All the Sandhill folks have really been enjoying the coolness the last few days. We even saw a few long sleeve shirts and long pants come out of mothballs. This is a new concept for me, relief from the heat. I guess I've spent too many long, hot summers in Texas and southern Missouri.

The garden is starting to gear up for full summer production. We've been enjoying the early tomatoes and cucumbers and I cooked the season's first green beans for supper Sunday. We've also been eating lots of yummy home-grown potatoes. We're getting organized for the food preservation onslaught that is coming. We will be really steaming along in a couple of weeks.

We had a big "go" with all hands in the corn patch Saturday before last as part of our mid-year retreat(more about that later). We replanted sweet corn and mulched the field. It felt good to get the work done on the corn before the big rain. The following Monday, we had another group "go" and got the strawberries weeded and picked,picked,picked black currants.

Even with all the summer stuff, the fall garden is already on the horizon. Michael and Sol seeded several flats of brassicas and I will be starting fall lettuce in flats soon. With a bigger group this year, we are having to really think about our needs and do more planning.

We've had some great visitors and guests to help with the gardening and our other work. Kate is still here, although she will be leaving this week. She has functioned as an additional intern in the interim until Jai arrives July 22. We are really going to miss her energy and good company. We had two young women who were former Americorps volunteers in Kansas City, Tami and Lisa, here July 2 to July 4. Dahna from Acorn Community in Virginia arrived July 5 with her son Ian, who is nine years old. They were here for a week.

This past week, we have had three guests. David, who lives at Ganas Community in New York City, has been stopping with us after returning to the U.S. from a trip around the world. Former intern Sylvia came up from St. Louis to spend the weekend. Sol's dad, Brian, was also here this weekend making the acquaintance of his new grandson Skyler.

Laird's daughter Jo is here now, too. Jo and her mother Elke had a wonderful time in Europe and Jo has interesting stories to tell. She will be here for most of the summer, except for a trip to Michigan with Laird and Sue starting later this week. Jo will be going back to New York City after her stay with us and starting high school this fall.

Some of our folks have been doing some travelling, too. Stan is currently on another trip inspecting organic farms in Colorado and Kansas.He is gone for eleven days and this will probably be his longest inspection trip this season. He did a three day trip to Illinois earlier in the month. Gigi and Kate went to St Louis this past weekend to do the Clayton Farmers Market again.

The big event for us this month has been our mid-year "all on the farm" retreat July 5 to July 9. We met on those days to talk about land-use planning, projects we want to take on, community process, and full membership for some of our new folks. The meetings were very interesting and we got a lot accomplished.

However,it wasn't all meetings and group work projects. We had a party to welcome Chad, Cedar and Sol as full members on Sunday. We had refreshments and snacks before supper and afterwards, an evening of games and entertainment by members, interns and visitors in the living room at Dharma(the new residence). The retreat ended on Tuesday with our weekly Dancing Rabbit/Sandhill supper and a "no talent show" put on by folks from both communities. The skits were a lot of fun and everyone had a great evening.