Memphis Democrat Column from April 08, 2007

The weather certainly seems to be on quite a roller coaster this past week. We went from sitting on the front porch enjoying the 70 degree plus weather one day to putting the long johns back on the next. The low temperatures the last three nights have probably damaged a good portion of our fruit crop for the year and some of our overwintering and early garden crops are looking pretty frazzled. I guess we won't be able to assess the full extent of the damage for a while. The only sign of hope I have seen is some of our tulips and daffodils standing straight again today after being totally bent over from the cold yesterday.

Stan returned from Haiti last Sunday just in time to enjoy a bit of the balmy side of the weather parade. He had lots of stories to tell about his time there. He spent most of the first part of his trip in the countryside visiting small villages and mango growers. The last part of his trip was spent primarily in the area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, inspecting the facilities of the mango exporters. Although the Haitians face a lot of economic, political and environmental challenges, Stan had a very positive view of his experiences there and the people he met.

Laird also returned this week after a two week trip to the east coast. He and Tony from Dancing Rabbit left on March 20 to take the train to Virginia to attend the organizational meetings of the Fellowship for Intentional Community, which are held twice yearly. This spring the meetings were hosted by Shannon Farm Community in Afton, Virginia. After the meetings were over, Laird went up to Massachusetts to see Jo in Amherst before continuing on to New Hampshire to work with a community in Peterborough. He returned to Amherst to spend some more time with Jo before heading back to Sandhill. This is his last time at home before his wedding in Albuquerque on April 21. There are still lots of details to attend to, so he has been quite busy. Ma'ikwe's mom Kay will be coming down from Michigan to spend the night with us on Monday and then she and Laird are going to drive to New Mexico together. Our friend Ron arrived from Indiana for a visit on the 25th. He was a resident at Dancing Rabbit until recently and is working on clearing out his storage unit there. He has been sorting out his possessions while he is here, deciding what to take with him and what to donate. He is planning to move back to Illinois in the near future and hopes to return to work in the state university system again.

Last year's interns Amanda and Liz spent most of the day with us on March 27. Amanda is returning from her home near San Diego to be a work exchanger at Dancing Rabbit this season for the construction of the DR Mercantile. Liz picked her up in Kansas City after Amanda visited another 2006 intern, Angie, in Austin, Texas and her dad in Oklahoma on the way to Missouri. Liz has been working in Chillicothe and is now thinking seriously about what she wants to do in graduate school. She is hoping to enter the Rural Sociology program at the University of Missouri. The first of our interns for this year, Emmet, arrived on March 28. Emmet is a member of East Wind Community. He is taking a leave of absence so he can be with us for the whole growing season. He also was a member of Twin Oaks Community in Virginia for nine years and has been at East Wind since 1996. Emmet has been here several times over the years and participated in our sorghum harvest the past two years in a row. We have accepted three more interns for the 2007 season. Travis will be joining us in the next week or so and Eric will arrive the third week in May. Apple plans to be here at the beginning of July. Gigi went to Columbia on the 27th to visit our friends at Terra Nova Community and to attend a renewable energy conference the next day. Emmet met her there and they went to the conference together. This is an area we are increasingly interested in and it was useful to get an idea of the various initiatives happening in the field. She also made a trip to St. Louis on April 7 and spent the night at the house of another of our friends, Digger, before meeting Stan's plane the next morning. Betsy and Sue, who have been with us since last fall, have purchased a house in Holden, Sue's home town. The house sits on eleven acres and is located close to where Sue's family lives. We are sorry to see them leave, but we are also happy that they found such a nice place. They moved last Friday but we will see them again very soon. Michael and I are taking care of their cats, Little One and Mouser, while they get settled in. Since Holden is located close to Kansas City, we know we will visit with Betsy and Sue with some regularity when we go there to make deliveries. They will definitely be part of our "extended family".