boulder

Beyond Buddha Heads: Finding resilience in Colorado’ epicenter of Buddhist philosophy

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 17:33:45 +0000

Beyond Buddha Heads: Finding resilience in Colorado’ epicenter of Buddhist philosophy Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/23/2024 - 11:33 Por Jaijonkit , Kay Altshuler and Maddy Gleason

Journey through Grief in Colorado's Spiritual Heartland

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�鶹ӰԺ Valley schools found strength through the flood

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 20:22:20 +0000

�鶹ӰԺ Valley schools found strength through the flood Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/11/2013 - 13:22 Lauren Maslen

�鶹ӰԺ Valley schools sustained nearly $5 million in damage because of September's flooding, and now — nearly three months after water poured through several buildings and inundated athletics fields, playgrounds and parking lots — district officials say the repairs are nearly complete. Better yet, the repairs are virtually all paid for.

�鶹ӰԺ Valley School District spokesman Briggs Gamblin said that a combination flood insurance reimbursements, FEMA money from the federal government, grants from the state, and funds raised by the Colorado non-profit Impact on Education, will cover almost all of BVSD’s losses.

“One of the things about a crisis is that people don’t stop and ask, ‘Is that my area?’ People just do it. People organize quickly and they identify needs quickly,” Gamblin said.

�鶹ӰԺ Valley School District is the seventh largest school district in Colorado. More than half of BVSD’s buildings were damaged in September’s floods and four of those buildings received, “moderate to severe damage,” according to a letter written by Superintendent Bruce K. Messinger to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. This wasn’t the first flood �鶹ӰԺ experienced, but it was unique in the challenges it presented, Gamblin said. The floods blocked off access to all of �鶹ӰԺ’s major canyons, making made BVSD’s job of getting help to the schools, students, and teachers difficult, but even more imperative.

Immediately after the flood, disaster recovery crews at Crest View Elementary, Foothill Elementary, Community Montessori Elementary, Mesa Elementary, Platt Middle, �鶹ӰԺ High and Centaurus High cost the district $1.6 million. Playground repairs at Eldorado K-8, Flatirons Elementary and Ryan Elementary also needed to be done, and �鶹ӰԺ High's athletic fields needed substantial work.

But it was two elementary schools — Crest View in north �鶹ӰԺ and Jamestown Elementary in Jamestown — that suffered the most damage and disruption. Flood waters surged through 85 percent of Crest View and kept kids out of school for longer than two weeks. Jamestown Elementary didn't sustain as much damage, but the town's near-total evacuation forced the school to split into two units housed in different buildings, neither in Jamestown.

"We’re still not recovered," said Jill Williams, a kindergarten enrichment teacher at Crest View. "I think it won’t really be right until spring and maybe not completely normal until next fall.”

Crest View strong

Merlyn Holmes was awakened by a phone call during the night of Sept. 12.

“Our first thoughts were, ‘Oh goody, we have a rain day!’ We were a bit slow on the uptake. It seemed more like a snow day than an emergency,” Holmes said.

Holmes’ property is safely nestled near a retention pond not far from Crest View Elementary. “We watched that retention pond fill and drain and fill and drain repeatedly. It was really very beautiful and peaceful,” she said.

As the day progressed, however, Holmes and her family quickly realized the severity of the rain. The family walked to the Broadway underpass near their house, and realized the flood waters were raging.

“Our big question was: where were these waters going?” Holmes said. “It was only later the next day that we visited Crest View and we were shocked at seeing all the flood damage. There was a waterfall going through the playground.”

VIDEO

Included in Messinger’s letter to Gov. Hickenlooper was a cost estimate submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Among those costs? An alternate program site for Crest View students, food spoilage, fiber optic network damage, reconstruction, remediation, and cleanup.

Officials realized the challenge that lay before them on Thursday, Sept. 12.

“The one school that really sustained some damage beyond that which could be handled by our maintenance people was Crest View Elementary School,” Gamblin said.

Holmes’ 6-year-old son, Landryk, was out of school for two-and-a-half weeks.

“We did a lot of juggling at that time with work schedules and trying to figure out what would be best for our son,” she said.

An alternate program was made available through a partnership between BVSD and the YMCA. Teachers and some substitutes held classes at the Lafayette YMCA, including Williams, whose class became very interested in learning about rain.

“It was only natural to look out the window and talk about something we were experiencing and feeling depressed over, together,” Williams said. She shared the book “What Makes Rain: the Story of a Raindrop” with her kindergarteners.

Williams said that other teachers connected with their students during the flood in a multitude of ways, including video lessons and websites set up with lessons and educational material.

Buses were provided for students to attend the program, which was offered at $50 per day to families and at no cost to those who self-identified as being on free and reduced-price lunch programs.

Volunteers offered to help at the school, Gamblin said, but because of health and safety concerns, professionals had to be brought in to do the job first. Thirteen days of non-stop construction and repair work aided in recovering the school from much of the damage. “Machines were clunking away at Crest View at 3 a.m.,” Gamblin said. “The neighbors were great. They also suffered damage and they were very supportive.”

Anything that was absorbent had to go — materials, books, shelving, drywall, and carpets. What could be salvaged was loaded into unmarked cardboard boxes for teachers to sort through once they were allowed to return to the building.

Home Depot built shelving for teachers and puppet theaters for the kindergarten classrooms. Numerous businesses and other schools donated supplies and books to Crest View.

"KidKraft donated free items to the kindergarten teachers, so I received a dollhouse for my room," Williams said.

SERVPRO, the company in charge of cleaning and restoration of the school, also threw a Halloween party for their own staff and Crest View faculty.

The school’s outdoor vegetable garden and its habitat and wetlands areas are still damaged. Asbestos and mold tests are continuing to be conducted throughout the year. And until recently, hot lunches were prepared off-site and brought to the school for lunchtime.

But is the school back to “normal" yet?

“Kids are so adaptable at this age,” Holmes said. The students were able to settle back into a day-to-day routine of learning, “even when they were on concrete floors and had no books on the shelves.”

Williams credited the school's community and Principal Ned Levine, calling them both "amazing."

“We never could have recovered without either of them," Williams said.

Gamblin acknowledged neither he nor the school district, in the immediate aftermath of the flood, knew exactly how big a challenge BVSD faced.

Holmes said that although there is always room for improvement, she was impressed with how BVSD has handled the situation.

“The one area where I hope all this will have a lasting impact on the children is in not taking things for granted and being grateful. I know we parents feel that and I’m sure the staff and faculty do, too,” Holmes said. “Some children donated their life savings — their piggy banks — to the Crest View fund. They were aware that this was a big deal and they were really happy to have a school to go to and to help.”

Teachers adapted lesson plans to help students understand the flood and its impact. They asked: How does a rain cycle work? Why is rain good for our planet and how could it be harmful in a flood? And maybe most importantly: How can we help our community?

This lesson wasn't just one for the kids. It was one for the adults, too, one they're still learning as they try to get back to "normal."

A home for Jamestown Elementary

Jamestown Elementary School was also a challenge, but for different reasons, Gamblin said.

The school was used as an evacuation center for the town and “will need some soap and water,” he said.

Jamestown’s challenge is on a different level than Crest View’s.

The school is intact and the students are learning. The town, meanwhile, faces an overhaul, leaving the school to play a waiting game.

“We’re just waiting for full-town service access,” Gamblin said.

Jamestown, Colo., suffered extreme devastation after September’s floods. With only some roads recently repaired, structures still damaged, and a water distribution system that remains offline, the town’s school, Jamestown Elementary, was forced to split and relocate for the year.

After September’s floods, Beth Brotherton, Principal Scott Boesel's assistant, decided to remain in her home in Jamestown and with her students.

The new "Jamestown West" recently settled into its new home for the year in Glacier View Ranch at Colorado Mountain Conference Center in Ward, Colo. The school currently has 14 students in first through fifth grade and two instructors, including Brotherton.

Meanwhile, "Jamestown East" is located in a classroom in Community Montessori in �鶹ӰԺ. The classroom is home to six students in third through fifth grade, and one part-time kindergartener. The students’ teacher from Jamestown Elementary went with her students to their new classroom in �鶹ӰԺ.

Many families from Jamestown Elementary are open-enrolled and their homes are located above the mountains. They received minimal water damage, Brotherton said. Shortly after the flood, The families met to discuss what would be best for the town, their children’s education, and for the well-being of each of their families.

One first grader’s family offered its home to use as a school. The local volunteer fire department helped bring in tables for students to work on. Carpets were removed and a cork floor was installed.

On the first Wednesday back in class, 16 children showed up to their new classroom.

“We stayed there for six weeks and we taught there for six weeks,” Brotherton said.

Volunteers came to teach music lessons twice a week. Recess was held in the backyard with a swing set and fort, and the kids ate lunch at the picnic tables outside.

This temporary school was something the children will remember forever. It couldn’t last, though.

“The district brought us all together and asked us what we wanted. We knew we couldn’t legally stay there,” Brotherton said.

BVSD planned to use modular classrooms on the property of Glacier View Ranch. But between high costs, wind, and the trouble of transporting the modulars along the severely damaged roads, officials quickly realized this wouldn’t work.

The district negotiated with Glacier View Ranch to use a building on the property. “A beautiful log cabin, actually. It’s as big as Jamestown Town Hall,” Brotherton said.

Brotherton said learning is definitely happening at Glacier View Ranch. The building is “very homey... It’s a good place for the kids.”

“It really is amazing how well it’s working out,” Brotherton said. “We feel really safe up there. The district really took care of us. They did a good job.”

Private schools also suffer

Listen to the audio story below by Lauren Maslen to learn about how Homestar Child Development Center was affected by the flood. Below that is a video story by Joseph Wirth on �鶹ӰԺ's Waldorf Kindergarten.

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�鶹ӰԺ's treacherous journey to flood recovery and resilience

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 19:58:02 +0000

�鶹ӰԺ's treacherous journey to flood recovery and resilience Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/11/2013 - 12:58 Lars Gesing

Meteorologists estimate that one inch of rain generally equals about a foot of snow, depending on the snow’s density, of course. That means early December’s 6-inch snowfall, inconvenient as it may have been, was the equivalent of about a half-inch of September rain.

Now flash back just three months, when dozens of Colorado communities were drowned in the misery of a relentless surge of rainwater, mud and debris that broke its way through major portions of the state’s Front Range and Eastern Plains.

Seventeen inches of rain poured down during those eight days in mid-September. Do the math — that’s somewhere around 17 feet of snow, if that precipitation had come this month. As rain, though, the water caused a flood the National Weather Service quickly described as a 1,000-year event. The scars it carved into canyons and communities alike will remain palpable for years to come.

In those three months that have passed since the flood, the city of �鶹ӰԺ has managed to re-establish a facade of normalcy. City life soon fell back into routines once the waters receded and the worst – meaning most visible – impacts had been cleaned up.

Yet much work still remains to be done. The city plans to complete repairs of the water system and wastewater facility by spring 2014 and restore a majority of city areas to pre-flood conditions by the end of 2015.

Also, as nearly one-third of all Colorado households damaged by floodwaters lie within �鶹ӰԺ and about 15 percent of all city households were damaged (see graph), three months is barely enough to get back to normal.

Just ask Michele Vion and you’ll learn how fresh the wounds cut by disaster still are.

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Physically ripping out the toilet

While the floodwaters spared Vion’s family home in South �鶹ӰԺ near Table Mesa, five inches of raw sewage accumulated in her basement.

A �鶹ӰԺ City Council summary of the flood noted: “The majority of impacts were located outside of regulatory floodplains due primarily to groundwater and sewage backups.”

Vion translated the official jargon: “The sewage came literally out of every hole.”

In her desperation, she ripped the toilet out of the ground with her bare hands, hoping to cap the welling fountain it had turned into. It did not work.

“At some point, we just gave up and waited for it to be over,” Vion said. She and her family waited six days.

Three months later, Vion’s basement is still a construction site. To physically restore normalcy in her home, the mother of five had to spend $40,000. A sewage insurance policy paid her $5,000, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cut a $2,000 check. Vion will spend years to repay the remaining $33,000 through a low-interest loan.

She shares her fate with many families across the city. Some, like Christine and Ari Rubin who suffered an estimated $30,000 damage, were covered by FEMA flood insurance they had just recently bought after the city mailed a postcard to their home advising them to do so. But many others are now shaken with regret because they did not do the same thing.

Faced with many residents’ anger, the city has since deliberated over possibilities to prevent similar damage from occurring. Councilwoman Suzanne Jones urged city council during a Dec. 3 “lessons learned” meeting to take immediate action.

"If we have another flood and we have these kinds of sewer backups again, people will have our heads if we haven't at least looked at this," she said.

Flood recovery costs $43 million

Jeff Arthur, director of the �鶹ӰԺ utilities division, estimated the city will need $400 million to improve existing wastewater and stormwater infrastructure to a level where it would be able to withstand a disaster like this year’s flood. Usually, his department spends about 1 percent of that amount, or $4 million, on improvements.

He told Jones during the meeting that it was a question of how much investment the city was willing to make over time.

With an already tight budget, money is scarce within city government post-flood. Recovery costs keep rising and are currently estimated at $43 million.

That number includes repair bills for more than 50 damaged city buildings; water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure; Open Spaces and Mountain Parks (OSMP) restoration, sediment and debris removal as well as repair costs for damaged roads and sidewalks.

FEMA will reimburse 75 percent of the city’s recovery costs, another 12.5 percent of expenses will flow back into city pockets from the state capitol, leaving �鶹ӰԺ with a bill of least $5 million. The bulk of that money comes from a disaster reserve fund and flex repair dollars, pretty much emptying those pots.

The situation left �鶹ӰԺ Mayor Matt Appelbaum worried about “the next event that is going to happen without those funds,” whether it would be a fire – “or something else.”

The immediate impact on the city’s financial situation is even worse. �鶹ӰԺ Chief Financial Officer Bob Eichem told city council it would take FEMA between six months and two years to transfer the money back onto city bank accounts.

However, he said, they wanted to “rebuild the reserves within one year.”

More financial help is coming from Washington, D.C. On Dec. 5, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved a $63 million cash injection “to help our communities recover from the flood.”

Days after the floods hit town, then-candidate and now elected councilman Sam Weaver said the event would “give the city a chance to assess how we did with the flood” and improve accordingly.

Three months later, those mitigation efforts have gathered momentum.

“We don’t want to take things back to the way they were, but we want to make them better,” finance director Eichem said. And City Manager Jane Brautigam made a case during a recent city council meeting to recover from the flood in a way that would leave the community “more resilient than before.”

While Mayor Appelbaum supports the city’s mitigation efforts, he emphasizes financially sound decisions, distributing existing funds to where they are most needed.

“For certain types of floods, there is just nothing we can do,” he said. “Especially because the water doesn’t always go where we think it is going.”

Canyonside Office Park, 100 Arapahoe St. in �鶹ӰԺ, was destroyed in the September 2013 flood. Photo by Lars Gesing.

City trying to help aching business community

According to �鶹ӰԺ Chamber of Commerce CEO John Tayer, those in need are to a great extent local businesses.

“They have borne a heavy toll in terms of infrastructure damage and business disruption,” Tayer said.

Flood-related closures and dislocations ranging from reduced sales traffic to lost inventory worsened the situation.

As City Manager Brautigam noted in a memo sent to city council members on Dec. 3, the non-profit organization Downtown �鶹ӰԺ Inc. still receives calls from people asking if it was possible again for them to get to �鶹ӰԺ after the floods.

Tayer said there was a general sense that the flood has had a long-term economic impact because residents and tourists have reduced disposable income to spend at retail stores and in restaurants around town.

“Finally, the floods dampered tourism to our community,” Tayer said.

The Chamber president himself was among those who had to gut their basements after the floods. As did so many others, the Tayer family dealt with serious stress. His wife, Molly, the �鶹ӰԺ County Clerk and Recorder, had to respond to a number of unique challenges herself. It was her task to ensure that those who were displaced in the aftermath of the flood still had a chance to vote in the November elections.

�鶹ӰԺ city government tried to respond to local businesses struggles by partnering with Downtown �鶹ӰԺ Inc. and Twenty Ninth Street to run the marketing campaign “Buy into �鶹ӰԺ.” The ads placed in late November and December are supposed to remind holiday shoppers that for every $100 spend in �鶹ӰԺ, $3.41 flows into the pockets of community services and programs.

The more the city sends the message “buying and dining local,” the more money it makes through sales taxes.

New data from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) shows just how much local businesses need help to get back on their feet.

The SBA has approved $7.5 million in business and economic injury loans for businesses from all around the county that were affected by the flood.

SBA spokesperson Garth MacDonald said he was unable to break down the data to city-level, but his organization would “work with �鶹ӰԺ County applicants to fully complete and process applications” that have yet to be approved.

Flood Rebuilding & Permit Information Center there to assist

Despite all the efforts, it is common political consensus that recovery efforts can be successful only in cooperation with the county.

Therefore, �鶹ӰԺ County opened the Flood Rebuilding & Permit Information Center at its Land Use Department in downtown �鶹ӰԺ three weeks after the disastrous surges hit the Front Range.

The center is a “one-stop portal for people with their various flood-related questions and issues,” staff member Cindy Pieropan said.

Up to six employees deal with a couple dozen daily inquiries, a lot of them related to damaged or destroyed homes, access issues because of broken roads or problems with the septic system.

Pieropan said the center would remain open for at least one, but more likely two more years to deal with the aftermath of the flood.

“A flood is different than for example a fire, which doesn’t damage roads,” she explained. With winter approaching rapidly and with brutal force, it becomes increasingly hard to repair roads before spring, Pieropan said, pointing out that flood impacts tended to be long-term.

�鶹ӰԺ County Flood Recovery Manager Gary Sanfacon explained in a recent video-message to citizens that debris was still one of the core issues in the recovery process.

“A lot of debris has come up on private properties,” Sanfacon said. It was also still in the creeks and could pose future hazards, which is why the county started to implement a debris pick-up program, a collaborative citizen cleaning effort.

Meanwhile, the city of �鶹ӰԺ has managed to break down the number of key objectives for the near-term flood recovery to five. A memo to city council members lists the following activities:

Help people get assistance;
Restore and enhance infrastructure;
Assist business recovery;
Pursue and focus resources to support recovery efforts; and
Learn together and plan for the future.

The city also focuses on restoring the 10 percent of trails in the open spaces that remain closed at this point. A special case is the popular Royal Arch Trail. It was the most severely damaged of all trails in the system. OSMP director Mike Patton and his team keep evaluating best practices on how to rebuild Royal Arch Trail.

In his letter to the editor of the Daily Camera dated Oct. 8, �鶹ӰԺ resident Jim Martin sums up the 17 lessons he learned from the flood. Despite all the misery the devastating floods brought over the city, the county, and the state, Martin’s ultimate lesson is an acknowledgement of outstanding community recovery efforts.

Martin wrote: “There is a little bit of heaven in every disaster area.”

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�鶹ӰԺ County organic farm struggles to recover after flood

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:22:20 +0000

�鶹ӰԺ County organic farm struggles to recover after flood Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/09/2013 - 13:22 Gloria Dickie

The horses are at it again.

Restless hooves beat sand and silt into the air. Trots evolve into canters as mustangs and miniatures dance to an impatient rhythm under a Rocky Mountain sky.

“What is going on out there today?” Sara Martinelli murmurs to herself, moving to stand by the barn’s window.

Cool, white manes whip around in the autumn wind, a sign an iron-shoed tempest is slowly brewing.

Rubbing a tiny, silver horseshoe necklace between her thumb and index finger, Martinelli, the co-owner of Three Leaf Farm in Lafayette, Colo., trains her eye on the instigators — two minis named Cricket and Merlin.

Maybe it’s something in the air. Maybe there’s not enough hay. But Martinelli knows better.

Her irritated equines are yet another consequence of the flood.

Bordering Coal Creek, the 10-acre urban farm in �鶹ӰԺ County didn’t stand a chance when flood waters ravaged the region in mid-September, turning vegetable fields into a muddy stew, and meadows into lakes.

Now, over a month later, the back pasture is still a wasteland of grimy debris. The farm’s nine horses haven’t been able to return to their usual quarters, and instead spend their days in the farm’s west paddock.

“It’s a little small for this many horses,” Martinelli observes. “Something has been going on with them for the last couple days where they won’t stop arguing.”

She calls out to a farmhand to set out another bale of hay. Maybe that will pacify them.

But horses aren’t the only thing Martinelli has to worry about.

At the time the flood hit, the Martinellis were only days away from their big fall harvest.

“Right around the fall equinox is when we get all our winter squashes, pumpkins, tomatoes, final peppers — one more week and we probably would have harvested most of the crop.”

Instead, Sara and her husband, Len, lost between $10,000 and $12,000 worth of produce.

And they weren’t alone. Farmers throughout the county were hit hard by the flood, which contaminated fields and inundated barns and greenhouses.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates a total of 28,525 acres of crops and 39,000 acres of pasture and rangeland were flooded in the Front Range.

According to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, if the edible portion of a crop is exposed to flood waters it is considered adulterated and should not enter human food channels. Flood waters can contain a myriad of toxins, including pesticides, molds, E.coli, salmonella and heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic and mercury.

“Most of the farmers we’re talking to are still in the process of figuring out what they’re going to do next year,” says Michael Brownlee, co-founder of the Local Food Shift Group that helped to establish the Front Range Farm Relief Fund. “We think some of the farms that were significantly damaged may go out of business.”

In addition to contaminated fields, Brownlee explains the flood destroyed the county’s ditch system, which provides irrigation water for local farms. The price tag to repair the system is over $200 million.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty and chaos and exhaustion. The farmers have been working so hard to clean up and get the debris out of their fields, and trying to figure out how to pull money together to get through the winter. Emotionally and financially, many of them are in very difficult shape.”

Out in the fields, Martinelli kicks up a pitiful carrot with her mahogany cowboy boot. She gives it a look of defeat.

“Half of the field got swept away by the river,” she says. “When the water went down, and the sun came back out, we had the most beautiful tomatoes that we’ve ever had. And we had to just throw them all away.”

At her brother-in-law’s 63^rd Street Farm within �鶹ӰԺ’s city limits, a soil sample sent to the Colorado State University Extension tested positive for E.coli.

“We didn’t do any tests. We did the chicken test,” she says with a dry laugh.

At first, Sara was hopeful they could use some of the spoiled produce as food for the animals. One day, after the flood, she delivered a mound of squashes to her chicken house.

“The next day there was two dead chickens.”

Instead, the Martinellis, who operate several notable area restaurants like the Chautauqua Dining Hall and �鶹ӰԺ Dushanbe Tea House, sold off some pumpkins and butternut squashes as fall decorations. The rest had to be burned.

In the distance, Three Leaf farm manager Chase Morris steers his tractor toward a steaming compost heap.

“It was very upsetting for Chase because it was a whole year of work,” Martinelli says, watching the vivid green, John Deere tractor move through the pallid, washed-out rows of vegetables.

Sitting atop the growling piece of machinery, winter hat pulled low, Morris, who lives on the farm year-round with his wife, recalls the night of the flood.

“It was kind of exciting at first, but after that, once I saw all the damage, it was disheartening.”

A Michigan native new to farming, Morris initially hoped it would be possible to boil the vegetables to kill the bacteria. But after contacting CSU, he realized it was the heavy metals that had done the damage.

Now, his focus is on the coming winter.

“Right now I’m tilling the fields under, composting and covering crops. We have carrots in the ground still that, according to the CSU extension, might be OK after 120 days, since the heavy metals will oxidize and the bacteria won’t be a problem anymore.”

According to the Food and Drug Administration, the wait time before growers can replant depends upon temperature, weather and soil type. While no all-encompassing measure exists, most industry specialists recommend a 30- to 60-day period. However, in the case of Three Leaf Farm, the wait time is roughly double the usual standard.

Down by the creek, Martinelli strolls through a ghost town of abandoned bee houses where combs have run dry.

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Dusty stalks and sticks coagulate in the trees — a phenomenon that runs on for acres and troubles Martinelli.

“The biggest threat to us would normally be a small grass fire on the property. With this kind of debris way up into the trees, we have to get through here and get it all out.”

Already the Martinellis have enlisted the help of several volunteers to roll up flat drip tape and rip out collapsing fences.

“Normally, we would be planting some greens — some spinach, arugulas, garlics and onions. We would have gotten a final harvest of greens for this year.”

Instead the Martinellis plan on burning all winter.

Plodding her way through the muck, which still acts like quicksand in some areas, Martinelli clambers up a pile of rocks deposited by the swollen waters.

“The further away [from the barn], the more depressed I get. All these rocks, and rocks….”

“It’s just a lot of work,” she concludes, her voice tightening. “But we’ll get there. We’ll figure it out. We’re still lucky.”

Back at the stables, Martinelli stops by to visit her personal horse, Finn, a black-and-white gentle giant closing in on 14 years.

The hay has done the trick. Zephyr, Warlock and Blue huddle together peacefully, munching down on the yellow strands.

Her long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, tucked under a straw cowboy hat, Martinelli bends over to give Finn a kiss on the nose.

“I had friends of friends up in Lyons, and they had eight horses. They stuffed five horses in a four-horse trailer and had to set three of them free.”

She gives Finn a soft pat on the muzzle.

“The flood was very stressful. It was very overwhelming. We lost all of our crops, but we were able to come back the next day, put the horses in the barn and get back to work. So many people can’t say that.”

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