Memphis Democrat Column from February 18, 2007

I did my column a bit earlier in the day than usual the last time around and missed getting to write about the exciting event that happened that Sunday evening. Gigi was outside after dark and saw a big fireball streak through the sky. I don't know if any of you glimpsed it, but she reported that it was quite spectacular. Stan was at Roger and Mary Walker's Super Bowl party at that time and he said that a couple of people there also got a chance to observe it. We weren't sure at first what it was, but heard later that it was actually a meteor rather than a piece of space junk burning up in the atmosphere. It has now been immortalized on our community calendar as the "Great Meteor of '07". Winter has certainly being doing its best to hang on, particularly this past week. Michael reports that we have had a total of seven inches of snow at the farm during the last two storms. One of the drifts he measured was twenty-one inches deep. We canceled the community potluck scheduled for Tuesday evening. It didn't seem like a good night to be out and about with the high winds and blowing snow. We have been staying busy with indoor work during the worst of the cold. A major reorganization of our community office is underway and folks have been going through their files to see what is current, what needs to be archived and what can be recycled. I have taken on seeing that everything we are keeping finds a home and then we are going to move some furniture and a large file cabinet to make the traffic flow easier and the space more user-friendly.

We have also been busy during this time with sewing, mending, wood shop projects, working on renovating bee boxes, writing an article for Communities Magazine, planning a conference, tempeh-making and lots of other actitivites. Gigi and I have begun the process of recruiting and interviewing interns for the upcoming season. We did our initial interview last Sunday and have accepted Emmet as our first 2007 intern. He will be arriving at the end of March and will be with us until November. Other inquiries and applications are starting to come in and the two of us will have a lot to do soon.

With the return of the sun the last couple of days, we have perked up and are enjoying the beautiful snowscapes around us. I've been having a lot of fun observing the winter bird life. I heard pileated woodpeckers drumming this morning and also saw one of them flying among the trees at the junction of Sandhill Road and Underpass Road. Folks have been out cross-country skiing and we are starting our maple harvest today. This is one of our favorite activities this time of year and we have been looking forward to getting the taps set and the buckets out. Otto plans to start again with wood cutting and gathering and has places lined up to start harvesting from after this round of maple work. Our friend Daniel, who now lives in the southern Missouri community of Brixey, is paying us a visit this weekend. He is the director of a seed conservation project called One Garden. This organization is working to preserve heirloom and rare varieties of seed and sells some of them through their catalog. Daniel is a former member of East Wind Community and was last here with their 2004 sorghum harvest labor exchange crew. He pitched in yesterday to help Otto clear some of our paths of snow and is part of the maple tapping crew today. Daniel has also has had a chance to get in some skiing while he is at Sandhill. That is definitely a rare occurence down in the Ozarks. Despite the sometimes blustery winter weather, our members have been enjoying some social and recreational time away from home. As I mentioned earlier, Stan went to the annual Super Bowl Party at the Walker's home. The following Saturday, Renay and Gigi attended the Valentine's Dance at the RecPlex in Memphis. The next day Dan Kelly's birthday party was held at his farm near Canton and Stan and Gigi were there for it. French, Renay, Gigi, Stan and Cecil from DR took in the high school basketball games last Friday evening. Betsy and Sue had a day out in Fairfield and Ottumwa on Saturday. We often refer to this time of the year as "birthday season" since four of our members have theirs during the winter. Last Thursday it was Michael's turn. His birthday celebration included flute and guitar serenades by Betsy and Sue, venison roast for supper and a very tasty chocolate swirl cake. Birthdays are important dates for us and this is one of the ways we build connections with each other.