I mentioned in a previous column that we were at the start of birthday season, starting with mine on January 25. We have been deep into it the past couple of weeks. Michael's birthday was on the 15th and featured Beatles music for us to listen and dance to. Jess made a couple of cheesecakes (organic, no less!) and a chocolate tofu pie for after supper.

Stan started his birthday celebration a day early last Thursday with a slide show for us and the Rabbits of his pictures from his time in Africa as an exchange student. It was fascinating to see the scenes of Nigeria, where he attended university, and of his travels in southern and eastern Africa. .

We celebrated Stan's actual birthday on Friday with a supper featuring some of his favorite foods and Gigi's coffee/chocolate cake layered with our own cherries.

We didn't even get a chance to catch our breath before there was a gigantic birthday blowout at Dancing Rabbit. Three of the Rabbits, Sara, Trish and Ted, and our own Jess celebrated their birthdays together on Saturday night. There was a dinner featuring Ethiopian food at Dancing Rabbit's Common House with games and dancing afterward. Jess made a yellow/brownie layer cake with black raspberry syrup and Stephanie made chocolate almond cupcakes.

Jess' birthday is actually this coming Friday and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't sneak another little celebration in for her at home.

A couple of former Sandhill residents who are still very much a part of our lives also had birthdays recently. Ceilee's was on January 27 and Renay's dad French (Jim) celebrated his on February 3.

This has been a very social two weeks. On the 14th, Stan, Gigi, Michael and I went to the fund-raising dinner for the Rutledge school restoration at the Community Center. Chad and Alyson from Dancing Rabbit were also there. It was a soup supper and the gumbo I had was really outstanding. It was nice to see everyone and help out a good cause at the same time.

Bekka, Jess, Cedar and Skyler have gone on recreational and business trips to Columbia since the last column came out. Laird arrived back from Colorado on the 17th. He headed up to Michigan to pick

up Sue on Friday and they will be back on Monday. It will be nice to have our Sue home after her winter away.

Stan's project to build wood storage bays in the Horse Barn is finished so we had a group "go" this past Thursday to move much of our lumber that has been stacked outdoors. It was very satisfying to be able sort it out by size and type of wood. This will make this resource more accessible and useful for our projects.

Another project that is moving right along is our remodeling of the room at Sugar Shack. Gigi, with help from Stan and Michael, has been hanging drywall this past week. She had a chance when she was at East Wind to help them with a construction project and she picked up a lot of tips on how to finish up the work. This is another benefit that we get from doing labor exchanges. It is a great way to share skills among our different groups.