Memphis Democrat Column from May 07, 2006

There have been lots of doings at Sandhill Farm during the past two or three weeks. I'm looking at the calendar that we use to record events for posterity and it has a number of items on it. My other motive for checking it out is that I was away last week and I'm using it to catch up on things.

Michael and I went down to Mansfield on April 29 to do a festival at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This is a really interesting show and is attended by folks from at least eight or nine states. The seed company was started by a young man named Jere Gettle when he was about sixteen. He's now in his mid-twenties and has a very successful business and also publishes an excellent magazine called "The Heirloom Gardener". After the fair, we took the opportunity to spend three days at our place in McDonald County. This gave us the chance to visit with our son and see friends.

Stan drove to Virginia on April 24th to attend a wedding. Shining, the woman who was getting married, lived at Sandhill when she was a child and her younger brother was born here. Stan also visited with a number of people in the Charlottesville area, some of whom he hadn't seen in many years. On the way to Virginia and also on the way back, he spent the night with a good friend, Ella, in Louisville.

Jo arrived on April 20 and will be spending the growing season with us. This will be her longest stay since she left to attend boarding school in 7th grade. It's been fun having her at home and she has been adding a lot of energy to our scene here.

Laird was on the road again April 21. He went to Lawrence, Kansas and Albuquerque, New Mexico to work with two forming communities. He returned May 3.

We hosted another college group on April 21 and 22. Students from the Green Oaks Term program at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois came for an overnight stay on Friday. They attended the Passover celebration at Dancing Rabbit with us that evening. On Saturday morning, I gave them a tour and they participated in some work projects. The students were a great help in seeding sorghum transplant flats, planting beets, weeding horseradish and moving compost.

This year's second intern, Rory, arrived on April 24th. He is from southern California and was in Thailand for several months before joining us. His cousin Nathan lives at Dancing Rabbit and Rory found out about Sandhill from him.

Also travelling on the same train as Rory was Joanne, one of our interns from last year. She has been here for the past couple of weeks. It almost seems as though she never left and it has been a real pleasure to have her here. One the things I really enjoy about our intern program is that many of the interns become our friends.

On May 2, we were visited by our friend Zach. He used to live in Kirksville and was an intern at Dancing Rabbit last summer. He came up from St. Louis and spent the night.

Friday was Jessie's birthday. There was a special dinner on Thursday night featuring Jo's sushi and a get-together around a campfire on Friday evening.

Saturday, we held our annual "May Day" party to mark Sandhill Farm's anniversary. It is always held on the weekend nearest our actual founding date of May 8. The community is now thirty two years old. The folks from Dancing Rabbit and Red Earth Farms were here, as well as a number of local friends.

The festivities included a Maypole dance, lots of delicious food, and a music "jam" on the front porch in the evening. We have some very talented muscians among our friends and the instruments heard included guitar, banjo, fiddle, mountain dulcimer, trombone and penny whistle.

A new visitor, Sue, arrived from Texas this morning. This is her first visit to a community and she will be with us for a week. Sue jumped right in and helped with planting potatoes and weeding during the afternoon.

We have also been saying goodbye to some friends who are leaving the area. We had a farewell dinner for Eric and Susan, who were moving from Dancing Rabbit to Colorado. Susan and I worked together for the past few years in the Fellowship office. Our friends Mark and Farnaz and their children are leaving Kirksville this coming week. After a visit with Mark's family in Philadelphia, they will be returning to Lebanon. They joined us at the May Day party and it was good to have a chance to visit with them.

A very special recent event for us has been the acceptance of Jessie and her daughter Aradia as new members of Sandhill Farm on April 18. Our membership is now six adults and two children.