beside him or her, filling a bucket.

I

t is springtime. On Friday, April 4, 2014, at 6:20 p.m., we wait in the alley behind 906 West Mountain Avenue with cameras and binoculars.

It’s slightly overcast—a somber, silvery grey—as the sun slides coolly toward the Rockies. Along the Front Range of Colorado, winds can gust up to forty or fifty miles per hour, but there’s no hint of wind this evening. It is eerily calm.

Robins chirp, a few doves coo, sparrows chitter in the shrubs, and a crow lands on a phone line over a dumpster as another crow messes around with a twig in a tree—plenty of birds in the neighborhood, but not the ones my husband and I are looking for. Usually by now the birds we’ve come to see would be kiting in swiftly toward the four blue spruce trees on this property. Correction: the two spruces still standing—the spindly, limbed trees with scars running up their trunks from the February chainsaws.

Their sparse upper boughs are visible over the roof of a shed beside the garage, from which ochre paint chips and peels.

The dirt patch between the shed and alley is bare and scored with tire tracks from a truck or SUV. Nothing much grows on the ground here. One of the crows lands on the edge of the dumpster and caws. The minutes pass; 6:30, 6:40 p.m. It is springtime, but where are the vultures?

I. Ice In late April of 2013, during an onslaught of blizzards, turkey vultures huddled by the dozens in the tops of four mature spruces in a Victorian neighborhood of Fort Collins. The vultures had migrated from Central America in a “river of raptors” to the Front Range only weeks before. They’d arrived in groups—called venues, or kettles—of a hundred or more. They’d been using this stand of conifers near the corner of West Mountain Avenue and Washington Street each summer for at least the past seven decades; this quartet of centuryold spruces was a traditional roosting site, where the vultures congregated each evening at sundown to sleep until morning. During the spring snowstorms, they perched side-by-side, collecting snow on their dark plumage until shivering or feather-ruffling shook it off. It was tough to see the bareheaded, warm-weather birds so cold and miserable. But, day after day, somehow, they endured.

Another storm struck the first week of May 2013. On an overcast afternoon of snow flurries, I was driving home from campus when I saw one of the Mountain Avenue vultures on the ground. He stood in the snow on the median strip.

He held his arms wide and, tilting his five-foot wingspan like a satellite dish toward the place in the sky where the sun would be at mid-day, he’d drawn a crowd.

Concerned residents had gathered on the other side of the street to keep an eye on this tall but hunched raptor, a bird the size of an end-table lamp without the shade. I pulled my truck to the curb. I got out and talked to a woman and a man, a young couple who lived a few houses to the west. Someone in the crowd had already called the humane society and was waiting to hear back; someone else was trying to reach the raptor center.

A Vulture Quartet Essay & Photograph by Sue Ring deRosset

Being grounded in a dense, wintry city can be practically a death sentence for a vulture. If they don’t have open range— ample room without obstacles in which to flap their unwieldy wings and slowly gain height—they need to find high perches like tree tops from which to leap and lift into roomy skies to avoid colliding with fences, trees, houses, and cars.

They also need a source of heat—the sun—to warm the flight muscles. On the ground, with tree trunks along the median, and traffic to the north, and traffic to the south, and no sunlight, only ice and snow and shade, the prognosis did look grim for the vulture freezing on the floor of the forested city.

After crossing the westbound lane to the median and crouching a few meters away, on the non-threatening side of a large fallen branch, I presented my profile. I assessed him by peering at him from the corner of my eye. His whole body shook.

Icicles covered the long, dark-brown, primary and secondary feathers of his wings; icicles pearled on the coverlets on his shoulders and back; icicles froze the tail feathers into a solid mass. And icicles on the wingflaps of a bird have got to be as dangerous as ice on jets; there was no way he’d be able to fly. His dirty feet clutched snow. His eyes were lead weights so sunken it was as if they burdened the skull, which hung weakly in its bag of frostbitten skin from the stooped shoulders. And who knew how many days had passed since the vulture had eaten?

His trembling—a physiological response called musculothermogenesis—was a last-ditch effort to generate heat, but the shivering was depleting hard-won fat reserves. We needed to warm him right away. I crossed the street again, fetched my jacket and welding gloves from the truck, and stood with the couple. I asked if they’d help me; we needed to pick up

the bird and get him inside—inside a heated house or garage.

The man said, “But he’s huge—isn’t he going to bite you? Or claw your hands to shreds?” Then the woman expressed concerns about bacteria, infections. Filth.

Vultures do enjoy eating gross things, including rotting flesh, but at four pounds they weigh half-a-housecat and are the gentlest of souls. Although categorized as a raptor, they aren’t aggressive and do not seize large, living prey, and they don’t have an eagle’s ripping beak or grasping feet. I shared some of this with the couple. They looked dubious but agreed to help. They’d block the vulture’s escape toward eastbound traffic as I approached wearing welding gloves from the north side, moving toward the bird gradually, crablike.

It worked. I wrapped my arms around the statuesque raptor from behind, grabbed hold of his feet with my protected hands, and lifted him to my chest. Tucking folded wings to his sides and pinning them to his body with my forearms was the technique I’d learned years ago at a raptor rehabilitation center to prevent flapping and fracturing of wing bones during an eagle’s or owl’s panicky attempt to escape. I could feel the shivers course through the vulture in waves, through my own arms.

The woman draped my jacket over the bird’s head and body for warmth and to reduce visual stress. We walked to the couple’s house. Inside their home, they secured their dogs in a bedroom or den, cranked up the heat in the downstairs bathroom, and fetched a can of catfood from the kitchen. One of them called the raptor center while I placed the icy vulture on a towel in their clean, white,

As heat poured down from ceiling vents, I massaged the icicles out of the buzzard’s feathers with warm water. A few icicles melted away, between my fingers.

After a quarter-hour, he was de-iced. He stopped shivering. I toweled him off and pushed the catfood toward him, then crept backward out of the shower stall and closed the glass door. Not once did the vulture hiss at me or us—not outside, not even indoors.

The couple came in to let me know the raptor center was sending someone out. I told them I’d head home; I’d assumed that having a stranger in the bathroom was a rather intimate invasion of privacy. “But what should we do till they arrive?” the woman asked, her eyes skittering over my hands and the towels and all the surfaces of the bathroom the vulture or his germs may have touched. As she studied the lamp-high carrion eater standing in her shower, I realized it wasn’t my presence that inconvenienced or frightened her.

Noting their mild anxiety, I told them that if they were sure they didn’t mind me in their home, I could wait until the raptor center volunteer arrived.

The defrosted vulture was rousing. His limp neck was gaining strength. He lifted the bald red bulb of his head—well, nearly bald. Up close, I could see a velvet fuzz of short, tiny feathers covering part of the head but leaving naked red “spectacles” around the eyes. With chocolatebrown irises and pinpoint pupils he peered inquisitively at the ceiling, shower walls, and glass door—at his heated and brightly tiled surroundings. Rocking, he shook out his feathers, worked the wings from the wrists. He flapped his wings athletically and folded them again without incident, without breaking so much as one feather. He inspected with his ivory beak the can of meat. I’d say his nostrils flared if they could get any wider than they already were, than they always are. He gazed at the three of us standing by the door and the sink. We peered back at him—with concern, and with optimism, and, I swear, with something like love.

A few days later, a volunteer told me that the vulture had survived. He’d tested negative for lead poisoning and had been returned to the stand of four mature spruces on Mountain Avenue. I called the couple with the good news. They were pleased they could help with the vulture’s rescue, but the woman said, after the raptor center had come to pick him up, she’d spent a few hours with a bottle of Clorox, thoroughly disinfecting the bathroom before she felt comfortable taking a shower. Good idea, I told her, and we laughed. Even so, I think they loved telling people about the day a turkey vulture stood in their shower stall and nibbled at a can of catfood.

This is an excerpt from a longer creative nonfiction work of the same title to be published by Wolverine Farm Publishing.

fort collins courier

:

summer 2014

Visionary

31

Project Team Architect: Brian Majeski, U/R Design Landscape: Emmanuel Didier, Didier Design Studio Structural: Wayne Thompson, CTL Thompson Contractor: Kevin Murray, Empire Carpentry

YEARS

Project Updates: www.wolverinefarm.org

Wolverine Farm Letterpress & Publick House

will be an art and culture destination in the rapidly developing River District. Our location will feature a working letterpress print shop, coffee and beer bar, conference room, an intimate event hall, and an outdoor work/event space. We’ll focus on craft and community, promoting our mission of mindful engagement with the world around us. We expect to open Fall 2014.

Wolverine Farm Publishing is a 501(c)3 non-profit literary/arts organization based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Founded in 2003, Wolverine Farm publishes books, a community newspaper, and organizes and hosts community-minded workshops and events.