Lorena and I have a lot of great neighbors on Lazy Z Road. Some of our favorites are Ed and Sheila Ranegar at the Rising Sun Ranch.

Ed came to Colorado in 1980. He was a starving carpenter at the time. The cashier at Ned’s grocery store, located where the rock shop is today, invited him over for a homemade lasagna dinner. That was Sheila. “We’ve been together 41 years now, and we still get along.”

In 2005 Ed started Mountainside Crane Service. “We pick up hot tubs, HVAC units, trees, trusses, steel, basically whatever is heavy that needs picked up. We once lifted a jet engine out of a private jet worth several million dollars. We also removed the ballerinas from the Denver Arts Building.”

Ed retired last Saturday; he’s turning the business over to his son Luke. “It was time,” Ed says, “I’ve been working for 50 years. And I wanted to have the party!”

And so he did, on the very day of his retirement. Plenty of Ned-notables, neighbors, and good friends gathered for a barn dance and party in the big barn at Rising Sun Ranch. Ed had fun, “I’m blessed to have so many good people in my life.”

Over here on the Z, we’re all pretty happy that Ed will be around a little more.