Ode to the Crown Jewel of Estacada

Yesterday morning we awoke to the surprise of new snow on the ground. At some point in the night, those monsoon rains turned to monsoon snows and we had 5 new inches up here on the ground. I would have like to see the moment when the switch occurred. It had to have been some snow. Then the sun came out and everything was blue skies and sparkles.

It wasn't until afternoon when Andrew headed out to play rehearsal that we realized what was happening in our fair town. Probably about the same time all that rain turned to snow, the hillsides and the creeks running through Estacada had enough and spilled their banks. Many (already struggling) shops in the main retail section of Estacada flooded. Uptown, Wade Creek was unrecognizable as it screamed past toward its destination. Wade Creek House, where I currently am a co-op member and show my rugs flooded. Those who were called out into the night had awe-inspiring stories to tell of this little creek which often appears little more than a drainage ditch. That little creek, however, feeds the pond at the back of the Estacada Public Library. The beautiful and new and built by the hardwork of community members library. At its' height, 12 inches of mud and water seeped into the library building and creeped all throughout. Every item on the bottom shelf is ruined and many, many hours of work lie ahead to catalog and assess the damaged. As our librarian said, "the forces of nature are truly awe-inspiring".

For more on the library and photos, go to:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/estacada_library_floods_house.html

The library is a huge part of my family's Estacada life. When we first moved to town, the library was housed in a teeny-tiny section of the historic city hall building. Heavy library users, it is where we first met people when we moved here. The kids and I relied heavily on the library for our social entertainment in those pre-school days. The campaign to build the current library was already underway upon our arrival to this community. It was impressive. It was more impressive once the new library started to be built and we realized the scale. For any town, of any size, the Estacada Public Library would be a crown jewel. It is not only stunningly beautiful inside and out, it incorporates the work of many local artists and its community room hosts untold number of classes, meetings, movies, story-times, concerts. It is where I go for yoga. But beside all that, we helped build it. We raised the money, we checked out as many books as we could carry from the old library and then hung on to them until the new library opened so it would be easier to move, we built the shelves, we unloaded storage containers full of materials that there simply wasn't room for in the old library space and shelved those materials. We fed the ducks in the pond and planted the plants. It is a place of pride for this community. And well it should be. And so we will work again.