Merry Christmas!

God bless us, every one!

London, anyone?

Welcome to Park Ave, London, England. No, wait, Gilbert, AZ. Well, it was a natural mistake. "Gas" lamps and thick fog, what is a person to think. It wasn't that cold - 39 by my thermometer, but enough to make fog of that rain last night. We got about .25 inches. Remember to turn off those sprinklers for a few days.

Merry Christmas!

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Here are two more pictures of daytime decorations that I have enjoyed. There have been a lot of animal sculptures this year (and I'm sorry I never got a picture of the moose on Park Avenue; that was my favorite animal, since I am from Wyoming), including these deer:



And for those of us of faith, here is a good picture of the reason for our season:



For the next few days, especially, and even for the week after, I won't be posting. But that's okay, because you won't be reading. We'll be spending time with our families, re-enacting old traditions and making up new ones, and doing all the things that families do. Hope it's a great time for all, and I'll see you around the new year!

15 seconds of fame

A film company made a commercial in Higley Groves West yesterday. As I understand it, it will be a public service annoucement about clean air. The scout wanted a green area, and he knew we would have it. Fancy that! They worked in a couple of the parks along Park Ave, and will make a $500 contribution to the HOA as a result. Watch for the back of your house in a 15 second spot coming to a station near you!

By the way, if you happened to get a photo, email it to the Missus, and we will add it to this post. Thanks.

Caroling!

It's the Mister again.

Higley Groves West had visitors last night. Well, I know, this is the Christmas season and there are lots of parties and visitors every night. But these stood out a little more.

I wasn't very impressed with these trailers. They only had 2 horsepower each!

That's a joke. Get it? 2 horse power? Sorry, it's a nerd kind of thing.

It was great to have carolers in the neighborhood. They add a lot to the season. As do the decorations and the friendly spirit so generally displayed.

Merry Christmas!

More Decorations

The East Valley Tribune has an article about the Christmas light rivalry at the Circle G over near Lindsay; you can read the article here, and it is always fun to drive through with the kids and see their neighborhood.

Here in Morrison Ranch, I haven't heard or felt any rivalries going on, but we do have plenty of folks who have decorated. Here are some more of my daytime photos of decorations, starting with the simple classic:



This house feels very inviting, to me:



And I won't keep putting his picture up (okay, maybe I will, he's still my favorite), but here's the sublime Frosty:



These are all pictures in my own neighborhood, Higley Groves West. It's more a factor of time and convenience, since I can take the pictures as I drive through. But I know that the other Morrison Ranch neighborhoods also have fabulous decorations. If you're carrying your camera and you see something you like in your neighborhood, email it to me and I'll post it.

Ho Ho Ho! Higley Estates!

Santa took some time out of his busy schedule last night to stop off and get some last minute requests from the kids at Higley Estates. He spent about an hour at the tot lot and visited with girls...



...and boys...(what IS a zoom box, by the way?)...




...and there's nothing that makes a parent smile like a child talking to Santa.




Some fabulous elves helped him out (they are the unsung heroes of the North Pole, you know):



And many of the neighbors got in the luminaria spirit; it is a beautiful thing when neighbors work together on a common goal. Here's a shot along Morrison Ranch Parkway:




A thousand thanks to Susan Fleischer for pulling this off so handsomely; thanks also to the Morrison Ranch HOA for picking up the costs. It was a lovely drive around the neighborhood.

Luminaria Lighting Tonight

Higley Estates residents received the following flyer last week, and I'll point out that tonight is the night:

It’s time for the

1^st Annual Morrison Ranch/Higley Estates

Luminarias Night

Monday - December 18^th 7:00 p.m.

Every home is receiving a set of Luminarias to set up and light on Monday, Dec. 18^th. Turn on your Christmas Lights, light the luminarias and maybe even set up a table in your driveway with some cookies or hot chocolate for people walking by. And get out and look at the lights, meet your neighbors and celebrate the holidays with an evening of light.

For the kids, come visit Santa Claus at the tot lot!!!

He’ll be there from 7 – 8 p.m. Bring a canned good or non-perishable item of food to donate to the United Food Bank in Mesa while visiting Santa.

If you aren’t able to set up and light your candles, please find a neighbor who can do that for you. We need a coordinator for each street/block to make sure the lights are lit – if you are interested in coordinating for your block, please call Susan Fleischer at 480-813-7508 to let her know.

Sponsored by the

Morrison Ranch HOA

Happy Holidays!!!!

I'm excited to see this, and I am so thankful to Higley Estates resident Susan Fleischer for proposing this and making it happen. See you there!

Christmas Decorations

The Front Porch is a collaborative effort of all the folks in our office. Ostensibly, there are three of us that post, with all the members of our office helping out with details and pictures. Longtime visitors will know, however, that I am the one who takes up most of the space; and after last week's brief hiatus, I am back to posting. We have a dear friend doing battle with the dread disease of cancer, and I can't help but join the fight, which leaves less time for normal pursuits. The Mister did a great job last week of keeping the information going; perhaps it will whet his appetite to post even more; he is, after all, the more social of us two.

But on to the point. A friend dropped by last week with a gift, and she commented on how great the decorations are in our neighborhood - everywhere you look, really. I have to agree, and I've been taking some pictures of the daytime decorations (since my amateur status isn't conducive to night time photography), which I intend to share with you over the next week. Here's a sample:



More to come.

Christmas Presents!

You can still buy Christmas gifts at Lakeview Village. Even if buying a house from Erica is a little steep for a present. Our golf shop is still open, and now they are joined by another fine place to buy a gift.


D'Avanti's Jewelers is open. (Did you notice the sign?) They open at 10am.

The tradition of gift giving really is a great excuse to remember how much the people around you mean to you. Even in business, there is something heartwarming about the gifts we share with those that make the business go.



We received this lovely gift from Fairco, the company that is installing Highland Groves landscape. It really is pretty. I am sure our business is important to them, but all we expect is a job well done. Gifts like this really are above the call of duty, and are much appreciated - mainly for the thoughtfulness. The calories are not really all that helpful. But enjoyed!!!

Turning the corner?

I heard some good news about the housing market just the other day. One of the fine folks from Ashton-Woods Homes was in the office discussing upcoming housing styles. In the midst of the conversation, current sales came up. Oak Park, the smallest houses A-W has at Highland Groves sold 14 houses last month, and a couple already this month. That is a great turn of events. Things were very slow for everyone over the summer. Brentwood, the larger product, did well also. There are even mentions of higher prices, rather than lower. That is not good for buyers, but it is encouraging to those who have already purchased a home, and would like evidence that it is worth more, rather than less than they paid for it. I need to check in with the other offices, but the last I heard US Home was doing very well with their large product, the largest currently available in Morrison Ranch. It appears others agree with us that Morrison Ranch is a great place to live.

All I can say is, "Welcome to the Neighborhood!"

Dryup?

This is a dry canal.

It happens every year at this time. The irrigation districts have to drain the canals completely every so often to be able to maintain them well. They chose to do it this time of year when the need to irrigate is low. So what is that to us? We don't have flood irrigation. Ah, but we do like to brush our teeth, and take a shower. Do you know what this is?

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Does this help?


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Most of the water we drink most of the time comes from the large water treatment plant north of Higley Groves West 1/4 mile. And it gets its water from the canals. It can get the water from either Salt River Project, right next door, or from RWCD, using the laterals. But this time of year we are probably drinking a little more well water and a little less treated river water. Either way, the Town is making sure we always have plenty of clean, safe water in our homes.

The other thing that comes up during dryup is construction. The ditches will not be used for four weeks. That makes it the right time to move, cross, and rebuild those ditches. We have some of that to do. The following picture is of a manhole near the Town Center Lake where the RWCD lateral will make a turn and tie into the existing buried pipe. That will happen during the RWCD dryup, which starts this week, Dec. 15th.

Christmas Green!

Don't you just love the grass? The corner of Recker and Elliot now has sod. If I had taken the shot slightly to the left, you would have seen them laying the rest of the corner. But by now, the time I am posting, the corner is complete. We rejoice in little bits of progress.

Papermore

LESS, I mean, paperLESS; at least, that's the goal. As I looked in my office door last week and saw the neat stacks of paper in different piles on different surfaces, I wondered if I've really made any progress at all on the paperless journey. Happily, the answer is most definitively, yes. As I reviewed the last year's efforts, a few points become very clear.

First, it is plenty of work just to scan or import the electronic files from the current projects and financial recordkeeping. Going back and inputting prior years' efforts at the same time really increases the time requirement. This calendar year marks the first full year of financial data that is paperless, as well as half of the year 2005, and that is a major accomplishment.

Secondly, the year-end work that we accountants are burdened with will actually be a little lighter for me this year, as I will not be required to sort through which documents to save for the IRS and which to shred. They are technically ALL saved and already sorted.

Third, I will actually have increasingly more time to input other things than my current accounting records, due to Point Number Two, and also due to the reduced retrieval time of documents that are already in the system.

And probably most important to the continuation of the effort: when I experience a fun electronic success, it greatly encourages me to plod on. Last week, a contractor sent me an email wondering if her bill had been paid. I could retrieve her invoice, look at my payment of that invoice, go to the bank website and get a copy of the canceled check along with the date it cleared, and answer her email including that picture of the canceled check - all in less than 20 minutes, and all from my desk at home! I felt so efficient.

So, when I'm tempted to get discouraged in the efforts to see less paper around our office, I remind myself of those efficiencies. Besides, I'm not alone. There is an article in today's East Valley Tribune that talks about Maricopa County courts going paperless. It was interesting to me just because it's on topic, but the most interesting point was how long they've been working on it:

Going paperless will also allow the clerk’s office, which employs 700 workers, to double the number of filings in coming years without additional employees, Jeanes said.

The court has been steadily going paperless since 1998.

I hope to have our office completed long before 8 years have passed.

Nerd Excitement!

I would like to introduce you to an exciting new development on the internet - The World Wide Web! Yes! This common protocol for displaying graphical.... Oh, wait. That is so 5 minutes ago. Actually, I would like to throw my two cents in on a particular website: MorrisonRanchLife.net. This site is not available today, but it will be Feb. 3, 2007. The Missus already explained it here. And we now have more information on it at the Morrison Ranch website here. But I wanted to say, myself, that I think this can be a great tool to pull us together even more. I must interject that it is only a tool, and not the drive to connect. But we don't have to generate that. We see that our neighbors have that. There are bunco clubs, and volunteers for the Pecan Festival, and neighbors volunteering to look after one another's house during vacations all over our neighborhoods. This is just a tool that works better than others as we all run around in our busy lives. The ability for the average Joe/Jane to create a group for a special purpose and then post information and communicate with the bunch, all WITHOUT being a nerd, is the key. A small group, say a model rocket club, (see, I AM a nerd!) can coordinate the date for the next event, post the event on everyone's calendar, have its own photo gallery to past events to generate enthusiasm, all without having to be on the phone or on line at the same time. Then the real people contact can occur more easily. Let the Estes Rockets fly!

All of this will be available to all the residents of Morrison Ranch Community Council. And we are offering it to the residents of Higley Groves and Higley Groves West. But the HOA boards will have to approve the rather limited cost. I offered this to Higley Groves West at the board meeting last night. There are many issues vying for the dollars available. I hope the board decides this opportunity is worth funding. If you think it is, and you live in Higley Groves West, please let the board know through the manager, Cyndey Holter, at Rossmar-Graham. Her email address is: CHolter@rossmar.com I hope this leads to our meeting on line, and then in person!

P.S. I think it will be kind of cool that we can all have an email address like scott.morrison@morrisonranchlife.net!!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Water Tower!

It almost looks bat-like, but if you've been in downtown Gilbert lately, this is what you'll see. It's the draping as the workers remove the lead-based paint so that the tower can be repainted. You may have seen one of the newspaper articles on it. If not, here is what The AZ Republic had to say a few days ago:

GILBERT -One of Gilbert's most storied landmarks is going to disappear, but only for a short time.

Last week, workers draped a tarp over the 123-foot water tower, an initial step toward giving the iconic structure a new look. Lead paint on the tower will be removed and replaced with a fresh coat of "titanium white."

The tarp is intended to prevent any contamination during removal of lead paint, said spokesman Greg Svelund. Work is expected to wrap by the end of the year.

Repairing the water tower has been a community priority for some time. Town Council approved in August spending nearly $250,000 to refurbish the tower. The project also includes adding a Federal Aviation Administration beacon light, removing antennas and repairing the guardrail and service platform.

Additional plans call for land underneath the tower to be transformed into a park. An adjacent adobe pump house, which served as Gilbert's first jail, also will get a face-lift.

The tower was built in the 1920s to help firefighters, and later served as a drinking water storage facility. It is located on the west side of Gilbert Road just south of Guadadlupe Road and can be seen from blocks away in most directions.

It sure doesn't look like the job I'd want; one guy was hanging off those spindly things yesterday. I'm sure they are following safety procedures, but it looks scary. It should look great when it's finished, though.

Refreshing the Rye

The Mister and I had a couple of visitors yesterday from the other side of town, and as we were giving them the "short tour" of Morrison Ranch, one of the guys asked about the grass and the water use. There are some articles in the papers today about Pima County's new restrictions on "ornamental turf" - if you can't walk on it, you can't plant it. And as the rye is overseeded on select areas in Morrison Ranch, it seems that a refresher course on the use of winter grass and water use is appropriate.

As The Mister explained to our guest, we use reclaimed water to irrigate all the common areas of turf. Perhaps we would even pass Pima County's test, because we intend all of our grass to be walked on, played on, picniced on, run on, dog-walked on; in short, used and enjoyed by the residents (with the exclusion of equine or motorized activity, of course). Further, we use some pretty complicated computer systems that are hooked up to weather stations installed throughout Morrison Ranch; they measure the moisture and the wind and calculate exactly how much water to use at different times of year for different types of grass, making the watering process extremely efficient. Having detailed our bona fides on water conservation, there are other factors to consider in this discussion.

We make no apologies for promoting aesthetics in Morrison Ranch. The turf and trees look nice and feel nice, but they also cool things down and make oxygen. Phoenix has quite a problem with PM10 - particulate matter ten, which means the particulates are 10 microns in size - otherwise known as dust. Between turf and decomposed granite, which do you suppose might contribute more PM10 to the air? How much more coal might be burned in Four Corners to provide the electricity to cool down a building surrounded by granite and concrete as opposed to the building surrounded by trees and turf?

The Mister says that it is human nature to simplify issues so that we can understand them, but we tend to leave the truth behind. Grass uses more water; that is a true statement. But all the statements in the paragraph above are true as well, and need to be weighed. To be very personal, our philosophy - which is borne of our faith - is that humankind is to be a good steward of all the resources on the earth, balanced by an enjoyment of those resources.

And for those Highland Groves residents wondering about the aesthetics of their community? Yes, we are overseeding with rye; but since the original grass was late getting in, so will be the rye. Never fear, Park Lane will soon be green again.

Get Ready

Even though it wasn't Gilbert, I grew up in a small town, so I am well aware of the benefits and shortcomings of that experience - which are often two sides of the same coin. For example, everyone in town knows everything about your family (it feels like), which is wonderful when you have a need and don't even have to ask for help. On the other hand, it's not so great when you have one of those embarassing family members that tend to drag the entire family's reputation down with them. It's nice that the place is so small that you can get where you're going without spending too much time; but if where you want to go doesn't exist because the place is so small, that doesn't work so well. It's easier to form lifelong friendships with people you spend your whole life with; but it's easy to get into a rut without some new people injecting novelty. You get my drift.

I have posted before about some of the thought that went into formulating Morrison Ranch. When it became easier to sell the land than farm it in the middle of a growing town, we could have chosen the path that many of our neighbors did, without shame, and sold the property piece by piece to various homebuilders and developers. The choice was agonizing, but the idea that won out in the end was to masterplan the property as a way to recapture some of the small-town feel of the old Gilbert, and to honor the agricultural heritage of The Mister's family even though farming was no longer viable in this location. Our intent in crafting Morrison Ranch is to capture the best of both worlds, by fostering the relationships you might find in a small town, while at the same time being surrounded by the shopping and dining options of the bigger places.

Promoting community - like the place where everyone knows everyone else - has always been of high value for us, from the planning stages until now. Having sidewalks that are pleasant to walk on, shaded and not too close to the road, with the hope that neighbors will actually run into each other and connect, is an example of an early detail. Providing a web portal for residents of Morrison Ranch is our latest attempt.

A web portal is like a virtual meeting place on the internet. It's a place where a great deal of information can be gathered into a single site, and can be used by residents in a very specific way. For example, I could read my email, get the weather forecast for Gilbert, see when my son's little league team is practicing and whether it's my turn to bring snacks, and find out when the next blockwide garage sale is being held in my neighborhood. Then I could report that faulty sprinkler head in the common area that keeps making a puddle in front of my house, check who's hosting my bunco game this week and whether I need to bring snacks, and read the CC&R's to see what the regulations are for my son's basketball hoop. I might go on to post a classifed ad for my son's skateboard since he's switching to basketball, and while I'm there put the next Pecan Festival Organizational meeting on my calendar and decide if I'm bringing snacks. (Hey, I'm a CPA who cooks; so if they don't ask me to be the treasurer, they ask me to bring snacks.)

The idea is to provide a sort of community bulletin board where the residents who are interested in certain things can find each other. There will be an opportunity for paid advertising for businesses, which some residents may want to take advantage of, but for the most part it's a free service to connect people.

I'll tell you more about the inception of the portal later, but I just wanted to give you a heads up for now. You can go look at the entry page here, but you can't enter the portal yet; that will happen on February 3 of next year with our official grand opening.

However; if you are a leader of a group, and you want your group to be one of the first on the site, send me an email and I'll let you know how group leaders can get the training to set up their information and maintain it. A group can be comprised of anything from a bunco group to a scrapbooking club to a kid's (or adult's) team to a blockwatch group; any kind of group where people get together for a common reason and need to disseminate information.

So get ready; this is an electronic way to get connected with your neighbors.

Grocery Quotes

The Mister spoke with a reporter the other day about the grocery business; specifically about the Albertson's closing as it relates to the closing of the Henry's Markets. His quotes made it into the AZ Republic article, I see:

When two Henry's Farmers Market grocery stores close Dec. 16 they will be the fourth and fifth groceries in Gilbert to be shuttered this year.

The challenge will be to fill them.

Albertsons LLC has received offers for all three of its vacant store sites in Gilbert, Christine Wilcox, a company spokeswoman, said.

Wilcox would not identify who had made the offers, but said the company has received offers for all of the stores it vacated around the country this year and, in some cases, multiple offers have come in on some sites.

In June, Albertsons Inc. was divided and sold to three buyers. SuperValu Inc., Albertsons LLC, an Idaho-based company owned by Cerberus Capital Management, purchased about 661 of the stories, including all of those in the Southwest. It then closed the Gilbert stores at Power and Baseline roads, Cooper and Ray roads, and Higley and Elliot roads.

The company owns the properties at the first two locations, and leases the land at Higley and Elliot in the Lakeview at Morrison Ranch shopping center, Wilcox said.

This month, Henry's Farmers Market, a competitor in the natural and organic grocery market with Sprouts and Sunflower, will close both of its Gilbert stores, one at The Shoppes at Gilbert Commons at Cooper and Baseline roads, and the other in Mirador Square, a shopping center at Lindsay and Warner roads.

"We're currently oversaturated in the number of brands or chains of grocers. We're not oversaturated in grocery stores," said Scott Morrison, a partner in the Morrison Ranch shopping center.

Albertsons continues to sell groceries at three Gilbert locations. Other grocers in town are Fry's, Safeway, Bashas' , SuperTarget stores, Wal-Mart, Sprouts Farmers Market and Sunflower Market.

Morrison predicted another grocery store will move in to the vacant spot on his property.

"If you look at the specific corner and what is and is not around it, I have absolutely no doubt that what goes in there will be a grocer," he said. "Everybody is anxious for there to be a grocer in there."

Yes, I was really wishing I could run over there and pick up those last forgotten items for our Thanksgiving feast last week. You can read the rest of the article at your leisure to see how the merchants in that center are working to raise awareness of their stores.

As far as the article goes, there is nothing new in it to the visitors of my front porch; I've mentioned that we've heard through the grapevine that two grocers have made offers on the building at Lakeview; still no word from the official channels, of course. But I would think that they would be ready to accept offers and get the store up and running; they are not in the business of holding on to buildings, after all. We are all aware that things take longer than we wish they would in this business. Still, I anticipate running to the grocery store at Lakeview for whipping cream long before next Thanksgiving.