Memphis Democrat Column from August 28, 2005

The past two weeks have been a time for goodbyes and hellos. Joanne, who had been with us as an intern since May, left on August 14. Her dad came from New Hampshire to pick her up and spent the night at Sandhill. They headed up to Minnesota to do a father/daughter canoe trip on the Boundry Waters before Joanne returns to the University of New Hampshire for her final semester. We threw a going away party for her on the 11th, complete with Laird's guacamole and other goodies.

Laird went back on the road August 15 enroute to Virginia. His schedule while he has been there has included FIC Oversight meetings at Shannon Farm, the Communities Conference at Twin Oaks,

a visit with Ann at her home in Floyd, and work with Shadowlake Village, a cohousing community.

He hauled what seemed like two tons of books (I packed them) to sell for FIC Publications and Community Bookshelf at the conference. Laird deserves a medal for doing this, since it is one of biggest events of the year that the FIC does and his sales skills really make a difference. We expect him home again this Tuesday.

Former Dancing Rabbit resident Solrey was a visitor here from the 11th to the 19th. It was nice to see him again. While he was with us, he installed a ceiling fan in the second-floor living room at our largest residence, Karma, and built us a really nifty recycling station in the Karma shed. He is hoping to return for sorghum harvest.

This past Tuesday, we welcomed our new intern Joy. We got a bonus with her since she was accompanied by her two year old son Kai, whom she adopted in China nine months ago. The two of them live in Fairbanks, Alaska where Joy works for the University of Alaska. It has been a lot of fun the last few days having some toddler energy in the house again. He has been making friends with all of us and enthusiatically exploring the farm. Kai can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned since he has decided to call me "grandma".

Stan, Gigi, Renay and Emma did a bicycle/camping trip on the Katy Trail this past week from Tuesday to Friday. Despite regular rain and some equipment problems, they had a great time. One night they got a grandstand view of a spectacular northern lights display in between bouts of rain. Gigi did a lot of work to get our bikes in shape for the trip and she said it was a great learning experience.

We also had a double birthday extravaganza this Thursday and Saturday. Kirk and Chifumi have birthdays two days apart. Kirk made funnel cakes after supper on Thursday and we had them with ice cream. Friday evening we threw a joint birthday party for the two of them and Ted, Sara, Tamar, Cecil and Nathan from DR came over to help us celebrate. Saturday, all of the interns, along with Kai and Emma, went out to supper at the Catfish Place in Arbela.

Renay and her dad went to the Antique Fair in Memphis Saturday. Renay, who is a Girl Scout, was in the parade with her troop. French said there was a good turn out for the event.

Michael and I did the first fair of the fall season on August 13 and 14. It was the Salt River Folklife Festival at Mark Twain State Park in Florida. Sultry weather on Saturday afternoon was followed by a big storm at the end of the fair day. It was rainy and cool on Sunday, but we did terrific business in spite of it.

We have been very busy with canning and other food preservation tasks the past couple of weeks.

Michael keeps harvesting what seems like endless buckets of tomatoes. Containers of green beans, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, peppers and okra also seem to appear miraculously in our walk-in cooler. Members and interns have really stepped up to the plate to get the work done and we are managing to keep up.

We also have had an excellent honey harvest this year, the best one in some time. Stan, Gigi, Michael and Tim from Dancing Rabbit did the actual harvesting. Stan, Kirk and Corey of Red Earth Farms got the extraction work done and Karene and Joy have been bottling the golden goodness.

Michael and I went to the hearing held by the county commissioners on Friday in regard to a proposed hog facility. It was well attended. I was very impressed by how the meeting was conducted and the attention the commissioners gave to all the questions and comments. There was a good exchange of information during the meeting and I feel I understand the situation better having been there.

We received some interesting news a couple of weeks ago. Two of our 2004 interns, Susie and Kristen, applied for the same internship program at Aprovecho Institute in Oregon. Neither knew that the other one had applied. To their great surprise and delight, they found out that they both had been accepted for the same time period and that they will be together again from the end of this month through November. We are looking forward to hearing about their futher adventures.