42

ranch romance

A passion for rustic elegance—and a herd of alpacas—inspired this home on the range.

By sarah goldblatt

49

the healing power of wilderness

Local authors weigh in on how Colorado’s outdoor places work magic on our inner spaces.

By Andrew Kensley, Blair Oliver, Laura Pritchett, Tracy Ross and Shawna Jackson Van

58

life lessons from a horse

For legendary horseman and author Mark Rashid, the path of least resistance—in riding and in life—is about softness and understanding.

By rachel walker

Fort Collins Magazine / Winter 2016

Fort Collins Magazine / Winter 2016

Letter from the editor

My son Alek found them on the playground. First: “A dead baby bird!” Then: “And look—two alive ones!” Sparrows. Naked and cold to touch, fallen from a nest out of reach. I couldn’t unsee it, but I wanted to. Thirty-five years ago it would have been me picking them up. I had an endless capacity to nurture, a love of wild animals and a strong urge to rescue. Most of these rescues ended badly; wild babies are fragile things.

My adult reality of soul-sucking job, city townhouse and 10 days of PTO a year made the dream of a farm filled with misfits and rescues feel faded, impractical, tiring. When my old cat and then dog died, well, there was something to the quiet freedom of it all.

Then I’d brought my son Alek home from the hospital; naked, skinny, insatiable and impossibly small. One night I sat crying on the porch, hiding from a newborn who slept only eight hours a day and cried the rest. A mother barn swallow sat on the telephone wire nearby, chirping so hard her body shook, anxious to get back to the nest on my porch. I remember thinking, she’s crying to get back to her babies, and here I am, sitting out here to get away from mine.

Alek carried the little sparrows home tucked in his shirt. He handed them over, looking up at me with total faith that I could do the impossible. I stared down at these miniature Thanksgiving turkeys with their blueberry eyeballs and oversized beaks and thought, please. Die quickly. Don’t linger. I don’t want to pour my heart into saving you and fail.

There is nothing quite so helpless as a baby bird. The secret to saving them is simple yet brutal: keep them warm and feed them every 15 minutes. They sat in a Tupperware bowl filled with paper towels next to my computer as I worked, waiting for the next mouthfuls of soaked dry cat food. When I had to leave, I took birds, bowl and a side of Friskies. To the grocery store. The pool. The playdate pick-up. “I’m sorry,” one dad said, sticking his head in the window, “but it sounds like you might have a bird in the car.”

They’d fade, then rally. Each day, I watched their quills poke through their skin, their eyes open, then brighten, their voices change, their wings flutter, and I decided that I was going to see this through, these junk birds no one wanted, that I talked about just a little too much as I carted them around in their bowl. I would show my boys that you have to pair desire and love with action and sticking it out—or maybe I would show myself.

When I took the birds back to the playground to release them, I felt a pint-sized preview of motherhood to come. Were they prepared? Strong enough? Would they be careful? Would a freak accident or errant cat wipe them—and all my loving care—out in an instant? They’d have to be okay; what I’d done would have to be enough. They disappeared in the branches of the old fir tree and, though I thought I could still hear their baby voices, I never saw them again.

Something about the experience healed me; a small shift, a decision to show up and not give up and realize that the outcome might not be good, never mind perfect. Nature is the medium our souls recognize when they are hurting, not drugs and digital technology. The essays in this issue’s “The Healing Power of Nature” collection show us that when we surrender to something wild and uncontrollable, we can come back to ourselves. I hope that no matter where you live, you can find a tiny piece of something wild today and let it work its magic on you too.

Cara McDonald, Editor / Fort Collins Magazine / Letters@FtCollinsMag.com

Winter 2016
volume 5 • issue 4

Publisher
Amy McCraken

Editor
Cara McDonald

Contributing Writers
Dana Butler, Lisa Blake, Andra Coberly, Andrew Kensley, Allison LeCain, Blair Oliver, Laura Pritchett, Corey Radman, Tracy Ross, Shawna Van, Carrie Visintainer

Design
Shelley Lai

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Fort Collins Magazine / Winter 2016

Through the Lens of a Lover

Nikolas Murray was a successful New York fashion photographer known for his portraits of celebrities—but perhaps his most famous subject was the artist Frida Kahlo. Murray met her when traveling through Mexico on a vacation in 1931 and the two became lovers; they remained friends and confidants until her death in 1954. From this intimate perspective comes the 50 portraits in the collection Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nikolas Murray, a traveling exhibition presented by the Fort Collins Museum of Art. The exhibit runs through January 8, 2017. —Cara McDonald

Fort Collins Magazine / Winter 2016

Our Colorado

Return of the Ski Train

Amtrak takes on the legacy of a mountain classic.

Winter Park Resort is upping its standing in the North American ski world this season, and not by expanding its acreage or its snowmaking capacity. Front Range visitors can now catch the public A-Train between DIA and Union Station, hop on the newly resurrected Ski Train, now called the Winter Park Express, and be shredding stress-free powder before the rest of us even hit Berthoud Pass—all without spending a single minute in traffic.

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made in noco

White & Elm Intense Hydration Cream

Face it: Colorado’s dry winter air can be awful on your skin. Enter White & Elm’s Intense Hydration Cream. Made with aloe for soothing and hyaluronic acid for moisture retention, this magic elixir leaves your wind-burned cheeks smooth and dewy. White & Elm is consciously crafted in Fort Collins with vegan, organic ingredients because owner Sherelle Reed knows that what’s good for the environment is also good for you. $36 at whiteandelm.com —Corey Radman

Pets

Food as Medicine

It’s official—our anxiety with diet, weight and health is trickling over to our pets, but in a way that may benefit them. Colorado State University’s new clinical nutrition service for pets focuses on supporting ailing animals with dietary analysis and carefully curated feeding plans for pets with medical conditions ranging from kidney and liver disease to (sadly) obesity. It’s a step away from the marketing hype (wild game! grain-free!) and days of one-food-fits-all approaches and is geared to help owners maximize a pet’s health. What to expect? A comprehensive history and health analysis helps nutrition staff create a customized feeding plan to get each individual animal back on a path to wellness. —C.M.

People

CSU’s TV Professor

Mark Saunders gets paid to watch—and tell us what it all means.

Mark Saunders has carved out a media studies niche helping Generation Z learn to evaluate pop culture, television and film. And, according to the media expert: never has there been a more intriguing era to be analyzing TV.

Whether he’s discussing Game of Thrones, Louie, or House of Cards, Saunders says it’s exciting to have such quality content to evaluate with students. The one thing those shows have in common, he observes, is that none of them are on a traditional network. Is it necessary to have nudity and swearing to create quality TV?

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Community

Harvesting Dreams

A different model for combatting homelessness in FoCo.

According to data released last year, homelessness is on the rise in Fort Collins, with a complex web of potential causes ranging from addiction and trauma to low-wage jobs and a lack of affordable housing. The solutions to it are equally complex, but Harvest Farms is reaping success using a whole-person approach.

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music

One to Grow On

Musician Katherine Homes releases Speak, a beautiful album you can plant.

Katherine Homes has been writing songs since she could speak but it’s just now, some thirty-some year later, she knows for certain she can’t keep her music for herself.

In the late 2000s, Homes was half of the Vail Valley folk duo Boxcar Daisies. But when it came time to go on tour for long stretches of time, bandmate Elli Gauthier wasn’t ready to leave her job, and Homes “wasn’t ready to tackle the music world” alone.

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Books

Local Authors: What We’re Reading Now

Laura Pritchett, novelist, essayist: “Steven Church’s brand new book One With the Tiger: Sublime and Violent Encounters Between Humans and Animals. I heard him describe it recently on a visit to Colorado as a ‘book about people who try to jump into lions’ cages at zoos, and stuff,’ which was recommendation enough. But I know it will also be a funny and serious examination about our relationship to the wild and sublime.”

Laura Pritchett’s new novel, The Blue Hour, will be released in February.

Laura Resau, young adult novelist: “One of my favorite reads of this year is The Book Scavenger, by debut Colorado author Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. This is a perfect family read-aloud or gift for kids ages eight to twelve. New friends Emily and James face high-stakes danger as they race to find clues to win the online game ‘Book Scavenger,’ created by eccentric mastermind Garrison Griswold. I absolutely loved all the cool literary illusions and the ciphers, codes and puzzles woven into the adventure. A treat for your heart and mind!”
Laura Resau is the author of The Lightning Queen and other books for young readers.

Events

Once

A sweet and interactive Broadway surprise comes to FoCo.

An indie film about a heartbroken Irish street musician and a Czech housekeeper may not seem like the stuff Broadway smashes are made of. But the movie inspired a musical production that captured hearts—The New Yorker called it “unusually fun and heartfelt”—with eleven Tony nominations and eight wins, including Best Musical. After an 1,100-show Broadway run, ONCE arrives in FoCo for a limited engagement at the Lincoln Center from January 12 through 14.

What makes it a don’t-miss? The intimacy of the production. The songs are soulful, the relationship sweet but complicated and the staging invites viewers to completely immerse themselves in the story—the show is set in an Irish pub, with audience members mingling on stage before the show and actors in character playing the fiddle and pouring pints. For tickets visit lctix.com. —Allison LeCain

what to buy now

Food Snob Gift Guide

Your best present for foodie friends? Make them look like culinary rock stars at their next party with these amazing finds. BY LISA BLAKE

Gift: Crack for Salad
From: VOM FASS Fort Collins
This heavenly matchup has salads singing with Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil and Apple Balsamic Star cider vinegar. The tangy natural glaze can also be used on oven-roasted salt potatoes, duck and even vanilla ice cream.
123 N. College Ave.
970-232-9155
fortcollins.vomfassusa.com

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Wintry Mix

Five cold-weather ways to take advantage of local natural areas and open spaces.

By julie dugdale

Many of us reluctantly abandon our go-to outdoor havens—community trails and parks and natural areas—once the first big snow falls and the wind takes on a certain chill. We simply don’t realize what we can do at the open spaces and natural areas in our own backyard come December. So we tracked down a few under-the-radar ways to while away a winter’s day close to home.

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trending now

Sliced, Sealed and Delivered

Meal kit delivery services may be the future of food, but does our future look healthy?

By Andra Coberly

The box looks like any other box: big, brown, box-like.

Inside, though, is unlike any package I’ve ever received. It’s a cornucopia, and I say that knowing “cornucopia” sounds oldfangled and lame. But this is not lame. This is beautiful.

Neatly piled within the box, among ice packs and insulation, are plastic baggies of spices, fresh herbs, vegetables (lots of vegetables), grains and pasta. There’s a tiny box containing a single organic egg. Little jars of sauces and mixtures labeled “gazpacho” and “aji sauce” line one side, and cold containers of fish and chicken fill the bottom.

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I’ve always considered myself a good driver. I grew up with a dad who had us driving the tractor lawnmower at age eight and learning to drive a stick at 16, and then showed us the finer points of donuts in the icy church parking lot after Mass. His best trick, much to my mother’s chagrin, was to speed down our snow-packed road and throw on the parking break to execute a tight fishtail and turn into our driveway. He never missed.

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Kids Who Care

The Sweet Destinee Foundation

Wellington teen Madi Thompson harnesses the power of possibility to start a nonprofit teaching chronically and terminally ill youth to embrace the art of advocacy.

BY carrie Visintainer

It’s dawn on a chilly Monday morning in Wellington and Madi Thompson flicks open her eyes. Taking a deep breath and sitting up in bed, she pushes her blond hair behind her shoulders and stretches her achy hips. Actually, all of her joints hurt badly this morning, and a big part of her wants to stay in bed, calling down the hall to her parents to let them know. But she pushes to standing, because she can’t ignore the truth: she has a to-do list a mile long. It tells her to work on a grant. Email a member of her board of directors. Make some website updates. Get things in order for an upcoming fundraising event, where she’ll be speaking. It’s a routine list of action items, perhaps, for the front woman of a nonprofit.

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Exploring the new Mitchell Gold+Bob Williams signature store in Cherry Creek Shopping Center in Denver is akin to wandering a garden of delights for anyone with an affinity for good home design. Around every corner is some new treasure—nailhead detailing! raw crystals (made into lamps, framed on the walls)! velvet sofas! hammered metal! Tibetan lambswool! acrylic bar carts!—each more crave-worthy than the next. The nearly 30-year-old eponymous furnishings company shuttered its two-year-old “pop-up” store upstairs this summer and launched a massive space on level one in early September. (If you’re not familiar with the company’s work, turn on a rerun of The Good Wife for a taste of mgbw signature style.) The expansive store allows customers to relax in a multitude of exquisite vignettes and picture each piece in their own homes. mgbwhome.com —Dana R. Butler

What’s Hot Now

The Color Purple

Goodbye, gray—hello, the hottest shade of 2017.

By Joyce Clegg, Allied ASID, CAPS, NKBA Member

Although it has fallen out of favor in recent years, purple is making a comeback—almost unanimously, the color forecasting gurus in the fashion and design world have declared purple the new “it” color.

Purple, in all values and tones, influenced by browns, reds, blues and, of course, gray, can be either a bold statement or a soft, subtle background. Variations of purple convey different meanings: light purples are lighthearted, floral and romantic; the dark shades are more intellectual and dignified.

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5 Great Finds

Winter Warmth

A roaring fire is perfectly at home in any modern setting with these five chic finds.

By Dana R. Butler

Moveable Heat †
Form meets function in the Fusion from EcoSmart—a portable tootsie warmer that is more furniture than fireplace. This sleek and savvy cube runs on bioethanol, which is environmentally compatible and renewable. $6,470, ecosmartfire.com

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Although Pamela Ray grew up on a South Dakota farm, she wasn’t fully prepared for the adventure awaiting when she headed to a livestock auction for fun 23 years ago. “I went with a friend who bought nothing—and I came home with an alpaca,” she remembers. Ray was smitten, but at the time was a Denver-based lawyer, not a farmer. So she set the animal up at a Platteville farm and soon more alpacas followed. After enduring 16 years of commuting from their Denver home to tend the expanding herd, Ray and her husband, Dale Cantwell, decided they needed to be closer to the alpacas and purchased farmland in Frederick. Here they could nurture the animals and eventually build a homestead of their own. The ranch that would become Xanadu Alpacas was born.

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and several dogs bound across the broad, square arena at Happy Dog Ranch, as nearly a dozen horseback riders pilot their mounts in patterns of their own choosing. Some circle. One walks her horse back and forth across a miniature wooden bridge. Another practices hooking and unhooking a rope suspended between two upright poles. She asks her horse to plant his front feet and swing his hind end around, which he does compliantly, and then she asks for the opposite—a half circle with his back legs still and his front legs doing the grapevine until he’s facing the other way.

In the center of the activity Mark Rashid sits atop a quiet chestnut horse. Dressed in a cotton button-down shirt, jeans and leather chaps, the horse trainer from Estes Park has a straw cowboy hat shading his face and sporty sunglasses shielding his eyes; it’s difficult to tell what he’s thinking, but his body language indicates patience. There’s no leaning in or pursing of lips to suggest scrutiny; his eyebrows aren’t furrowed.

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Nothing encourages indulgence (and maybe an afternoon nap) more than Rainbow Restaurant’s pumpkin bread French toast. This delight begins with house-made pumpkin bread adorned with grilled bananas, walnuts, butter rum sauce and whipped cream. Rather than being overly sweet, the flavors make for nice combination of spice and warmth. Sure, there are healthier options (if you’re concerned about that sort of thing), but as the poet William Blake encourages: “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.” So grab a table by the window, watch the snow fall, and enjoy. 212 W. Laurel Street, 970-221-2664, rainbowfortcollins.com — Shawna Jackson Van

When you step into Yao’s kitchen, the first thing you’ll notice is the aroma. A touch of garlic. Green chiles. Lemongrass. A hint of lime. The sweet-sour smells waft up from the cutting boards around a wooden table, coming together as ingredients for green curry paste. The final meal will include vegetable spring rolls, Massaman curry, perfectly prepared black rice, a vegetable cashew stir fry and, for dessert, mango sticky rice.

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COFFEE SHOP roundup

The Sit and Sip List

Where to go for community and a cuppa.

BY LISA BLAKE

We seek them out for friendly meetups, our morning jolt and a change of scenery, our special place to read or bang out uninterrupted work (café ambient sounds actually boost creativity—Google “coffee shop noise machines.”)

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SPIRITS

The Gift of Cheer

What to give, what to bring? Expert advice on bottles to share with your host and hostess.

By Andra Coberly

It always seems to happen the same way: You are heading to a holiday party, and you realize at the last minute that you’re about to arrive empty handed. No scented candle, no pecan pie, not even crudité.

You pull up to the closest liquor store with one thing running through your mind: Find something that will not max out your Visa nor make you look like a drinking neophyte at your buddy’s holiday party. You grab something you think you drank once—maybe, you can’t be sure—at a restaurant with tablecloths.

You hope for the best.

Usually, wine and alcohol are highly appreciated and convenient host gifts, but giving mediocre booze to your friends and family is no way to spread the holiday spirit. So we asked two local beverage pros to give us their top recommendations.

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If you met Nolan Doesken on the street, you might conclude from his wry humor, his weather-worn face, and his methodical way of speaking about clouds and average snowfall that he’s a farmer. You’d be half right about that (he and his wife do own farmland), but his passion for weather and position as Colorado’s state climatologist has—more often than he likes—made him the bearer of bad news.

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