Memphis Democrat Column from March 24, 2008

Yes, I do know that geese fly NORTH in the spring, not SOUTH. I took a certain amount of kidding about my blooper after my last column came out. Oh well, we are all entitled to a few along the way. Aside from that, we are enjoying the change of season here on the farm. Our calendar in the sitting room is being marked with signs of spring such as "spring peepers!", "first crocus!" and "gobble-gobble!". Even a little backslide into winter like the one on Sunday morning doesn't dampen our spirits. Today folks are out and about enjoying the sunshine and the warming temperatures. During the past week, we have been busy with our annual retreat. Apple returned from her winter stay in Virginia and Laird got back from his trip to Texas and Oregon, so we were all at home for the meetings. During our retreat each year we review our finances, brainstorm possible projects for the year and devote some time to other subjects of interest to us. We talked about how we integrate new people at Sandhill, about what the components of our particular "community culture" are, and had an interesting session on how we use feedback at Sandhill and what can make the process work better. We also had a meeting attended by people from Dancing Rabbit about areas of possible collaboration between our groups.

Not all of our time was taken up by meetings. On Tuesday evening, we had a birthday celebration for Gigi and had a big group from our neighboring communities in attendance. Instead of the usual fare, the potluck was focused on appetizers of all kinds and there was a bonfire afterwards. Michael led us on a land walk on Thursday morning and we all got outside on Friday morning to work together on pruning fruit trees and small fruit, planting some apricots, mulching and cleaning up the herb garden. We hosted overnight visitors last Wednesday and Thursday. Diana and Karen stopped by on their way from Phoenix to Ann Arbor. Diana is a member of Sunward Cohousing Community in Ann Arbor. She and Karen are interested in doing consulting work that is similar to what Laird does and they talked with him about it while they were here. They joined us on our land walk before they left for Michigan.

Stan and Gigi went to St. Louis on the 13th and 14th. While they were there, Stan did product sampling at the Whole Foods store and at an event sponsored by Whole Foods at the Missouri Historical Society. Gigi facilitated a meeting for our friends at New Roots Farm who are working on organizing themselves as an income-sharing group. On Friday, Stan and Gigi spent some of the day at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Renay helped her friends Gwen and Chelsi celebrate their birthdays on the 14th and 15th and then Chelsi spent Sunday with us here at the farm. Renay and her dad went to Minnesota for a family visit during the spring break and returned last night. Some of our group participated in the vigil marking the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq that was held on the square in Memphis on March 19. The participants understood that not everyone agrees with their position, but there was an appreciation of being able to express it in a peaceful way. Gigi and I have completed our interviews of intern applicants and have accepted four more candidates for our program. Sarah, Orna, Nick and Mark will be joining us during the course of the growing season and we are looking forward to having them as part of our group this year. We also are hoping to host four prospective members this spring and summer, so there is definitely a feeling of abundance at Sandhill these days.