My town is growing fast—a bit too fast for me. Years ago the
Colorado State University Bull Farm, just down the road from my house, was
replaced by university housing for people, not bulls. And since then more
apartments have sprung up in the area and a whole new set of them are on the
drawing boards, eliminating a small church, a favorite pizza spot and several
other small businesses in the one-time bull farm area.
An adjacent street has become so busy that an underpass now
allows walkers, cyclists and skateboarders to cross to and from the CSU campus
safely, though traffic is heavy even there and users have to watch out for speeding
cyclists and skateboarders around a couple of blind curves in the underpass.
Now it is important to plan extra time for a trip across
town or to a neighboring community. Big city folks laugh when we complain about
increasing traffic, but it’s way more than we’re used to and we’re having a bit
of trouble adjusting.
That’s why, when I was invited to display my handmade
notecards and bookmarks at a fundraiser to be held on a ranch outside Nunn,
Colorado, I looked forward to the experience. I wasn’t disappointed.
We set off early on a cloudy Saturday afternoon and in less
than half an hour of travel north and east onto the Colorado High Plains, we
found ourselves on a dirt road surrounded by nothing but sky and dry grass
prairie. I breathed a happy sigh. I’m so
glad it’s possible to reach this nothingness so quickly, I thought. I’ve always had a thing about seeing
lots of sky. Whenever I travel east across the country and the trees begin to
close in, I start to feel enclosed. On
the trip home when the sky begins to open up somewhere in Iowa, I’m relieved.
It turns out that the Gillespie-Wagner Ranch isn’t really in
Nunn at all. It’s a dozen or so miles
north of the little town that boasted a population of 471 in the 2000 census,
but it’s the closest spot around that boasts a post office and is therefore
their address.
More than 100 people showed up for “a day at the ranch” to
support a non-profit organization that provides funds to help low income people
complete end-of-life plans. There was a silent auction, generous pulled-pork,
hamburger and all the trimmings meal provided outdoors at long tables where you
had a good view of the high country to the west. Nearby, in a three-walled
barn, a woodworkers, a potter, a couple of jewelry makers and clothing vendors
displayed their wares and donated part of their proceeds to the fund.
I had a chance to wander around the ranch. I saw an
impressive rock formation behind the homestead that surely blocks some of the
wind, a constant companion on the plains. I watched cattle being herded by border
collie sheep dogs and I thought about what it would be like to live out here,
literally in the middle of nowhere.
The city folk from Fort Collins and Greeley took in the
scenery, satisfied their appetites and opened up their pocketbooks to support
rancher Dr. Jan Gillespie-Wagner’s favorite cause.
I came home happy to have spent a few hours out on the
Colorado prairie. Photo courtesy of Jeff Berger.
No comments:
Post a Comment