Happy Friday. We've hit the stretch of summer where the mornings are perfect and the afternoons mean business, and this weekend leans all the way in. There's a storm with our name on it this afternoon, then Saturday and Sunday go hot and breezy, back-to-back days near the mid 90s. So knock out the yard work and the dog walk early and let the afternoon thunder do its thing. Plenty to get to, and it starts with how dry it's gotten out here, which matters more than usual with the Fourth a week off and fireworks already on everyone's mind. Let's go.

Turns out one of our TrailMark neighbors has been quietly building entire worlds. Ron Lamberson writes novels, and not just one flavor of them. His Kilimanjaro Club series (A Grave Invitation, The Poachers of Immortality) is globe-trotting adventure-mystery, while Heavy Metal Moon swings all the way out to sci-fi. The man holds a creative-writing degree and an MBA, has set foot in more than 40 countries and all seven continents, and somehow still finds the time to write from right here in 80127.

If you're hunting for your next summer read, or you just like backing a local author, start with A Grave Invitation, where a Wall Street financier days from his big merger gets yanked into the hunt for his murdered grandfather's secrets and a covert society of adventurers. Picture Indiana Jones with a finance background.

Find all of Ron's books on his Amazon author page.

It went dry, and the Fourth is a week out. The weather service has a Fire Weather Watch up for the foothills, the grass is browning by the day, and we've got back-to-back afternoons near 95 this weekend with wind behind them. The county hasn't banned fireworks yet, but in conditions like these the sheriff can flip a full countywide ban on in a single afternoon, and that one covers even the legal stuff. So before you buy anything for the Fourth that flies or pops, here's the baseline that trips people up every year: personal fireworks are already illegal inside Littleton city limits, sparklers included, and anything that leaves the ground or explodes is out in unincorporated Jeffco too. Yes, even the stuff the tent by the highway is happy to sell you. Check jeffcosheriffco.gov for the live status before you spend a dime. If you want the real show without the risk, Clement Park and Hudson Gardens have it covered (see below).

A November tax question is already taking shape for our schools. On June 11 the Jeffco school board adopted a 1.41 billion dollar budget for next year, and here's the part worth your attention: it only balances if voters pass a mill levy override this November. The district has been shrinking for years, roughly 4,000 fewer students over four, and it's already swallowed tens of millions in cuts and a long list of school closures. The board is betting voters say yes in the fall rather than cut deeper. Every kid in 80127 feeds a Jeffco school, Columbine, Chatfield, Dakota Ridge, Ken Caryl, Falcon Bluffs, so that ballot question is coming straight for your property taxes. Early to think about, but not too early to see it coming.

And nothing new from council. Last week's study session was cancelled, so there's no fresh business to report. The night still worth circling is July 21, when both the sewer rate study and the TrailMark rezoning hearing are due up. I broke both down a couple issues back, the agenda isn't even posted yet, and I'll have the details the moment something actually changes.

The carnival's tomorrow. The Hornbuckle Foundation Community Carnival, now in its fifth year, runs Saturday, June 27, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Ken-Caryl Ranch Community Park on Sangre de Cristo Road. It's all ages, and the proceeds go to the foundation's mental-health and substance-use work. The closest thing on the calendar to build a Saturday around.

A free slice of local history, also Saturday. If the carnival's not your speed, the Littleton Museum is hosting a free hourlong talk on the historic McBroom Cabin and the area's early fur-trade days, Saturday, June 27, from 11 a.m. to noon. McBroom is genuine local pioneer history, the canyon and the ditch both carry the name, and the museum's free any day you go.

Now, the Fourth itself. The big free one is Red, White and You at Clement Park on Friday, July 3, from 5 to 10 p.m. The Williams Brothers Band takes the amphitheater at 7, there's a kids' zone and a beer and wine garden, and fireworks go up around 9:30, weather and fire conditions permitting. If you'd rather pay for a seat and a theme, Hudson Gardens runs Red, White and Rock that same night at 6 p.m., an 80s and 90s cover-band party with food trucks and its own fireworks finale, tickets around 29 dollars. Two very different Fourths, same evening.

The standing ones. The Downtown Littleton Farmers Market runs Saturdays 8 to 1 on Nevada Street, and yes, it's on the Fourth too. The Pokémon GO crew meets Wednesdays at 5:50 p.m. at the Clement Park skate park, and they've got a Sobble Community Day set for the Fourth, 2 to 4 p.m. starting at Bega Park. Heads up that the free summer concert series, both the Museum lawn shows and the Clement Park amphitheater nights, take the holiday week off and pick back up July 8 and 9.

A new drive-thru coffee stop is going up in the zip. Ziggi's Coffee, the Colorado-grown drive-thru chain, is under construction at 8020 Sangre de Cristo Road, over on the Ken Caryl side near C-470, with a summer opening planned. The franchisee, Michelle Wiley, already co-runs a Ziggi's down in Castle Pines, so she's not new to the drill. It's the kind of quick-stop coffee a lot of that corner of 80127 has been driving past Wadsworth to get. I'll let you know when the window actually opens.

And some news on a neighborhood favorite. Los Dos Potrillos on West San Juan Way has been dark since a kitchen fire in early March, and a lot of you have asked what's happening with it. Word from the restaurant's own pages: the Littleton location is officially under construction and the family's working to reopen it. No date yet, but after three months of a padlocked door, under construction counts as good news. I'll flag it here the day those green chili smells come back.

Two new things on the trails this week. The one to plan around: at Deer Creek Canyon, the Upper Plymouth Creek Trail closes weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. starting Monday, June 29, for trail work, while it stays open Friday through Sunday. So weekend hikers are fine, weekday folks should pick another route. And over by Golden, Apex Park is closed outright right now on account of one bear with an attitude, your reminder that they're awake, hungry, and working the foothills right alongside us. Everything else holds from before: Black Bear Trail in Deer Creek still shut through July 31 for nesting raptors, no dogs at Waterton on account of the bighorns, and the rattlesnakes are out on the warm rock. With Saturday and Sunday both knocking on 95, the only smart hike is an early one, so carry more water than feels reasonable and be back down the exposed stretches before the heat stacks up.

New wildfire rules kick in July 1, if you're building or remodeling. Jeffco's updated Wildfire Resiliency Code takes effect July 1, and most of us out here sit squarely in the wildland-urban interface it covers. The good news: it's not retroactive, so nobody's coming for your existing house. It kicks in on new construction and the bigger exterior projects, a re-roof, new siding, a deck replacement, an addition, leaning on defensible space and fire-resistant materials like Class A roofing and keeping junipers and other torch-ready shrubs away from the house. Got a summer project on the calendar? Check jeffco.us before you pull the permit. And defensible space is a smart idea whether the code makes you do it or not.

If you've got an ash tree, give it a look. Ken-Caryl Ranch parks staff say they've confirmed emerald ash borer, the invasive beetle that kills ash trees, in the community. Four infested ones near Valley Parkway and Club Drive are already down, with about a dozen more marked. Caught early, an ash can usually be saved. Left too long, it has to come down before it starts shedding limbs over somebody's driveway. So if you've got an ash on your property, this is the summer to have a licensed arborist tell you which way it's headed.

Last issue I pointed at the top of the market, the million-dollar-plus Valley homes. This week let's look at the middle, because that's where most of us live. The 80127 median sits right around 709,000 dollars, down about 2 percent from a year ago, and homes are still moving fast, about 18 days on the market at better than 99 percent of asking. So what does that median buy in real life? Right now it's a place like the four-bedroom on West Tanforan Circle that just closed at 715,000, a normal 2,700-square-foot house with a coffee bar and a yard. Down the ladder, the condo floor is holding in the high 200s, with one-bedroom units in Fallingwater going around 259,000 and a couple of two-bedrooms closing right at 300 to 305. Prices have cooled a touch, but with offers landing in under three weeks, nobody around here is waiting long.

A storm today, then the heat takes over. Friday tops out near 88 with a 40 percent shot at afternoon showers and thunderstorms after noon, so if you've got outdoor plans, the morning's your friend. Then the weekend dries out and cranks up. Saturday goes sunny and breezy near 95, with afternoon gusts that could hit 30, and Sunday does it again at 96. No storms penciled in for the weekend, just heat and wind, so the sunscreen and the water bottle do more work than the rain jacket. Classic late-June pattern: get after it early, take the afternoon slow.

Let's make this one a two-way street. With the Fourth a week out and the back-to-back 90s on the way, I want two things from you. One, where do you actually watch the fireworks out here? I know the Clement Park crowd, but I keep hearing about quieter spots with a clean view of the foothills shows, and I'd love to pass a few along next week. Two, what's your go-to early-morning hike when the afternoons are this hot? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one, and the best of them tend to end up right here in this section, no name attached unless you want it.

That's the week from the foothills. Stay cool, keep it legal on the Fourth, and tell me what I'm missing out there.

Joey

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