Memphis Democrat Column from January 20, 2008

Our numbers have increased again the past three weeks with the return of some our crew from their winter travels and visits from friends. Laird and Otto both came back from their time away in New Mexico and Michigan. Otto enjoyed his time at the Creative Health Institute and it has been interesting to hear about his experiences. He hopes to go there again as work-exchange staff during the summer of 2009. He has traveled widely during his times away from East Wind Community, often doing work-exchange, internships or taking seasonal staff positions. We are enjoying another visit from Oliver, who was with us during the 2006 sorghum season. His father gave him a ride to Sandhill and spent the night with us before having to return to Columbia. Oliver is a former member of Oran Mor Community in southern Missouri and plans to return there soon. Since we last saw him, he has also spent time in Virginia and Wisconsin. Otto and Oliver already know each other and have been busy cutting wood and doing forestry together. Richard was also here for a few days this week. He stopped with us on his way south from Minnesota. He is going to Oran Mor for another visit (he was there briefly last year) before starting his visitor period at East Wind in early February. Richard and Oliver also know each other. Jen from Dancing Rabbit spent a week with us. She was interested in learning more about the structure of an income-sharing community and how a small community differs from a larger group. She helped Gigi paint the living room on the second floor of Karma. Gigi also did some deep cleaning and reorganizing of the space and it looks bright and cheerful.

Jen also took on the task of recopying our Sandhill Community historical timeline and bringing it up to date. The original one was done for our twentieth anniversary, but a lot has happened since then. She mounted the timelines on two boards and framed them in fabric and they are now hanging proudly in our dining room. Joanne, Kim's mom, has been staying with us when she comes up from the Jefferson City area to visit Kim, Chad and Nina at Red Earth. We've enjoyed getting to know her better over morning coffee. We are glad to be able to offer her close-by accomodations during her visits. Kim is back at the Fellowship for Intentional Community office after her maternity leave. She and Michelle from Dancing Rabbit have been ride-sharing the commute to their FIC jobs and it is nice to have them both in the office these days. Laird had a relaxing holiday in Albuquerque with Ma'ikwe, but jumped right in when he returned. He was busy with writing reports and other tasks requiring time on the computer, but he also had outdoor work to get done. He took on the job of cutting trees to use for poles and beams in Mark and Alyson's future house at Red Earth Farms. With Oliver and Jen's assistance, he was able to get the work completed before having to leave for a month-long trip on January 16th. Renay participated in the Quiz Bowl competition at the Memphis school on January 12th. This is her first year and she spent some of her winter break preparing for the event. Her summer swim team went to watch the Truman State University and University of Missouri swim teams compete in Kirksville this past Friday. Gigi and French also went and Gigi said it was a great opportunity to see how meets are done on that level. Renay's friend Chelsie is visting her this weekend and the two girls are in the kitchen fixing lunch for all of us as I write. They went skating on our pond this morning. Some of our group is going to a potluck this afternoon at our friend Dan Kelly's in Canton and the girls will join them. We said goodbye on Friday to our oldest cat, Dragon. He passed away that afternoon in a warm spot we had made for him next to our old parlor stove. Stan thinks that he may have been twenty years old or close to it. For many years, he lived most of the time at the Cow Barn and kept our milkers company.