Yampa Path, Moving Like A Turtle, But Still In The Race

It’s the end of September, between covid, fires and smoke, the west coast has been put on hold with prayers. Board meetings have been pretty much impossible, mostly we’ve been touching base by phone or messenger because of covid 19 virus. Jobs are scarce in the area, especially for our Native American friends. We had to postponed our grand opening until next year, and haven’t been able to secure much funding to do any of the larger projects.

We have been lucky to get some in-kind-donations to keep us from being totally derailed. We put in two new gates on the property, created a ten-foot fire break around most of the land and secured the fence so the cows don’t wander in. We also established the spiral path and hoping to start putting the red-gravel on it.  We have created the exhibition areas on the lower part of the acreage. At the top of the hill we have put up more Blue Bird Boxes, and had a successful nesting pair throughout the summer. The swallows have also occupied two of our other boxes.

In the last couple weeks, some good news has emerged. We have a couple professional helpers with fund-raising and putting together a business plan. Sarah Ayers and Stephen Ussery are temporarily onboard, committing to just a few hours a week to help with this. We are so grateful and wish them the best.

As we enter the Fall, we will be focusing our energy on the spiral path in preparation of the pollinator gardens. I did apply for funding to help with the Butterfly Sails but did not hear back yet. We are looking forward to getting the posts in for the sails while the weather is good if things work out.  A main concern we have to deal with is how to stabilize the old building. We don’t want it to deteriorate anymore. We can’t afford to do much with it right now, and have other priorities, like the irrigation system for planting and outside bases to display sculpture.

 The entire Northwestern region experienced days when the redish smokey sky looked like we were living on another planet. We are lucky though, no fires in our area, just smoke. Here at Yampa Path we are still holding tight.