Memphis Democrat Column from March 27, 2005

It has been wonderful today to finally experience some warm sunny weather after all the gloom this past week. It was a great day to put laundry on the line and work outside. We all had things we wanted to get done after being kept in the house. Mulch got pulled off the strawberries, more pruning got done in the orchard, scrap metal got rounded up to go to the recyclers and other tasks were begun or moved along.

Otto finished up his two month labor exchange on the 18th. We had a special going-away celebration the evening before he left and invited Stefanie and Arjen from Dancing Rabbit to join us. Stan gave Otto a ride to Columbia and he visited our friends at Terra Nova Community before taking a bus back home to East Wind Community in southern Missouri.

Before he left for home Otto helped Stan level our garden shed. Over the years, it had developed an angle in relationship to the ground reminiscent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Stan told me that it was originally an old honey house that was located on another part of our property.

We had more visitors with us for the past week. Chandra and her seven year old daughter Twanda came from Kansas to spend time at the farm during Twanda's spring break. Chandra is exploring the idea of living in community and Sandhill Farm was first on her list of communities to visit. Renay enjoyed having another girl here and it was fun to see them playing dress up and having a good time.

Renay has started gymnastics classes in Kirksville again and is also involved in Girl Scouts. She has developed quite an interest in baseball and Michael has been explaining the intricacies of the game to her.

Gigi has been painting and upgrading some more of our interiors before she gets busy with the start of the garden season. Our dining room is now a beautiful shade of soft yellow. Prior to that, she did the walls of the stairway going up to the residential spaces in Karma, as well as one of the walls in the commercial kitchen. With help from Chandra, the hallway in the White House was painted this week.

Stan went to Kansas City this weekend to do the Food Circle, which is our first fair of the year. While he was there he also visited friends and delivered sorghum to customers in the area.

Michael and I attended the Rutledge Volunteer Fire Department fundraiser last weekend. I am always amazed to see what a large turnout there is for these local events in this area. The food was excellent and we enjoyed getting a chance to visit with our neighbors.

We had hoped to get the Tuesday night soccer games with Dancing Rabbit started again this week.

They were a regular feature of our weekly potlucks last year. When the weather didn't cooperate, we invited the Rabbits to come over early to socialize and play dominoes and other games instead. The weather forecast for this coming Tuesday is much better, so the first game of the season will take place at Dancing Rabbit.