Memphis Democrat Column from November 26, 2006

It's been another long stretch since I last wrote a column. Michael and I left on October 21st for a vacation in the Ozarks and we returned to Sandhill November 16th. We spent three weeks at our place in McDonald County. Our stay coincided with the best display of fall color in that area in some years. The two of us had a nice time relaxing, seeing friends and spending time with our son Andrew. We then visited for a few days with our daughter Melina and her family at their new home in Wooldridge, just across the Missouri from Rocheport. Although it was nice to have some down time after the rush of sorghum harvest, it is good to be home again. The atmosphere has shifted to the more mellow feel of late fall and winter and there is some time to hang out and enjoy each others' company. We welcomed Betsy as a new member of the community on at the beginning of October. She is a great addition to our Sandhill family and we are delighted she has decided to make this her home. With the end of the harvest, we said goodbye to our remaining interns. Ali left to spend some time as a guest at Skyhouse before resuming her travels. Liz went back to Chillicothe for the home stretch of her father's campaign for a local judgeship. Sarah and Miles returned to Chicago to spend some time with family before they go to Florida this winter. We got a note from Ali just the other day that she is paying Sarah and Miles a visit before she goes back to North Carolina. Kris returned to East Wind with the sorghum labor exchange crew and Arjen headed back to Oregon on the train. We look forward to having both of these friends both here again in the not too distant future. Otto arrived at Sandhill the week before Michael and I got back from our vacation. He will be helping us out again this winter. He spent the past several months at the Omega Institute, a conference center in New York, as part of their seasonal staff. He says that he enjoyed his time there but he is glad to be in the Midwest again. He originally is from Detroit and has been a member of East Wind for twenty years. Sue is back again, too. She has been alternating spending time with her family in Holden and being at Sandhill. Sue's help and energy is much appreciated here and she is fast becoming a special friend. With the end of sorghum season, we have shifted to moving along some projects that have been on our agenda. First on the list was putting up the shed over the steam boiler at Sugar Shack. Ceilee came up to help with that and then he, Sue and Stan put a badly needed new roof on our front porch. That done, our attention turned to getting the White House (the original farm house) painted. Jo headed up the crew doing that work. Prior to the start of that job, Laird took care of some repairs to the exterior walls. The past week has seen Stan, Otto, Sue and Betsy busy with building a pole shed at Sugar Shack to cover our wood supply for cooking sorghum. They finished roofing it Saturday afternoon.

Ceilee returned at the start of deer season to hunt on the farm and on land north of Memphis belonging to a friend's family. It was a successful hunt and we have been given enough venison to keep us well supplied for the next year. Laird, Ceilee and Jo processed the meat in the days before Thanksgiving. The prior Saturday, Michael, Stan, Otto, Jo and I processed three of our turkeys and several chickens. We have also been taking time to enjoy ourselves. We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends from Dancing Rabbit and Red Earth Farms. Skyhouse hosted the dinner again this year. Several of us went early to join the Rabbits on a land walk and then we socialized before enjoying a wonderful meal. It was the work of many good cooks and was served family style. Renay went up to Minnesota with French to spend Thanksgiving with his family. French comes from a large family and Renay has 72 cousins on that side. It sounded like she would probably see a lot of them on this trip since many of her aunts and uncles live relatively close to her grandmother. During the holiday, we had a visit from Betsy's mother, Marjorie. She lives in Dallas, where she works as an accountant. Marjorie has family near Ottumwa and went up to see them twice while she was here, the second time with Betsy and Sue. She is a delightful person and we really enjoyed getting to know her. There have been several evenings of board and card games around our kitchen table. We have also played a group participation game and done some reading aloud in the living room on a couple of occasions. Some of our folks have also enjoyed recent excursions to see a movie, walk the trail at Lake Show Me and to have a day out in Fairfield. Our friend Doug, who is in the merchant marine, sent us a "Care Package" from Hawaii last week. It included a package of Kuaui coffee, packets of seed for exotic tropical plants, leis, shell necklaces and a hula dancers outfit. Renay modeled the hula skirt and accessories for the rest of us and really looked like an island girl. It was a nice surprise and we had a lot of fun with it.