No matter who is staying in our rental cabin, we refer to them as The Neighbors because for that little bit of time they are here, that's their home. We leave them alone unless they invite us over for a sandwich or a visit. Most of them come back every year, and there is one family for whom I always bake a pie.

The current set of neighbors flew in from Winter Park, Florida to visit their son in Estes Park. He has a tiny apartment so they wanted to find an inexpensive place for the rest of the family to stay - two adults and two older teenagers. They are gone most of the time, and haven't spent any time on the screened porch or back patio. Partly this is the fault of the weather - we've had heavy rainstorms almost every day, sometimes more than one rain event a day. It's nice for us that they haven't used the barbecue or fire pit - less cleaning. They will leave tomorrow afternoon sometime, and the new neighbors move in on Wednesday.

The new neighbors are the young couple from Omaha who came this spring to help with flood recovery projects. They are staying 6 days, and I won't charge them. We had a good time cooking meals together when they were staying here at my house, so we'll probably get together for a meal while they are here.

Yesterday I found out about a flood-related tour to look at revegetation efforts at high altitudes. It is a 2-day event involving school buses the first day, and tour buses the second day, both days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participants will visit various locations and hear from various experts, and at the end of each day, free catered food.

Sounds grueling. Most people I've talked to aren't going to sign up, even for one day, because it is such a long day. The organizers aren't known for having common sense. I going because I'll learn a lot about what happened during the flood and what was done and needs to be done to restore the rivers.