Memphis Democrat Column from March 11, 2007

The signs of Spring are definitely on the increase all around us. The first leaves of our flower bulbs are showing themselves, there has been a procession of geese on their way north passing overhead, laundry is flapping in the breeze and flats of seedlings are being painstakingly planted and fussed over. March certainly came in with a big roar this year. Fortunately, we did not suffer too much damage. There were some branches scattered around and a few loose items had to be returned to their normal homes afterwards. The high winds blew out the door window at the Fellowship office, but the glass was intact in its frame and the repair was not hard to do. We have been occupied with one of our favorite activities at this time of year, gathering maple sap and cooking it into a lovely reddish-brown syrup. The sap run was a bit slow to get started but once it got going it has been a good one. Alyson from Red Earth Farms has also been bringing in sap that she and other folks are collecting so there is an abundance to work with and we enjoy sharing the harvest with our community friends. The improving weather has also enabled us to continue making progress on a project that had been delayed due to the cold weather. Sue and Stan started working again this week to put a roof on the new wood shed behind the White House. Otto is continuing with his wood gathering and forestry work. He is wanting to leave us in good shape before he returns to East Wind in a few weeks. Gigi has also been working on mulching the fruit trees planted around the Dharma pond. Laird was able to come home the last week of February for a short time before going to Ann Arbor. After doing his training workshops there, he returned on March 6. He will be with us until March 20, when he will leave for Virginia to attend the board meetings for the Fellowship for Intentional Community.

Stan has been to Jefferson City twice during the past few weeks in his capacity as Vice-President of the Missouri Organic Association. On February 23 and 24, the association held its annual conference at Lincoln University. Stan was in charge of organizing the program this year and he was very pleased with the level of participation and the attendance. On March 5, he attended a day of activities focused on interaction with state legislators. Sue spent five days with her family helping them to celebrate her mother's birthday. She met some of them in Columbia on March 2 to attend the show choir competition that her niece was participating in and then they went down to Holden for the rest of the time. The last few weeks have also seen a gradual shift from our usual winter outdoor activities, but we got in some cross-country skiing after the recent big snow storm and there was a final afternoon of skating last Sunday. Rowan from Dancing Rabbit joined Stan and Renay on one of our ponds. They had thought about going to the lake in Memphis, but unfortunately there was too much open water there for it to be safe. Renay has been busy with her basketball practices and games. The last two games have been at Gorin last Monday and Wednesday. Betsy and Sue took her to the one on Wednesday and enjoyed getting to see the kids play. Sue has both played and coached basketball, so it was fun to hear her account of the game. We marked Stan's birthday on February 20 with a delicious early morning brunch. Everybody enjoyed the different kind of celebration. There were some special surprises, homemade cards, and a sharing go-around.