Memphis Democrat Column from July 30, 2006

I'm sitting in front of a small fan in our office as I write and my fingers are sticking to the computer keyboard. It's so-o-o hot and I'm sorely tempted to join our puppy Sammy under the front porch for a while.

All of us have been trying to get as much of our outside work done early in the day as we can and then opting for indoor or shade tree jobs in the afternoon.

Because the building where our food processing kitchen is located is earth bermed on the north side, it's somewhat cooler in there during the hottest part of the day. Food processing has become a popular job with members, interns and visitors the past couple of weeks. We have canned green beans, pickled dilly beans, tomatoes, tomato juice, Laird's corn relish and my grape leaf cucumber pickles the last few days.

Speaking of corn, we have also had an incredible sweet corn harvest starting last weekend. In addition to the relish, we have also frozen many quarts and gallons of golden kernels and eaten our collective weight in fresh cooked ears.

It looked as though our racoon members were going to get to the crop before us. They were climbing right over the electric fence as though it didn't exist. Michael decided to try putting a radio in the corn patch tuned to country/western music and it apparently was not their musical taste at all.

I want to pass along the name of a corn variety we are growing this year that is the hands down favorite of everyone here-it is called "Luscious" and that says it all.

Everyone is home right now. Stan returned from his inspection trip to Nebraska at the end of last week. He harvested yellow mustard seed and has also taken care of other field work and bees since his return.

Laird, Ma'ikwe and Jibran got back from North Carolina late last Monday. The National Cohousing Conference turned out to be the biggest event in terms of sales that Community Bookshelf has ever done. Laird also did a benefit auction for the cohousing group at the conference that raised a lot of money. In addition to having a nice visit with Jess and Skyler while they were in North Carolina, the three of them also went over to Floyd, Virginia to see Ann at her home for a few days.

Jo and Amanda drove down to Columbia July 21 to July 24 to visit Ceilee and celebrate Jo's birthday. They had a relaxing weekend and enjoyed their mini-vacation.

Renay went with French to a family reunion in Minnesota last weekend. It is the first one held since his dad passed away last year and he said it was good to see everyone and that his mother really enjoyed it. French joined us for one of Jo's excellent suppers the night they returned.

This week has been marked by the arrival of our new intern Sarah and her two year old son Miles. Sarah and Miles visited us a couple of times earlier this year. They are from Chicago, where Sarah has been working as a licensed massage therapist at a clinic.

Betsy, who was here for a one week visit this spring, has returned for a longer stay with us. She is exploring the possibility of becoming a member of Sandhill. Betsy has been living in Arkansas and is also a licensed massage therapist. She was an intern at an organic farm a few years back and has done landscaping.

We have also been enjoying a visit with two young men from Wisconsin, Casey and Alex, this past week. They have just graduated from high school. Casey plans to study organic agriculture at The Michael Fields Institute and Alex will be attending Beloit College. They have really pitched in to help with all our work during their stay and we have appreciated their enthusiasm and interest.

Ma'ikwe held another "resurfacing" workshop session on Saturday which was attended by some of our Sandhill folks and friends from the other Rutledge communities. She also facilitated meetings primarily for our members focused on work issues, membership and recruitment. It has been helpful to have her knowledge and skills available to us during her stay this summer.

The remodelling of Sugar Shack for the steam upgrade has begun in earnest. The "deconstruction" phase got underway two days ago. Laird, Jo and Amanda started it off and Liz's friend Justin came up from Jamesport to help out this weekend. Ceilee will arrive this evening and will be here working all this coming week.

Stan checked the sorghum as soon as he got home and says that we will begin sorghum harvest early this year. We are getting ready to send out announcements to our faithful regulars, other communities and folks who have indicated they are interested in being here for the harvest. At our meeting yesterday, we set September 9 as the starting date.