We moved to LaBellvue in 1977. Our ranch house was on the right just before the intersection of East Ruritan and Donagale. When our house was built, the road was single-laned and the mountain naturally drained through a gully that bisected our backyard just behind our deck. We landscaped a paver path for the water to egress down the mountain. Then, thanks to continued growth up the side of the mountain, the county decided to widen the road and take half of our front yard in the process. As a consolation, they informed us that they would take a bit more of the front yard to build out a drainage system to take the run-off from the paved surfaces coming down the mountain and channel it along thus relieving us of the frequent backyard flash-flooding. Well, after all was said and done, nary a drop of run-off has ever flowed into the big hole and drain in the front yard. It seems that they miscalculated the run-off. Instead, increasing amounts of water continued flowing through the backyard every time it rained. This caused my Pop to seethe inside. He was never an outwardly angry man, but he could be wily and passive-aggressive.

With the two-lane road complete up to just past our house, the road in front of the house became a speedway. Every day, my Pop, the Skunk Whisperer, would watch the Summiteers blow past our house at way more than the 25mph speed limit. Every now and then, one of our cats would get hit.

That made it a no-brainer whenever he trapped a skunk in his Hav-a-hart trap, he'd load the beast in the trunk of his 1991 Chevy Caprice and drive almost to the top of Summit Ridge where "all the rich people lived" and release the bugger. He probably relocated over fifty skunks in that manner over the last 20 years of his life. This might be why you may have seen quite a few varmints up there.