Memphis Democrat Column from May 15, 2005

Well, Spring keeps trying to keep its head up but it's not having a easy time of it. The weather is a bit on the brisk side today (Sunday) and we are all back in flannel shirts and jackets for the duration. That was quite a storm we had the other evening. The wind whipped the rain into a fog and we could hardly see the Slater's house across the road. We also had some awesome lightning bolts hitting a bit too close for comfort. Fortunately, we didn't incur much damage, just some small trees and a few branches down.

We have had some old and new friends visiting the past two weeks, which has been fun. Our old friend River from Twin Oaks Community in Virginia arrived on May 2, along with Marielle who is also a member of Twin Oaks. River was last at Sandhill about four years ago and it had been eleven years since Michael and I had seen him. River and Marielle spent a week with us before heading on to Arizona.

On the 3rd, Kirk and Chifumi came up from St Louis to also spend some time with us. They were recent visitors at Dancing Rabbit and they are interested in being interns here at Sandhill Farm this year. They drove to Chicago this past Friday so that Chifumi could fly to Japan for a month's visit with her family.

This Friday and Saturday, we hosted three young women from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Elizabeth, Melissa and Grace are members of a Sociology class that is studying intentional communities and we are the subject of their particular group's project. After having supper with us and spending the night, I gave them a tour of the community the next morning and talked with them about our history and our life here. They then pitched in to help us with our gardening work before heading back home late Saturday afternoon.

With all the additional gardening energy the past couple of weeks, we have made tremendous progress in moving the work along. The brassica crops are in, emerging beet, carrot, and greens seedlings are thinned, a lot of the mulching is done and the peas are weeded. It is great to be in such good shape, but there is always more to be done.

Last weekend marked our thirty-first anniversary and we had our annual May Day/Land Day celebration on Saturday. We had folks come from Wisconsin and St. Louis to be with us and the Wisconsin group included several children. We also hosted several local friends as well as the members of Dancing Rabbit, who also brought along the television film crew who is currently working

there to enjoy the festivities.

We had our annual May Pole dance, a wonderful pot luck supper and lots of great music. Local friends Larry from Knox City and Lou from Gorin added their fiddle and guitar to the instruments of Rabbits Penn (banjo) Tamar and Laura (both on fiddle). Laird put a roof on our newly rebuilt sweat lodge and folks were able to use it during the course of the evening.

We have also been getting to know the new residents at Dancing Rabbit, Tim and Jennifer, the past couple of weeks. Renay and their children are becoming fast friends and we are delighted

that she has more playmates in the neighborhood. A new Dancing Rabbit member, Suzanne, has been helping us out some in the Fellowship Office located at Sandhill and it is nice to be able to also add her to our new circle of friends.

Our first 2005 intern, Debbie, finished up her stay with us after five weeks. It was great having her here for the early season. She left on Tuesday to visit her family in New Jersey for a while before she does some more travelling this summer. Debbie, Laird and Tony from Dancing Rabbit drove back east together. Laird and Tony were on their way to Ithaca, New York to attend the annual organizational meetings of the Fellowship for Intentional Community and were happy to have someone to share the driving with them. We look forward to having Debbie visit us again in the future. Like all of our interns, she has become a part of our "extended family".