People cross country ski around the perimeter of Hidden Valley Pond each winter. And kids go sledding on the hill on the north side. But this year, with all the snow we’ve had, there have been people snowshoeing, too. Cool! It’s like having a mini Carleton College Arboretum in our backyards.
January 05th, 2010 | Author: Griff Wigley
Category: Park, Photos
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January 05th, 2010 | Author: Griff Wigley
I’ve been really pleased with the snowplowing service for our townhouse association thus far this year. Not only is the plowing done promptly in the early morning (usually before 6 am). But they return to plow again after the city streets have been plowed and the edge of the driveways are filled with the heavy stuff from the streets.
A nice plus over Xmas: we had kids visiting us for a few days and had two cars parked in the driveway, thereby preventing it from being plowed. After they departed, the service returned to plow our driveway, just in time before the slushy stuff turned rock hard with the cold snap.
Category: Maintenance
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December 28th, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
Robbie is barely visible in this photo in our driveway, taken last week when we got about 8 inches overnight.
It’s sooooooo nice to not have to shovel a driveway. 
Category: Photos
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October 28th, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
Alas, I missed the peak of the fall colors this year. Here are three from our backyard overlooking Hidden Valley Pond.
Category: Photos
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September 18th, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
Robbie picked out the colors and after a thumbs-up from the Valley Pond Association board, our unit of four townhomes got a paint job this fall.
Category: Maintenance
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August 15th, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
We trapped a pesky raccoon a few weeks ago but kept putting the trap back out as we thought there might be another one raiding our bird feeders. Alas, a skunk found it’s way into the trap instead. It was a delicate removal operation that ensued, thankfully without, um, incident.
Category: Uncategorized
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July 30th, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
Plentiful rainfall this summer has filled the pond to its highest levels since we’ve been here. And unlike many other storm water retention ponds around, Hidden Valley Pond retains the water much longer.
Category: Photos
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July 19th, 2009 | Author: Robbie Wigley
Harvey Reynolds will be here tomorrow morning, Monday July 20th, to sealcoat our driveways. Please make sure to keep your cars parked in the garage or out on the street. You might want to close your window too!
Category: Maintenance
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July 02nd, 2009 | Author: Robbie Wigley
A
few weeks ago Griff posted about the deer around the pond. This is an afternoon picture of a young doe; she was bumping the feeders with her nose to get the seed to spill. I was just barely quick enough to catch her leaving the yard.
We also have one or now we think more than one raccoon that loves grape jelly. He has been raiding my Oriole feeder every night and is quite messy. Sticky grape paw prints everywhere! Well we celebrated his capture and subsequent release many miles away… he/she was not a happy camper. We had put a rug down so that it didn’t tear up my outdoor rug on the deck. That worked but it took half an hour to get it out of the bars on the cage… it had pulled it through every little hole on the bottom of the cage.
Category: Wildlife
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June 07th, 2009 | Author: Robbie Wigley
We will be discussing the present state of our lawn care at the June 9th Board Meeting. Sherry Freking has done some research for this discusion that would be helpful to take a look at so everyone has the same information. The link below will take you to the page on the VPTA site that has 8 articles from the University of Minnesota Extension. This is for your information.
Lawn Care (this blue copy is a link, just click on it and another page will open with the permanent information listed on this site in the Pages)
Category: Maintenance, Uncategorized
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June 07th, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
Gene and Earlyne Moninger have spotted deer around the Hidden Valley Park pond three times this week. They managed to get some photos, including this one of a doe and her fawn. Click to enlarge.
Category: Photos
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June 03rd, 2009 | Author: Robbie Wigley
Agenda for June 9th, 2009 VPTA Meeting
Old Business:
- Nomination and election of officers
- Review of committee members
- Review of audit committee report
- Insurance quote
- Flowers for Jean Leese – Sherry
New Business:
- Fire in bldg. 2
- Driveway sealcoating
- Lawn Care information on blog
- Board rep. guidelines
Please call or email Gary Freking, 645-6128, gafrek@gmail.com if you have additional items to be discussed.
The meeting will be at 1900 Lincoln St. S… on the Freking’s Deck at 7:00 pm.
Category: Uncategorized
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June 01st, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
Fire destroyed much of Al Linder’s townhouse last evening. Al was not at home when the fire broke out but arrived shortly afterwards.
The smoke damage displaced residents in the two units to the north of his, Don and Shannon Mills, and George and Leslie Selvig. Sandy Pieri, a volunteer with the Rice – LeSueur Red Cross Chapter and a townhouse owner on the same block, was on hand to help arrange temporary housing for the three affected homeowers.
The Northfield News posted a story, Fire engulfs townhome, on their web site last night at about 8:30.
I was in the Cities but Robbie took these photos. See the album of a dozen photos, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow.
Category: Photos
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May 15th, 2009 | Author: Griff Wigley
This parakeet was hanging around our backyard birdfeeders yesterday.
Category: Photos
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May 05th, 2009 | Author: Robbie Wigley
This is the 1999 Concept Drawing and Planting List for the Valley Pond Park. I have also included a list of birdsseen in the park, drawn up by Don Starkweather. I am not sure of the year. Just a little bit of history.
I also added this as a page on the right side bar so it would be a constant on the blog site… but thought it would be a nice thing to point out. Maybe others have old documents that would be appropriate to add to the documents. Email or call me if you have something that you would like to share, I can scan is for you.
Category: History, Information and Details, Park
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