Memphis Democrat Column from February 27, 2005

I am fully intending to keep this week's column a bit shorter than usual. I have been trying to recover from a respiratory virus that rolled over me this past week and a half. I'm doing better, but the ol'

energy level isn't quite back up to what it should be.

We have started our winter retreat. We met yesterday and talked about each member's work areas and also about projects we would like to do this year. Today we looked at our financial picture and did some initial budgeting for these projects. We will have two more meetings later this week, along with a community "cleaning go", a community service project and a fun day.

Gigi and I also interviewed another intern candidate yesterday afternoon and she has been accepted for a position this season. This brings us up to three interns on board. More possible applicants are contacting us and we are looking forward to having a good group this year.

Speaking of interns, we have heard from Susie both by email and phone since she arrived in Oregon last week to start her new internship. She is settling in and has already been busy with planting crops in their garden. Susie is also delighted to find that she has two new cats to make friends with.

Stan made a trip up to Fairfield, Iowa to inspect an organic dairy this past week. It is always interesting to hear his reports when he returns from these inspections. We get a lot of insight into what it takes to manage a farm or food business according the organic standards and why folks choose to do this. Jacque and Stefanie from Dancing Rabbit rode along with Stan so they could run errands in Fairfield.

Stan also did another organic certification workshop on February 19 for the Missouri Department of Agriculture, this time in Hillsboro. These workshops are being held to familiarize growers and farmers with the national organic standards. Part of these programs include Stan and another inspector going through a mock inspection so that the participants have an idea of what to expect from the process.

Sandhill is having a great harvest of maple sap this year after a couple of disappointing harvests. We apparently have collected a record amount and have been cooking it and the Rabbit's sap collections pretty steadily this last week. It will be nice to have yummy maple syrup on our table when it is all done.

We have had some more birthdays to celebrate the past two weeks. Michael's was on February 15 and we had peach smoothies and a lovely cake with macadamia/coconut frosting before going to Dancing Rabbit for supper that evening. Stan's birthday was on the 20th. Gigi made a special brunch featuring Huevos Rancheros and, of course, cake!

We have had discussions on Dancing Rabbit supper nights the past couple weeks. The first one involved the members of Sandhill and Skyhouse, both of whom are members of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, discussing a proposal for facilititating travel between the different communities in the Federation.

The second "salon" was held at Sandhill last week and was on a topic of broader interest to the larger group. Participation was good and it was quite interesting. There will probably be more of these get-togethers in the future.

Laird went over to Dancing Rabbit yesterday afternoon after we finished our session and sat in on one of their retreat meetings. After they were through, he met with a group there to talk about facilitation in terms of the actual meeting that took place and to give some pointers. This is one of the ways that we try to support each other. It is nice for neighbors to be able to help each other out.