Memphis Democrat Column from April 20, 2008

The abundance of Spring is making itself felt at Sandhill Farm today. We are not only having glorious weather this Sunday but we also have a special event to celebrate. Ceilee and his wife Tosca became the parents of a girl, Taivyn Mae Sandhill, born at 8:48 this morning Pacific Daylight Time in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is not only Laird's first grandchild, she is also the first child of someone who was born at Sandhill Farm and raised in our community. There was already a social hour planned for before supper tonight and this good news gives us something else to add spark to the festivities. We have a full house this weekend. Ma'ikwe and Jibran arrived from Albuquerque on Amtrak yesterday morning. Travelling with them were Ma'ikwe's friend Zaida and her daughter Ananda. Ma'ikwe's mother Kay drove down from Michigan to meet them here. Zaida is originally from southern Brazil and it has been interesting to talk to her about life there and her experiences. She and Ma'ikwe work together as organizers and staff of the Ecovillage Design Training Course in Albuquerque. Kay, who is a ceramicist, has recently moved to a new arts center in Jackson, Michigan than incorporates apartments, studios and gallery space for artists. Ma'ikwe, Zaida and the two children will moving over to Dancing Rabbit to join the visitor group that is beginning on Monday and Kay will head back home to Michigan this evening. The size of our group has increased during the past couple of weeks with the arrival of Thea, who was an intern last summer, and Jacob. Thea is joining us as a provisional member and Jacob, who was living at Red Earth Farms last year, is here for an extended stay.

Laird and Stan made a trip to down near St. Louis recently for some meetings. Stan attended a board meeting of the Missouri Organic Association and Laird met with John Stroup, the new Business Manager for Communities Magazine. Stan went last week to do some farm inspections in the mid-Missouri area and spent the night with our friends at Terra Nova Community in Columbia. Apple drove up to Iowa City on the 11th to pick up Thea and Jacob and deliver some soybeans along the way. The garden team had their first meeting of the season this past Friday. We try to meet every week. The time is used to check in about how things are going for everyone involved, to focus on the tasks for the next week, to see if there are any jobs we want to schedule group "gos" for, to let everyone know what is being harvested, and to do problem-solving. The idea for these garden meetings (we call them "garden huddles") was suggested to us by some of our interns a few years back. They have been a great success and have done a lot to create a good working environment in the garden. We have been moving into the work of direct sowing the early garden crops and setting out the first of the transplants that need to go in. The peas, early carrots and the chard, mustards, leaf beet and senposai (a Japanese green) have been sown. The first onions and leeks have been set out and Michael started transplanting brassicas today. We also planted the first bed of potatoes this week. Sandhill Farm's Adopt-A-Highway section along Highway M stretches from the junction of M with Highway W east towards Rutledge. With the end of winter weather, the time had come for us to do a pickup along the right of way. Our crew went out on April 9th and cleaned up a fair amount of trash and recyclables. It feels good to be able to help create a better environment for our neighbors and everyone using this road. We appreciate that the opportunity exists for us to provide this kind of community service.