Memphis Democrat Column from September 23, 2007

It's been quite a while since I have written a column. The last one was in early August. It's been a busy month or so for all of us here at Sandhill Farm. Since I have so much territory to cover, I will also do another column next week to catch you up on our news. The fall fair season has come around again. We started off with the Salt River Folklife Festival at Lake Mark Twain, which was held on August 11th and 12th this year. Michael and I do this one in nineteenth century dress and unfortunately it was very hot that weekend. We both wondered how our ancestors managed to survive summer in those kind of clothes. Despite the uncomfortable temperatures, business was quite good.

We had a break until we did the Chillicothe Chautauqua on September 8th and 9th. This event was blessed with perfect weather and the crowds really came out for it. Michael and I are very impressed with what a great job is done by the organizers and volunteers at this fair. The next weekend, we participated in two more events. Gigi and Renay were at the Kirksville Food Fest on Saturday which is sponsored by the Adair County and Schuyler County extension offices. Michael and I went down to Columbia to do the Heritage Festival at Nifong Park on Saturday and Sunday.

This fair is another one that we do in costume and I demonstrate how to hand-dip beeswax candles in the old-time arts and crafts area. Since I had to spend a fair amount of time bending over an open fire and a pot of hot wax, I appreciated the fact that the weather was on the cool side this time around. We had a nice surprise when our intern from last year Lizzie and her friend Justin stopped by the table to visit and brought us a thermos of some very good coffee. We stayed with our daughter and her family at their home near Wooldridge while we were doing the fair. Since Melina and our granddaughter Chloe both have birthdays this month, we had the chance to celebrate with them and have a nice visit. Laird was home for a bit under two weeks after returning from California on August 4th. He then left for the east coast to participate in the Twin Oaks Community Conference in Virginia. I sent him on his way with a big load of books to sell for Community Bookshelf (it felt like two tons of books by the time I finished packing all the boxes). On the way, he stopped for a visit with Ann and her family in New York and Ceilee also joined him there. From Virginia, he flew to California to work with a cohousing community and Amy from Skyhouse drove our vehicle back to Missouri. Ma'ikwe joined him at Tierra Nueva as the co-facilitator for the community meetings. After that, they paid another visit to our friend Geoph in the San Francisco Bay Area before Laird returned home for sorghum season. Stan has done some organic farm inspections in Missouri, Iowa and Kansas since returning from Europe on August 18th. He has been trying to do more inspections closer to home this year rather than making his customary long trips out west. It has always been a bit of a balancing act for him taking time away from home during his busy season on the farm. Gigi has been focusing on moving the greenhouse project along since she got back from her vacation. Jason from Red Earth helped her for a few days with some of the tasks that needed to be done. She hosted a plastering party and a number of our friends from Dancing Rabbit and Red Earth Farm came over to help out. The last few days she has been putting on the polycarbonate roof panels with help from some of the folks here. These will let in the needed light to raise plants. Renay hardly had time to catch her breath after the trip to Europe before she had to begin the new school year. She is in fifth grade and has jumped right into her activities. Renay has started band and has decided to play percussion instruments. I heard her practicing in Karma living room this afternoon and it sounds like she is doing very well. We hosted a large group of Missouri Master Gardeners who came for a tour on September 8th. We enjoy having groups like this come out and they are always very interested in what we are doing. They also toured Heartland Dairy at Bethel and Dancing Rabbit while they were in the area. Our interns have had on their travelling shoes the past few weeks. Thea headed down to St. Louis on the 11th to attend a concert and to do some visiting before returning the following Sunday. Emmet went on a road trip to Indiana and Ohio with a friend to see folks there. Apple took a short hop over to Dancing Rabbit to stay with her friends at Skyhouse for three days. Greg and Stephane felt that they had to return to Colorado due to family considerations and they left on August 22. Greg has started a job at Shambhala Mountain Center in northern Colorado and they are in residence there. We were sorry to see them go, but can understand why they made the decision. On a brighter note, Apple has decided that she wants to try out being a dual member of Twin Oaks Community and Sandhill Farm. We have accepted her as a new member. She is going to return to Twin Oaks after sorghum harvest and will come back here in the spring to spend the growing season with us. Although some of the other Federation communities have had a number of dual members over the years, this is a new experience for us. Our congratulations to Alyssa and Bear at Dancing Rabbit on the birth of their son. We are looking forward to the other new babies who will be appearing soon. It is good to see our community neighborhood growing and thriving.