We took off this morning and went back into Canon City (the county seat) and got some info at the county offices. We got as much info as we could on the property at Spruce Basin, along with info on permitting, wells, septic, etc. We also found the name of the current owner and what we paid for it in 2004 (per tax assessment). We stopped at a small farmer’s market in Canon City, but didn’t get anything. We just didn’t need anything and didn’t have room. We went out to look at even more property, still comparing others to the Spruce Basin lot.
We were trying to find a 35 acre parcel that backed up to BLM land and the local postal delivery lady stopped and asked if we were lost. She looked at our vague directions and said the area we wanted was further up the road, but we should ask the folks at the firehouse there on the corner (we had just passed them). We stopped and chatted with a couple of volunteer firefighters standing outside the fire station. They were watching for smoke from a 20 acres fire reportedly heading this way. The wind was very strong and is wasn’t looking good for the local volunteer firefighters. One of the guys was familiar with the land we were looking for, he said he looked at it himself. He said it was mostly rock, not many trees and way at the end of a series of dirt roads, not maintained in the winter. He told us about a couple of other properties for sale in the area that he knew about. We gave up on the rocky 35 acres, but the properties he recommended weren’t great either (compared to the Spruce Basin lot).
We had enough for the day and took off towards Boulder, CO to meet with our friends Terrie and Alan and their place. On the drive, we saw the smoke plume, directed by the wind, that the local firefighters were watching for. We talked about how we needed to utilize as much fire abatement as possible if (and when) we build in this area. We got to Terrie and Alan’s after fighting Denver’s traffic. much like Atlanta’s. We were welcomed by Shelton, Terrie’s Golden Retriever with an incredible “retriever” instinct. It was great catching up with them. They’ve had some bad luck recently (a fire and health issues) but it sounds like they are doing ok. Terrie and Alan were officially married at the first of the year, but they are planning a big wedding ceremony in mid-July. We have to check our schedule (which we haven’t written yet) to see if we can arrange to be back in Boulder then.