Rats

The rats have probably lived in the Githens Acres neighborhood since before the white settlers came.  What is now Githens Acres was changed from a typical foothills meets the prairie ( with a seasonal creek) area to a large apple orchard that covered hundreds of acres.  The Silver Lake Irrigation Ditch was put in for the various crops in the area, by the various owners - Mr. Githens being the orchard owner.  My brother-in-law, Jim, bought his house in the mid-1960s, when Githens Acres was located far north of the City of Boulder, and living in that area was considered "living in the country."  Now the neighborhood is surrounded by the City, and the seasonal creek serves as a "green way" for wildlife on the move - coyotes, bears, mountain lions, bobcats, raccoons, and an occasional otter.
   In September of 2013, Boulder County (and much of the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains) was swept with a huge rain storm that flooded the upper foothills of the mountains, sometimes sweeping towns away.  The eastern end of the street my sister and brother lives on was completely washed away; when the water finally dried, there was a crevasse that ran between 6 inches to ten feet wide, and from six inches to eight feet deep.  I was staying at Kathy and Jim's house, as they were on vacation.  Several neighbors and I noted seeing some large rats in the area, immediately after the flooding.  We decided that the flood had brought the rats.
  Casting back in time, wending through my memory, I remember that the winter that Kathy and Jim went to Peru (and I stayed at their house), I saw a couple of rats.  At that time, Jim had two Samoyeds - Suki, the mother, and Boo, her daughter.  Neither one of them reacted to the rats - even though the rats ran into a crack under the concrete steps that led into the house.  In any event, I've seen the rats off and on for several years.  I spoke to Kathy and Jim about them, but, as they had never seen the rats, they took my stories with a grain of salt.   This past summer, after the flood, their next-door neighbor complained about "all the rats" that were around her house and garden.  She set out traps for weeks, but only caught two rats, while all the other traps were tripped multiple times.
   The day after our first heavy snow, Tuesday, 11 November, Jim saw a rat run across the back patio at his house.  During lunch, both Kathy and Jim saw a rat run across the patio.  That afternoon, Jim got 6 rat traps - the inhumane kind, which is supposed to kill the rat by breaking it's neck when it takes the bait.  (Jim couldn't find anyone who wanted to extend a welcome and re-locate the rats elsewhere - )  Jim baited all the traps and placed them outside.  One on either side of the patio doors, one at the rear door to the garage, one at the corner of the garage, and two by the back steps where I had first seen the rats, way back when.
   Those suckers are clever and strong.  Frequently, the bait is removed, without the springing of the trap.  But Jim has trapped and killed ten of the rascals.  While I was making meatballs in the kitchen on Tuesday, I heard a loud clap and about 5 seconds of high-pitched squealing.  I peeked out the window and was looking right into the eyes of a large rat - the levered bar of the trap was right across it's neck, and the mouth was partially open with the tongue sticking out.  I was certain the rat was dead.  A few minutes later, I glanced out the window again, and the trap was upside down and empty - and you could see the butt and tail-wiggles of the critter in the snow, where it had worked to escape.  That was pretty amazing.  That was after there was a dead rat in a trap on the patio - and I know that that one was dead - it was frozen solid, because I had to keep Rosie from playing with it, and I checked it.  Three hours later, Jim was going to remove the carcase and re-bait the trap, but he couldn't find the trap or the rat.  We both walked over the back yard and under the trees, and could not find the trap or the rat.  (But I did find a large pile of coyote scat, and a place where a coyote had napped in the sun, so Jim and I think the coyote took the whole kit and kaboodle.)  Jim was rather upset because the missing trap was one of the hair-trigger ones that had an extremely powerful snap.
   I think the funniest thing that I found was a rat-made slide in the snow.  It began under the woodpile under the kitchen window and coasted down about 24 inches to the regular ground level.  It had several little twists and turns - just like an otters slide down into a river.  One could plainly see the marks of the rats' tails in the middle of the slide, along with an occasional footprint, giving themselves a push...  Yesterday leaves had blown onto the slide and it looked as if it were no longer in use.  I hope that Jim has caught the majority, or all, of them!

A House For Sale in Boulder, Weather, & World Events

Today we have an overcast sky, and it's still a bit chill out - 32 degrees.  The weather folks say that we'll have a high temperature in the mid-50s, but we're supposed to get 3 to 6 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow morning...  We'll see.  The dusk-to-dawn lights are still alight at the Millennium Motel, the squirrels have consumed 3/4 pound of walnuts, and Nedi and Lovey are curled up in my bed.  I sent my polite letter of complaint to the apartments manager, about the "service" dog living next door, last week.  I was informed the next day that my complaint had been noted and acted upon.  That poor dog is still being turned out multiple times each day wearing its harness and dragging a leash...  It ran out yesterday evening, looked me in the eye, and pooped directly in front of my patio.  I was standing still at my closed patio door.  Then the dog ran up to the door and barked at me.  I called the apartments manager, and he said he'd talk to the owner, again, today.  If the dog was actually trained, and the owner was taking good care of him, I wouldn't have a single complaint - but the dog isn't trained, and the owner is not taking decent care of him.
   So...  What's going on in the world?  There's still tons of unrest in the Middle East; war seems to be brewing in the Balkans, as usual; there was the horrible mudslide in Washington state that buried multiple houses and killed people; there was the 8.2 earthquake off Chile's north coast last night, and the resulting tsunami; there's an Ebola outbreak in Africa; and, after almost 4 weeks, no one still has any true idea of what happened to Malaysia flight 370, that disappeared on 8 March, with 239 people on board...  Will we ever find any evidence of that flight, or will it just be another mystery, like Flight 19?  My Father was one of the searchers for Flight 19, back in December 1945 - he was, at that time, stationed at NAS Vero Beach, and spent many hours in search of the five TBM Avengers and 14 crew members who just... disappeared.  They were on a routine navigation and combat training exercise and became lost to the world.
  Kathy and Jim had a wonderful time in Nebraska over the past weekend, visiting the sand hill cranes.  And Janet and Jim thoroughly enjoyed their time at Capitol Reef National Park in Utah.  I glad they all enjoyed their time away from Boulder.
  And I was just informed that one of my friends has decided to sell her home of 30 years in Githens Acres, here in Boulder.  It will actually go on the market on 12 April, and her Realtor is Paul Dart of ReMax, whose cell phone number is: (303) 931-5197.  Here is a beautiful video that my friend made of her home and the wildlife that visit her:  http://youtu.be/rnBWcJV9cVc   The property consists of a little over an acre of land (I believe); a single-story ranch house with two bedrooms, two baths, a mother-in-law-apartment, and an open airy art studio, with attached double garage; a yard shed; several gardening areas, two covered patios; and the end of one of the lateral lines of the Silver Lake Irrigation ditch.  The property is in the county, but is part of a neighborhood encircled by the City of Boulder.  The property has it's own water well and septic tank; as well as a pump house for use of the irrigation water.  The neighborhood consists of about 45 houses on 57 acres, and has no through traffic, other than pedestrians and bicyclists; there are no street lights, no sidewalks, no bike paths.  But there is plenty of wildlife - the Four Mile Canyon Creek runs through the neighborhood, and one frequently sees black bears, mountain lions, coyotes, mule deer, fox, an occasional otter, and a multitude of birds, including great blue herons and great horned owls, in various yards.

Spring Flood Preparedness in Boulder County, Colorado

Elizabeth Black, a wonderful local artist, attended the open meeting held last night for people in the county who live along, or near, creeks and streams that may flood this Spring.   Here is Elizabeth's synopsis of last night's meeting in Boulder:

Gary Sanfacon ran the meeting, along with Mike Chard (?spelling).  There was no one from the City there, which was a glaring omission and which many folks were upset about.  Apparently City of Boulder meetings are coming soon.  GIS mapping information is being shared by the City and County, and there is joint planning on law enforcement and emergency preparedness.  But city/county attorneys, public works directors and transportation departments have still not had joint meetings, but plan to perhaps. Paul Featherstone (?spelling) assistant City manager is the lead on the City’s flood issues.  Contact him if you are in the City.  The City is doing its own flood mitigation, only on City owned public land and places where they have a dedicated creek easement.  The rest of the meeting concentrated on County issues.

Gary said all the information at this meeting is on the website www.bouldercountyflood.org as well as a web-cast of the previous meeting up in Longmont.  The county is working with private contractors and federal partners NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) and Army Corps of Engineers to accomplish their goal of mitigating spring flooding risk by May 1.  It sounds like NRCS has taken the lead on many things for the present.

Mike said they expect spring runoff to pick up the second week of May barring a super-warm April.  They have walked all the creeks and know where the problems are: debris and avulsions with spill potential.  They are only removing debris that has the potential to clog bridges and culverts.  They will only be removing debris that is an immediate risk to life, public infrastructure and property.  They are just cleaning out the existing system, not upgrading it or upgrading problem culverts or bridges.  The County has convinced FEMA to pay for spring run-off mitigation on private property.  This is a first in the country and FEMA has never done anything like this before.  The county needs your permission to do this work on your property, and you need to sign the ROE form (right of entry).  200 sites have been identified in the County for this work to be done.  You might not like the terms and conditions in the ROE form.  But that is the only way they can do the work and they will consult with you and work at not damaging things on your property.  Not signing the form and not allowing the work to be done on your property will impact your downstream neighbors as well as you.  The ROE form gives them a long time to do the work because they expect they may have to return again as more debris is washed downstream.  The ROE form must be signed ASAP so work can be completed before May 1.  George Gerstle said that FEMA is only paying to clean things up to handle a 5 year flood event.  The county is giving building permits for temporary structures that must clear a 10 year event.  Permanent structures must clear a 100 year event.

The county has maps that show the 200 places along the channels which they will be cleaning before May 1^st.  Maps were at the meeting, and they will be posted on the website by the end of the week.  There was nothing on the maps that was in the City of Boulder, and Githens Acres seems to have fallen off their radar on these maps.  If you feel that the county has a glaring omission on these maps and left out a place that really needs to be mitigated before the spring run-off, contact them ASAP.  Gary Sanfacon 720-564-2642 gsanfacon@bouldercounty.org

Keep your eyes open during the next few months as spring run-off ramps up.  Hazardous conditions to report to 911 this spring include bank erosion, plugging culverts and bridges, hazardous collections of debris and imminent landslides. Snow pack is currently 168% to 200+%.  Groundwater remains very high all over.  4MiCaCr has a lower risk for spring run-off since it is a smaller drainage with less snowpack.  Landslides remain a risk as do thunderstorms and flash floods.  Big landslides are a possibility through 2015.  These landslides are NOT the same as debris flows and there are warning signs: increased rock fall, cracking of soils and foundations, tilting trees, broken water lines.  Report threatening conditions to 911 or County Office of Emergency Management (303) 441-3390.

Go to www.boulderoem.org to opt in to get the warnings for your drainage on your cell or computer.  Consider getting a weather radio to get updates in case your phone goes out. Get a non-electric based phone (old-style rotary) in case your power goes out, so you can still make phone calls.  Many stream gauges and rain-fall gauges have been washed out and the warning systems for drainages have been severely compromised.  St Vrain and Lefthand gauges are gone.  The 4MICaCr gauge is gone.  It is a USGS gauge and there is no timeline for when it will be reinstalled.

Long-range, the County’s Creek Planning Master plan will be finished by July 2014.  Hard-hit areas in the County will keep getting roadside debris removal for county residents.  Go to the website or call Gary if you need to keep getting debris removal.  If you want to get email updates, sign up atwww.BoulderCountyFloods.org .

Get flood insurance now.  There is a 30 day waiting period before it activates.  Go thewww.floodsmart.gov to find out more information about flood insurance and places to buy it.