Baca Blog
WILD RASPBERRIES: They are were red and ripening in the high country above Crestone-Baca, whole bushes of them. I have heard its the best season in years. This photo was taken Aug. 13 at 9,000 feet in one of the canyons.
PRIMARY ELECTION: Saguache County Commissioner Linda Joseph narrowly defeated challenger Tim Lovato in the Democratic primary, 403-388. County Clerk Melinda Myers brushed aside challenger Christine Wilson, 505-256. The Democratic primary usually is decisive, although Joseph faces Republican Steven Carlson in the general election.
In the Democratic U.S. Senate race: Sen. Michael Bennett (the statewide winner) 315, Andrew Romanoff 455. Romanoff, the former House speaker, campaigned in Crestone.
Saguache Republicans voted with the statewide majority in the Senate race: Ken Buck (the Tea Party-backed candidate) 240, former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton 132. But for governor, Republicans in the county favored the loser, Scott McInnis, over Dan Maes, 225-136. Maes faces Democrat John Hickenlooper in November. (Hickenlooper, unopposed in the Democratic primary, campaigned at the Crestone Music Festival.)
(Results from the Valley Courier and the Denver Post)
HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI: Maybe it was the most poignant song sung during the Crestone Music Festival weekend. A spontaneous group of Americans and Japanese visitors at lunch during the Shumei monthly sampai sang “Song of the Hibokaska,” in Japanese. There were tears. I was one of the singers.
Hibokaska is a word for survivors of the atomic bombs. Sunday fell between the 65th anniversary dates of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The brief outpouring was the synchronistic inspiration of Matthew Crowley of the Shumei International staff.
The synchronicity was this: just after finding the song on a page in the papers of his late mother, a nuclear protester in her time, Matthew read my re- posting here on the 60th anniversary. He gathered a few of us, we rehearsed briefly, went to lunch, then stood and sang. The 50 people at lunch stared in deep silence .
The refrain: “Yu ru zu ma chi. Gem ba ku o.” Meaning, it must not happen again.
NO MORE YOGA BEAR: The Crestone-Baca Property Owners Association board is proceeding with its campaign to make the Baca Grande Volunteer Fire Department more businesslike. An employees handbook goes into effect Aug. 15, the personnel rules affecting not only employees but also volunteers (some of whom don’t like the way they were left out of the adoption process). And, the Kundalini Bear is being taken down, stripped off, chased into the woods, to be replaced by. . . well, the new (businesslike) logo has not yet been adopted. What will go next? The “Village Witch” directional sign?
MORE BUSINESS: Ceal Smith sent this photo to her substantial email list.
- Tower of power
Project proponent: SolarReserve (see: http://www.solar-reserve.com/technology.html) Technology: 200 MW, PowerTower, 24 X 28 x 25′ high tracking mirrors with 656-foot tower in the center of each circle. Two circles eventually installed. Heat storage from liquid molten salt solution kept in above ground tanks. Location: 6,200-acres on (or near?) Highway 112, about 8-10 miles northeast of Center, CO . Water:1,000 Acre Feet per circle.